We should recognize racism, work for change
Published 11:22 am Tuesday, December 9, 2014
By JESSICA LISOVSKY
As I watch the recent TV discussions on race in America, something hits a deep nerve. I am a child of the 60s, but I spent that decade outside the U.S., in Spain. Much of the news we got regarding the civil rights movement came through letters from friends who lived in a suburb of Detroit. I was imprinted early with the idea that I had to care about this, that how we resolved the racial wounds of our past would be one of the defining issues for America.
Now it’s half a century later, and we are witnessing the latest in a long line of killings of black youth by white police officers. There’s anger in the street and conversations on race on talk shows. I’m encouraged to see more black faces, more thoughtful articles and more calls from politicians, legal experts and citizens for changes to the justice system. But there is also backlash, fear and signs that the gulf between whites and people of color may actually be widening.
I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I feel moved to say something — do something. White people have to engage around race, as difficult as that may feel. Obama, as the first African-American president, can’t do this alone, nor can black people do it in isolation. White folks must try to see the justice system through the eyes of people of color. We have to educate ourselves about the facts, not just of the Michael Brown case — which are conflicting and troubling — but about the long history of racism in our justice system.
We’ve heard this before, so how do things change? The fact is that it takes a lot of repetition before we really learn, really anchor something into our memory. As a teacher, I first read this concept as it relates to language learning, and I remind my Spanish students of it so they won’t be discouraged when they feel they aren’t acquiring fluency fast enough. Maybe we all need to admit that we have something to learn. The key for me, as an instructor, is to provide repetition in ways that feel fresh. We white folks need to hear the lessons many times, in a variety of ways, so we stay interested and become engaged. “White guilt” is useless unless it moves us toward action.
A good start could be to see current events through an African-American lens (Jerry Large and Leonard Pitts appear in The Seattle Times; Ta-Nehisi Coates writes for The Atlantic). We can engage in conversation, hopefully with people of diverse races and cultures, but within our own families and community, too. We have to call each other out — gently but clearly — on biased speech, attitudes and behaviors and be willing to own up to it ourselves.
It’s hard not to feel defensive sometimes as a white person. Nobody likes to be accused of being racist. In a recent interview, Chris Rock sympathized with white Americans who sometimes feel paralyzed around discussions of race because they’ve been accused of sounding racist. Rock encouraged everyone to take a breath and keep trying. One way to ratchet down the defensiveness is to address the problem as one of unconscious bias. There was a fabulous exhibit last year at the Pacific Science Center called “Race: Are We So Different?” It was designed to help all of us — students, teachers, families — start discussions about cultural perceptions. Race is a social construct, not a biological fact. But that doesn’t mean we don’t perceive difference. Nor does it mean that there aren’t cultural differences among us. Institutionalized bias happens because the dominant society has the power to put values on those differences. This creates privilege for the dominant culture and perpetuates its power. Studies show that people of color unconsciously view white as better, too. The difference is that they don’t benefit from it. As part of the dominant white culture, I have to acknowledge that I have inherent biases, that they contribute to institutionalized bias and that people who look like me benefit disproportionately.
The good news is that we know how to raise awareness around issues. First, shine a light on the problem — the protests are doing that. If we are willing to hear, we can re-educate ourselves. There’s a lot to undo. Young white kids are answering questions about race differently than their parents and grandparents. One poll after the events in Ferguson showed that white youth see this as part of a larger problem of police violence against young men of color in much higher proportions than the older white cohort does. But we can’t wait for all the old white folks to die off. These problems have been around for more than a century. The NAACP has been sounding the alarm for decades. We’ve all seen this before.
I hope the white youth of America join this movement for justice — I hope there will be a movement. And I hope we ALL are part of it. For more information on how to start a discussion on race, visit website understandingrace.org
— Jessica Lisovsky has lived on Vashon for 21 years. She teaches at Seattle Central College.
