Addressing Racism
Oct. 20th, 2009 11:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
narcasseA little while ago I got into a small affray over a racial assumption made by a white person about POC. It was a small issue but just the sort of one that sets POC off because it’s usually either indicative of larger issues or can lead to them if left unchecked.
I have no problems calling people on their assumptions. Even if I can only do a tiny part that’s still contributing to the greater whole. So in this case this is exactly what I did. Of course there are ways of doing this which give the individual being questioned an out because as everybody knows if you don’t give them an escape route they’ll just dig their heels in out of desperation. In fact in this situation there were really two completely saving face outs available: one was to agree, the other was to admit the mistake and make the necessary correction. The first one would be admittedly cowardly but understandable because that’s just the way humanity works. The second method on the other hand would have really taken some dignity, self-awareness and that old fashioned greatness of spirit that always earns respect. By the same token I hold myself to the same standards. If I’m wrong and have misinterpreted the situation I owe it to myself to man up and admit that fact. It may be a blow to my pride to do so but it would be a far greater blow to my dignity not to.
I refuse to mollycoddle the perpetrator of racist assumptions too. I will not mealy mouth the fact of what they’ve done. I will not apologise for calling them out on it. On one hand this means that I do not have to compromise my integrity but on the other it does leave the situation open to wailing that I am victimising them. Still, this is an issue I refuse to compromise on: I will not make excuses for racists and anybody who is perpetuating that needs to learn to hear that complaint without expecting POC to apologise to them first. I am not a lesser human being due to the colour of my skin, I do not need to ask permission to speak to you about your misassumptions or to correct them. Your Porcelain Vagina and White Women’s Tears will not disguise or negate the fact that in this explicit instance you are in the wrong.
Of course this is where the self-righteous white rage gets started because a POC dared to point out that something was racist and wrong. And pointing out one instance of it means that the POC is attacking the white person as a whole, their society and everything that they stand for. I can’t just state that I find something offensive: I must be trying to shake the foundation of Western civilization. It’s enough to make me suspect that the people who react like this would absolutely abhor the academic environment, or the work environment, or film criticism or book reviews: because they simply cannot recognise that one issue need not be indicative of a whole. To us an academic example, I’ve had essays picked almost to pieces by lecturers only to be told that the overall concept was good and that my issues were just in the details. This didn’t mean that I should scrap the entire idea or take the criticism as an attack on my person, only that I needed to go back and revise the indicated sections. I may be the sum of my flaws but the correction of one will not bring the entire structure crashing down. In fact it will be a slow step forward on the path to personal growth. I’m at the point I’ve reached today due to the continual process of learning and correcting my mistakes. The only difference between me and someone who refuses to acknowledge and correct a mistake is that I can take that next step forward while they’re paddling furiously in an attempt to stay in the same place.
Unfortunately, when the offended white person has decided that anything being pointed out is an attack on them everything usually degenerates. The accusations will fly ranging from former faults, real or imagined, to tone issues. And of course if you don’t know the white person well then tone is the first thing to come out of their mouth, maybe even phrased as you being ‘uppity’ if you’re black just to show you how seriously your awareness of racism offends them. White folks in this kind of situation love the tone argument. It allows them to both classify you as the ‘wrong kind’ of POC and completely ignore your original concerns. It also, if they put real effort into their self-righteous white rage, allows them to play the victim game where anything you might have to say is drowned out by White Women’s Tears, literally or figuratively. And, because White Women’s Tears are multipurpose WMDs, they focus everything on the white person involved because as well all know the one thing white folks hate is any situation where it’s not about them.
You can’t win with that kind of response, in fact nobody does, not even the white person involved. They’ll find all sorts of ways not to address your concerns and refocus the situation on the fact that a POC has had the audacity to bring up race issues and how much of a victim that makes them. And in doing that they lose the chance to learn about why you have raised the issue and why it’s offensive to POC as well as the chance to change and grow as a person. Humans are said to be able to overcome their instincts and the ability to overcome anger at what’s perceived as a challenge and then have the emotional and mental equilibrium to actually discuss and learn from the issue really is one of the traits that makes humanity wondrous. Sadly, while most white folks have absorbed the social etiquette that dictates that racism is abhorrent they still don’t quite seem to know how to deal with the legacy of a racist system.
When I point out a racist assumption my focus is on the racism itself not the person. I simply cannot judge a person based on a single small act and I have no wish to. From a single mistake a person can grow and learn, they can correct their misassumption and absorb new knowledge that they can then pass on to others. A person who makes a racist assumption isn’t stuck there, damned for that one action, they are not shackled to a single mistake. But on the other hand, if a critique is derided, the POC held up as the wrong sort for employing the incorrect tone, the white person shouting about their victimisation then it certainly draws a line in the sand. It also makes me wonder about that white person that I supposed was rational and mature enough to handle the issue. I start to wonder if I was wrong and invariably I was. Quite why I was wrong may simply be because the white person in question hasn’t reached the point at which they are capable of addressing such issues or because the white person is actually one of those covert racists anyway: I have no way of knowing.
Still, regardless of conflict, accusations or slander I’m not going to stop addressing racism anytime soon. Sometimes it’s exhausting, sometimes it’s frustrating, sometimes it’s even terrifying but I’m not going to let that stand in my way. It may well be that I can only accomplish small things but for every tiny spot of progress that still qualifies as an advance. Humanity is capable of change if only in tiny iterations and even if I can only push forward a fraction of a step I’m willing to do my part.
Deus, dona mihi serenitatem accipere res quae non possum mutare,
fortitudinem mutare res quae possum,
atque sapientiam differentiam cognoscere.
or in English:
God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
Insert your deity/s as appropriate.
I have no problems calling people on their assumptions. Even if I can only do a tiny part that’s still contributing to the greater whole. So in this case this is exactly what I did. Of course there are ways of doing this which give the individual being questioned an out because as everybody knows if you don’t give them an escape route they’ll just dig their heels in out of desperation. In fact in this situation there were really two completely saving face outs available: one was to agree, the other was to admit the mistake and make the necessary correction. The first one would be admittedly cowardly but understandable because that’s just the way humanity works. The second method on the other hand would have really taken some dignity, self-awareness and that old fashioned greatness of spirit that always earns respect. By the same token I hold myself to the same standards. If I’m wrong and have misinterpreted the situation I owe it to myself to man up and admit that fact. It may be a blow to my pride to do so but it would be a far greater blow to my dignity not to.
I refuse to mollycoddle the perpetrator of racist assumptions too. I will not mealy mouth the fact of what they’ve done. I will not apologise for calling them out on it. On one hand this means that I do not have to compromise my integrity but on the other it does leave the situation open to wailing that I am victimising them. Still, this is an issue I refuse to compromise on: I will not make excuses for racists and anybody who is perpetuating that needs to learn to hear that complaint without expecting POC to apologise to them first. I am not a lesser human being due to the colour of my skin, I do not need to ask permission to speak to you about your misassumptions or to correct them. Your Porcelain Vagina and White Women’s Tears will not disguise or negate the fact that in this explicit instance you are in the wrong.
Of course this is where the self-righteous white rage gets started because a POC dared to point out that something was racist and wrong. And pointing out one instance of it means that the POC is attacking the white person as a whole, their society and everything that they stand for. I can’t just state that I find something offensive: I must be trying to shake the foundation of Western civilization. It’s enough to make me suspect that the people who react like this would absolutely abhor the academic environment, or the work environment, or film criticism or book reviews: because they simply cannot recognise that one issue need not be indicative of a whole. To us an academic example, I’ve had essays picked almost to pieces by lecturers only to be told that the overall concept was good and that my issues were just in the details. This didn’t mean that I should scrap the entire idea or take the criticism as an attack on my person, only that I needed to go back and revise the indicated sections. I may be the sum of my flaws but the correction of one will not bring the entire structure crashing down. In fact it will be a slow step forward on the path to personal growth. I’m at the point I’ve reached today due to the continual process of learning and correcting my mistakes. The only difference between me and someone who refuses to acknowledge and correct a mistake is that I can take that next step forward while they’re paddling furiously in an attempt to stay in the same place.
Unfortunately, when the offended white person has decided that anything being pointed out is an attack on them everything usually degenerates. The accusations will fly ranging from former faults, real or imagined, to tone issues. And of course if you don’t know the white person well then tone is the first thing to come out of their mouth, maybe even phrased as you being ‘uppity’ if you’re black just to show you how seriously your awareness of racism offends them. White folks in this kind of situation love the tone argument. It allows them to both classify you as the ‘wrong kind’ of POC and completely ignore your original concerns. It also, if they put real effort into their self-righteous white rage, allows them to play the victim game where anything you might have to say is drowned out by White Women’s Tears, literally or figuratively. And, because White Women’s Tears are multipurpose WMDs, they focus everything on the white person involved because as well all know the one thing white folks hate is any situation where it’s not about them.
You can’t win with that kind of response, in fact nobody does, not even the white person involved. They’ll find all sorts of ways not to address your concerns and refocus the situation on the fact that a POC has had the audacity to bring up race issues and how much of a victim that makes them. And in doing that they lose the chance to learn about why you have raised the issue and why it’s offensive to POC as well as the chance to change and grow as a person. Humans are said to be able to overcome their instincts and the ability to overcome anger at what’s perceived as a challenge and then have the emotional and mental equilibrium to actually discuss and learn from the issue really is one of the traits that makes humanity wondrous. Sadly, while most white folks have absorbed the social etiquette that dictates that racism is abhorrent they still don’t quite seem to know how to deal with the legacy of a racist system.
When I point out a racist assumption my focus is on the racism itself not the person. I simply cannot judge a person based on a single small act and I have no wish to. From a single mistake a person can grow and learn, they can correct their misassumption and absorb new knowledge that they can then pass on to others. A person who makes a racist assumption isn’t stuck there, damned for that one action, they are not shackled to a single mistake. But on the other hand, if a critique is derided, the POC held up as the wrong sort for employing the incorrect tone, the white person shouting about their victimisation then it certainly draws a line in the sand. It also makes me wonder about that white person that I supposed was rational and mature enough to handle the issue. I start to wonder if I was wrong and invariably I was. Quite why I was wrong may simply be because the white person in question hasn’t reached the point at which they are capable of addressing such issues or because the white person is actually one of those covert racists anyway: I have no way of knowing.
Still, regardless of conflict, accusations or slander I’m not going to stop addressing racism anytime soon. Sometimes it’s exhausting, sometimes it’s frustrating, sometimes it’s even terrifying but I’m not going to let that stand in my way. It may well be that I can only accomplish small things but for every tiny spot of progress that still qualifies as an advance. Humanity is capable of change if only in tiny iterations and even if I can only push forward a fraction of a step I’m willing to do my part.
Deus, dona mihi serenitatem accipere res quae non possum mutare,
fortitudinem mutare res quae possum,
atque sapientiam differentiam cognoscere.
or in English:
God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
Insert your deity/s as appropriate.
