“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” Nelson Mandela
We hope your growth and learning journey was deepened through the topics and resources from the past week. As we move into Week 2, prepare to shift your focus from personal reflection toward a broader view of racial equity and justice in society.
So what is race?
As we talked about on Day 1, race is a way that we have grouped people based on their appearance and traits like skin color, hair texture, and facial features. There is no biological basis for race. While it is a category people made up, race creates very real consequences. Race plays a big part in how people are treated, how communities build culture, and the ways in which power is concentrated.
Before the mid-1600s, there is no historical evidence that Whiteness or White people as a concept existed like the one we know today.
Bacon’s Rebellion was a turning point in the United States’ history of race. From the National Museum of African American History and Culture:
“Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 was short-lived but had a long-reaching effect of deepening the racial divide in the colonial Chesapeake region. Coalitions of poor white people, free and enslaved Africans, rebelled against the rising planter class because they wanted to acquire land reserved for Virginia’s indigenous people. Elite colonists determined that they needed to amass more native lands for their continued expansion, to pacify poor European colonists who sought economic advancement, and to keep a dedicated labor force to do the grueling agricultural work. By the mid-1700s, new laws and societal norms linked Africans to perpetual labor, and the American colonies made formal social distinctions among its people based on appearance, place of origin, and heredity.”
Later, Greeks, Poles, Hungarians, Slavs, and other European groups had to prove themselves worthy of being considered White when they first immigrated in large numbers to the United States. They had to prove they were worthy by earning more money, and dressing and behaving in ways considered more respectable to show that they, too, were deserving of being considered White.
These are just two historical examples of the ways that race has been used to create distinct social and class levels. Racism describes the system that supports a belief that White people are better than Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color. As we talked about earlier in this challenge, this doesn’t mean that White people are automatically wealthy or live easy lives, we know this is not true for many White people. Instead, a White person’s race doesn’t make it harder to access healthcare, jobs, housing, and other resources.
(source: https://www.egc.org/blog-2/2018/5/23/3u8bsicsasybnnco5bea7vculw6m9s)
[Image description: title text reads, “levels on which racism exists.” Below the title is a teal oval divided into four parts and reads from top to bottom: Systemic: Ongoing racial inequalities maintained by society; Institutional: Discriminatory policies and practices within organizations and institutions; Interpersonal: Bigotry and biases shown between individuals through word and action; Internalized: Race-based beliefs and feelings within individuals.]
It’s easy to believe that racism is something that only happens in certain places, within certain structures, or amongst certain individuals. However, race is deeply built into our society. It can be helpful to understand the ways racism operates at four different levels: systemic, institutional, interpersonal, and individual/internalized. It’s important to note that while we may do everything we can to be nice to all people, it doesn’t undo the discriminatory laws, policies, and practices. It takes conscious learning about anti-racism and unlearning the myths, stereotypes, and narratives we’ve been told. It takes a willing and active community to address the policies, practices, and beliefs that create inequitable outcomes on the basis of race. It takes our community choosing a different path forward.
Today’s Challenge
Read
5 Examples of Institutional Racism in the United States by Nadra Kareem Nittle (5 mins) https://www.thoughtco.com/examples-of-institutional-racism-in-the-u-s-2834624
Watch
- Check out this short video from Race Forward about the levels of racism and the importance of recognizing not just individual or interpersonal racism, but the impacts of systemic racism. (4:39) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjGQaz1u3V4
- “Allegories on Race and Racism,” a TED-talk featuring four short stories to help us understand privilege and racism by Dr. Camara Jones. (20:31) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNhcY6fTyBM
- UC Berkeley Structural Racism Explained – 2023, 7:25mins
Engage
- Battle Creek- Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation
- Jackson- Racial Equity Commission
- Kalamazoo- Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation
- Lansing- Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation
Discussion
- “What’s the problem with being ‘not racist’? It is a claim that signifies neutrality: ‘I am not a racist, but neither am I aggressively against racism.’ But there is no neutrality in the racism struggle. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an antiracist. There is no in-between safe space of ‘not racist.’” – Ibram X. Kendi
- How does this reframe of moving from not racist to anti-racist land for you? How can you shift from neutrality to be against racism at the individual or interpersonal levels?
- How does racism play out around you at various levels (internalized, interpersonal, institutional, systemic)?
- How does the four levels of racism model align with how you usually think about race and racism? How is it similar? How is it different?