Prejudice is permeated. Laws need not apply.

Trayvon Martin shooting protest 2012 (Photo credit: david_shankbone)

The Trayvon Martin incident highlights in tragic detail the extent to which prejudice continues to permeate us.  Some say that we live in a post-racial world because Barack Obama is president.  Some say racism was so 1950s.  But what those people fail to understand is that discrimination is an attitude, not just a law.  The attitudes came first;  the laws were created to protect and enable the attitudes that were already mainstream.  This did not change, for hundreds of years.  To be sure, civil rights and the end of segregation mean a great deal, but it does not mean that prejudice is erased.

One might even argue that in some ways, civil rights laws merely push underground what was blatant in previous years.  Still today, for example, we see white flight in cities across the country.  Since segregation laws no longer require separation, and redlining is illegal, white families are doing just fine separating themselves, thank you very much.  In addition, the criminal (in)justice system is doing a bang-up  pretty good job of replacing slavery in the case of African American men (see Michelle Alexander for much more on this).   And then, we come to George Zimmerman’s racially-charged murder of Trayvon Martin.  Zimmerman was acting on a prejudice that lies within all of us.  We learn it so early in our lives that by the time we are old enough to notice, it is as familiar to us as our name.    If we really want a post-racial society, what do we do about this?

My solution is education, reflection, and self-growth (this solution, by the way, is the essence of Multicultural Education).  Psychologically speaking, we all feed ourselves both positive and negative messages.  About ourselves, and about others.  The most effective way to stop the negative messages is to first become aware of their existence.  We do not realize we are being too hard on ourselves, for example, until someone else points it out.  So, becoming aware of negative stereotypes you hold against yourself and others is required if you want to stop being controlled by those stereotypes (something I was trying to impart on my neighbor, without success).   In this instance, ask yourself – what negative images/messages do I believe about [insert marginalized group here]?   And this is not just about race, either. It’s about our beliefs and attitudes toward sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, language, body size, height, age, and so much more.

Changing worldviews and ideologies of millions of people takes a long, long time.  I don’t know if I will see a major shift in racial attitudes in my lifetime.  But I do hope, for all the victims of racial violence, that each tragedy opens a conversation about injustice that we can no longer ignore.  As James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

Trayvon Martin, Neighborhood Watch and The Fear of Clothing

By now you have probably heard of the 17-year old Trayvon Martin, who was murdered by George Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain.  He claims he was acting in self defense, even though Mr. Martin was unarmed – carrying only a bag of skittles and a can of iced tea.  At this time, Zimmerman has not been arrested – and he murdered Trayvon last month.Out of this tragedy comes a conversation that is long overdue, about the fear and prejudice that many people still harbor deep down about African Americans – particularly, African American men.  About the fact that an innocent teenager could be walking down the street, talking on the phone to his girlfriend about how he is terrified of the man (Zimmerman) who seemed to be following him, and ends up dead because his clothes fit the description of ‘thug’.

My neighborhood watch has a Facebook page where we share safety concerns.   Several times in the past few months there have been racially-fueled comments that were very offensive.

I posted about Trayvon Martin as a reminder of what can happen when our prejudices overcomes us.  One response I received was from a middle-aged white guy: “people like Zimmerman scare me alot more than “suspicious” teenagers walking down the street. I’m covered in tattoos and wear Black Sabbath t-shirts, so an idiot like Zimmerman would probably try to shoot a suspicious person like me too.”   In response to that, another man said:

Yep...this kid is definitely up to no good. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“I’d be less afraid of you in a t-shirt than a teen in a hoodie.”

His reasoning?

“It’s pretty hard to hide a gun in a t-shirt.”

I suppose he neglected to consider the most prominent methods of concealing a weapon, which is in your waistband and/or holster under your clothes – no hoodies required.  Other common concealment locations include a backpack, purse, or vehicle.  And yet, it is the image of a teenager wearing a hoodie that strikes fear into this man’s heart. According to this man, teenagers wearing hoodies are quite obviously the biggest threat to our personal security.  According to this man, my neighbor, people like Zimmerman are the heroes.

He ended his comment with this:  “I can pretty much tell who’s from the neighborhood and who’s not; read into that what you will…I am not going to walk on eggshells. I see anyone suspicious, and I will act accordingly.”

Note that he said if he ‘sees anyone suspicious’…he does not seem to care if they are doing anything suspicious, just their very existence could be suspicious.  Zimmerman had the same perspective.  And this is reminiscent of the way in which we called undocumented immigrants “illegals“….just their very existence is called into question – not just their actions.  When I mentioned that perhaps it’s a good idea to question our ideas about what should be deemed ‘suspicious’, I was told by this person that “this is a neighborhood crime watch group, not a Buddhist self-realization group.”  It is disheartening that people – in my neighborhood no less – consider self-growth and reflection to be so unwarranted as to only belong in a Buddhist environment – implying that these skills are not something that any  Judeo-Christian person should be involved in.  What a tragedy for our society – for our collective future.

Read up, educate yourself:

#millionhoodie march (Twitter)

Fox News & Trayvon Martin (Mother Jones)

The Murder of Trayvon Martin (boing boing)

Standing Your Ground and Vigilantism (National Review Online)

Trayvon Martin: The Lingering Memory of Dead Boys (NPR)

Why Gay Folks Should Care About Trayvon Martin’s Case (HuffPost)

What it Means to Look “Suspicious” 

Boundaries: Real or Imagined?

Home Owners' Loan Corporation Philadelphia redlining map. Image via Wikipedia

I am thinking of boundaries on a societal level – as in, do boundaries such as racism really exist or is it just some people’s perception that it exists?  In believing it exists, are we actually creating it – strengthening it?  Boundaries that are implicit in our society.  Sometimes boundaries are easy to see, you can point to them and say, “that right there is evidence of racial oppression.”  Some obvious examples of this are enslavement and segregation, but it’s also easy to point out racially oppressive aspects of red-lining, the GI Bill, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and various immigration policies. Discrimination that is codified in law is called de jure.  

In addition, there is discrimination and oppression that is much more difficult to see; it is in behavior, your way of thinking, a worldview.  Nobody has to say it or write it down, but it’s there nonetheless.  That’s called de facto.  Racially oppressive ways of thinking influence and control the way things work in their community – so that things work in their favor.  This is what creates systems of privilege, and the invisible barriers that exist to maintain that privilege.  In so doing, de facto discrimination often comes at a greater detriment than de jure discrimination because it is so difficult to isolate the source. In acknowledging the boundaries, we are allowing ourselves to openly talk about the behaviors and worldviews that enable and maintain racial oppression.  We can finally acknowledge things about ourselves we need to change – old ways of thinking that are causing ourselves harm.

Michelle Alexander: The New Jim Crow

The university I work for brought in an amazing speaker for our Martin Luther King Jr. Keynote Address: Michelle Alexander.  Professor Alexander works at The Ohio State University where she holds a joint appointment with the Moritz College of Law and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity*.  She also is a  contributor at the Huffington Post and Race Talk.

Image via http://moritzlaw.osu.edu

Her speech was centered around the topic of The New Jim Crow, which is the title of her new book.  She discussed ways in which the criminal justice system has taken over the job that Jim Crow and enslavement started.  Have we come so far since then?  Professor Alexander says no, in fact black men are worse off today than they were in 1850.  She skillfully integrated hard statistics about the war on drugs and the ‘get tough’ policing movement into a larger narrative about the effects of disenfranchisement laws and other policies designed to relegate criminals and felons to a lower societal caste.

Take a look at a recorded speech she made just about a year ago, which is quite similar (but not as polished) as the one she shared tonight:

If you prefer to read rather than watch, catch her over on the Huffington Post:

The uncomfortable truth, however, is that crime rates do not explain the sudden and dramatic mass incarceration of African Americans during the past 30 years.  Crime rates have fluctuated over the last few decades — they are currently are at historical lows — but imprisonment rates have consistently soared.  Quintupled, in fact.  And the vast majority of that increase is due to the War on Drugs.  Drug offenses alone account for about two-thirds of the increase in the federal inmate population, and more than half of the increase in the state prison population.

-The New Jim Crow: How the War on Drugs Gave Birth to a Permanent American Undercaste

Cover via Amazon

This is The New Jim Crow. People of color are rounded up — frequently at young ages — for relatively minor drug offenses, branded felons, and then relegated to a permanent second-class status in which they may be denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and subjected to legal discrimination in employment, housing, access to education, and public benefits. Those who are lucky enough to get a job upon release from prison find that up to 100 percent of their wages may be garnished to pay fees, fines, and court costs as well as the costs of their imprisonment and accumulated child support. What, realistically, do we expect these folks to do? When those labeled felons fail under this system to make it on the outside — not surprisingly, about 70 percent fail within 3 years — we throw up our hands and wonder where they all went. Or we chastise them for being poor fathers and for failing to contribute to their families. It’s a set up. This system isn’t about crime control; it about racial control. Yes, even in the age of Obama.

-Where Have All the Black Men Gone?

Thanks to my university for bringing Professor Alexander to boldly share the truth with us!

* I had the pleasure of doing some copy editing work for the Kirwan Institute’s journal, Race/Ethnicity a few years back.  Great folks doing important work.  

The Difference Between Race, Ethnicity, and Culture

One of my  most popular posts is The Difference Between Race and Culture (thanks for all the love!).  Here,  I have expanded to include ethnicity.  Please note, this is a very basic introduction and does not include a lot of complex intricacies that are found in the world.

NOTE: This information is copyright protected.  DO NOT copy/paste without giving appropriate credit.  An appropriate APA citation for this would be:

Kean, M. (2011). The difference between race and culture. Progressive Scholar blog.  Retrieved from http://progressivescholar.wordpress.com/?p=615

A lot of people confuse ‘race’, ‘ethnicity’, and ‘culture’ or think they are the same thing. To address the difference, we must start at the fundamental concepts of race and culture. Race is a social construct that is used to categorize and divide people based on physical characteristics, which often leads to conflict and oppression. In short, Race is a label forced on someone based on their skin tone and physical characteristics. A person’s race is externally decided and has nothing to do with culture, intellect, ability, or personality.

Ethnicity, on the other hand, is determined by such attributes as cultural traditions, religion, ancestry, language, and beliefs. Your textbook defines ethnicity as “identity with a group of people who share the cultural traditions of a particular homeland or hearth” (Rubenstein, p. 208). Let’s consider this example. ‘Caucasian’ is considered to be a race, with particular physical characteristics attributed to Caucasians such as a narrow nose, light skin, and straight or wavy hair. Within the Caucasian race, however, you will find many different ethnicities, such as Irish, Finnish, German or French. Also within the Caucasian race, you will find many different cultures and sub-cultures such as punk, gamers, straight edge, bikers – even the military can be seen as its own culture.

Different from race, culture is a system of shared beliefs and values (also known as ‘worldviews’) that may include a shared geographic region, language, religion, spirituality, or livelihoods. Communication style and interpersonal relationships are integral aspects of culture and can vary dramatically from one culture to another. It is important to remember that everyone on earth belongs to at least one culture; not just those groups who are considered ‘civilized’. The majority of culture is unseen, below the surface. The beliefs and values that lie beneath the surface can be the most difficult to change when it is necessary.

People of the same race can have many different cultures among them, and people of the same culture can have many different races among them.
So, someone’s race is determined their physical characteristics and those of their biological family. Culture is all the ways that we express ourselves, how we interact, what we believe in spiritually, and how we perceive things. Culture is not based on physical characteristics but on a person’s way of life. Ethnicity takes into account cultural traditions, language, religion, and place of origin.

References

Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. A. (2007). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Manning, M. L., & Baruth, L. G. (2009). Multicultural education of children and adolescents (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Rubenstein, J.M. (2011). The cultural landscape: An introduction to human geography (10th ed.). Prentice Hall.

Wetback, the Undocumented Documentary

It is often easy to forget about the impact of immigration on the individuals and families that experience it when the political conversation is all about building walls, border control and the new laws in places like Arizona and Mississippi. I recently saw an eye-opening documentary called “Wetback” which offers a first-person perspective of undocumented workers. It’s available on Netflix, here!

 

Image via IMDB

 

As an anti-racist how do you, if at all, reject your privilege?

A question was posed to me on twitter from @journalproject: “As an anti-racist how do you, if at all, reject your privilege?”

My answer is too long for 140 characters…..

I see privilege as having multiple levels.  There is systemic privilege that I have because I live in a culture where European-American people dominate the media, business, real estate, banking, and education. Everywhere I go I see people who look like me, products that are designed for my skin tone and hair texture.  When I walk into a business I am less likely to be assumed to be a drug user, a criminal, a thug, or -insert negative stereotype here-.  I am assumed to be at least somewhat intelligent & capable just because I’m white. I feel that there is very little I can do in my day-to-day existence that rejects this systemic privilege.  It is infused through everything I do and see as a European-American in a culture dominated by European-American standards and ideals.

Then there is individual privilege, and what one chooses to do with it. Most European-Americans are blissfully unaware that they even have privilege; they see themselves succeeding and assume it is solely because of their hard work and sacrifice. The problem with this is that it gives an unrealistic view of oppressed groups and it ignores the centuries of policies and laws that were solely advantageous to white people.

Having white privilege has allowed me to be educated in private schools and maintain a good GPA even though I didn’t try very hard. It has probably gotten me into more than one job that I wasn’t completely qualified for. I have never been stopped for ‘driving while white’, and I’ve never had a problem finding greeting cards, toys, or hair care products that reflect my identity. These are things I cannot individually change; I can only be aware and educate others.

So how do I reject my privilege?  I reject it by speaking out when people make racist comments.  I reject it by acknowledging that my culture, my physical characteristics, and my language are not superior to anyone else’s. I reject it by believing a person of color when they tell me they’ve experienced discrimination. I reject it by pursuing a career where I educate young people about systems of oppression and privilege. I reject it by reminding myself that I got where I am today not because I’m a super genius but because the system was created so that I would succeed and others would not. I reject it by valuing the voices of people of color, by acknowledging that they have said everything I could ever say about white privilege and oppression (and much more eloquently than I could), and being okay with the fact that people of color need their own safe space that I am not allowed into.

Off the cuff, that’s how I reject my privilege.

Way Back Wednesday

I’m a big fan of historical photographs, particularly of subjects and events that are rarely covered in mainstream media.  So I’ve decided to create a new project here at Progressive Scholar, ‘Way Back Wednesday’.  I’ll be scouring the Library of Congress photo archives and other places for photos that captivate me.

Here are a series of photographs taken at the Agricultural and Mechanical College in Greensboro, North Carolina in the 1890s.  These photos were collected for the  “Exhibit of American Negroes,” which W.E.B. Du Bois helped to organize for the Paris Exposition of 1900. The collection, DuBois writes, is “an attempt to give, in as systematic and compact form as possible, the history and present condition of a large group of human beings.”  DuBois notes that the photographs encapsulates a wide range of different conditions, “beginning with the homeless freedman and ending with the modern brick schoolhouse and its teachers.”   The whole of DuBois’ article is spectacular so give it a read if you have the time or interest.

Founded in 1891, the Agricultural and Mechanical College quickly became one of the major African American colleges in North Carolina. Today it is known as North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

A&M students learning Blacksmithing.

A&M students in the Biological Laboratory

A&M students learn buttermaking

Eight Things Whites Can Do To Be Anti-Racist

The other day I was conversing with folks on Twitter about what it means to be white and anti-racist, and whether it is possible, considering Derrick Bell‘s theory of Interest Convergence, to be anti-racist without having some self-interest in the outcome.  I commented that I believe it is in everyone’s interest to be anti-racist because the oppression of one holds the entire society back.  There is no true success that comes from privilege if someone else has been oppressed in order for me to “succeed”.

Out of that conversation and further reflection, I came up with this list!

Eight Things Whites Can Do To Be Anti-Racist (Not Just Less Racist)

“I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group” ~Peggy McIntosh

8.   Don’t assume that racism is gone just because of the Civil Rights Act or Brown vs. Board of Education.   This is a fallacy that a lot of white people want to believe.  It is your responsibility to have your eyes open and to be able to identify the current sources and causes of oppression and racism.

Given the way that whiteness has been rendered invisible in our society, much of our training as white people has taught us to see racism and racial hierarchies as normal. This is probably our single greatest challenge as allies. Even as we work to end racism, it is constantly cultivated in the world around us and in ourselves. We need to persistently root it out. ¹

7.  Learn American history.  Not the history you were taught in school, because that’s not accurate history.  Read A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America and A People’s History of the United States, for a start.  (Here’s the graphic adaptation of A People’s History, which would be great for kids and young adults – or anyone who doesn’t like to read.)  After you’ve read those, check out all the writers who wrote about oppression and white privilege way before any white people did: W.E.B. DuBois, Malcolm X, Sojourner Truth, Alice Walker, Richard Wright, Alex Haley, Audre Lorde, Harriet Ann Jacobs.

6. Understand White Privilege and be aware that you have it, all the time.  Read and reflect on Peggy McIntosh’s Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.  Share it with your friends and family; talk about it at work.

5.  Challenge yourself and your loved ones. Talk to your friends about white privilege and institutional discrimination. Be observant and mindful of your actions, and embrace the discomfort you may feel about being white in America.   Read Tim Wise’s We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know.  Remember that it is your responsibility to call attention to racist comments, prejudiced thinking, and discriminatory actions.  I know it’s difficult, but you aren’t truly an anti-racist if you can’t challenge racism when it happens around you.

4  Remember that race is a social construct. Race is a label someone is given based on their skin tone and physical characteristics.  A person’s race is externally decided and has nothing to do with genetics, culture, intellect, or personality. Read that again: a person’s race has no influence on their intelligence, ability to speak clearly, or their ability to learn.

3. Don’t believe the colorblind myth.   I wrote a while back about this topic in more detail. People of color are not just exactly like you, except a different skin color.  This is a perilous way of thinking which drastically diminishes the value of difference and diversity.  It also forces those real differences in culture, experience, and perspectives to be oppressed.

2.  Don’t pretend to be an expert or think that you truly understand what it is like for people of color in America.   Because you will never truly understand their struggle.  Humility on your part is required, and your role is to be a supporting voice to people of color.  Don’t let anybody tell you that whites should not be involved in anti-racist work, because if whites aren’t involved, then racism and oppression will never stop.

1. Do something with that all that privilege. So you’re white, and you have a lot of privilege.  This can include economic privilege, social privilege (knowing the right people), professional privilege (getting jobs because you’re presumed to be more competent/capable than others), educational privilege, and the list goes on and on.   So what are you going to do with all that privilege?  One of the best things to do is to use your privilege to create opportunities for people of color so that they can reach their full potential, too.

References

¹ Michael, A., and Conger, M.C. (2009). Becoming an Anti-Racist White Ally: How a White Affinity Group Can Help. Perspectives of Urban Education.

Weekly Progressive Scholar Reader

There’s been great activity in the blogosphere lately.  Here’s just a hodge-podge of what I’ve been reading:

From COLORLINES:

Senate Negotiations Narrow DREAM Act’s Scope as Vote Nears

Image via Wikipedia

Rosa Parks and the Love For Justice

(Celebrating the 55th Anniversary of Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama.)

Campus Progress:

Pentagon Report on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t’ Tell Says Troops Are For Repeal

The Need for Unemployment Benefits Is Still Great

Celebrities’ Misguided Activism Compares Abstaining from Social Networking to Death

From EcoLocalizer:

Bicycle-Friendly University Award System

From Race-Talk:

World AIDS Day 2010: Victory and voice

ASU students rally to push passage of elusive DREAM Act

Why WikiLeaks is good for democracy

From Humane Connection:

Using a Little Sweat of Our Own to Find Out About Corporate Practices & Sweatshops