race dialogues
Some of the research fellows were having a pretty heated discussion on racism on Thurs and Fri. One, a well intentioned older Caucasian lady, was telling us about this TV show host who got into a lot of trouble for making racist comments. The TV host was talking about this man who had himself all covered up to protect his identity and said "Oh, look at his squinty eyes, yellow skin - he MUST be an Asian". And naturally, everyone went off on the TV host because that's pretty blatant stereotyping. However, the research tech couldn't understand why this was racist. She kept saying, "There are some basic words that you use to describe someone's skin color and complextion - what's wrong with calling someone black?".
Everyone else pretty much jumped down her throat for that and frankly, I got a little offended by what she said too. She kept insisting that in such a situation (in describing someone), she would use those labels with the utmost good intention. Yet, she didn't seem to understand that labels like black or African American or negro carry connotations, both good and bad, and she kept saying that she was just unaware of how fast they changed and that back in her day, calling someone negro was acceptable and she felt that people these days were just too PC about everything.
I didn't join in on the conversation on Thursday, but I had an one-on-one conversation with this research tech on Friday, after she calmed down a bit. She had gotten really upset over everyone arguing with her because she didn't consider herself racist by any means, she just didn't understand why what she said was wrong. Our conversation was better - I told her that every word and label carries power with it, sometimes to empower people's identity and sometimes to tear them down, and you just have to be aware and sensitive about what you say because it will always affect people. I should have added that ignorance isn't really an excuse because the pain and hurt you cause from using those words is sometimes worse than someone using them knowingly.
I also think that there is a BIG difference between just neutrally describing someone with their ethnicity and stereotyping them as such when you don't know for sure what ethnicity they are. The TV host that got all the crap about his comments was in the wrong (IMHO) because he was assuming that squinty eyes + yellow skin = Asian when a) not all Asians have squinty eyes, b) not all Asians have yellow skin (Southeast Asians??), and c) not everyone who has squinty eyes or yellow skin is automatically Asian. Assumptions lead to stereotyping and even if they're positive stereotypes, it's still a generalization that limits people in one way or another.
I was trying to keep my conversation with the research tech very calm and low key because loud fighting tones doesn't do anyone any good. But it's kinda hard to convince someone when they're stuck on old ideas. She did say that she learned some new things and I told her about the Identity exhibit at the Immigration Museum, which may help introduce some ideas.
Anyone else have similar conversations about racism? What did you say to help the discussion?
Everyone else pretty much jumped down her throat for that and frankly, I got a little offended by what she said too. She kept insisting that in such a situation (in describing someone), she would use those labels with the utmost good intention. Yet, she didn't seem to understand that labels like black or African American or negro carry connotations, both good and bad, and she kept saying that she was just unaware of how fast they changed and that back in her day, calling someone negro was acceptable and she felt that people these days were just too PC about everything.
I didn't join in on the conversation on Thursday, but I had an one-on-one conversation with this research tech on Friday, after she calmed down a bit. She had gotten really upset over everyone arguing with her because she didn't consider herself racist by any means, she just didn't understand why what she said was wrong. Our conversation was better - I told her that every word and label carries power with it, sometimes to empower people's identity and sometimes to tear them down, and you just have to be aware and sensitive about what you say because it will always affect people. I should have added that ignorance isn't really an excuse because the pain and hurt you cause from using those words is sometimes worse than someone using them knowingly.
I also think that there is a BIG difference between just neutrally describing someone with their ethnicity and stereotyping them as such when you don't know for sure what ethnicity they are. The TV host that got all the crap about his comments was in the wrong (IMHO) because he was assuming that squinty eyes + yellow skin = Asian when a) not all Asians have squinty eyes, b) not all Asians have yellow skin (Southeast Asians??), and c) not everyone who has squinty eyes or yellow skin is automatically Asian. Assumptions lead to stereotyping and even if they're positive stereotypes, it's still a generalization that limits people in one way or another.
I was trying to keep my conversation with the research tech very calm and low key because loud fighting tones doesn't do anyone any good. But it's kinda hard to convince someone when they're stuck on old ideas. She did say that she learned some new things and I told her about the Identity exhibit at the Immigration Museum, which may help introduce some ideas.
Anyone else have similar conversations about racism? What did you say to help the discussion?