On racism.
Having recently posted in reaction to RaceFail in another venue, I decided it was worth it to me to post something here as well. I feel strongly about this topic, and it is important to me to be clear on where I stand.
I do not want to support, enable, excuse, or perpetuate racism. Like many people who grew up with white privilege in the U.S., despite considering myself to be accepting and liberal, I absorbed a number of racist attitudes and behaviors that are thoroughly ingrained in our culture at large. When they work their way into my thoughts, actions, and statements, they're like hidden links in a chain -- I don't always see them slip past, but if I start at the end point and track my way backwards, I find the places where they insinuated themselves. For years, I have been trying to identify these racist tics and train myself out of them. I am nowhere near done with that process. Similarly, identifying the ways in which white privilege shapes my life is something I'm still trying to get my hands around.
I accept that this is a long process -- decades-long, probably life-long -- and in the meantime I'm doing my best to avoid inflicting my racism or my privilege on the people of color around me, and doing my best to make sure that when other people inflict their racism or privilege on people of color, I'm stepping up to name and address what's just occurred.
There are many of you whose journals I read whose race, religion, culture, gender, sexuality, culture, country of origin, ethnicity, ability status, or socioeconomic class I do not know. We're on the internet, so I believe this is as it should be -- no one should be required to name those things about themselves unless they wish to. Several of you regularly post on your politics and your experiences in ways that make me recognize errors in my own thinking or limitations of my own perspective, and I'm grateful every time.
The process of unlearning entitlement and bigotry cannot happen in a vacuum. I want to extend a request and an offer to all of you -- particularly those of you who, like me, are still untangling beliefs you acquired without wanting them, and those of you who, like me, occupy white social space. If you have the time, the energy, the inclination, I hope you will help me notice and understand when I am behaving in troubling, bigoted, or privileged ways. For those of you who are going through this same process and would like support, you've got mine. I think it's vital for those of us who are not oppressed on the basis of race to assist each other in the process of disentangling ourselves from racism. The burden shouldn't fall to people of color to check, educate, or retrain us, but it can be hard to move forward without other people to support you, knock you off-balance and out of your complacency, or show you the next firm place to stand and get your bearings.
This can help us become better allies, real allies. I'm in.
I do not want to support, enable, excuse, or perpetuate racism. Like many people who grew up with white privilege in the U.S., despite considering myself to be accepting and liberal, I absorbed a number of racist attitudes and behaviors that are thoroughly ingrained in our culture at large. When they work their way into my thoughts, actions, and statements, they're like hidden links in a chain -- I don't always see them slip past, but if I start at the end point and track my way backwards, I find the places where they insinuated themselves. For years, I have been trying to identify these racist tics and train myself out of them. I am nowhere near done with that process. Similarly, identifying the ways in which white privilege shapes my life is something I'm still trying to get my hands around.
I accept that this is a long process -- decades-long, probably life-long -- and in the meantime I'm doing my best to avoid inflicting my racism or my privilege on the people of color around me, and doing my best to make sure that when other people inflict their racism or privilege on people of color, I'm stepping up to name and address what's just occurred.
There are many of you whose journals I read whose race, religion, culture, gender, sexuality, culture, country of origin, ethnicity, ability status, or socioeconomic class I do not know. We're on the internet, so I believe this is as it should be -- no one should be required to name those things about themselves unless they wish to. Several of you regularly post on your politics and your experiences in ways that make me recognize errors in my own thinking or limitations of my own perspective, and I'm grateful every time.
The process of unlearning entitlement and bigotry cannot happen in a vacuum. I want to extend a request and an offer to all of you -- particularly those of you who, like me, are still untangling beliefs you acquired without wanting them, and those of you who, like me, occupy white social space. If you have the time, the energy, the inclination, I hope you will help me notice and understand when I am behaving in troubling, bigoted, or privileged ways. For those of you who are going through this same process and would like support, you've got mine. I think it's vital for those of us who are not oppressed on the basis of race to assist each other in the process of disentangling ourselves from racism. The burden shouldn't fall to people of color to check, educate, or retrain us, but it can be hard to move forward without other people to support you, knock you off-balance and out of your complacency, or show you the next firm place to stand and get your bearings.
This can help us become better allies, real allies. I'm in.