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Racism
Tools to Identify
and
Tools to Work to Undo Racism
Goal is Justice not Guilt
Brothers and Sisters to UsU.S. Catholic Bishops
Pastoral Letter on Racism
Distinguish BetweenPersonal Prejudice and Personal Acts
versus
Systemic and InstitutionalPreferences for Whites
If the KKK keeps people out of school, we understand that as
racism
But if Fewer People of Color Can Afford to Attend Private
Schools, College and Graduate Schools Is that Racism?
Racism is “systematized oppression of one race of another.
In other words, the various forms of oppression within every sphere of social relations—economic
exploitation, military subjugation, political subordination, cultural devaluation, psychological violation, sexual degradation, verbal abuse, etc.—
together make up a whole of interacting and developing processes which operate so normally and
naturally and are so much a part of the existing institutions of society that the individuals involved are
barely conscious of their operation” James Boggs, Racism and the Class Struggle 147-148.
Racismis
Prejudice Plus
Power
Not Just White and Black
Racial JusticeEconomic JusticeGender JusticeAre Intertwined
Racism is a sin
Racism is a sin:
a sin that divides the human family,
blots out the image of God among specific members of
that family, and violates the
fundamental human dignity of those called to be children of the same
Father.
Isn’t Racism Over?
Because the Courts have eliminated statutory racial discrimination and Congress has enacted civil rights
legislation, and because some minority people have achieved some measure
of success, many people believe that
racism is no longer a problem in American life.
Distinguish BetweenPersonal Prejudice and Personal Acts
versus
Systemic and InstitutionalPreferences for Whites
Movement toward authentic justice
demands a simultaneous attack on
both racism and economic oppression.
The continuing existence of racism becomes apparent
when we look beneath the surface of our national life.
Look beneath the surface
Bishops point to 5 areas that illustrate continuing racism:
EmploymentEducationHousing
Criminal JusticeOpposition to Affirmative Action
Education?
• African-Americans receive more and tougher disciplinary action than their white counterparts,
even for the same infraction.• Drop-out rate is far higher than their white
counterparts' rate.
Housing Segregation Patterns
Opposition to Immigrants
Blacks comprise 13 percent of the national population,
but 30 percent of people arrested, 41 percent of people in jail.
Human Rights Watch: Incarceration and Race
Opposition to Affirmative Action:
HISTORY
Racism has been part of the social fabric of America since its European colonization.
Whether it be the tragic past of the Native
Americans, the Mexicans, the Puerto Ricans, or the blacks, the story is one of slavery, peonage,
economic exploration, brutal repression, and cultural neglect.
None have escaped one or another form of collective degradation by a powerful majority.
Founders of Country?
The educational, legal, and financial systems, along with other
structures and sectors of our society, impede people's progress and narrow their access because they are black, Hispanic, Native
American or Asian.
The structures of our society are subtly racist,
for these structures reflect the values which society upholds.
They are geared to the success of the majority and the failure of the minority. Members of both groups
give unwitting approval by accepting things as they are.
What is Structural Racism?
Importance of Structure
Can You Restrict With One Wire?
Depends on How You
Arrange the Wires
Structural Racism Directs Us to Examine the Way the Wires
(Institutions) Are Interconnected
Perhaps no single individual is to blame.
The sinfulness is often anonymous but nonetheless real.
The sin is social in nature in that each of us, in varying degrees, is
responsible.
Under the guise of other motives, racism is manifest in the tendency
to stereotype and marginalize whole segments of the population whose presence perceived as a
threat. Racism is manifest also in the indifference that replaces open
hatred.
The minority poor are seen as the
byproduct of a post-industrial society --
without skills, without motivation, without incentive.
They are
expendable people.
Race Disadvantage
We have long since grown accustomed to thinking of Blacks as being “racially disadvantaged.”
Rarely, however, do we refer to Whites as “racially advantaged,”
even though that is an equally apt characterization of the existing
inequality. Harlon Dalton
Race Advantage
In my class and place, I did not recognize myself as a racist
because I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in
invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my
group from birth.
Peggy McIntosh, 1988
Today's racism flourishes in the triumph of
private concern over public responsibility,
individual success over social commitment,
and personal fulfillment over
authentic compassion
How start to combat racism?
Start with the understanding that racism is “hard-wired” into our society
and institutions.
It is like the electric wires in the walls,or the plumbing,
or the air and heat ductwork.
Invisible. Important. Always There.
It is a life-long struggle for justice.
Be willing to move beyond your comfort zone
Transformative Education
Educate Self and Community about history and reality
of the barriers of structural racism
How it affects us,How it affects others.
CREATE a safe environment for open and honest discussion
Study Bishops Pastorals
“Brothers and
Sisters All”
Listen to People of Color
There are resources for
training & expert help
Questions for Reflection
• Personal observations of examples of Prejudice Plus Power?
• Structural or Institutional Racism in community – Housing patterns? Criminal justice? Education – public & private? Employment? Response to Affirmative Action? Economic Justice, Gender Justice
• Not about guilt, but identifying and challenging unearned privilege and replace it with Justice.
Dr. Shawn Copeland and Bill Quigleyhttp://www.loyno.edu/~quigley/
