Tools to Identify and Tools to Work to Undo Racism

Distinguish Between Personal Prejudice and Personal Acts versus Systemic and Institutional Preferences 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 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.

Racism is Prejudice Plus Power

Not Just White and Black

Racial Justice Economic Justice Gender Justice Are Intertwined

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.

AGAIN  Distinguish Between Personal Prejudice and Personal Acts versus Systemic and Institutional Preferences 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.

5 areas that illustrate continuing racism: Employment Education Housing Criminal Justice Opposition 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?

Structural Racism Directs Us to Examine the Way the Wires (Institutions) Are Interconnected

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.

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

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.

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