Racists React To Things Are Just Passive White Supremacy by David Brothers is one of the most important
things I’ve read in the past couple of years. I read it at the time it was
posted, and have come back to it several times since then, including recently
after seeing the response from Sanders supporters to Black Lives Matters
activists. This piece, along with Coates’ The Case for Reparations, has shaped my
thinking about racial issues. Here’s two pretty key passages:
The racism this story depicts is binary. It’s
on or off, is you is or is you ain’t this racist, and that encourages the idea
that racism isn’t something you personally do or are. It’s something other
people do. You don’t do that, right? So you aren’t racist!
But any colored folk can tell you that’s not
how racism works. Everybody is a little racist. There are hundreds of learned
reactions to different groups of people to unlearn, not to mention the areas of
society where racist sentiment is implicit instead of explicit, like zoning
laws or the prison industrial complex or the war on drugs. It’s in all of us.
We’re gonna have to live with that racism until we fix it and our selves, and
viewing racism as a binary personality choice doesn’t allow for that.
That’s why people react so strongly to being
called “racist” when they say something totally racist or suspect, or their
work being called “racist,” or occasionally even just hearing the word “racist”
in like a fifteen meter radius or something and their “I’m Not A Racist!” alarm
goes off. They aren’t like those people, no, not at all. Their personal
definition doesn’t allow for internalized racism. Which is adorable.
(Emphasis in the original)
and later
Things go around online occasionally that make
people go “This is what racism looks like.” Sometimes it’s a young black male
being shot down by an old white man, sometimes it’s a burning cross. It’s true:
those are often indicative of racism. But by that level of racism is seen as the only level of racism.
“Hey, this dialogue you wrote–that’s kinda racially suspect, isn’t it?” isn’t a
personal attack, but every time I say it, no matter how hard I try and soften
the blow (and I spent years pulling punches and getting blown up at anyway),
somebody gets mad because their personal definition doesn’t allow for any type
of racism, even accidental or incidental or institutional.
Racism is intentional and unintentional, and
that’s why looking at race like a binary proposition sets up ideas that end up
hurting everybody in the end. You have
to be willing to accept that a little of the poison is in you, too, if you want
to understand why these ideas persist after all this time and in so many
different areas of our life. (Emphasis mine)
Read the whole thing. It’s a wonderful piece of writing. (And
read The Case for Reparations as well.)
