Racism is a system of advantage based on race. This definition of racism was first coined by Daniels Tatum. With this definition, she creates a clear distinction between prejudice and racism. Prejudice, being an individual act, is a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. While racism is more of a systemic structure that individuals have little to no dictation over (Tatum, 1997).
What I find interesting about this distinction is the conclusion she is able to draw from it. She states that all white people, living in the United States, are racist, while all people of color can not be racist. She is not saying that all white Americans have a prejudice towards people of color. Instead, she is explaining that all white Americans benefit from this systematic advantage, and therefore must be racist. There is literally nothing a white American can do to not reek the benefits of their skin color.
Before I continue, I would like to encourage you to read one of my posts that explains the benefits that all white Americans have over people of color. I can say from personal experience that growing up in a white space can cloud one’s judgment. Thus creating an illusion of racism as a mere side effect from the years of slavery. Which buys into the narrative that people of color are only economically disadvantaged and unfortunately snowball into creating a number of other societal problems. When instead racism and economic inequality are entirely different issues. If this is your stance on the matter, please feel free to click on the link provided.
Daniels Tatum’s statement is initially very hard to hear. At least for me, it was instantly rejected before any rational thought. I believe this is because being called a “racist” is one of the single worst words to be called in modern society. Due to “new racism”, there exists the illusion that racism is mostly a thing of the past, and anyone called it is a direct attack on being a modern, moral creature.
As a clarification, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva defines “new racism” as the form of racism that has existed since the late 1960s. He explains that this new wave creates the idea that racism is largely a thing of the past, rather than a huge current issue (Bonilla-Silva, 2015). It is the belief that racism has, in large, been defeated and that we now mostly live as an enlightened society. The graph to the right shows an example of such. I was astonished to find that segregation is as much of an issue as it was fifty years ago. Somewhere along the battle over civil rights, society decided the issue was resolved and moved on. Yet it only took a few decades for the issue to resurface once again. It has resurfaced, but this time people believe there is nothing to fight over.
Racism is still a huge problem. It is one that incarcerates hundreds of thousands of Americans, creates a huge inequality in pay, and harms millions of people every year. Racism, new racism, is very real and it is something that we are all bound to. Being a system of advantage or disadvantage, it is not enough to simply be “blind” from skin color. To truly combat racism, and to truly not be racist, we need to step up and take action.
Next week I will go into detail about how race associated with color is nothing more than a construct and how that construct has been used to divide our understanding of who gets and does what. Racism is arguably not what it once was, but I hope by the end of this session of posts you understand the issue is still significant enough to fight for.
The Whole Series is Now Available:
Bridging Our Understanding of Racism (Part 1)
How Unnatural Racism Is (Part 3)
Implicit Racism, the Racism you Never Knew About (Part 4)
Just How Present is Racism? (Part 6)
It’s Time to Take Action Against Racism (Part 7)
Work Cited
Chang, Alvin. “The Data Proves That School Segregation Is Getting Worse.” Vox.com, Vox Media, 5 Mar. 2018, www.vox.com/2018/3/5/17080218/school-segregation-getting-worse-data.
Daniel Tatum (1997) Defining Racism:”Can We Talk?” Pages 100-107
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (2015) The Structure of Racism in Color-Blind, “Post Racial” Pages 1-20
Victor M. Rios (2015) Decolonizing the White Space in Urban Ethnography City and Community Pages (258-261)