Now that I have spent the last few weeks discussing the existence and inequality associated with racism, I hope you, as the reader, have come to an understanding that racism is a current issue that must be addressed. And with this last post, I hope to do that very thing. I believe the way to end this hateful inequality is ironically through a similar means of how it continues to exist today… and no, I am not talking about color blindness.
Before I continue forward, let me quickly explain my issue with the philosophy of ‘color blindness’. The idea of not seeing skin color first seems like the silver bullet activists and social leaders have been looking for. By seeing people for who they are, rather than the color of their skin, is in fact a crucial step to a just and equal world (Williams, 2011). Yet, this philosophy alone will not entirely cure the plague of racism.
As defined in one of my previous posts, racism is a system of advantage based on race. These current systems restrict people of color from the opportunities and advantages that white people endure every day. Therefore, whether one is consciously seeing people for the color of their skin or not, the systems are still acting in the fashion that they are desired to do. Hence why I believe racism can only be fixed with deliberate action.
Plus, to not see one’s skin is to not see part of who they are. Our identity is a reflexive mixing and mashing of what we experience and take from the world that we choose to or not to identify with. In other words, the infinite factors that lead us to be who we are today are all very important in understanding ourselves and the systems that work around us. Therefore, to not see color is to ignore a beautifully large part of what determines our own self-definition.
Now there are several ways this deliberate action can be done. Starring examples include Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Although different in their goals, both men strived to end the system of racial inequality through social movements. And what I find inspiring about these movements is that fail or success, they got people to talk about the issues that currently exist.
These movements addressed the issues at hand which began to turn the tides of both explicit and implicit racism. Attempting to not reiterate myself too much from my previous post, implicit racism is a problem that can only change through deliberate action. Our subconscious only begins to change as our conscious minds begin to consider something it had not before. Those movements began to shape how people think in a positive way, but don’t get me wrong… it wasn’t enough.
As I have said time and time again, racism is very present and very pressing. I believe the answer to this issue is both radical and doable, and in many ways, some of us are already doing it. I believe we need to fight implicit bias with implicit bias… and I believe the we in my sentence is the most important part.
That means writing blog posts explaining racism at both a fundamental level and an activist upper level. That means more movies and shows where people of color are depicted in a carefully constructed way that does not feed into the easy to use stereotypes our brains subconsciously refer to. And on the radical side, I believe that means we need another social movement.
We need these changes and movements, and I believe we need to address them to everyone. Everyone should see films like the The Wire and BlacKkKlansman. Everyone should be up to date with the current Black Lives Matter movement. And everyone needs to know that this system is suppressing people of color every day.
This may be the outsider in me, for my skin color is seen as white, but I believe this is an issue that can only be resolved when everyone is on board. This information and knowledge of the systems we live within needs to be broadcasted for the country, and maybe even the world, to hear. The only way both forms of racism can be resolved is when everyone knows why and how the United States culture and systems continue to fuel racism every day.
And do not think for one second this fight is pointless. Racism is artificial, which means there is nothing concrete or natural about it. It was fabricated and constructed for the betterment of a group of people. Therefore, just as it was made, it can be destroyed.
When researching whether we can control our implicit bias, I found an experiment that thought to do that very thing. They had participants smile when viewing photographs of both white and black faces before they took their IAT. The results were significantly better after the participants did this simple task, which leads to some hope for our subconscious selves (Chiao, Devine, Lorig and Cacioppo.). In essence, this research shows that even the smallest change in our behavior can alter our minds in a significant way. Racism is an issue that will not be solved overnight, but maybe tonight you can change how you see the world. Maybe YOU can alter your subconscious to align more with the views you now believe at this very moment.
I hope that these posts brought clarity and awareness to this issue. With these posts, I intended to further the discussion of race in a way that allows all people to understand and participate. But just because this series is over does not mean the discussion is as well. Please talk and discuss these ideas. Whether it be with me over email, your friends, or your family, it doesn’t matter… just continue the discussion. This issue is far greater than any post I will ever write which is why we need to expand this discussion to something bigger than this blog may ever go.
The issue of racism has not been conquered by any means, but I hope that you now at least see and understand the war at hand. The first step to fixing a problem is admitting there is one. I admit that racism is an issue. I admit that it is currently ingrained in everything we do, see, and hear every day. I admit that I reap the benefits of a system that I was born into every day.
I admit these things to myself and everyone around me, but do not think for a second that by admitting I must also be ashamed. I am proud of who I am, and I am not ashamed to say that I am identified as a white male. It is this consciousness of my privilege and need to change that matters. Shame will not bring change, only action will. I hope you feel the need to take action – just as I do.
Work Cited
Ito, Tiffany A., Krystal W. Chiao, Patricia G. Devine, Tyler S. Lorig and John T. Cacioppo. “The Influence of Facial Feedback on Race Bias.” Psychological Science 17(3):256-261
Williams, Monnica. “Colorblind Ideology Is a Form of Racism.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 2011, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/culturally-speaking/201112/colorblind-ideology-is-form-racism.