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

http://www.movie-gazette.com/cinereviews/1222

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.

http://www.providence.edu/polisci/students/affirmative_action/frame1.htm

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/