I look at my own life to explore this. I always believed I was not a racist. I am of the age that I remember the civil rights era, Martin Luther King, Jr. and his speeches and marches. I was too young to participate, but I was aware and admired those who were marching and speaking out. I was proud that our country did enact laws and policies to improve some aspects of injustice such as voting rights.
Racism. As I usually do, I looked up the definition. The definition that came up first through Google was no surprise, “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.” What is annoying to me about this definition is that the concept “racial… group” which refers back to idea of ‘race’ takes one around in a circle because the idea of race is a social construct itself.
This leads to another definition. What is a social construct? According to Merriam Webster, a social construct is an idea formulated and accepted by people in a society. And, to make things clearer, what is not a social construct? Raw facts about the world, like the sun shines during the day and not at night and trees have root systems below ground, also systems of mathematics and logic, these are not social constructs but facts. In other words, much about our day-to-day existence within our culture is based on mutually agreed upon social constructs. A more neutral example of a social construct is the meaning and use of money in our society. This construct is generally accepted.
If the idea of race is just that, an idea used to delineate differences, then what does that mean? Why does the idea of significant differences among human beings persist? This leads us to how we are taught as children to live in the world. Turning back to me, and the issue of racism, I know that the topic was never talked about in my home while I was growing up. Unconsciously, I drank in that silence as the way to be, and to let situations be. Not to engage, not to act, not to see. Just avoid, because “that’s just the way things are.” I can only imagine if I were actively taught to despise or avoid someone because of their appearance.
Back to not being a racist and being an anti-racist. I was in the ‘not-being-a-racist’ category. Then I met, lived with and married someone who is African-American. It was like sailing in a boat in shallow enough waters that I continually ran into unseen rocks just below the surface. I had no idea that I had assumed that! Or believed that difference existed! It was humbling, and also horrifying to realize that I did have unconscious discriminatory beliefs. I had assumed there were real differences. These weren’t dramatic differences, but they had been real to me. I wonder if I still harbor some, unknowingly. I had soaked up, as a child the unspoken beliefs and ways of the world around me. This is one way the social construct of racism perpetuates.
Being an anti-racist. The definition I found means actively learning how you have knowingly or unknowingly carried prejudice with you then confronting it and choosing to think and act differently. But how can you find and challenge these unconscious or semi-conscious beliefs and habits? Here are some suggestions. Do you ever think of someone else as other, they or them? Do you ever find yourself hesitating to talk with, or include someone because of their “otherness” for you? Or because you don’t know how to talk with someone? Those uncomfortable thoughts and feelings are the telltale signs that you have some unconscious beliefs that there are people ‘different’ than you.
I wish you well and may you challenge yourself!