Dealing with Everyday Racism
Originally Published in the Reclaiming Quarterly #79, Summer 2000
Starting in 1992, the year I joined the Sojourner Truth Congregation of Unitarian Universalists, till 1999 when it ceased to meet as a congregation, I gave a series of lectures and sermons on the topics of racism, sexism, homophobia, and diversity. This particular talk started as an hour long lecture as part of our 1994 seminar series on African Americans and race relations. It was later shortened to a sermon and delivered to a suburban congregation the following year.
Mine was the last lecture in the series and the topic was chosen as a provocative ending to a hugely succesful six month run. When I sat down to write this talk, I realized that there was nothing about racism that wasn't everyday and every waking moment from my perspective. And that realization poignantly set the tone and tenor of my talk.
Target Audience
What audience should I address with this talk? Well, there is not much I can tell other African Americans or Native Americans about racism or how to deal with it. And I cannot speak for the experience of Asian, Latino, and other oppressed groups. We all, in some sense, deal with oppression every day of our lives and all of us have developed complicated strategies just to live out our everyday life. Each and every one of us is an expert on our oppression. No there is not much I can tell victims of racism about how to deal with it. I can only share my personal strategies in dialogue.
So if I cannot target my talk at victims of racism, maybe I should target my talk at people who benefit from racism. The problem is that most who benefit from racism, are not aware of it. There are no announcements, such as "We do this because you are not black", or "not Latino."The "For Whites Only"signs are gone, and just about no one uses the n-word in polite conversation nowadays. It is all very hush hush, buried in coded words, and under wraps.
So much in fact that many well meaning white people in this country sincerely believe that (a) racism is an isolated phenomenon restricted to poor uneducated whites and the Nation of Islam; (b) Black people have just as much access to opportunities as whites, although they seem not to take as much advantage of it; or my personal favorite (c) Black people are prone to immoral behavior but it's not their fault really it is a pathology caused by the anti poverty programs of the 60s and 70s'. So targeting a talk on dealing with racism to a group that doesn't even acknowledge it existence is kind of difficult.
It was when I contemplated these dilemmas and others, that I decided to focus my talk on strategies for allies. What is an ally? An ally is someone who although not the target of an oppression, is outraged by its existence and is willing to act on that outrage. We are all potentially allies in the struggle against oppression. We may not always know what to do, and sometimes what we do is not helpful, but our actions are rooted in a sincere wish to stop oppression. And so I am directing my talk to anyone who is or can be an ally in the fight to end racism.
Posted in
- Printer-friendly version
- 2706 reads
This sounds like something I need to do. I hope that I can work it out.
Connect DC is TEN?? Wow. Time flies.
Did I ever mention to you that I think the impact that working had on me was to connect me to DC? I'm so hooked in here ... just call me "swamp thang."
Speaking of which ... isn't it margarita weather? Let's get together.
Much love,
Reya
p.s. So cool to see my drawing again! Thank you for publishing!
"Such beautiful dreaming! Such clear work. You sound so much in-focus just now.
I honor this work and delight in reading your words ... and I'm moved to participate in the dreaming-work, perhaps more than is appropriate.
I think I'll take the risk, and I hope you'll tell me if you'd rather I not do it again.
In the dream group I used to work with, we would read one of our dreams aloud and then go around the room, each one beginning their remarks with "If this were my dream..." and then sharing whatever the pieces seemed to illuminate for them. And then the next person might see something quite different in the same images, the same words.
In that sense, if this were my dream just now, in my dream I am surrounded by water -- my life is filled with emotion, covering and drowning everything else, so that all I can see is my feelings.
The gathering of song and all these incredible people -- my life, friendships, the harmony we make together. And in my dream, I am beginning to see myself moving on. Does this mean a change of geography? a change of emphasis? in my life this minute this could be about gradually shifting some of the focus of my everyday spiritual community from the UUs to the Yoga studio, or it could be something quite different. If I had this dream last week sometime, it would look like the impending end of an important relationship.
And in all of those possibilities, I am so present to the sadness with which I gather up what is mine to take with me, make my farewells, and lose my ability to remember the words. In all of these possibilities, even as I'm leaving I'm rethinking the choice to leave ... do I really have to? why?
In my dream, I look for my car because I want to escape ... and I can't find my car because there's no way out. As I'm searching the beautiful dark man in the hotel uniform helps me -- the hotel uniform telling me that wherever I am is only a way station, his beauty telling me that I can enjoy and appreciate his help, his darkness telling me that sometimes I need to look closely to see what is important (other times everything is well-lighted).
I keep looking for the way out even as the hotel man would make me welcome, and eventually the welcome is withdrawn as he leaves. And then I am lost and wandering, trying to find my way home -- having ignored help and support, I find I can't find the way alone after all.
And now that my dream has ended, I see there is much here that I can use in my waking life, too. So thank you for dreaming this dream, thanks for sharing it, thanks for letting me dream it, too.
Many blessings, Dear One"
"I sit staring out the window, not lost in thought, but feeling completely and totally blank inside." I have been sitting in a similar space.
Your post reminds me to trust and to listen for the song.