Subtle Racism

Recently I read this article entitled “I am racist, and so are you” and in its first couple lines the author, writes, “Here’s the deal. Racism isn’t just guys in white robes and Paula Dean shouting racial slurs. Racism is subtle, racism is insidious, and our culture is so deeply steeped in it that it’s impossible to grow up in the US and not be racist. It’s a kind of brainwashing: a set of default configuration files that come with the culture. It’s a filter, built up from birth, that alters our perception of the world.” I believe the way that Shadoan describes racism is particularly apt. She very correctly describes its dichotomic nature as both a conspicuous and ever present accessory of American culture as well as a surreptitious and poisonous entity that continually and permeates our minds, or rather our subconscious, unnoticed.

The latter character of racism is what Shadoan talks about in this article and this is what I would like to discuss. Shadoan points out that racism is “a filter built up from birth, that alters our perception of the world.” Is this true? And if so, why is it true? Why are our perceptions in this so- called post racial America obscured and tainted by racism?  This filter as Shadoan calls it is not chosen by us but ingrained in us by an American culture cultivated and shaped by its history, a history in which black bodies were brutally oppressed, terrorized and carelessly eradicated for centuries  in the institution of slavery and where black and white bodies were segregated for many more years after that.

These two parts of American history---slavery and segregation--- are the reasons that, we, individuals born and raised in American society, have this racist filter. This seed was planted in slavery, tended and watered during segregation, and now blooms in today’s society. I say that it began in slavery because it was there that black men and women first became designated as “other.” They, with the darker skin and kinky hair became less than their white counterparts simply because they were different. They who once ruled their own lands became the oppressed and down trodden. With this new condition of life that was forced upon them in the New World, they became destitute and dependent on their white counterparts, shut off from the outside world and therefore ignorant of how it works, and reduced to the status of animal and therefore, deprived of all human rights and liberties. After emancipation, when they had suddenly been given all of the rights and privileges they had previously been denied, the effects of slavery still remained. They had not the knowledge to survive in an ever progressing America and so were once again left prey to their white counterparts. Their lack of education and know-how left them as they had been before destitute, ignorant, and dependent.

This image of African Americans--- destitute, ignorant, dependent--- persisted in the days of segregation. In fact, the stipulations of segregation strengthened this image. As we have discussed in class, segregation mandated that blacks and whites be separated in all manner of things, schools, buses, bathrooms, parks, swimming pool etc. This separation allowed these groups to dream up false truths about one another and forced them both to rely on popular myth about the other race rather than fact, hence the origin of stereotypes. Around this time, added to the image of the African American besides that of destitute, ignorant, and dependent, was that of the aggressive black man and the jezebel black woman. The former  used as an excuse to brutally murder the black man in the name of white womanhood and the latter used as a justification for the rape of black women. Though these images were untrue, whites, during the time of segregation, held on to them as fact because it was their only source of information in regards to the black race. They had not yet been granted the opportunity to speak with an African American on more than subordinate terms.

Although today, it is most certainly not unusual to see whites and blacks converse together, work together, play together, learn together, etc  the effects of slavery and segregation still remain. Its damage is done. Although a white girl talks and is friends with a black young man, she still tenses up and gets nervous when she passes another black man on the street. Although, I, a young African-American woman attend Rhodes college and receive the same education that all of my white classmates do, I am assumed to be on the custodial staff here by the white bookstore cashier. Although, I, a young African American woman  work just as hard or possibly harder than my white counterparts, I know that oftentimes I will be judged by the color of my skin and the stereotypes that have so long accompanied it rather than by my accomplishments and the things I have done to defy those stereotypes.  And although, a young man named Michael Brown had no weapon on his person, he was still deemed dangerous enough to shoot to death.

The implications of these statements are very bleak. If our perceptions of one another are still so subconsciously tainted by racism that we cannot see one another clearly even when allowed to interact on a day to day basis, will racism ever be cured?  Or will it ever remain just beneath the surface occasionally breaking free in hostile and violent ways (a.k.a Mike Brown, Renisha McBride, Treyvon Martin etc.)?

 Resources:

https://beingshadoan.wordpress.com/2014/08/15/i-am-racist-and-so-are-you/