I am a Racist.
I am a person whom society labels as white.
I am a person who thinks of myself as white.
Society considers Black and Latino people to be “not white”.
The definition of white is fluid and has changed over time.
At one time European immigrants such as Italians, Irish, and Jews were considered “not white”.
Race is a complicated hierarchical construct that society codifies and imposes on itself. It has deep roots and is self-perpetuating.
Racism is built into the very fiber of our culture. I am, at my best, an involuntary racist, a reluctant racist, a racist on the long road to discovery and recovery. I am racist none-the-less.
I first encountered the idea that, as a white person in America, I am inescapably racist, while in ninth grade participating in anti-Vietnam War protests. My friend, Hope, attended training to serve as a demonstration Marshall. She informed me that she had learned, and believed, that all white people are racist because of our participation in a racist culture.
I was skeptical. I was a fledgling leftist radical – how could I be racist? I did not have conscious racist thoughts. I did not act in racist ways. Some of my best friends… Didn’t matter.
I was complicit in a racist system that systematically undermined people of color.
I was born into and infected by this pernicious racist system.
I resisted the classification of being a racist because I acted with the best intentions. I was not one of those vile people who spouts racist stereotypes and does hateful things. I marched for civil rights.
Still, the idea that I could be unconsciously racist troubled my mind.
Years later, getting a better understanding of white privilege helped me realize how I am indeed a racist. I am a racist because my status in America today, as someone who is considered to be white, bestows unearned advantages on me. These advantages exist and I do not need to actively do anything to receive their benefits.
The very fact that I am free to speculate about my relationship to racism is due to the privileged position that I occupy in society.
Society has clear mechanisms to let people of color know their limitations.
As a person seen by society as white, I am free to see myself without limits while ignoring the underlying privileged position that I inhabit. I am free to be a passive beneficiary of a system that is stacked in my favor. I am free to be ignorant of my complicity in a racist system.
I am troubled by this system. I seek to raise my consciousness. I try to understand my privilege and how it affects others.
I watch on social media an endless parade of racial atrocities. I can no longer ignore the reality that Americans seen as black experience encounters with the police that are fundamentally different from my own.
Do Black Lives Matter? Yes, black lives also matter and deserve the same rights that I take for granted.
Is the social consensus changing?
Are we approaching a paradigm shift – a point where a move toward greater equality and justice is possible?
Can this heightened awareness of racism lead us to true change?
Or will we wait it out and then reassert our white dominance?
To confront and overturn my hidden assumptions I read voices with different life experiences on social media. I have started reading Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I am transformed by the power of this narrative.
When I open myself to the voices of others I begin to understand what I can do to help realize the worth and dignity of those that society, and I as a reluctant racist, oppress.
I seek to recognize and change the inherently racist aspects of society and of myself.
I wish to truly see others who appear to be ‘not like me’ as my other selves.
I am overwhelmed and lost and need guidance to move toward action for change.
I wish that I knew how to simply make racism go away.
I believe that by working together we can shift our racist society toward greater justice for all.
Yours in Ethical Struggle,
Randy Best
Leader, Ethical Humanist Society of the Triangle
Chris Kaman says
I am posting this link to a program about integration, education, and I think racism that needs to be heard, and discussed:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/562/the-problem-we-all-live-with
Kudos to This American Life for broadcasting this. Now what do we do about it?
David Moffat says
Yes and no
Every human being is born with an innate (evolved) basic moral sense. One aspect of that moral sense is in-group/out-group sensitivity, with a bias toward favoring members of our in-groups with the protections of our morality.
Our in-groups can be, for example, our family, extended family, neighborhood, country, sports team, religion, race, sex, or species. In fact, the urge to define or acknowledge in-groups is strong. Similarly for out-groups.
But, like many innate characteristics, our basic moral sense can be augmented or diminished by experience, much of which is determined by the culture in which we live. We can also self-consciously shape the behaviors by which our moral sense is expressed.
Here is what I am getting at: It is natural to be sensitive to group differences, and to be reflexively biased in favor of one’s own groups. This includes sensitivity to race. What defines a racist in Western culture is a person who cannot or will not shape his behaviors toward acceptance of groups that our culture strives to include.
James Coley says
Thanks for your comment, Dave. I agree with you that there is an evolutionary basis for in-group/out-group sensitivity, and I know that some scientists and others describe this as a “moral sense.”
But I disagree about calling it morality. It is just an “us and them” mentality, and while it leads to moral or ethical behavior within the in-group, it can also, as you know, lead to unethical behavior against the out-group, such as invading, killing and raping them in warfare.
Real morality begins when we transcend the “us and them” mentality and begin to think in terms of what is a right action, and what is a wrong action. Waging a war of conquest, for example, no matter who does it and no matter against whom, is seen to be a morally wrong type of thing for anyone to do.
But I essentially agree with your main point. A racist is not someone who (unwillingly) benefits from racism, as Randy assumes. A racist is someone who does not transcend the “us and them” mentality with regard to race.
James Coley says
Randy Best is not a racist. Dylann Roof is a racist. Bob Ewell of To Kill a Mockingbird is a racist. My grandmother, who refused to sit at our dining table with a Black woman until my father insisted, was a racist. Sadly, the Atticus Finch of Go Set a Watchman is a racist.
Now, you don’t have to be as bad a racist as Roof or Ewell to be a racist; and granny was, on the whole, a good person. There is a range of ways that racists are racists, and there are degrees of racism. But it is simply absurd for anyone, even the man himself, to put Randy Best in the same category as these examples of real and fictional racists. Absurd.
A racist is an advocate or supporter of racism, in word or deed. Randy Best advocates against racism, in his speeches and writing, and in his actions. He’s not a racist, even if he says he is. That should be obvious.
Randy argues that “I am a racist because my status in America today, as someone who is considered to be white, bestows unearned advantages on me.” But it is an obvious non sequitur to conclude that someone advocates or supports some moral evil in society simply because they benefit from it. Bernie Sanders benefits from capitalism, but he is a socialist, not a capitalist. Maybe we all benefit from lower gasoline prices resulting from U.S. foreign policies, but that does not mean we advocate or support those policies. We undermine our commitment to reason in Ethical Culture and Humanism when we indulge such a lack of simple logic.
Sometimes it is pointed out that probably all White people have little, fleeting and involuntary racist thoughts and feelings that pop into their heads. Psychological tests sometimes reveal these. But these gremlins, doubtless infectious memes from the racism around us in the culture, do not make you a racist. How you respond to them is what matters. The racist embraces these thoughts and feelings, and someone who is not a racist recoils from them and stamps them out as best they can.
In considering what I say, bear in mind that exploring issues like this can have a cyclic nature; sometimes step three of a moral conversation can look superficially like step one. And while it may seem that my view is at step one, it is in fact at step three. It is not that I am unaware of the kind of points Randy makes; I’ve heard them and thought about them seriously for decades. I just don’t agree with them, and that is because no one has ever presented me with rational grounds to agree with them.
Step one in this case would be a lack of recognition of racism, or how serious it is as a moral evil in our society. Step two is the mea culpa of the guilty White liberal. Step three is the realization that there is something indulgent about Whites preoccupied with their own shame.
The preoccupation reflects, it seems to me, an inward-looking concern instead of a desire for justice and for extending care outward to Black people and others. An ethical commitment to justice is, I believe, a much better and stronger motivation to do something positive about the moral evil of racism than are guilt and shame and, while the mainstream religions generally rely upon guilt and shame, in Humanism we should do better.
What is really at issue here is, of course, how we are to supposed to define, or redefine, the word “racist.” Sometimes people dismiss issues like this one as “nothing but semantics.” But semantics is about what we mean by the words we use, and language is a powerful thing. So questions about how we are to define words with the moral gravitas and the emotional impact of “racist” and “racism” are important.
Arthur Dobrin is right when he suggested that it is stretching the definition for Randy to call himself a racist. To redefine “racism” as the equivalent of White privilege trivializes the concept of racism, and distracts us from positive actions we can take to advance the cause of racial justice. I agree with Sincere Kirabo that if we really want to do something about racism, we should start by dropping the White guilt.
http://thehumanist.com/commentary/want-to-help-end-systemic-racism-first-step-drop-the-white-guilt
Randy Best says
Dear James, Arthur and Others –
I am pleased that my posting provoked some interesting replies.
I do feel that it is useful for me to own up to my complicity in a racist power structure. Awareness of what is happening is an important step.
Although there are types and degrees of racism, as a person who is deemed by society to be white, I recognize my culpability. I do not feel guilty about this. Through the help of others I have glimpsed America’s structure of racism and white privilege. I am tarnished by it. I am part of it. It must change.
Once I begin to understand this racist system, I am no longer “unwitting” – involuntary perhaps but I do not get off the hook.
I will continue to think about what everyone has said.
Randy Best
Chris Kaman says
I agree with Mr. Dobrin, but do appreciate the humility and openness of Randy on this difficult topic. In support of Randy, consider that Alcoholics Anonymous requires that one admit that one is an alcoholic and even those who have been free from it for years will begin with “I am an alcoholic.” To Dobrin’s point, I do not believe I am a racist, but I do confess to prejudicial attitudes that if unchecked would support the status quo through silence. Randy inspired me to go ahead and purchase Coats book. Reading is a great way to understand the lives and struggles of black Americans. Advocacy for reforms in criminal justice, policing, education are some examples of additional steps we should take. Whites who disavow racism should also use their advantage to lobby legislators and elected representatives for such reforms. Silence is not an option.
Henri Lopez says
Alicia, I admire you, and your father Randy Best for his bravery to write such article and in such honesty. Other people might feel about you and him as ‘traitors to your own kind’ but it cannot stay that way.
I stand on the ‘other side of the white fence’, and most of whites do not wish to admit it or are unaware of the wall is built around whites to promote their success and, protect their interests and assets at the expense of others. I can only share the following as a response to your posting. If I were to initiate it, I’d be labeled as a trouble-maker, as I am supposed to know ‘my place’.
Please, step in my shoes for a moment. You would experience this often,
– I am stopped on major highways at night for driving-while-brown, as a ‘potential drug smuggler’.
– I built my dream house in N. Raleigh. Years later, Dwane built his in the same neighborhood. He forbid his children to play with mine and I was told he’d kick my ass if I did not get out of HIS(!) neighborhood. His words, “We have Neighborhood Watch to keep people like you out!”
– I married a white lady but we knew we’d have opposition from her parents. We eloped. Her mother’s words to me when we announce it, “You need to get the hell out of my house now. My son will be home soon and he will kill you!”
In recent past the racism and hatred has increased immensely…
– Kim, another dancer feels as a white person, she cannot share the dance floor with me. She went to the DJ to have me removed, which he refused to do. I protested about her ugliness. Her response, “If you don’t like my ugliness, you can step out the door and never come back!”. I will not allow her to intimidate me but twice a week currently, I have been dancing on HER(!) floor.
However, the protectionism and racism only brings resentment and hatred from the under-privileged who will attempt by any means to make things fair; which creates the cycle we see today. The world has become so small, those under-privileged are crossing the borders of the privileged European and American continents in droves looking for a fair share. It is in our interest as Americans that the rest of the world also prosper. If they don’t prosper, we cannot build fences tall enough to keep them out.
James Coley says
Hi, Henri. I am disgusted by the racism you have encountered, and thank you for sharing your accounts of those incidents.
But my concern is this: I don’t see how it helps matters for Randy Best to say he is a racist.
Will that change the attitude of your racist neighbor Dwane?
It only weakens our efforts against racists like Dwane to obliterate the distinction between him and Randy and other people who are not racists.
I look forward to your response. Best wishes to you.
Arthur Dobrin says
Isn’t there a difference between a reluctant racist and an unwitting one? A reluctant person knows what they are doing, even though they do it begrudgingly. Nevertheless, they agree with what they are doing. When something is done unwittingly, the person simply doesn’t know what they are doing.
The reluctant person is morally culpable; it isn’t at all clear whether an unwitting person is culpable.
Many whites benefit from a society that is stacked against others. A reluctant racist accepts this as a given and ultimately goes along. Someone who benefits unwittingly benefits without their knowledge or approval.
If someone recognizes that others are not privileged in the same way, benefits from that privilege but takes moves against it, it seems to me to be stretching the definition to call that person a racist. They are beneficiaries but are trying to undo the situation. How they try, what they do, how ardent is their behavior is to be judged in some way. But racist? Not in my book.
Richard DiCecio says
I have been saying this to anyone who listens for the past 55 years ( I am 72) but you have just said it better and more succinctly. I will re-post it with a request to all my friends who hear it as an invitation to white guilt to read it through to the end. I do believe we are seeing the death throes of the racist culture, but it is a dangerous time.
James Coley says
Hi, Richard. Well, I read it through to the end and I still see that it is an invitation to White guilt. How is it *not* an invitation to White guilt? And my more important concern is this: What good does White guilt do Black people? I look forward to your reply, and best wishes to you.
Elliot M. Cramer says
here is a tendency for my far left liberal friends to find
racism everywhere. The authors of “The Bell Curve” were called
racists for correctly pointing out that there is a average 15
point IQ difference between Blacks and Whites and that this has
profound implications for society. Contrary to what has been
claimed, they did not say that this difference has a genetic
basis. It has been claimed that the SAT is biased towards Blacks
when, in fact, it overpredicts their performance. Recently the
Orange County Bias-free Policing Coalition issued a press release
stating “Community groups ask Orange County government officials
to address racial bias in policing.” There is not a shred of
evidence of such bias. See http://tinyurl.com/o5dum8r
Coley is right when he says “it only weakens our efforts against
racists like Dwane to obliterate the distinction between him and
Randy and other people who are not racists.”
Jackie says
Thanks, Randy for your awareness and efforts to fashion a more just non-racist society! It’s reassuring to have allies.