A White Appeal to Anti-Racism
I recently had an interaction with a friend online. My friend is a respected African American pastor, who was writing an article on ways to combat racism by using privilege to help those who do not have it. This caused me to think about my own need to appeal to my white friends, people I know to be of good will, who likely do not understand fully what is meant by privilege, or how they can use it to help all people find that same privilege.
My friend wrote the following: “Certainly, racism by black people towards white people exists, but it is small in effect and largely powerless since blacks do not control very much in the larger society. Black racism is more of a nuisance and a bad attitude. Not many white folks face problems being subject to black people who hold power.”
“Racism in the form of whites against blacks (or other ethnic minorities) is far more harmful owing to their majority status and holding more influential and impactful stations in life. Nearly every black person has a white boss or works for a white employer. It is an inarguable fact that most reported acts of bigotry and racism in the USA have occurred against African Americans. (Note: In many ways, black people are representative of all other people of color).”[1]
Often when the subject of racism comes up, I hear my white friends defensively say, “well racism goes both ways.” They then recount how they were treated rudely by some person of color, and attributed it to their being white. On the other side, I also occupy a place in the academy and have at times heard academics say that “racism is only possible if you are white.” This riles my white friends because it seems to be unfair and counter intuitive. But I would like to explain why this statement should be considered. Technically, on a personal level, the academics are wrong. Any individual can, and does, hold views that are racially biased. All of us have a racial bias, we must recognize that or we will never counter it. But that is not what the academics mean when they say that only whites can be racist. They are making a point that is much larger than the personal. That point is that those who hold power are the only ones whose views ultimately have real world effect on others. White racism is institutionalized because it holds power. It holds power because white people are in power. Thus, the consequences of black racism to a white person are limited to uncomfortable personal moments, but not the loss of jobs, housing, respect, justice, or life (except perhaps in individual extreme cases like the LA riots). This should be hammered into every good-hearted white person so they understand. Only white racism can translate into institutional and community sin in any real fashion. Perhaps 50 years from now in a nation that no longer has a racial majority we will need to deal with this in a different way, but I will not be alive then. So long as there is a white majority, that majority must take care to ensure that it does not use that power to undermine the legitimate rights and freedoms of others.
So how have whites in America handled their power, how have the institutions they have created worked for people of color? Let us start with wealth. By any measure of justice, wealth is a requirement for actual success in capitalist America. Here is what the Institute for Policy Studies found in recent research; “The median Black family, with just over $3,500, owns just 2 percent of the wealth of the nearly $147,000 the median White family owns. The median Latino family, with just over $6,500, owns just 4 percent of the wealth of the median White family. Put differently, the median White family has 41 times more wealth than the median Black family and 22 times more wealth than the median Latino family.”[2] Clearly in regards to wealth, the system has not worked for people of color in the same way it has for Whites.
So, how about housing? Home ownership is part of the “American Dream.” The hope of owning a home, or farm drew millions of immigrants from all over Europe in the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A recent USA Today article draws from the data and notes this, “The homeownership rate for whites is 73.1 percent, or 2.4 percent below its 74.9-percent rate when the Great Recession began in December 2007, according to Census data. The Hispanic rate is 46.3 percent, or 4.5 percent lower than the 48.5-percent rate in 2007. The black homeownership rate is 41.7 percent, or 12.8 percent off its 47.7-percent rate at the start of the recession.”[3] Clearly people of color are not faring as well as whites are in this system. What are we going to do about it?
How about our criminal justice system? People of color are far more likely to be in prison than their white counterparts. This is simply true. It can be tied to the fact that the average white person has the financial means to hire better legal counsel. But there is clearly a bias in our justice system toward sentencing young black men. The good news for African Americans is that the numbers have begun to drop. The bad news for Hispanics is that they have begun to rise. But even with a drop, the incarceration rates are ridiculously out of proportion. Pew Research released this recent data. “The racial and ethnic makeup of U.S. prisons continues to look substantially different from the demographics of the country as a whole. In 2017, blacks represented 12% of the U.S. adult population but 33% of the sentenced prison population. Whites accounted for 64% of adults but 30% of prisoners. And while Hispanics represented 16% of the adult population, they accounted for 23% of inmates.”[4] Clearly if this were the case with white America, we would be outraged and demanding change. Well, we need to be outraged and demanding change for our fellow citizens now.
The immediate reaction from my white friends is usually one of defensiveness. They feel like I am accusing them of some evil because they are white. Or that they individually are responsible for the system. That is not what I am doing. It is not the fault of the individual white person for who they are, any more than it is the person of color. None of us asked to be born, none of us chose our place. This mess is not our fault. But that does not mean we cannot do something about it. When we are living in our day to day struggles, trying to pay our bills, we can be truly unaware of any disparity or privilege. We are all fighting our battles, facing our pain, and few of us “feel” privileged. That is why we must actively look at the world beyond ourselves, and develop empathy. Neutrality on racism is not neutral, it is support for the status quo which must change. The only non-racist response to our current world is to become deliberately anti-racist.
Here now is my personal appeal to all my white friends who want to do something to make this world better for all. For those of us who wish to join with our brothers and sisters of color, our fellow citizens who share this land with us, and work to make a better world, please consider what I am asking. Honestly, Trump’s election has shocked and disillusioned me. If it did not disillusion you, please don’t stop reading. I really want you to hear me out. I held the view that there were a few bad apples but that most people were steadily working for a better, more equal world. That illusion is gone for me. I was born in all white rural Oregon. (with a few native Americans and Mexicans around) The first black man I ever met was my cousin Mike who my cousin Rosemary married. Rose lived with us for a short time when I was growing up. Mike became part of our family as did others, and I assumed I was not racist because I now had family of color, and I never knowingly did anything to hurt people of other races. I did not run out and protest discrimination, but I certainly didn’t do anything to support it. I did nothing to be racist, except doing nothing.
This continued until I got to know and have African American friends, who loved me and let me into their life. Watching these people I loved, I realized that I will never know what it is like to be a black man, getting pulled over just because I am in a white neighborhood, being watched in a store just because I walked in, etc. I began to realize that I unwittingly perpetuated the system by my silence. Again, I thought the system was good with a few bad eggs like Bull Connor. After all, it was alright for me most of the time. Once I actively did my research, saw the disparity of incarceration, the disparity of income, the ways in which everything from real estate markets to education has a bias in favor of whites, and saw the suffering of my African American friends, I realized that to not be racist I had to be deliberately anti-racist. To be neutral was to unknowingly support racism. After that my appeal to my white friends who I know are good people is simple, become anti-racist. Being a good person is not enough, you must actively use your goodness, your privilege, until everyone has privilege.
This seems too basic to have to keep explaining. Yet I find I have to remind people of this over and over. African Americans did not come to America with the same dream as European immigrants. They were forcibly brought to this country whereupon they were used to build the wealth of white men in America. The way that European people gained property was through labor.[5] That labor was often exploited by the wealthy and the wealthy had to be confronted. As Lincoln stated in his First State of the Union Address, “Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”[6] Yes, Lincoln was reading Marx at the time. But, if we recoil at the wage slave who has their labor exploited for excessive profits by their bosses, how much more the actual slave who did not even get the crumbs. Centuries of wealth was acquired on the backs of black folk. After that, Jim Crow laws kept those same fellow citizens of ours from experiencing freedom in any real sense other than the bare legal meaning of the term.
The time has come for all this to end. We have the wealth in this country to make it better. We have the political will to do this. We must find a way to change the system. The only way that will happen is for us all to do this. Those without privilege must speak up, but those of us who do have privilege MUST act. Our silence is itself an act in favor of a racist system. We must become deliberately anti-racist until we see that our privilege becomes everyone’s privilege. We must work until the day in which we no longer have privilege alone but share it fully and completely with every brother and sister of color, every fellow citizen. That is the day I am looking for. Until those with power, influence, and privilege, learn to use that privilege for justice and mercy, the system remains broken.
[1] Bryan Hudson, “How to Put a Big Dent in Bigotry and Racism”, http://www.bryanhudson.com/2019/07/how-to-put-big-dent-in-bigotry-and.html
[2] Institute for Policy Studies, https://inequality.org/facts/racial-inequality/
[3] USA Today, “Black, Hispanic, Homeownership Remains Stuck Below Whites”, https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/11/13/housing-market-black-hispanic-homeownership-rates-below-whites/1917973002/
[4] Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/30/shrinking-gap-between-number-of-blacks-and-whites-in-prison/
[5] And, of course the killing of the native population who lived on the property in the first place.
[6] Abraham Lincoln (December 3, 1861).
