I'm sure you will be coming across many posts regarding Charleston and racism in general in the coming days. In general I try to be an objective observer and tend to refrain from additional commentary regarding societal issues but in this instance I cannot. Now is your chance to tune out and scroll down to avoid my two cents.
I have/do encounter racism as I'm sure many of you have/do. For me this has been at the granular level with people placing cultural expectations upon me that I have not placed upon myself, to overt explicit taunts about my minority status (and not in a playful way that I partake in with friends). In all honesty, it doesn't viscerally affect me. When it happens I abstract myself from the situation and drift off into thinking about the socio-economic factors which this person may have come from and the educational disparity they may be suffering from. I think, “they are culturally insensitive, they are not educated enough, they come from an oppressive back ground, their way of thinking is not entirely their fault.”
I make excuses for them as a way to mitigate their insults, their confusions and their own versions of oppression. This works from time to time and if they are willing I will challenge them on their beliefs, their opinions and their misconceptions about my personhood. If they are not willing the situation passes and we go our separate ways as if nothing ever really happened.
The assumption here is that these situations occur, opinions are heard or not, ideas are shared or not and that there is progress by virtue of time. We assume that because time passes these situations become less frequent and they somehow resolve themselves. I believe many of us assume that racism is an issue of the past, that we have moved onto to other issues and that we have made progress. In many ways we have made progress, we have made great progress.
However, when these situations reoccur (and they often do) for me that assumption is pressed and I question how much progress have we currently made? Where does progress end? When will we be understood by the content of our character and when will artificial stereotypes cease to characterize our race and our ethnicities?
Obviously these open ended questions rarely yield immediate results and tend to lead into more questions. Issues of race call into question issues of social class, issues of economic circumstance, issues of a well-rounded education and so on.
The difficulty here is the challenge to ourselves and our ability to even ask these questions honestly and genuinely.
Am I responsible for my interpretations of the Other?
Do I have the right to define the Other?
I believe that progress in part comes from this self-reflection and that if we are to avoid racial stagnation or regression these kind of questions must remain ever-present. We must challenge ourselves to be aware of our own racism and to take responsibility for what we can control. We must set the example of a progressive mindset ourselves, lead by example and be open to the possibility that the Others well being is my responsibility. We must consider the possibility that unsubstantiated characterizations of the Other distort the true character of that Other and in doing so we contribute to our own versions of oppression.
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