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Anti-Bias Anti-Racism

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Terms

Racism: Prejudice + power. Racism is often understood as an individual state of being, as in someone is or isn’t racist. Racism, however, is not merely a personal attitude, it is a racialized system of power maintained by violence. In North America, an individual can be perpetuating this system without even being conscious of their actions (Source: Simmons College Anti-Oppression Guide: http://simmons.libguides.com/anti-oppression). 

  • Anyone can hold racial prejudice. 

  • People of any race can commit acts of mistreatment based on their racial prejudices. 

  • People of color can have prejudices, but they cannot be racist because they don't have the institutional power. 

Systemic /Structural Racism: Developed by sociologist Joe Feagin,  a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity. It identifies dimensions of our history and culture that have allowed privileges associated with “whiteness” and disadvantages associated with “color” to endure and adapt over time. Structural racism is not something that a few people or institutions choose to practice. Instead, it has been a feature of the social, economic and political systems in which we all exist.  Reverse-Racism: DOES NOT EXIST. There are assumptions and stereotypes about white people. However, such assumptions and stereotypes are examples of racial prejudice. Remember, racism = prejudice + power.  

Terms adapted from: 

Hate on Display™ Hate Symbols Database-BE AWARE

https://www.adl.org/hate-symbols

Printable Summary, click HERE.

Organizations

  • The whiteness project:  Whiteness Project is an interactive investigation into how Americans who identify as white, or partially white, understand and experience their race.

  • Southern poverty law center: The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation.

  • Colorlines:  Daily news site where race matters, featuring award-winning investigative reporting and news analysis. Published by Race Forward, a national organization that advances racial justice through research, media, and practice. 

  • ACLU: The American Civil Liberty Union works in the courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States. 

  • Mapping police violence: This organization provides statistics about police violence towards communities of color in the United States.

  • Equal justice initiative:  An interactive experience of lynching in the United States powered by Google. 

What Does Racism Look Like?

Racial Microaggressions are commonplace verbal or behavioral indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights and insults in relation to race. They are structurally based and invoke oppressive systems of racial hierarchy. Racial Microinvalidations, Microinsults, Microassaults are specific types of microaggressions.

Note: The prefix “micro” is used because these are invocations of racial hierarchy at the individual level (person to person), where as the "macro" level refers to aggressions committed by structures as a whole (e.g. an organizational policy). "Micro" in no way minimalizes or otherwise evaluates the impact or seriousness of the aggressions.

Further Reading: 

Colorblindness is the racial ideology that posits the best way to end discrimination is by treating individuals as equally as possible, without regard to race, culture, or ethnicity. This not only amounts to a dismissal of the lived experiences of people of color, but also suggests that racism does not exist so long as one ignores it

I don't see color.
I just see people.
We're all just people.
I don't care if you're black, white, green, or purple-polka-dotted!
#AllLivesMatter

At face value, colorblindness seems like a good thing — actually living up to Dr. King's  ideal of judging people on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. However, colorblindness alone is not sufficient to combat racism or heal racial wounds on a national or personal level. It is only a half-measure that, in the end, operates as a form of racism. (from PsychologyToday.com)

Further reading: 

Tokenism is presence without meaningful participation. For example, a superficial invitation for participation without ongoing dialogue and support, handpicked representatives who are expected to speak for the whole (socially oppressed) group (e.g. ‘tell us how women experience this issue’). Tokenism is often used as a band-aid solution to help the group improve its image (e.g. ‘we’re not racist, look there’s a person of colour on the panel.’). (from Sustainable Campuses)

Similarly, this attitude of "one is enough/they're all the same" contributes to the mindset that one person of color or one Native person can stand in for all people of color and Native people respectively. Not only is it problematic and illogical to assume that one individual's perspective and experiences can be generalized to millions of other people, it also promotes to the idea that a friendship, relationship, or just exposure to one or a few people of color or Native people negates racist thoughts, ideas, or behavior toward others (i.e. "I'm not a racist, my boyfriend is black" or "My costume isn't racist--my best friend is First Nation and she thinks it's hilarious").

Further Reading:

Support Resources

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With Thanks

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

This Libguide began was adapted from the American School of Madrid, which was adapted from the Simmons University Libguide, and has grown to include sources from our ASU resources and community. It is a work in progress with news, resources and links to actionable information.