Every once in a while it dawns on me that there is still a lot of racism out there. I read it in the comments section on Facebook or on Facebook pages, I hear it from some of my family, I read about it in articles, I see it on the news and in movies, and I especially see it when people talk about President Obama (or rather, speak against him). Heck, theoretically I have met some people who are in the KKK, even though I don't know who they are. Finally and obviously, I am racist. I know that there are things that I do that are racist (some I am aware of and try to correct, others I am not aware of but will hopefully eventually be corrected on). Every time I am made aware of another racist act it makes me wonder why the heck it all still happens. Aren't we 'post-racial'?
From what I've lived and what I've learned from my practically all white schools in Traverse City I got the impression that racism is a thing of the past. I learned the big land marks: the end of slavery, the right for black men to vote and then much later the right for black women to vote, the end of segregation, and the Civil Rights Act. I got the impression that the issue was settled. That's it. Anti-discrimination was law and no one was being discriminated against anymore. The education I received is called 'Euro-centric Curriculum', although I'm sure that TCAPS wouldn't admit to it.
From my relatives, more so paternally, I learned that POC are just whining nowadays and that it is actually the white folks who were supporting them. "They have no excuse!" they would tell me. Apparently it was just a matter of laziness. This is called 'White Savior Complex'.
Obviously, the idea that white people are supporting POC is far from the truth, but why - in this day and age - are ideas like this still persistent? Why wasn't I taught more about race in school? Why wasn't I taught about other cultures or countries? Why wasn't I really taught another language (2 trimesters of Spanish was a piss poor education in Spanish, whereas other countries routinely do language immersion programs for English)? Why are their still people in the KKK? Why are there still so many inequalities due to race such as hiring discrimination, name discrimination, poor quality schools, discriminatory lending, housing discrimination, etc.?
One part of the very large and multifaceted answer for why this all still exists is something that I was simply too naive to realize until recently: It hasn't been that long since the US was overtly racist. It has only been 53 years since the Civil Rights Act was enacted. It has only been 63 years since Brown Vs Board of Education began to end segregation. It has only been about 52 years or so since women of color were able to fully express their voting rights with the passage of the voting rights act. Men of color technically had the right to vote since 1870 with the passage of the 15th amendment, but, as with the women of color, this wouldn't be fully realized for about a century. Even after these amendments and laws were passed, POC still faced/face difficulties when voting.
50 to 60 years. Let that soak in.
At 22 years old, 50-60 years is literally two of my lifetimes. It is such a giant chunk of time for me that it makes it easy to just assume that something that happened 60 years ago doesn't affect our society anymore. We have issues that range back even further. Religious tensions from thousands of years ago still play out in the middle east. One that hits home is the civil war. Some people still are upset over the outcome of the Civil War. If you are the type of person that will be upset about not being able to put up a confederate flag on government property, then you have to be a special kind of oblivious to then turn around and not understand why POC are still affected by segregation that was in effect only 60 years ago.
My father, for example, was 9 when the civil rights act was put into place.
I don't mean to provide the state of affairs with yet another excuse to continue on the way it has. I just wanted to explain a revelation that I have recently had. I hope it helps other people like me to being to understand their privilege. That it took me this long to realize even this little piece of info is sad and a testament to my own white privilege.
My experience has taught me the difference between Overt Racism and Covert Racism. See the helpful picture below:
For an additional resource, please see this presentation.
