<SIGH> We are over halfway done…that’s something.

I am going to take a step back and talk about the definition of racism that I use when discussing the topic. Race prejudice + power = racism. Race Prejudice is the dictionary definition of racism that people keep posting that ignores the reality of people of color in this country. One might also refer to it as unconscious bias which is the new trendy terminology. Adding to the dictionary definition of racism is the concept of power which many now refer to as white privilege. White privilege is the concept that due to the color of your skin, you are automatically afforded certain advantages that you may or may not be aware of, so it is also unconscious to a degree. That does not mean that your life has not been hard. It means that your skin color hasn’t been the reason life has been hard. It means that under the same circumstances (educational, financial, health status, etc.) as people of color, your outcomes are better. I have repeatedly brought up the death rate of black mothers. Under the same circumstances as their white counterparts, black mothers are 4 x’s more likely to die in childbirth. Let me emphasize: UNDER THE EXACT SAME CIRCUMSTANCES. There are other examples in every sector of society. 

When I talk about Small Acts of Racism, I am talking about the everyday racism that shows up in a person of color’s daily experiences without invitation. I talk about Small Acts of Racism because they bubble beneath the surface before they become HUGE Acts of Racism, such as shooting up a Walmart at the Mexico-US Border, putting your knee in the neck of a Black man in custody for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, putting a hood over a man’s head as a “spit guard” leading to his death, shooting up an apartment without line of sight, calling the police on Black people for living their best lives or shooting up a busy area of nightlife. I am talking about individual level thoughts and actions that underscore racial inequality. It is what undergirds the thought processes of medical personnel while a black woman is dying during or after giving birth. It only takes one person with an unconscious set of biases and the power to ignore her. 

Up to this point, I have written about a couple of themes. I have mentioned the stereotype of the “infantile black person” and “paternal protectionism.” 

If you subscribe to the infantile black person stereotype, most likely unconsciously, you don’t trust the person to accurately describe their experiences with racism. Your responses to people who have shared an experience of racism with you, is to say something along the lines of “are you sure it was racism? You sure you’re not making a mountain out of a molehill? Maybe it was road rage or rudeness or something else.” This grows into the excuse of “It wasn’t white supremacy or rhetoric, he was mentally ill.”

If you subscribe to the infantile black person concept, you may also subscribe to the “paternalistic protection” set of behaviors, also unconsciously. This displays itself in one of two ways. In no particular order, you may engage in telling the person that what they experienced really wasn’t racism AND give unsolicited advice on how to live a better, happier life through things such as, “live a life of love,” “don’t be so divisive by talking about your experiences, you’ll be much happier” or “I don’t see color and you shouldn’t either.” Of course that is always accompanied by, “I don’t care if you’re blue, purple or green!” knowing damned good for well if The Kree or The Skrull showed up they’d be doing everything in their power to kill the blue and green people! 

The second way this shows up is the desire to protect the person of color because you don’t think, again unconsciously, that they can protect themselves from, most likely, overt racism. However, you are unlikely to engage in this same behavior when covert racism occurs because you are unlikely to recognize it or you may not believe it when a situation is told to or when you see it or you were culpable for it. Of course, because you don’t have a racist bone in your body. Remember, it only takes one.

Seriously? You wouldn’t be trying to kill this guy?