Sometimes I feel the need to write about an experience I had right away because it is prescient. In most instances, something happens and it is very easy to write about it because all parties can remain anonymous. However, I am back at work now and I don’t want anyone upset or think I am throwing shade. You know, even when I am throwing shade. However, this happened last year, so the offending party may have forgotten and more likely than not, will never read this. 

Tonight I want to go a little further into my definition of racism and how it manifests itself in everyday life. As I stated yesterday, no one escapes the vestiges of a racist society. However, you can’t hide it away, act as though it doesn’t exist or declare it gone for your own comfort. 

As I have stated repeatedly, race prejudice + POWER = Racism. Most people use the dictionary definition of racism which I consider the definition of race prejudice. Prejudice is defined as “unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, especially of a hostile nature, regarding an ethnic, racial, social, or religious group.” EVERYBODY has prejudices. However, not everyone has the POWER to act upon those prejudices. 

I further define racism as manifesting either in overt or covert behavior. Most people recognize racism in its overt form, such as White people with tiki torches screaming outdated racial epithets. However, I believe 90% to 95%  of Racism presents itself in covert behaviors which these days people call microaggressions. Small Acts of Racism mostly come in the form of covert racist behaviors that people don’t recognize. They don’t recognize it because it is built into the fabric of this nation. 

I go further to say racism comes in the form of committing a racist act or omitting behavior. Omitting behavior is when you see or know racism is happening, but you do nothing to stop it and/or  behave in ways that inadvertently or advertently support it. Most overt racism is accompanied by an act of commission, e.g. walking on a college campus with tiki torches. Most covert racism is accompanied by an act of omission, such as NOT telling someone to wait behind the sign to ensure privacy of medical information. Given that said, there are several permutations and combinations of racism. 

So, what happened today? A white woman was in a presentation and stated that children in the suburbs (read:predominantly White) have intrinsic motivation to do well academically because of the involvement of their parents and being taught the value of learning. She said her students, in an “inner city environment” (read: predominantly Black) don’t have intrinsic motivation to do well in school. Their motivation is 💯 extrinsic. 

There is so much to unpack here. This is an act of covert racism by committing a verbal act of racism that takes shape in her classroom through her behavior towards and expectations of her students. She is basically saying, without saying it, that her students’ parents don’t care enough about their kids to teach them the value of learning. Further, the only way she can get them to learn is to bribe them to do so or create such a bond with them, that they’ll work hard for her. She is also culturally valuing intrinsic motivation over extrinsic motivation, but I know very few people who work, especially with other people’s children, for free. A paycheck every two weeks is an incredible extrinsic motivator, but you don’t hear anybody talking about that. 

(Tutorial: extrinsic means external, environmental or outside motivators while intrinsic means inside a person, how one feels internally about accomplishments and failures.) 

You will find that everyone, regardless of race, has a wide variety and mixture of character traits within a particular culture, race, socio-economic status, ethnicity, etc. There is absolutely no scientific evidence that supports the idea that all children who come from a particular background lack intrinsic motivation. In every subgroup in society, you will find a full range of intelligence levels, motivation preferences, family configurations, creativity, academic abilities, etc. What research does show, however, is if you go into a setting with a fixed idea about your audience, you will get what you give, especially when it comes to children. If you value intrinsic motivation and model it for your students, they will learn to value it, too. But, for the record, extrinsic motivation ain’t bad either. I don’t work for free. Do you?