Small Acts of Racism Act 4: The Angry Black Woman
Small Acts of Racism
#smallactsofracism
Act 4: Dear Fellow School Psychologists, This one is for you!
I have actually posted about this before. As many of you know, my daughter has Autism. One of the characteristics of Autism for many people is repetitive motion. My daughter rocks back and forth almost all the time. For those of you who don’t know, every three years, as required by law, the school district is responsible for reevaluating a child’s eligibility for special education services. This year she started a new school as part of her transition to adulthood program.
To set the background: It took the school district 13 years since it was first mentioned as a possibility that she could have Autism. The length of time it took to properly identify her, in and of itself, reeks with racism. Please remember that I identify kids with education related disabilities for a living. Now, I was facing having an evaluation completed by people who were new to Bo. And, this is what appeared in her new Evaluation Team Report: Bolade “aggressively and violently” rocks back and forth. It was written by her new female, young white teacher.
Let’s examine the old tired trope behind this stereotype: Black women were presented on “Amos and Andy” as “aggressive, loud and angry” through the Sapphire Stevens caricature. The sense that black women lack “home training” (aggressive, loud and angry) and are violent by nature has become the current stereotype of black women.
Given that said, let’s go back to describing my daughter’s rocking as “violent and aggressive.” How is rocking back and forth either aggressive or violent? She doesn’t rock towards anyone with the intent of hurting someone. She is not self-harming while she’s rocking. Why is a behavior that is rather neutral in nature identified in that manner? How many times has her teacher described the intensity of rocking as aggressive and violent for my daughter’s white counterparts? I have no way of knowing, but again, I do this for a living, and in 25 years I have never heard of any child’s Autistic behaviors described in that way.
Now, educators, how do you think describing my daughter’s behavior as aggressive and violent affects her ability to get into future transition programs and jobs?
Small Acts of Racism
Small Acts of Racism: Act 1
Act 1
Small Acts of Racism
#smallactsofracism
#smallactsofracismact1
#Act1
We are often encouraged to engage in small acts of kindnesses on a daily basis, but rarely do we speak of the small acts of racism people of color experience everyday by white people who claim to “not have a racist bone in their body.” I hope to share something for the next 30 days.
Act 1: I went to get a medical test done at the hospital the other day. I had to check in at the main hospital desk. In spite of a sign that says, “please wait” at a certain line for privacy purposes per HPPA, an older white man sidles up to the desk, invades my personal bubble and asks what room someone was in. He did not say excuse me or acknowledge my presence. The older white woman who was helping me, stopped what she was doing and directed him to a phone to call the operator and ask for the room number. She did not apologize or acknowledge that he was invading my privacy. I was inclined to let it go, but immediately after, AN OLDER WHITE WOMAN DID THE SAME THING NOT THIRTY SECONDS LATER. She was not present when the older white male did the same thing. She got the same result, but the lady behind the desk NEVER SAID, “would you stand back and wait your turn.” The two white people acted like I wasn’t there, literally like they didn’t see me and the white woman behind the desk didn’t acknowledge that my privacy mattered as a matter of law or humanity.
I hate to break it to you, but if you are white, you have likely engaged in the same types of behavior simply because you weren’t taught to see us or that we mattered.
#smallactsofracism
#actsofracism
#yourcolorispower
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
~Maya Angelou
This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
Small Acts of Racism: Introduction
This blog originally started as a 30 day experiment on my part to see if my perception regarding racism was accurate. I felt like I was dealing with it every single day in the smallest of ways. I personally routinely engage in Small Acts of Kindness and Love on a regular basis to complete strangers. However, my daily life was telling me that I was far more likely to experience something that looked and smelled like racism from a stranger before anyone, stranger and familiars alike, would act kindly or lovingly toward me. I wrote a post on FaceBook everyday for 30 days. I was actually surprised that I got to day 30. Surely, I thought when I started, I was making a mountain out of a molehill. I think questioning your experiences surrounding racism is common among people of color just as a survival tactic. Who in their right mind could possibly deal with that much racism ALL THE TIME? It seems that it would certainly make someone crazy. After 30 days and many more, I can say that I think I am as sane now as I was then. Thus, in reading my blog, you may sometimes feel as though you missed something. You’re not crazy. You did. I am merely making the posts that started on FaceBook available to a wider audience, but have left them largely untouched. I have changed names to protect my FB friends.
The rhetoric around race has grown increasingly hostile over the last few years. However, I have purposefully chosen not to discuss the current United States administration because race and racism have always been an ever present part of the structure of America and my American life. Just because there is a bigot in office who is making it more noticeable, doesn’t mean it hasn’t always been there. It is just back in the forefront, but there was never a post-racial America as people would want Americans of color to believe. Racism has morphed in it’s manifestations over 500 years. Just because slavery ended, doesn’t mean that racism did. The same is true for the election of a Black president. Just because we elected a brown person to lead the free world, does not mean that racism in this country ended. It just looked different. Now, it just looks more like it did before the Civil Rights Movement and it will look different in ten more years. It is the nature of this great experiment.
What is racism? To make sure we are all on the same page, for the purposes of this blog the following definition will be used:
Race Prejudice + Power = Racism
As you will see, race prejudice is not just the disliking of people of color because they are “of color.” Although, this definition certainly encompasses the concept of disliking people because of the color of their skin. Race prejudice is far more complex and nuanced than simple displeasure or aversion. These days I hear people also refer to this as “unconscious bias.” The first definition that pops up is “the belief or adherence to stereotypes of people that is outside of one’s conscious thought.” Everyone has some unconscious bias; however, adding power to that unconscious bias moves the needle from race prejudice to racism.
Power in this instance can come in all different shapes and sizes, from individual acts of racism to systemic and systematic racism. This answers one of the questions I get a lot in response to my writings and musings about race: Can Black people be racist? The short answer is many Black people hold anti-white prejudice and are vehement bigots. The long answer is more complex. The second question I get is: Are all white people racist? The short answer is no, not all white people are racist bigots. The long answer is more complex.
Why is it important to define racism for what it is? I would think that this is an obvious answer, but in truth, it has not been. Thus far in my experience, I have found that when white people are left to define racism, it almost always absolves them, and every white person they know…or know of…and every white person in this country…and any white person in the world of any guilt regarding racism. Furthermore, when white people can convince people of color that their definition, which essentially defines only race prejudice without an acknowledgement of power, is the true and only one, then they can convince people of color that racism is their imagination or that ALL people are prejudiced. If people of color insist that racism is real and trot out concrete evidence, then corresponding white people will state they have no power to stop or prevent it because it is ethereally systemic and they have no power in said system. It is outside of their locus of control. I believe that most people who engage in this behavior believe themselves to be genuine. However, in essence they are gaslighting people of color into believing that racism isn’t an issue nor does it have the purported impact people of color of say it has. Nothing to see here….move along.
Well, I’m not in the mood to move along. Ignoring racism is more work than accepting it for what it is and working to try and improve my existence and the existence of the people that I love and serve.
Small Acts of Racism 