jennifer-roberts Author’s Note: I fully understand that racism affects more than just Black and White Americans. For the sake of my work and this post, I am only referring to racism between Black people and White people in the United States.
Racism between Black people and White people in the United States is not new. In fact, it can be traced hundreds of years back to the inception of this country and beyond.
In her honest and eye-opening book, “White Fragility,” Robin D’Angelo explains racism and I agree with her explanation. According to D’Angelo, “Racism…occurs when a racial group’s prejudice is backed by legal authority and institutional control. This authority and control transform individual prejudices into a far-reaching system that no longer depends on the good intentions of individual actors; it becomes the default of the society and is reproduced automatically. Racism is a system.”
As Isabel Wilkerson so thoroughly unpacks in part four of her groundbreaking book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” the tentacles of racism are far reaching and while we may not realize it, they influence every facet of our lives. And to that end, much of the modern-day divisiveness that we experience today is rooted in historical racism that we must educate ourselves about if we are to understand the impact of racism on modern times. The racism is not new, it’s just that there are different agitators blowing it around.
So, what is the dust? The dust is the thick residue of white supremacy and legal, racist structures that were intentionally designed to support White people and subjugate Black people. The dust is omnipresent affecting and infecting all of us. It never disappears.
Some Americans erroneously thought that the 2008 and 2012 elections of former president Barak Obama would lead to a post racial America, but they did not nor should we have expected them do to do so. No one election, no one person, can eradicate racism because it is everywhere; it is in the air that we breathe. To not be affected by racism in the United States, a person would have to, wear a gas mask, cover his eyes, plug his ears and wear a hazmat suit to protect his skin which would be ludicrous and impossible. The person would have to live inside a bubble never being exposed to outside influences including family members and friends. I say all this to illustrate that the effects of racism are inescapable because racism is in the very air that we breathe, the media that we consume, the conversations that we have around our dinner tables, the curriculums that our children learn at school, the history of this country and even in our religious institutions. We are exposed to the dust all the time and every so often, a strong wind comes and stirs it up. It’s not that the racism wasn’t there, it absolutely was but it may have been less noticeable.
Take the racially motivated mass murder of nine church members including minister and state senator, Clementa Pinkney on June 17th, 2015. Consider the 2016 election of former President, Donald Trump. I am in no way implying that every person who voted for Donald Trump is racist, however I am suggesting that his campaign messaging, rallies, speeches, and social media commentary contributed to the dust of racist behaviors being stirred up and spread. I believe that Americans who already had racist tendencies felt emboldened by a potential national leader who would empathize with them and support them. Donald Trump’s campaign slogan was a dust storm within itself, “Make America Great Again.” When has American ever been great for Black people?
Let’s keep looking. Take the Unite the Right rally in August of 2017 which included White supremacist groups and left Heather Heger dead and dozens of others injured. Take the murders of African Americans, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd which all took place in 2020. In 2022 alone, there have been several racially motivated mass murders including the murder of 10 Black people at Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, NY on May 14th by a White supremacist.
All these occurrences in our nation’s narrative, had the potential to either motivate Americans to work against racism or to uphold it. All these examples did not create the dust that is racism, but they stirred I up.
Earlier this year after passing the Emmett Till-Anti Lynching Act, President Biden said, “Hate never goes away. It only hides under rocks. Given just a little bit of oxygen, it comes roaring out, screaming. What stops it is all of us, not a few. All of us must stop it.”
As vile as racism is and as uncomfortable as it can be for some people to confront, the silver lining of respectful conversations and meaningful actions surrounding racism is that we get to decide who we want to be in this moment in time. By learning accurate American history, pinpointing racism, and understanding its impacts, we get to see a fuller picture of different American experiences and make more informed decisions and we can teach our children to do the same.
I ask you, who do you choose to be in this moment in time? Who will you teach your children to be? What will be your impact on the dust of racism?
