The first set of practices have been an overview of racism.

For the next week our paths diverge.

People of color will explore internalized oppression and racial healing. During this same time, white people will study white identity, privilege and entitlement.

After working in parallel, we will return to shared practices.

Please do read both parts of each practice, so that we can track what each other is studying.

For people of color:

Regarding your relationship to racism, choose something in you that needs forgiveness or healing. What is it? Why this particular thing? Feel the impact that it has had on your life… what if you could heal from it and let it go…

Sit with the possibility that you can truly heal from whatever this is, that forgiveness is completely possible… What emotions or thoughts arise as you contemplate this possibility? Allow for whatever emerges - again without censure or judgment…

Now imagine being completely healed and/or forgiven… Imagine that all is well, that there is no penance to make, imagine that you are peaceful and at ease…

What would get freed up if you were to let this burden down?

Fully allow yourself to imagine being free of the wounds of racism (can you do it?)

How might you spend your days?

What would you do with any freedom that may come from this healing?

For white people:

To prepare for today’s practice variation, take 10 minutes and review your life history.

As you review each stage of your life and the major developments, name for yourself how white privilege may have played a role in the opportunities you had.

“But without your better-than-average public school education, that scholarship — and the college education — might have gone to someone else. And what about that interest-free loan from the First National Bank of Mom and Dad when you were struggling, not to mention the car they “sold” you for next to nothing? And did you factor in the real estate agent who steered you to that desirable neighborhood you now live in?

These are some of the benefits of white privilege — the unearned, unjustified advantages not automatically afforded to people of color in this country and generally taken for granted by those of us who are classified as “white.” It is the reality that contrasts with the sincere fiction of the American myth of meritocracy, which says that everything we have must have been earned.

But white privilege is also about what we white people don’t get: the multiple May-I-help-you’s when we enter high-end shops, always being asked for ID when we use our credit cards, the hassle of being pulled over by police officers for “driving while black.” It can be as simple as knowing that history books, greeting cards, even Band-Aids will include our skin color, or as complex as not having to worry that no matter what we do — positive or negative — it will not be a reflection of our entire race. No one ever says, “Isn’t it great how that white person won the Pulitzer Prize this year” or “Look at that white mass murderer.”
from “Understanding White privilege: Creating Pathways to Authentic Relationships Across Race” by Frances Kendall

White privilege is a challenging perspective for us white folks to own. The structure of white supremacy is our reality. It’s supported by the beliefs and collective myths of our culture
White privilege seems “normal.”

“A white person is taught to believe that all she or he does, good and ill, all that we achieve, is to be accounted for in terms of our individuality. It is intolerable to realize that we may get a job or a nice house, or a helpful response at school or in hospitals, because of our skin color, not because of the unique, achieving individual we must believe ourselves to be.”
Richard Dyer, English academic and gay activist

So actually do this exercise now.
Take 10 minutes.
Look at and reflect on each stage of your life, beginning with the circumstances into which you were born…
Look at your early childhood.
And your elementary school years.
Take period by period of your life.
Noticing all the ways in which being white in a culture of white supremacy may have afforded you privileges:
“privilege: conditions of early life we take for granted”
(Frances Kendall)
“privilege: unearned power conferred systematically”
(Peggy McIntosh)

– Take some reflection time for this exercise–

Continue reading this after your reflection time:
Having had these privileges doesn’t mean that you (or your parents) may not also have worked hard for what you achieved. But the lens of white privilege puts your individual life in a social and political context. It makes visible something that is hard to see when you’re receiving the benefits of a system. And it makes the subject of racism very personal to you and your life.

Practice variation for today:

Throughout the day, be aware of each and every example of white privilege in which you in some way may be benefiting.

White privilege doesn’t only exist in your past.
In a white-dominated society, there are benefits every day.
So today, put on your glasses of white privilege.
Noticed each and every example.

e.g.
I spoke to a funder who looks like me.
I shopped in an expensive store without the salesperson wondering why I was in there.
I spoke up in a room full of white people without having to wonder about how my race might impact how I am being perceived.

Adapted from the practices of Robert Gass and Akaya Winwood.

Dear friends,

As we do these awareness practices on racism, please be mindful of falling into the nefarious clutches of the Inner Judge.

Falling into pools of self-judgment, shame or guilt helps nobody. We feel lousy, it saps our energy. And nothing changes. We want to keep our attention on what will help create racial justice and healing–for ourselves and others.

Just as with our other practices, self-compassion is always the place to start. We might also want to consider letting go of getting it “right.” When it comes to racism, things can be messy, persistent, subtle, and complicated. To some degree it’s in the nature of the thing.

Make use of all that we have learned about from the practices on Love, Enough, Inner Knowing, and Purpose. And bring compassion to yourself to when you do lapse into self-judgment. (Otherwise we start judging ourselves for being judgmental.)

Cultivate kindness as well as increased awareness. Ideally, we would also start to bring a feeling of real curiosity, even eagerness, to observing these things that we usually try to avoid seeing. Imagine you are an avid bird-watcher foraging through the rain forest, in search of rare birds:

Ah, an Eastern tufted sapsucker.
Ah–I just noticed myself thinking in generalizations about white/black/Latino/Asian people!
Ah, how interesting. I still carry this deep life-long pain about my race.
What a great example of white privilege! Wonderful!
I’m noticing how much I hate/am so tired of this stuff. Intriguing!
Look at that! I still carry some fear of older white men/young black men (etc.) Fascinating!

All this was happening–inside us and in our world–before we began our practice on racism. The practices simply make us more aware of what’s so. By really doing these practices, we can build knowledge, commitment and power in service of racial healing and racial justice.

Adapted from the practices of Robert Gass and Akaya Winwood.

The first set of practices have been an overview of racism.

For the next week our paths diverge.

People of color will explore internalized oppression and racial healing. During this same time, white people will study white identity, privilege and entitlement.

After working in parallel, we will return to shared practices.

Please do read both parts of each practice, so that we can track what each other is studying.

For people of color:

Find a place where you will be uninterrupted and sit quietly. Let your belly soften, notice your breathing, and remember that you are connected to all life…

Now imagine one of your ancestors who lived pre-colonialism, pre-slavery, etc. This is someone who never knew the bonds of racial oppression, who lived with a complete sense of the rightness of their place and presence on the planet…

See their face… What does a face that has never experienced racism look like? How might your ancestor move in her/his body? What might they dream about?

What do you imagine they did with their days? How did they love? How might they have experienced time? Death?

What might their struggles have been? What joys might they have had? Imagine living a life without racial oppression…

Fully let yourself connect to those of your people who were never enslaved or colonized… Notice what feelings come up for you as you do this. Let any thought or feeling emerge without censure or judgment. Imagine a time without oppression…

Now imagine that your ancestor has offered you a gift… what is it? Take a minute and really experience this gift…

How can you use it for liberation?

What responsibilities would you have if you were to accept this gift?

What would it mean for you to really accept it?

For white people:

Let’s continue with Part II of our practice by reading (or re-reading) this classic article: “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Napsack by Peggy McIntosh.”

Please make sure to read and test carefully for yourself her 26 examples of privileges of white people.

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Napsack
by Peggy McIntosh

Through work to bring materials from women’s studies into the rest of the curriculum, I have often noticed men’s unwillingness to grant that they are overprivileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged. They may say they will work to women’s status, in the society, the university, or the curriculum, but they can’t or won’t support the idea of lessening men’s. Denials that amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages that men gain from women’s disadvantages. These denials protect male privilege from being fully acknowledged, lessened, or ended.

Thinking through unacknowledged male privilege as a phenomenon, I realized that, since hierarchies in our society are interlocking, there is most likely a phenomenon of white privilege that was similarly denied and protected. As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.

I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was “meant” to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks.

Describing white privilege makes one newly accountable. As we in women’s studies work to reveal male privilege and ask men to give up some of their power, so one who writes about having white privilege must ask, “having described it, what will I do to lessen or end it?”

After I realized the extent to which men work from a base of unacknowledged privilege, I understood that much of their oppressiveness was unconscious. Then I remembered the frequent charges from women of color that white women whom they encounter are oppressive. I began to understand why we are justly seen as oppressive, even when we don’t see ourselves that way. I began to count the ways in which I enjoy unearned skin privilege and have been conditioned into oblivion about its existence.

My schooling gave me no training in seeing myself as an oppressor, as an unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture. I was taught to see myself as an individual whose moral state depended on her individual moral will. My schooling followed the pattern my colleague Elizabeth Minnich has pointed out: whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work that will allow “them” to be more like “us”.

I decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily effects of white privilege in my life. I have chosen those conditions that I think in my case attach somewhat more to skin-color privilege than to class, religion, ethnic status, or geographic location, though of course all these other factors are intricately intertwined. As far as I can tell, my African American coworkers, friends, and acquaintances with whom I come into daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place and line of work cannot count on most of these conditions.

1. I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

2. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area that I can afford and in which I would want to live.

3. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

4. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

5. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

6. When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization”, I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

7. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

8. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.

9. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods that fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser’s shop and find someone who can deal with my hair.

10. Whether I use checks, credit cards, or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.

11. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.

12. I can swear, or dress in second-hand clothes or not answer letters without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race.

13. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.

14. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.

15. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.

16. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color, who constitute the worlds’ majority, without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.

17. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.

18. I can be sure that if I ask to talk to “the person in charge” I will be facing a person of my race.

19. If a traffic cop pulls me over, or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.

20. I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children’s magazines featuring people of my race.

21. I can go home from most meetings or organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in rather than isolated, out of place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance, or feared.

22. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having coworkers on the job suspect that I got it because of race.

23. I can choose public accommodations without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.

24. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help my race will not work against me.

25. If my day, week, or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it has racial overtones.

26. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color that more or less matches my skin.

Elusive and fugitive I repeatedly forgot each of the realizations on this list until I wrote it down. For me white privilege has turned out to be an elusive and fugitive subject. The pressure to avoid it is great, for in facing it I must give up the myth of meritocracy. If these things are true, this is not such a free country; ones’ life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own.

In unpacking this invisible knapsack of white privilege, I have listed conditions of daily experience that I once took for granted. Nor did I think of any of these perquisites as bad for the holder. I now think that we need a more finely differentiated taxonomy of privilege, for some of these varieties are only what one would want for everyone in a just society, and others give license to be ignorant, oblivious, arrogant, and destructive.

I see a pattern running through the matrix of white privilege, a pattern of assumptions that were passed on to me as a white person. There was one main piece of cultural turf; it was my own turn, and I was among those who could control the turf. My skin color was an asset for any move I was educated to want to make. I could think of myself as belonging in major ways and of making social systems work for me. I could freely disparage, fear, neglect, or be oblivious to anything outside of the dominant cultural forms. Being of the main culture, I could also criticize it fairly freely.

In proportion as my racial group was being made confident, comfortable, and oblivious, other groups were likely being made unconfident, uncomfortable, and alienated. Whiteness protected me from many kinds of hostility, distress, and violence, which I was being subtly trained to visit, in turn, upon people of color.

For this reason, the word “privilege” now seems to me misleading. We usually think of privilege as being a favored state, whether earned or conferred by birth or luck. Yet some of the conditions I have described here work systematically to overempower certain groups. Such privilege simply confers dominance because of one’s race or sex.

Earned strength, unearned power I want, then, to distinguish between earned strength and unearned power conferred systematically. Privilege can look like strength when it is in fact permission to escape or to dominate. Power from unearned privilege can look like strength when it is in fact permission to escape or to dominate. But not all of the privileges on my list are inevitably damaging. Some, like the expectation that neighbors will be decent to you, or that your race will not count against you in court, should be the norm in a just society. Others, like the privilege to ignore less powerful people, distort the humanity of the holders as well as the ignored groups.

We might at least start by distinguishing between positive advantages, which we can work to spread, and negative types of advantage, which unless rejected will always reinforce our present hierarchies. For example, the feeling that one belongs within the human circle, as Native Americans say, should not be seen as privilege for a few. Ideally it is an unearned entitlement. At present, since only a few have it, it is an unearned advantage for them. This paper results from a process of coming to see that some of the power that I originally say as attendant on being a human being in the United States consisted in unearned advantage and conferred dominance.

I have met very few men who truly distressed about systemic, unearned male advantage and conferred dominance. And so one question for me and others like me is whether we will be like them, or whether we will get truly distressed, even outraged, about unearned race advantage and conferred dominance, and, if so, what we will do to lessen them. In any case, we need to do more work in identifying how they actually affect our daily lives. Many, perhaps most, of our white students in the United States think that racism doesn’t affect them because they are not people of color; they do not see “whiteness” as a racial identity. In addition, since race and sex are not the only advantaging systems at work, we need similarly to examine the daily experience of having age advantage, or ethnic advantage, or physical ability, or advantage related to nationality, religion, or sexual orientation.

Difficulties and angers surrounding the task of finding parallels are many. Since racism, sexism, and heterosexism are not the same, the advantages associated with them should not be seen as the same. In addition, it is hard to disentangle aspects of unearned advantage that rest more on social class, economic class, race, religion, sex, and ethnic identity than on other factors. Still, all of the oppressions are interlocking, as the members of the Combahee River Collective pointed out in their “Black Feminist Statement of 1977″.

One factor seems clear about all of the interlocking oppressions. They take both active forms, which we can see, and embedded forms, which as a member of the dominant groups one is taught not to see. In my class and place, I did not see myself as a racist because I was taught to recognize racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth.

Disapproving of the system won’t be enough to change them. I was taught to think that racism could end if white individuals changed their attitude. But a “white” skin in the United States opens many doors for whites whether or not we approve of the way dominance has been conferred on us. Individual acts can palliate but cannot end, these problems.

To redesign social systems we need first to acknowledge their colossal unseen dimensions. The silences and denials surrounding privilege are the key political tool here. They keep the thinking about equality or equity incomplete, protecting unearned advantage and conferred dominance by making these subjects taboo. Most talk by whites about equal opportunity seems to me now to be about equal opportunity to try to get into a position of dominance while denying that systems of dominance exist.

It seems to me that obliviousness about white advantage, like obliviousness about male advantage, is kept strongly inculturated in the United States so as to maintain the myth of meritocracy, the myth that democratic choice is equally available to all. Keeping most people unaware that freedom of confident action is there for just a small number of people props up those in power and serves to keep power in the hands of the same groups that have most of it already.

Although systemic change takes many decades, there are pressing questions for me and, I imagine, for some others like me if we raise our daily consciousness on the perquisites of being light-skinned. What will we do with such knowledge? As we know from watching men, it is an open question whether we will choose to use unearned advantage to weaken hidden system of advantage, and whether we will use any of our arbitrarily awarded power to try to reconstruct power systems on a broader base.”

For today’s practice, continue with:

1. At the beginning of each new interaction with other people, say to yourself the words: “I am white.”

2. Each time you interact with a white person today, think to yourself: “This is a white person.” and “These are my people.”

Adapted from the practices of Robert Gass and Akaya Winwood.

The first set of practices have been an overview of racism.

For the next week our paths diverge.

People of color will explore internalized oppression and racial healing. During this same time, white people will study white identity, privilege and entitlement.

After working in parallel, we will return to shared practices.

Please do read both parts of each practice, so that we can track what each other is studying.

For people of color:

Identify an experience of racism in your life or the life of your people about which you still hold resentment or hurt. Take a few minutes to sit quietly, and allow yourself to remember the whole story, to feel all the feelings. Please don’t edit or judge yourself in any way…

What did you learn from this experience?

How did you grow?

What may be a “gift” from having this experience?

Is there something in this story for which you can be grateful?

What are you willing to let go of, be free of?

Is there someone to whom you can express your gratitude or freedom?

Many people of color are waiting for something or someone external to us to come along and fix racism. Unfortunately, (or perhaps fortunately) the Lone Ranger is long dead, and we can no longer wait for someone to come along and liberate us. The key to ending the ways in which we have internalized racism lies within each of us. It is our individual and collective work to heal ourselves from oppression.

What if you were the architect of your (and perhaps your people’s) liberation?

For White People:

Let’s begin with the most basic step–acknowledging that we are white. Because we live in a white-dominated society, it is possible to go for days at a time… even years at a time… without ever thinking about the fact that we are white.

There is a strong tendency for us to think of white as the default position, as not having color, being normal. Being white is not a strong identity for many of us.

We think of ourselves first as a woman or man, as being a certain age, our religion, as progressives, etc.

White may be very far down the list, if we even think of it.

It is important for us to remember that this is only possible in a white-dominated society.

First exercise:

Let’s explore our associations with being white.

Fill in the blanks:

I’m white. I _____.

Write literally the first thing that comes to mind.

Do not censor.

Do this 20 times

Watch your internal reactions and feelings as you do this.

Do you notice any defensiveness?

Wanting to make exceptions or explanations?

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

I’m white. I

Practice for today:

1. At the beginning of each new interaction with other people, say to yourself the words: “I am white.”

2. Each time you interact with a white person today, think to yourself:

“This is a white person.” and “These are my people.”

(adapted from an exercise by Thandeka described in the book “Understanding White privilege: Creating Pathways to Authentic Relationships Across Race” by Frances Kendall)

Adapted from the practices of Robert Gass and Akaya Winwood.

The Practice - Part 2
Take note of every example you see of possible racism–personal, interpersonal, institutional and cultural.

Before beginning our practice for today, let’s explore a bit more deeply the level of cultural racism. Please read this except from the article White Supremacy by Sharon Martinas.

White Culture is a Dominant Culture

White culture is the dominant culture in the current territory of the United States. What
are some of the characteristics of this dominant culture? In thinking about these characteristics, please recall Dr. Wade Nobles’ definition of power: “Power is the ability to define reality and to convince other people that it is their definition.”

1. It defines who you are, and who “others” are in relation to you. For example, a white culture term for ‘people of color’ is ‘non-white,’ ie. non-people.

2. It shapes your attitudes, thinking, behavior and values. For example, a white woman shrinks in fear when passing an African American man on the street; yet the great danger to white often comes from white men in the home.

3. It consciously and unconsciously suppresses and oppresses other cultures. For example, slave owners consciously suppressed African spirituality and taught Africans Christianity to make them ‘docile.’ Or, employers fire workers for speaking Spanish in a restaurant, but promote workers who speak French.

4. It consciously and unconsciously appropriates aspects of oppressed cultures. For
example: every form of African American music: gospel, blues, Jazz, rhythm and blues, and rap, has been copied by white musicians with no credit given to the creative sources of the music. Or, white New Agers become instant healers, charging hefty fees, by appropriating ancient indigenous healing practices.

5. It is normative: the standard for judging values and behavior.

6. It is assumed, unquestioned, not on the agenda: the ways things are.

7. It is hidden — not at all obvious to the dominating or oppressing practitioners, but often painfully, obvious to peoples whose cultures have been suppressed, oppressed or appropriated.

The Culture of Racial Oppression: Cultural Racism

1. White culture perpetuates the ideology that people of color are morally and mentally inferior to white people. Throughout the history of the United States, white culture has characterized people of color as “savage, “ignorant,” “depraved,” “bestial,” “lazy,” “dirty,” “illegal” and “criminal.” This ideology continues unabated today. For example, white students and white workers assume that the only reason a person of color gets into college or into a good job is because of affirmative action: that is, the people of color could not have competed with the white person were the playing field level. In these examples, the white people cannot imagine that the people of color cannot be equally or more qualified than the whites for the positions they achieved.

2. White culture stereotypes figures and behaviors of peoples of color. A common method is to take some cultural attribute forced on people of color by conquest and continuing racial oppression, and making that attribute into a symbol of the whole people. For example, the film Ethnic Notions by Marvin Riggs delineates a history of white stereotypes of African Americans in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Stereotypes such as the “minstrel,” the “mammy,” “coon’ illustrate forms of assumed behavior that is carried into contemporary stereotypes of African Americans embodied in terms like “criminal,” “gang member” and “welfare mother.” Forms change; meanings stay on.

3. By defining reality as white, and convincing peoples of color that white reality is their reality, white culture actively promotes internalized racism and inter-racial tensions among peoples of color. Internalized racism dis-empowers a person and a people. Inter-racial hostility prevents different peoples of color from uniting for their common purposes and against their common oppressors. In this way, white culture expresses a successful white ruling class strategy of “divide and conquer.” Imprisoning a person’s mind is more thorough and long-lasting than imprisoning her body.

4. White culture labels the cultures of the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Arab world as inferior to cultures that have evolved in Europe. Furthermore, white culture actively promotes the historical lie that the culture that evolved in ancient Greece was the ”fountainhead of western civilization.” In fact, most of the great Greek scholars and poets went to Kemet (the name for ancient Egypt), which was an African culture and civilization, to study for years before they returned to create their own forms of wisdom. And the “renaissance” of Europe did not begin in Italy, as our textbooks say, but in Spain and Portugal which, under the African and Arabic Moorish Empire of the 8th through the 15th centuries- preserved and recreated the wisdom of the ancient world, and developed the technology which allowed the Spanish and Portuguese to embark on their voyages of exploration and conquest of lands outside Europe. Today, there is a white cultural war against African-centered research and scholarship. White academics call this scholarship ’self serving.’ Yet few white culturalists would call traditional historical and anthropological research, “White Studies.”

5. White culture suppresses and oppresses the cultures of peoples of color as part of an ongoing system of conquest, colonialism and racial/national oppression. For example, the movement, now a law in many states, of “English Only” is a specific form of cultural conquest of peoples from Mexico, Central and South America and Puerto Rico, which has its historical origin in the U.S.’s 1848 war against Mexico; and the 1898 invasion of Puerto Rico. “English Only” is cultural colonialism: the peoples of colonized nations are forced to speak the language of the conqueror.

6. White culture appropriates elements of the cultures of people of color in order to mask the underlying power relationships of dominant to dominated cultures. For example: Rhythm and Blues is an African American musical creation, but one of its most famous exponents was Elvis Presley, a white working class man from the south. Many rhythm and blues artists die impoverished. Elvis is worshipped like a god.

We have one more day to Part 2
One more day of observing racism in all its manifestations.
Pay special attention today to tracking any forms of cultural racism.
While still being alert to personal, interpersonal and institutional.

What are you seeing in this practice?
What are you learning?
Any surprises?
Is your picture or sense of what constitutes racism changing or expanding?
Are you finding the 4 levels of racism to be useful distinctions?
Stay alert to the practice throughout your busy day.

“In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way.” Harry A. Blackmun, former Supreme Court justice, author of Roe vs. Wade

The Practice - Part 2
Take note of every example you see of possible racism–personal, interpersonal, institutional and cultural.

Adapted from the practices of Robert Gass and Akaya Winwood.

Take note of every example you see of possible racism–personal, interpersonal, institutional and cultural.

from Wikipedia:
“Institutional racism (or structural racism or systemic racism) is a theoretical form
of racism that occurs in institutions such as public bodies and corporations, including universities. The term was coined by black nationalist, pan-Africanist and honorary prime minister of the Black Panther Party, Stokely Carmichael. In the late 1960s, he defined the term as “the collective failure of an organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their color, culture or ethnic origin.

Institutional racism is distinguished from the bigotry or racial bias of individuals by the existence of systematic policies and practices that have the effect of disadvantaging certain racial or ethnic groups. Race-based discrimination in housing (such as restrictive covenants) and bank lending (e.g. redlining) are forms of institutional racism. Other examples include the systematic profiling of members of certain races by security and law enforcement workers, use of stereotyped caricatures of certain racial groups by institutions (like “Indian” mascots in sports), the under- and mis-representation of members of certain racial groups in the media, and barriers to employment or professional advancement based on race.”

From: The Center for Social Inclusion (a project of Tides)
“Structural racism is the silent opportunity killer. It is the blind interaction between institutions, policies and practices which inevitably perpetuates barriers to opportunities and racial disparities. Conscious and unconscious racism continue to exist in our society. But structural racism feeds on the unconscious. Public and private institutions and actors each build a wall. They do not necessarily build the wall to hurt people of color. But one wall is joined by another until they construct a labyrinth from which few can escape. They have walled in whole communities.

A government agency decides that low income housing must be built, which will house
low-income Blacks and Latinos. It fails to look for locations near jobs and important
infrastructure, like working schools, decent public transportation and other services.
In fact, it is built in a poor, mostly Black and Latino part of town. When the housing is built,
the school district, already under-funded, has new residents too poor to contribute to its
tax base. The local government spends its limited resources on transportation to connect
largely white, well-to-do suburban commuters to their downtown jobs. The public housing
residents are left isolated, in under-funded schools, with no transportation to job centers.
Whole communities of people of color lose opportunities for a good education, quality
housing, living wage jobs, services and support-systems.

In this example, no one individual stands in front of the doorway to a better life and says, “No
Blacks/Latinos/Native Americans/Asians allowed.” Race, however, is the unspoken motivator
behind a series of actions which lead to decisions about where to place the walls. Often times
the government locates the housing where it will have the least opposition. White
neighborhoods tend to oppose public and affordable housing. Resource expenditures,
whether public or private, often follow whites who flee urban problems for white suburbs.

The structural arrangements produced by the walling off of resources and opportunities
produces the racial disparities we see today — like higher poverty rates, greater infant deaths
and lower high school graduation rates in communities of color. Racial disparities are the
symptoms of our collective illness — structural racism. Whether its education reform, the
environment, the workplace, urban planning and development, affordable housing or health
care, we must make the role of race visible and understand the structures our institutions
construct so that we may rebuild them to create opportunities for us all.”

The Practice - Part 2
Take note of every example you see of possible racism–personal, interpersonal, institutional and cultural.

Adapted from the practices of Robert Gass and Akaya Winwood.

The Practice - Part 2
Take note of every example you see of possible racism–personal, interpersonal, institutional and cultural.

“Assume racism is everywhere, everyday… Notice who speaks, what is said, how things are done and described. Notice who isn’t present. Notice code words for race, and the implications of the policies, patterns and comments that are being expressed. You already notice the skin color of everyone you meet and interact with–now notice what difference it makes.”
Paul Kivel, Uprooting Racism

So how do you feel as you go through the day viewing life through this lens?
Racism is horrendous, vile and violent.
Even with the progress that’s been made, people are still dying from the impact of racism.
(For example, in the US infant mortality is 5.7 per thousand for white babies; 14 per thousand for African-American babies. Black men and women have the highest death rates from heart disease and cancer; Native Americans from diabetes.)
Racism is spirit-killing, as well as life-denying.
For those of us that have not already been looking at this stuff for way too long, it’s beyond disturbing, to say the least.
And that might be a good thing.

“Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up… Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality.”
Jim Morrison, poet and lead singer, The Doors, 1943-1971

Racism is here, whether we’re looking at it or not.
Hopefully this practice will be disturbing to our numbness, our ignorance, and our complacency.
And by heightening our awareness, thereby strengthen our commitment to act as leaders.

Take this opportunity to come into your heart.
We’ve been looking at racism for over a week now.
Breathe into your heart.
And feel.
It is natural for there to be a degree of numbing when faced with chronic pain.
It’s a natural defense, especially when we feel helpless to do anything about it.
But for those of us on a path of awakening and full empowerment, there’s a cost to this numbing.
We want to feel deeply, for our humanity and our power lies in the strength of our heart and passion.
To fully allow ourselves to confront how the presence of racism may touch our deepest feelings.
Not just the triggering of historical experiences.
But authentic human emotion.
We may feel rage at the brutality of the system of oppression.
We may feel grief at the human devastation that is the legacy of racism.
We may feel depressed or despair at the persistence of racism despite decades of struggle.
Or inspired by the heroic strength of the human spirit that manages to meet and overcome all obstacles.

But take a few minutes now.
Close your eyes.
Breathe into your heart.
Please do this…
Right now.
And allow yourself to feel fully–all that we’ve been exploring.
See the places in your heart where you deny, contract, or shut down.
Breathe…
And open…

and throughout today, continue with:

The Practice - Part 2
Take note of every example you see of possible racism–personal, interpersonal, institutional and cultural.

Adapted from the practices of Robert Gass and Akaya Winwood.

The Practice - Part 2
Take note of every example you see of possible racism–personal, interpersonal, institutional and cultural.

We relate differently to people of other races.
Just as we often relate differently to people of a different gender.

Most of us, in many of our interactions with folks of different skin color, feel and play out some of the legacy of racism. We might wish this wasn’t so. We may try to ignore it, or pretend it doesn’t exist. I used to think of it as a matter of pride that I didn’t relate differently to men and women. (e.g. I don’t relate to women as sex objects, I’m not sexist, etc.)

Then I had a trans-gender person in one of my workshops a few years ago. When I was being honest with myself (and it’s sometimes a struggle to get past the image of who I would like myself to be) it was interesting to notice how unsettling it was to not be able to define the person’s gender. It opened a window for me into how differently I DO relate to men and women.

And we definitely do notice the skin color of the person to whom we’re speaking.
This is all well and good.
But in our practice, we take this an as opportunity to see what stuff we’ve picked up from the racist society in which we were raised.

If we’re white, we may unconsciously overcompensate in relating to people of color. Or simply feel uncomfortable or awkward, like we’re walking on eggshells. Perhaps trying to guess and adjust for how they might be feeling because we’re white.

As people of color, we may carry a certain level of caution in sharing who we are with white people, especially (but not limited to) issues relating to race.

We may sometimes defer inappropriately… or over-compensate and become more assertive.
Or not.

It’s not necessarily good or bad, but we do relate differently across lines of race.

This stuff may show up more or less with certain people. Ease and deep trust can certainly be built with folks of other races. But it’s a dynamic that’s at play more than we sometimes like to admit. We’re not bad. It’s certainly understandable, given the collective history of racism.

For those of you that have the opportunity today (and the rest of this practice period) to be relating to people of other races, pay attention.

(note: In this white-dominated society, it’s much more common for white folk to go through their day without interacting with people of other races, than it is for people of color.)

The Practice - Part 2
Take note of every example you see of possible racism–personal, interpersonal, institutional and cultural.

Adapted from the practices of Robert Gass and Akaya Winwood.

The Practice - Part 2
Take note of every example you see of possible racism–personal, interpersonal, institutional and cultural.

“The specter of color is apparent even when it goes unmentioned, and it is all too often the unseen force that influences public policy as well as private relationships. There is nothing more remarkable than the ingenuity that the various demarcations of the color line reflect. If only the same creative energy could be used to eradicate the color line; then its days would indeed be numbered.”
John Hope Franklin PhD, Duke University Law Professor
author of “From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans”

How many examples did you track yesterday from each of the levels?

Seeing the world through the lens of race and racism is like putting on a new pair of glasses.
You’re looking at the same things, but they appear differently.
Things that were invisible, begin to stand out.
Things that were background, become foreground.
Things that were “normal” look wrong.

How’s your vision?
Is it improving?
It’s not a comfortable lens on reality.
But it is critical to adopt if we are to be leaders in creating a more just society.

Like everything we have studied, this awareness grows with practice.
Remember to look today… everywhere.

The Practice - Part 2
Take note of every example you see of possible racism–personal, interpersonal, institutional and cultural.

Adapted from the practices of Robert Gass and Akaya Winwood.

These last 3 days, we have focused on Level 1 of racism: Personal.
Today we shift our focus to include all four levels:

1. Personal

2. Interpersonal:
“Behaviors based on conscious or unconscious biased assumptions about self and other”

3. Institutional:
“To what extent do the intended and unintended consequences of policies, practices, laws, styles, rules, and procedures function to the advantage of the dominant group and to the disadvantage of people of color?”

4. Cultural:
When the standards of appropriate action, thought, and expression of a particular group are perceived either overtly or subtlety as negative or less than, cultural racism has occurred. Conformity to the dominant culture is then viewed as “normal” …and it is likely that a given individual will need to change her behavior to fit those of the dominant group just to be accepted as competent, attractive, or talented.”

The Practice - Part 2
Take note of every example you see of possible racism–personal,
interpersonal, institutional and cultural.

There’s lot’s to be tracking here. While continuing to watch your own inner attitudes, feelings, thoughts, etc., we want to be observing:

* Interpersonal–
Tracking our own interactions, and those of others around us–at home, on the street, at work, out in the community. Look at the way people relate–across lines of race, or within your own racial group in the way people talk-or don’t talk–about other racial groups. This includes people “talking” in the media.

* Institutional and Cultural–
Tracking these dimensions of racism requires thought, analysis and insight. We have to look at things and tease out the implications. Who are the people in power who you read about in the paper? And who doesn’t have the power? Who controls the foundations from which you are seeking donations? Who’s riding the bus today? And who’s being driven in the limo that just rode by? Who owns the restaurant you’re eating at? Who’s the head waiter and chef? And
who’s bussing the tables? Who worked in the fields to grow the food? And who owns the companies that process and distribute the food? If you go to the doctor today, what’s the relationship between race and the various occupational roles you see? And who’s not coming to get health care today because they don’t have insurance?

Putting on the lens of what we’ve been reading and discussing about racism–how many examples can you find today in each of the four categories?

The Practice - Part 2
Take note of every example you see of possible racism–personal, interpersonal, institutional and cultural.

Adapted from the practices of Robert Gass and Akaya Winwood.