The 1st Erase Racism Carnival is Here!!

Published by rachels | Filed under Uncategorized

Update: Apparently there was a problem with the blog carnival submission page, and some submissions did not go through. If you submitted something to the Carnival and it doesn’t show up here, put a link to your post in the comments section, and we will add it. Sorry for the technical problems. Here are two additional submissions that somehow got lost in the blog carnival email.

Change Seeker defines racism as prejudice + power. This is a very good discussion about what constitutes racism. Her is a quote:

This has not changed to date. We no longer drink at separate water fountains, it’s true. But African-Americans, as a rule and across the board, because they don’t have the power to do anything about it, are still paid less than White folks, own less than White folks, are more likely to be unemployed than White folks, are more likely to go to jail than White folks, etc., etc., ad nauseum. And most White folks are convinced that this is because people of color are, in fact, inferior. Let me repeat that: most White folks, yes, most White folks believe that people of color are, in fact, inferior. Even as they say, “I don’t see color. I just see everyone as a human being,” by which they mean, they don’t intend to acknowledge all the studies showing how exploited and dominated people of color still are in the United States because the White speaker has already decided that Black people’s problems are the result of Black people’s inferiority. “Some of my best friends are Black,” they will say, while discounting what African-Americans themselves say about the quality of their lives in the good old U.S. of A.

Dave talks about the legal ramifications of a “reverse discrimination” lawsuit. Here is a quote:

Ms. Bredt is a bad plaintiff, and the second part of the complaint should be thrown out. But in principle, Whites with legitimate claims of race harassment should be able to count on the full support from the anti-racist community. Aside from the fact that it’s the right thing to do, there are at least two reasons why this is tactically wise:

Well, we are a day late, but we have several good entries for your reading pleasure. The general them was “What is racism?” And the writers themes seem to fall into four general categories with some overlapping categories 1) The Realities of Whiteness 2)The Problem of Color Blindness 3) The Prospect of Seeing Our Common Humanity 4) The Cultural Representations of Racism

The Realities of Whiteness

Maximus looks at the history of whiteness, discussing how whiteness brings material and symbolic advantages for whites. Here is a quote:

Whiteness as a norm, moreover, constructs a system where non-white success is predicated on exceptionalism. Few people, for example, tout the fact that a newly-elected Senator is white. On the other hand, a successful Black man is defined often by the nature of his non-whiteness. Whiteness thus monopolizes the concept of success.

Jay Sennett writes about racism in the white upper middle class, using his own experiences. Here is a quote:

And this type of making-objects-of-people is a hallmark of what I can rich people’s racism. No way we would ever use the n word in conversation, too low class. But we’ll go to a party, meet someone from X country and proceed to tell them all about themselves and their country. In rich people’s racial understanding, lessons learned in a book outclass the real thing.

After all, why should we waste our time getting to know people? Knowledge is the thing and knowledge comes from books and hey, did you ever hear the one about…..

Vegan Kid discusses the significance of White Supremacy in shaping contemporary racism. Here is a quote:

We are taught to believe in a false meritocricy - a world where one’s social standing is dependent solely on the individual’s effort towards climbing the social ladder. It is that belief that further feeds our ideas of superiority in everyday life. We believe that White people have disporportionately high numbers in colleges, honors programs, corporate boards, government, and so forth because of the intellectual, moral, and character superiority of our Whiteness. After all, if we are all given the same opportunities in life and the outcome is that White people come out ahead, then the logical conclusion is that we remain innately superior. Inversely, this logic implies that people of color do not attain such positions because they are lazy, morally corrupt, intellectually inferior, or other such nonsense. No study has ever been able to find a racial genetic link to such beliefs and yet we continue to subconscious store them in our minds as fact.

Spotted Elephantwrites about her experiences dealing with racism in her family. Here is a quote:

My mother saw me coming home from Mrs. C’s house and was furious. She’d had no idea that I was spending time with The Black Family. My mom yelled at me and told me to never go over there again. So I started sneaking over to Mrs. C’s house. I’ve never been a sneaky person, and I was quickly caught. Besides yelling at me for disobeying her, my mother gave me several arguments why I shouldn’t go to Mrs. C’s house: Black people were different, they were dishonest, they were bad. I’ve always been stubborn, and I stood my ground, telling my mother how wrong she was.

The Problem of Color Blindness

Piscean Princess examines how politically correct colorblindness helps keep racism in place. Here’s a quote:

This reminds me of an observation I made a few years back. I was at work, the only black person employed in a position for which a bachelor’s degree was required, and needless to say, the only person of color in the room. It was a closed door thing, we were doing some mindless thing and the mood was very laid back & casual. The conversation somehow moved to hair or something and one young lady said, “yeah, I’ve just gotta know…I hope this is ok to ask you, but I’ve really been wondering…why in the world do you wear that plastic thing on your head when it rains?” (I am all about having an emergency rainscarf or curl bag on me just in case!)

Tanya Hernandez, who is guest posting at Blackprof has two posts (here and here) about colorblind racism in Latin America. She explores the “racial democracy” of Brazil. Here is a quote from the first essay:

Yet Brazil’s involvement in the African slave trade was even longer and more intense than that of the United States, which accounts for the fact that, aside from Nigeria, Brazil is the nation with the largest number of people of African descent in the world. After emancipation, Brazil continued to be a racially divided nation, but occasionally provided social mobility for a few light-skinned mixed-race individuals. Yet, this social mobility was directly tied to the racist nation-building concepts of “branqueamento” (whitening) and “mestiçagem” (racial mixing/miscegenation), which can best be described as campaigns to whiten the population through a combination of European immigration incentives and the encouraging of racial mixture to diminish over time the visible number of persons of African decent. Indeed, the social recognition of the racially-mixed racial identity of “mulato/pardo” was a mechanism for buffering the numerical minority of White-identified elite Brazilians from the discontent of the persons of African descent’s vast majority. Greater social status and economic privilege were accorded based on one’s light skin color and approximation of a European phenotype, which simultaneously denigrated Blackness and encouraged individuals to disassociate from their African ancestry.

An here is a quote from the second essay:

Why does this educational racial segregation exist if there was never explicit state-sponsored Jim Crow segregation in Brazil or anywhere else in Latin America? Certainly, the convergence of African/indigenous ancestry and poverty is a factor that supports de facto segregation. But, there is evidence that social class is not the only factor contributing to the racial segmentation of the educational system. Brazilian studies have shown that differential access to school for Whites and persons of African descent persists even after controlling for socioeconomic status. Furthermore, as family income decreases, the differential disadvantage in access to schooling between students of European and African ancestry increases. Despite expectations to the contrary, economic development has not improved racial disparities in the educational system. Thus, it seems that being poor in Latin America is not the same experience for people of African descent as it is for Whites.

Ann argues that out-group prejudice has existed throughout societies, but she implores us to do something about it. Here is a quote:

Members of the in-group should attempt more contact with the outgroup. Isolation of peoples and communities, i.e. white suburbs, gated communities and all-white towns allow for a stilted, stunted view of life. Living, working, attending school and going to church with peoples of other races and cultures can be a very good start to breaking down the physical and psychological barriers that exist in America.The less you know of a race or person of that race, the more you will develope prejudicial and racial views based on assumptions that may range from the mild to the most dangerous. For the dominant group to be expected to release its hold on power and prestige to happen anytime soon is to be irrational and unrealistic. Power is never conceded freely, and the out-group must seize the images of itself back to give more positive views and images of itself.

April argues that we need more heroes in order to stop racism. Here’s a quote:

Will racism ever end? Of course it will. In order for this to happen we need more heroes. We already have heroes who have been oppressed, but we need more who have not. Racism will not end until all people who have not been oppressed can understand and emphathize with those who are. A good way to begin this process is to acknowledge a universally shared relationship: kinship.

Cultural Representations of Racism

Ariel (one of our Ally Work bloggers) discusses virtual racism in the world of multiplayer online role-playing games. Here is a quote:

I personally find it racist for cultures to be appropriated and re-marketed as what the hegemonic white male gamer is told he should want (which gives the message that you’re the secondary audience if you’re a person of color and queer and a woman). I’ll use the tauren race as an example. As my classmate pointed out, tauren villages are decorated with long houses, teepees, totem poles, and a dream-catchers to represent a pan-Native American culture. Thousands of indigenous nations are lumped together, painted primitive, and sold to the Western gaze.

Rachel S asks where have all of the black baseball players gone. Examining how corporate interests and the internationalized of baseball has affected black athletes. Here is a quote:

In particular Steinberg argues that the emphasis on “diversity” and the debate about how to racially classify immigrants often leaves American Blacks interests behind. For example, workplaces can say they are diverse when they have many ethnic groups from many cultures. As long as the office picture/team picture looks diverse then companies can say they are providing opportunities. Baseball is a very interesting case because team photos still look diverse, and players still look diverse. In fact, I’m not sure I agree with the assessment that the Astros have no Black players.

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