Mistaken Identity

Published by vegankid | Filed under Racism and White Supremacy

While maybe not as jolting as nooses in trees, Resist Racism has a good post up about a pervasive problem that can really shed the light on racism and White Supremacy. The post is called Mistaken Identity and talks about the common experience of White people mistaking people of color as “the help.”

The first time I remember this happening I didn’t attach much meaning to it. I was at a friend’s wedding reception when a white woman asked me to get her a drink. I was a little puzzled by her request, and told her that the bar was self-service. Later she complained to the bride that the “help” was “snippy.”

The first things that jump to mind when asking the question “why would this occur so frequently?” are as follows:
- Segregation: Its true that in the U.S. we continue to live in a largely segregated country. When groups of people don’t have regular, meaningful contact with one another, they tend to rely more heavily upon stereotypes. But its not just stereotypes. I was working in a restaurant kitchen once in a city that was over 30% people of color, but was so segregated that you could be downtown and guess the number to be closer to one-tenth of that.

While working in the kitchen, a friend and I were talking about how sad it is that for many of the White people in that city, there only interaction with people of color is seeing them as kitchen staff or cleaning their houses or mowing their lawns. Segregation has basically reinforced the idea that people of color are only around to serve White people. Which brings me to the second thing that came to mind

- The pervasiveness of White Supremacy. While most of us White folks would never identify as White Supremacist, that doesn’t mean we haven’t subconsciously ingested some (or a lot) of the messaging. Therefore, is it not possible that one reason for mistaking people of color as “the help” is that we subconsciously believe that is their role: to serve White people?

Just some thoughts. Whether you agree with them or not, you should go check out the post, Mistaken Identity.

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