October 26 2016

GATHERING

1. Welcome2. Context Setting3. Tech Rundown4. Introduction of the Presenter

www.crossroadsantiracism.org

I AM A…

1. 1.5 Generation 2. Colonial Subject of and Immigrant to the US 3. Cisgender Queer Woman 4. LatinX of Puerto Rican Descent 5. English As Second Language (ESL) 6. Presbyterian 7. Living in the Mid-South

OBJECTIVES

1. Explore a definition of racism that both clarifies and complicates what is and how systemic racism operates and manifests

2. Discuss the dynamics that emerge when racism is framed as an interpersonal problem as opposed to a structural/systemic one

3. Consider the ways in which clear and shared vocabulary and frameworks can strengthen a faith community’s racial equity efforts

LENSES

1. Bias toward systemics and institutional thinking

2. Bias toward how our legal / public identities connect us to systems of privilege and oppression / marginalization

3. Bias toward hooksian mode of Critical Thinking

bell hooks

Teaching: Critical Thinking

WHAT I S OUR CURRENT REAL ITY?

“Is the church willing to die?”

PollHow would you describe the current reality of racism, racial inequity, and racial relationships the United States?

1. Better than Ever2. Good 3. Worse than 8 years Ago4. Lord, Have Mercy5. Bad; But the Worst Ever

CURRENT REAL ITY

CURRENT REAL ITY

CURRENT REAL ITY

CURRENT REAL ITY

F IRST TERM : RAC ISMDEFINING

RACE PREJUDICE +

MISUSE OF POWER BY SYSTEMS AND INSTITUTIONS

= RACISM

A WORKING DEFINITION

“This definition is not meant to define who is a racist. In fact, the question who is a racist is neither useful

nor important; it distracts us.”

– Me

SECOND TERM : PRE JUD ICEDEFINING

PREJUDICE

• Any preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable or unfavorable

• A bias can be for…

• A bias can be against…

• Racial biases are systemically constructed

THIRD TERM : RACEDEFINING

RACE: A Definition“Like citizenship, RACE is a political system that governs people by sorting them into social groupings based on invented biological demarcations. Race is not only interpreted according to invented rules, but, more important, race itself is an invented political grouping. Race is not a biological category that is politically charged. It is a political category that has been disguised as a biological one… The very first step of creating race, dividing human beings into these categories, is a political practice.”

From Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty First Century, Dorothy Roberts; the New Press, 2011; page 4

White

African-American or Black

Asian

American Indian and Alaskan Native

Hawaiian Native or Pacific Islander

LatinX

Other

RACE AND RACIALIZATION

http://www.iowadatacenter.org/aboutdata/raceclassification

These boxes are not race they are the

dynamic & political application of an

ideology that produces race called

white supremacy

WHY DOES RAC ISM PREVA IL ?

MISUSE OF POWER

Gloria Anzaldua

WHITE Dominant Center

Borderlands

An Arrangement of PowerBuilding on the work of Gloria Anzaldua

able-bodied

Establishes the norms by which everything outside of itself is measured

It is ubiquitous and obfuscated

Emerges from a worldview, supports a worldview

WHITE DOMINANT CENTER

Straight

Cisgender

Hyper-Masculinity

White ChristianMilitaristic

Neuro-Typical

Focused on upward mobility

Consumerist

Individualistic

Exceptional

Higher Education

“Standard/non-accented ways of Speaking”

Owner

Pulls Itself Up

Fit

Perfectionist

Law-abidingSelf-sufficient

EfficientNativist

WealthyBinaried

Imperialistic MeritocraticCentered in the Self

Comfort Seeking

Capitalist

Patriotic

Able Bodied

Barbie Standard of Beauty

It is used by people for the center as a place in which to have adventures and find themselves.

It was created by the center and it exists because the center exists.

It is criminalized and economically exploited.

It is seen as a place in need of control, conversion, and healing while simultaneously being exoticized, and fetishized

BORDERLANDS

Thugs

Non-White

Cripples

Non-straight

Addicted

Heathens

Stupid

Non-Christians

Criminals

Socialist

Savages

Old

Illegal

Terrorists

Dirty

Disloyal

Exotic

Deviant Crazy

Dependent

Welfare Dependent

Dangerous

Refugee

Suspicious

Aliens

UntrustworthyAngry

Have Not’s

Non-European

Non-Citizen

Displaced

Non-Democratic

UnhealthyUnnatural

Cheap Labor

White Dominant

Center

FOURTH TERM : SYSTEMS AND INST ITUT IONS

DEFINING

People

Schools

Colleges & Universities

Testing Companies

Head Start Programs

Pre-Schools

Text Books Companies

Law Enforcement

Government Agencies

School Boards

Corporate Sponsors

Food Distributors

CONSIDER THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

Each of these is an

Institution

WHITE Dominant Center

Perpetuate collective action in support of those values

Create, manage, and distribute the resources necessary for life

Give form and functions to the values of the white supremacist dominant center in ways that legitimize these

ROLE OF SYSTEMS AND INSTITUTIONS

FOURTH TERM : WH ITE SUPREMACY

DEFINING & EXPLORING

WHY DOES RAC ISM PREVA IL ?

Andrea SmithLegal Scholar & Cultural Studies Professor

WHITE SUPREMACY as a WORLDVIEW

LOGIC: GENOCIDE

STRATEGY: COLONIALISM

LOGIC: SLAVERY

STRATEGY: CAPITALISM

LOGIC: ORIENTALISM

STRATEGY: WAR

Edward SaidCultural Critic

WHITE SUPREMACY as a WORLDVIEW

LOGIC: GENOCIDE

STRATEGY: COLONIALISM

LOGIC: SLAVERY

STRATEGY: CAPITALISM

LOGIC: ORIENTALISM

STRATEGY: WAR

“All people are caught in this unjust power arrangement and conditioned to passively or actively, consciously or

unconsciously, collaborate with it, which means there is no place of innocence in the arrangement.”

Claim #2

SIGNS THAT WE ARE CAUGHT

• Prevalence of Implicit Racial, Gender, and Class Bias

• Normalization of Explicit Racial, Gender, and Class Bias & Bigotry

• Colorblindness

• Comfort Seeking Faith

• Inability to Let Go

• Capitalist Frames

SHARED LANGUAGE MATTERSPOINTING TOWARD ACTION

1 2

3 4

CLA IMS MADE CLOSING

FIVE CLAIMS1. Racism and racial inequity in the United States result from an unjust

arrangement of power established around the idea that whiteness and white people are superior, normal, standard, and good

2. This arrangement is kept in place by systems and institutions that were created to primarily, and for a long time exclusively, meet the needs of white people and white society

3. The socio-political practice of racialization legitimizes the social construct of race

4. All people are caught in this unjust power arrangement and conditioned to passively or actively, consciously or unconsciously, collaborate with it which means there is no place of innocence in the arrangement

5. The solution is to become HYPER AWARE of RACE and RACISM as opposed to becoming practiced at turning our heads or assuming a colorblind stance