A Reflection on Racism and Hate: What we can do better

A Reflection on Racism and Hate: What we can do better

Something has gone terribly wrong when Nazi flags are waved side-by-side with Confederate flags as they chant praise for the President and hate for minorities. Although there’s a part of me that feels absurd for stating what should be common sense, I have to remind myself that it isn’t actually common sense, at least not to everyone.

When I consider what I can say to someone who carries a Nazi flag proudly I come up with nothing. I cannot try to convince someone the realities of privilege when they feel they need more privileges, more rights than others. I cannot use strategies in negotiating and reaching across the table when across that table is the belief in genocide. Self-reflection is a personal choice, and cannot be forced upon those who refuse it.

And so instead I focus on those of us who know better. This blog post is focused for those of us, myself included, who understand that bigotry is wrong, but how we as a collective society have failed to not only end it, but to keep it from rising again. Whereas my last post was more on a personal level, this post is looking at broader aspects in our society.

We want to believe in a better world, one that understands better

I believe that optimism has hurt the cause of tolerance. I want to believe in a world that’s progressing, one that’s becoming more understanding. I want to believe that the Civil Rights Act was enough. At times, I have believed these things. However, this optimism makes it too easy to assume that things will work out, that people will be reasonable and eventually come together. History disagrees with this, current affairs disagree with it, but the idea of each generation doing a little bit better than the last is a narrative that’s hard to let go of.

I make the argument that the world is not necessarily better just because it naturally gets better, that understanding won’t be found unless we actively push for it and it will get worse if we don’t. Society is made up by people, and thus for society to improve, it requires people to do it.

We damn racism, but without nuance or often explanation

I grew up being taught that racism and bigotry were wrong. It causes a lot of pain and suffering. The end.

In hindsight, that wasn’t enough.

Once again, I feel weird for saying that we need to explain why racism is wrong, why treating people as less than a person based off skin color is terrible. However, without providing an explanation, it makes it too easy to rationalize how maybe racism isn’t so bad, or to define racism in convenient ways that doesn’t require us to change any aspect of our lives. I’ve heard the idea that humans aren’t born racist, they must learn it. I don’t necessarily disagree, but if there are aspects of society teaching racism, then we should push back and teach against it. Systematic racism, intersectionality, these are concepts I only discovered and learned about later in life. How much more equipped would our young people be if they understood the nuances, the different kinds of bigotry, the motivations, the scientific evidence against it? I think it would make a big impact if we treated being a good citizen, such as not being a member or sympathizer of hate groups, as a part of our education. More people deal with issues of acceptance than deal with trigonometry in their daily lives.

We aren’t great at utilizing diversity

In mainstream media we have terms like the “token” character or “diversity points”. I think there’s validity to it. Characters are often brought on a show, movie, game, or something else in a way that’s not genuine, and it’s easy to spot. It’s not necessarily ill-intended, but if we see diversity in a forced, lackluster way it won’t really show us what different groups have to offer. Worst, it can be mistaken for legitimate diversity.

On a more personal level, mediation, facilitation, and communication are skills that for many of us are optional to learn. These skills among others can help us bridge gaps, better understand different perspectives, but are treated as specializations or soft skills. We try to instill in people a sense that there’s two sides of a story (or often more than just two), but I had to seek out my own opportunities to better learn how to actually handle and accept those other sides.

We assume acceptance is easy

It’s not. Three years in the Peace Corps, meeting hundreds of other volunteers, every single one had their low moments. Every single volunteer at one point let the differences in culture and values frustrate them, anger them. Most volunteers could then step back, reflect, and grow. However, it took effort and mindfulness.

Accepting other people is not a passive action for me despite that’s what I more of less grew up believing. I believe now that it’s active, it’s something we need to do deliberately and intentionally. So long as we assume it’ll just happen, we risk acceptance not coming at all.

We’re failing to recognize the draws of racism

Hitler was a terrible, monstrous human being. He is probably the single most publicly denounced figure in the modern age, and for good reason. Yet the problem I see is we don’t really discuss why he came to power in a way that can be related to our own lives, to our own politics. I think there’s a fear that if we discuss Nazis in terms that define them as humans, we’ll somehow legitimize them. We feel compelled to dehumanize them in strongest terms to separate ourselves from them, and pretend that only the most disturbed could be attracted to their brand of bigotry.

Whether it’s finding a scapegoat, having someone to feel “better” than, to avoid the guilt of one’s advantages in life, there are real draws to either accepting racism or ignoring it and acting as a bystander. Even if we assume racists are somehow different than normal people, their minds work differently, there still must be some sort of draw, some sort of lure to make people get behind racial superiority.

I feel that only be being able to point out and identify that causes of racism, can we hope to find the cures. To do that, we have to be willing to look into what those causes are, however uncomfortable it may be.

We stereotype racists

It’s with no small amount of irony that I reflect back and see how racists were stereotyped for me. There are two versions I saw. One was of disgusting slobs (often from the South) who were dumb, ignorant, and pathetic. The second variety was the person who seemed normal at first (often a well-to-do businessman), but once confronted, we’d see them transform into the monster they truly were. Any good qualities were just a false front.

Just as with many things, I don’t think there’s a clear line between bigot and not-a-bigot. It comes in different forms, different degrees, and from different people. It’s not comfortable thinking about how friends, family, and neighbors can be intolerant (or even consider what biases we ourselves have). Just as entertainment and other public venues can do better to reflect minorities in a more full, less token way, so too can we better show the different ways racism happens and the real people behind those beliefs. More people might take racism seriously if they’re portrayed as more than a stereotype.

We’re not in control of the “rules” of the debate

Going back to my earlier post on 10 Strategies in Engaging Political and Social Topics, Rule Eight was about “not losing control of the rules”. I can’t think of a current debate where this strategy has been lost as much as in the debate on racism. So long as this is a debate of Free Speech, little progress is going to be made. Hate speech, for good or ill, is protected and has even been recently and unanimously protected by the Supreme Court.

Though the First Amendment does protect hate speech, an exception has been made for speech that causes immediate danger. Yelling fire in a crowded theater is the quintessential example, you’re at fault if you caused an unnecessary panic that led people to trample each other. So yes, a hate rally is protected by free speech unless it directly leads to immediate violence, which isn’t unreasonable to expect.

Moving beyond free speech, racism in America today has very real and tangible actions. However, they’re in many ways treated as anecdotal cases. This celebrity had their house vandalized, this individual was found innocent after years when someone took notice and saw they weren’t given a fair trial. Although attempts have been made to reflect on the overall trends, that these aren’t isolated cases, it’s still an uphill struggle to make it the generally accepted narrative.

And the other aspect of racism, and many of these recent hate groups is the core beliefs. I’ve seen a comparison between hate groups and  Black Lives Matters. Here’s an article from 2015 listing the policy goals of the BLM movement in regards to police reform: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34023751. Whether you agree or not, whether you believe in the methods of BLM or not, these are legitimate positions to take. They call for reforms, not violence. They offer specific objectives, not broad and vague generalities. The same can’t be said for hate groups, who at the core of their own policy goals lead towards preventing minorities from having equal rights, or far, far worse.

However, so long as we’re stuck on the free speech debate, it will be hard to fit in how hate groups push against the legal allowances of free speech, their actions that go beyond speech, and the core values of hate groups compared to other movements isn't the same.

In sum…

I’m thirty years old, and I only feel like I’m starting to scratch the surface on the realities of racism and bigotry, never having to deal with it personally growing up. It’s something I hope to be able to instill in others, especially future generations, so that we can do better, and future generations can do better.

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ACTION!

Gosh, wish I knew a good source of action this time. I think the best form of action I can think of in regards to this post is to inform ourselves. Whether it’s better understanding the realities of racism in our country or better understanding the faults in media and the news in portraying both the perpetrators and victims of bigotry, we can inform ourselves. The more we know, the better we’ll know how to take action.

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What’s Next?

I’ll be making a post on the importance of philosophy. Also will probably do a write up on some of the issues I see with nostalgia in current society. I’ve written most of what first compelled me to start this blog, and thus will move onto other topics as they come to me.