In this multi-part series, I am going to write about my personal reactions to recent events involving American race relations and try to place them in their complex historical and modern contexts. Below is part II. See issue 252 for part I.

  I. A Question of Definition

  I have come to believe that there is a fundamental misunderstanding concerning America’s historical race relations that far too many Americans have: That is to say, racism began with slavery and ended with the American civil rights movement of the 1960’s. Simply put, in the minds of many, mostly white, Americans, is the notion that racism just is not as big of a problem as it once was. Many would point to the election of Barack Obama as evidence that America is a “post-racial” society; a society that does not have racial prejudice in any meaningful, structural way. In this view, racism is no longer a problem. It is something from the past, a crueler time. In my view, this could not be further from the truth; however, part of this gulf in thought comes about due to different ideas about just what we mean when we use the word racism.

  What we might call the so-called “dictionary definition” of racism is a fairly neutral idea. Paraphrased from a common example, racism in this sense is behaving in a harmful, discriminatory, or prejudicial way toward a person or a group of people because of their race. According to this idea, devoid of context, anyone can be racist to anyone. All that matters are negative feelings toward another race to qualify. The idea of “negative” here is important. Many who hold this view of racism do not take into consideration that racial stereotypes that could be considered positive might also be racist. Two common racist stereotypes widely held in the US that might qualify for this are the ideas that Asian people are good at math and black people are good at sports. While black and Asian people might bristle at these stereotypes, someone who holds them might ask why being good at math or sports is a bad thing and not understand the umbrage a person of color might take at it.

  Parallel to this idea of racism is another definition, which for sake of argument I will refer to as “academic racism.” This definition of racism is more widely understood and accepted in academic or political activist (read: anti-racist) circles. According to the more academic notion of racism, a distinction is made between “prejudice” and racism: prejudice is behaving in a harmful way toward another person due to their race, much like the first definition. Anyone who treats anyone else badly because of their race is being prejudiced. However, the term racism in this context is specific to the racial power structures inherent in American society. In this way of thinking, since white people have historically monopolized (controlled most or all of) the economic, social, and governmental power in the United States, racism is the effects of structural notions of white supremacy (the belief that white people are superior to non-whites). In short, racism cannot be racism without a power differential; without white people having more power than black, Asian, Hispanic, or any other non-white ethnic group. Racism under thus definition is systematic discrimination against ethnic groups who are in the minority or are otherwise marginalized by the powerful ethnic group. In fact, according to this definition, it is possible that there can be racism without individual racists. It accepts the fact that institutions or systems can behave in racist ways without specific racist intent by people. This way of thinking has led some critics and proponents in the United States and elsewhere to claim that, under this definition, no one can be racist except white people. That notion in particular is something that people who subscribe to the first definition of racism can rarely abide (tolerate).

  The general acceptance of the former definition and the smaller but growing acceptance of latter definition (particularly on the internet and the academy) is something that stokes ire when conversations about race happen in America (as there is seemingly a new controversy every week). People on television and on the internet get into weekly shouting matches about racism, racists, and who the “real” racists are. This failure to disagree on what exactly racism means has led to even more resentment over already contentious issues in America society.

  II. Racists are the “Bad Guys”

  There is tension?great tension oftentimes?in American public discourse, on and offline, concerning this word racism. Because of this, when one person questions, insinuates, or perhaps even accuses someone they are debating with of racism, it can feel very personal and even ugly. As such, it has led to the “R word” shutting down debate entirely. A common feeling has spread where it is believed that people concerned with racism are overly concerned with it, see it everywhere, and believe all white people are racist, while those on the other side deeply resent being told what they say, do, or think is racist. Racism is for bad guys. It can be, as we say, a four letter word: very few people in America would be happy to be deemed a racist. Very few people believe that they are racist or that they have racist tendencies. Racists are almost universally portrayed as bad or evil in films and TV, sometimes cartoonishly so. The caricatured image of the Ku Klux Klansman can be one such example. Speaking very generally, outright and overt racism has been rare in public discourse in most parts of the United States since the 1970’s.

  That is not to say it has vanished; rather, racial sentiments more often now are coded. The most commonly used term is “dog whistle” politics. The words used by the speaker (politician, commentator, etc.) say one thing, but the intended audience hears another, just like how a human cannot hear dog whistles but a dog can. While egregious, explicit racism has, until relatively recently, been unacceptable in public, race and racial fears are nonetheless engrained in many issues facing Americans, and politicians and commentators have played on these fears, exacerbating (making worse) racial differences and divides. In desperate economic conditions, these fears are often made even worse as there is a sense that resources (jobs, money, etc.) are scarce. Rhetoric around immigration is often couched in these terms.

  Race in America is uncomfortable and painful. There is anger, guilt, fear, shame, resentment, finger pointing, and sometimes even violence. For many white Americans, it is easier to ignore it than to acknowledge it. Many white people in America do not have to acknowledge race because they do not live as a race. They are never the “other.” This leaves many peoples’ racial issues and attitudes unexamined and thus perpetuates conflict.

by  Prof. Matthew Ross

Dept. of  English language and Literature