Dialogue, stories and learning bring me a new perspective
I was recently asked to write a column about my experience in an education and dialogue group (Building Bridges) designed to help participants learn about and heal wounds of prejudice and discrimination. Below is a slightly revised version (I changed local references to national ones.) of the column which ran in the Asheville Citizen-Times on January 22, 2007.
Sadly, racism isn’t a relic of the past
I am compassionate, educated and curious. Until I stepped into my first session of Building Bridges last Sept. 12, however, I was also woefully unaware of the real status of black/white race relations in our country.
As a 35-year-old, I grew up after the tumultuous transition from separated to integrated communities. Though acts of violence against blacks — think Rodney King and James Byrd — were shockingly horrific to me, they were thankfully rare, so I innocently assumed that the beliefs and feelings that sparked such malevolence were rare as well. I figured, as did most of my peers, that racial discord was something that existed in only a handful of people who clung to prejudices the rest of us had thoroughly discarded.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
~ Marcel Proust
What I learned over the course of nine weeks of Building Bridges sessions this past fall was that racism — widespread prejudice about a racial group backed by the power to impose that prejudice on others — was not an artifact of America’s past. While lynchings or frequent racial slurs are no longer part of the everyday experience for our brothers and sisters with black skin, they still face racism in many forms, none of which should be acceptable in “civilized society.”
People with black skin are paid less for their work than I am paid for the same job. When black people browse in a store, surveillance and scrutiny is often the norm. If they need a different size shirt to try on or help finding the correct aisle for hex bolts, however, blacks in our communities are likely to receive little assistance from the same clerks who would be eager to serve me. Our black colleagues and classmates are judged not by their potential but by our preconceived notions.
Just notice where your mind goes the next time you see a black man driving an expensive car. When I ask to speak to the manager of a business, I, like most of you reading this piece, unconsciously expect to be greeted by a white person because that’s still the predominant skin color of people in positions of authority.
Sure, you might read all this and want to counter my claims by reminding me that there are over 600 black mayors in the US (according to the National Conference of Black Mayors). Or you might point out that Oprah, Condoleezza Rice and Barak Obama are among a growing number of black people with prominence and power. Or you would bring up the fact that Super Bowl XLI will feature two black head coaches, Tony Dungy (Indianapolis) and Lovie Smith (Chicago).
But I contend that just because we have people of color who are succeeding and prospering in America doesn’t mean they aren’t doing so against tremendous odds. Rather than using black success as a justification for inaction, I encourage you to see it as an opportunity to become part of a new trend — here in Asheville and in our country at large. Join a movement of white people, learning and working in partnership with our black neighbors to demolish old barriers of backwards beliefs, change biased behaviors and unconscious thoughts, and build bridges to connect our rich cultures.
When you and I add a new awareness to our already compassionate, educated and curious lives, I believe we will finally be able to call racism a relic of our past and honestly declare that we do live up to the ideals of our nation in which all are created equal.
“We have moved into an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society. We are still called upon to give aid to the beggar who finds himself in misery and agony on life’s highway. But one day, we must ask the question of whether an edifice which produces beggars must not be restructured and refurbished.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
The next session of Building Bridges begins January 29, 2007. To register or get more info, go to www.buildingbridges-asheville.org or phone 828-777-4585.
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