Page 6
April 20, 2016
O PINION
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Lives Shaped by Race in Many Ways
My crash course
on the subject
J ill r iChardson
This spring, the
University of Wiscon-
sin-Madison campus
has been the site of
several heinous acts
of racism: An Asian
student was spat on and a black
student received a note with ob-
scenities and racial slurs slipped
under her door.
The university is, of course,
taking it seriously. Zero-toler-
ance policies for the N-word and
assaults like spitting are the norm
these days.
But what’s the relationship
between these outrageous inci-
dents and the subtler varieties of
racism — the sort that often goes
by
unrecognized, or gets dismissed
as some people being “too sensi-
tive” or “politically correct?”
That racism is rarely dealt
with, because doing so
would rufle too many
feathers.
I’ve had a front row seat
to learn about the environ-
ment for students of col-
or on campus. As a white
woman assistant teaching a class
on race, I got a crash course in the
subject. But it’s possible to see it
everywhere.
The everyday experience of a
person of color generally doesn’t
involve being spat on. But it’s of-
ten shaped by race in more ways
than a white person might guess.
A black friend told me, for ex-
ample, that she selects her clothes
so that she doesn’t look threaten-
ing to white people.
Another black friend watched
cops eyeing her 13-year-old son,
an honor student who was doing
nothing wrong. Perhaps he forgot
to think about whether he looked
threatening when he got dressed
that day? Or was it because he
was born black and male and
grew to be six feet tall?
A white student asked an
Asian classmate for math help.
When the Asian girl said she’s no
good in math, she was told: “Yes
you are. You’re Asian.” A Kore-
an-American friend, born in Illi-
nois, gets asked how she learned
such good English.
It keeps going.
A Chinese person is routinely
mistaken for other Chinese peo-
ple — you know, because they
“all look alike.”
A black girl’s friend tells her,
“I don’t even think of you as
black,” as if that’s supposed to be
a compliment. Should she not be
proud of her identity?
A Mexican woman is told
jokes about Mexican people and
— when she points out they’re
offensive — she’s accused of not
being able to “take a joke.”
These are the experiences
people of color have day-in and
day-out that many white people
remain entirely unaware of.
When whites say they aren’t
racist because they’re “color-
blind,” they’re blinding them-
selves to these experiences of
their neighbors and classmates.
Such attitudes prevent us from
having open and honest conver-
sations about the realities of race
in our country.
If you don’t feel conident
talking about race, start by read-
ing online articles. One can learn
a lot from blogs like Angry Asian
Man or media outlets like The
Root.
And if someone you know says
they ind something racist or of-
fensive, ask why. Listen. Resist
being defensive or immediately
accusing that person of being too
sensitive.
Instead, if you don’t agree that
it’s racist, consider that perhaps
there’s something you don’t un-
derstand. Don’t feel attacked — it
wasn’t your fault you were born
into a racist society and social-
ized by it.
In short, stopping the most
disgusting incidents of racism
should start with ending the ev-
eryday racism that pervades our
society.
Jill Richardson is an Other-
Words columnist. Distributed by
OtherWords.org.
The Time is Always Right to Do Right
Putting our
bodies and souls
in motion
M arian W right e delMan
Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr.’s last Sunday sermon was
March 31, 1968 at the Nation-
al Cathedral in Washington,
D.C. before his assassination
four days later.
In the speech “Remaining
Awake Through a Great Revolu-
tion,” Dr. King said he believed
a triple revolution was taking
place in the world – a techno-
logical revolution, a revolution
in weaponry, and a human rights
revolution. To face this triple
revolution, he said we must ig-
ure out how to develop a world
perspective, eradicate racism and
economic injustice, rid our nation
and world of poverty, and ind an
alternative to war and bloodshed
– all with great urgency.
I have said often that too many
Americans would rather celebrate
than follow Dr. King. Many have
enshrined Dr. King the dreamer
and ignored Dr. King the “dis-
turber of all unjust peace,” as
theologian Vincent Harding said.
Many remember King the vo-
cal opponent of violence but not
the King who called for massive
nonviolent civil disobedience
to challenge the stockpiling of
weapons of death and the wars
they fuel and the excessive ma-
by
terialism of the greedy which
deprives the needy of the basic
necessities of life. And many
celebrate Dr. King the orator but
ignore his words
about the need for
reordering the mis-
guided values and
national investment
priorities he be-
lieved are the seeds
ever made and challenging a
President who had declared a war
on poverty? Because he saw that
our nation’s ills went far deeper
and that fundamental structural
and priorities changes had to be
made and that the War on Poverty
and Vietnam War were inextrica-
bly intertwined.
In the Cathedral sermon he an-
nounced that in a few weeks he
are Life, Liberty, and the pur-
suit of Happiness.’ But if a man
doesn’t have a job or an income,
he has neither life nor liberty nor
the possibility for the pursuit of
happiness. He merely exists.”
“We are coming to ask America
to be true to the huge promissory
note that it signed years ago. And
we are coming to engage in dra-
matic nonviolent action, to call at-
Our nation and world desperately need loud sirens and
ireighters for justice right now to curb morally obscene
child poverty rates; wealth and income inequality; massive
miseducation of poor children of color; preventable hunger
and homelessness; mass incarceration and unjust criminal
justice systems that criminalize the poor...
of America’s downfall.
Dr. King’s greatness lay in his
willingness to struggle to hear
and see the truth; to not give into
fear, uncertainty and despair; to
continue to grow and to never
lose hope, despite every discour-
agement from his government
and even his closest friends and
advisers.
Contributors deserted him as
he spoke out not only for an end
to the Vietnam War but for a fairer
distribution of our country’s vast
resources between the rich and
the poor. Why was he pushing
the nation to do more on the tail
of the greatest civil rights strides
would be coming back to Wash-
ington leading a Poor People’s
Campaign: “We are going to bring
the tired, the poor, the huddled
masses . . . We are going to bring
children and adults and old peo-
ple, people who have never seen
a doctor or a dentist in their lives
. . . We are not coming to engage
in any histrionic gesture. We are
not coming to tear up Washington.
We are coming to demand that the
government address itself to the
problem of poverty. We read one
day, ‘We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are cre-
ated equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain in-
alienable Rights, that among these
tention to the gulf between promise
and fulillment; to make the invis-
ible visible. Why do we do it this
way? We do it this way because it
is our experience that the nation
doesn’t move around questions of
genuine equality for the poor and
for black people until it is confront-
ed massively, dramatically in terms
of direct action . . . And I submit
that nothing will be done until peo-
ple of goodwill put their bodies and
their souls in motion.”
As always Dr. King’s voice
and vision were prescient and
right – and speak to where our
nation is today. Towards the
end of his life Dr. King said to
a group of friends: “We fought
hard and long, and I have never
doubted that we would prevail
in this struggle. Already our re-
wards have begun to reveal them-
selves. Desegregation…the Vot-
ing Rights Act…But what deeply
troubles me now is that for all the
steps we’ve taken toward inte-
gration, I’ve come to believe that
we are integrating into a burning
house” riddled by excessive mil-
itarism, materialism and racism.
When asked what we should do
Dr. King answered: “We’re just
going to have to become iremen”
and sound the siren of alarm.
Our nation and world desper-
ately need loud sirens and ire-
ighters for justice right now to
curb morally obscene child pov-
erty rates; wealth and income
inequality; massive miseduca-
tion of poor children of color;
preventable hunger and home-
lessness; mass incarceration and
unjust criminal justice systems
that criminalize the poor; and
bullying and demagogic politi-
cians encouraging assault of non-
violent protesters.
The time is ripe right now to
do what is right and reject the
ugliness, violence and greed that
have permeated too much of our
political discourse. We need to
move forward and not backward
and teach our children we can
disagree strongly without dis-
agreeing wrongly.
Marian Wright Edelman is
president of the Children’s De-
fense Fund.