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Questions

I'm not a person of color, how can I help?

When talking about allyship, we recommend following rules for allyship set by Mia McKenzie from Black Girl Dangerous: 

 

  1.  Being an ally is about listening

  2. Stop thinking of 'ally' as a noun

    • "Currently operating in solidarity with is undeniably an action. It describes what a person if doing in the moment. It does not give credit for past acts of solidarity without regard for current behavior. It does not assume future acts of solidarity. It speaks only to the actions of the present."

  3. Ally is not a self proclaimed identity

    • "Being in solidarity is something we can strive for, but in the end, it is the choice of those we are attempting to ally ourselves to as to whether they trust us enough to call us an ally...Trust is something earned through concerted action, not given simply because of our actions in a particuar arena or context"

  4. Allies don't take breaks -- oppression is constant

  5. Allies educate themselves constantly

    • do not expect those with whom you want to ally yourself with to teach you; that is not their responsibility

  6. You can't be an ally in isolation

  7. Allies don't need to be in the spotlight

  8. Allies focus on those who share their identity

    • "Beyond listening, arguably the most important thing that I can do to act in solidarity is to engage those who share my identity...As a white person, I have a responsibility to stand up to racism and work to bring White people into the ant-racist conversation in a way that they can hear and access"

  9. When criticized or called out, allies listen, apologize, act accountably, and act differently moving forward

  10. Allies never monopolize the emotional energy

    • "The people who experience racism, misogyny, abelism, queerphobia, classism, etc are exhausted. The last thing they need is our monopolizing of the emotional energy to only further their exhaustion. Don't expect marginalized people to do the emotional work for you or feel sorry for you or forgive you." 

Is reverse racism real?

Simply stated, in America reverse racism is not real and it does not matter that Wikipedia says it exists. Why is this? Racism involves a mixture of power and privilege. So let’s break it down. You may have heard that race is a social construct. What does this mean? It means that, race is not an innate characteristic to humans. Much like money, it’s made up, but over time, it has developed meaning. Yes, we all have different skin pigmentations; however, there is no gene for race. The concept of race became salient to try and justify colonial dominance over individuals based off of physical appearance and constructed differences.

 

To fully understand that reverse racism is not real, you have to look at the history of race in a America in Black and White terms. After two hundred fifty years of being enslaved, 1863 presented the United States with the Emancipation Proclamation declaring that all enslaved people must be freed. Though formerly enslaved individuals were promised 40 acres and a mule to help them start new independent lives, many were given nothing and some even had their land stolen from them. Post antebellum America gave way to ninety years of Jim Crow, sixty years of separate but equal, and thirty-five years of racist housing policy affecting Black Americans (Coates).  The result of such a history means that many Black people were not able to accumulate real power or priviledge. In a capitalist society, this mainly translates to wealth. This happened even as policies such as the New Deal were passed. The New Deal is often credited with building the American middle class. Due to racist policies, this middle class was exclusive to White Americans. Even today, Black Americans are targets of predatory home loans and other practices.

       

The compounding of historical and present-day discriminatory practices/thoughts/ideologies means that Black Americans collectively do not have that mixture of power and priviledge written about above. In fact, “black families, regardless of income, are significantly less wealthy than white families… [W]hite households are worth roughly 20 times as much as black households… [and] only 15 percent of whites have zero or negative wealth, [while] more than a third of blacks do” (Coates). This is not because of the individual actions of Black Americans; rather, the aggregation of racist policies and racist actions of individual actors made this so. This translates to a collective lack of political, economic, and social power among Black Americans. Meanwhile, White Americans have continued to be politically, economically, and socially mobile because they have traditionally been those wielding power in American society. This is due to white hegemony.

 

White Hegemony:

  1. The social, political economic, and cultural are controlled by a white power elite

  2. “Whiteness” is normalized as the standard to which all groups are expected to conform

  3. White people have preferential access to the good things in life because of their race

 

Racism occurs when it is coupled with the power to suppress the political, economic, or social progression of an individual who is part of a historically marginalized group. 

 

But maybe you’re still confused about reverse racism not being real. What about the times when you or a White friend has felt targeted or has been targeted because of their race? These instances do not amount to reverse racism. These may be instances of prejudice or discrimination--again, not reverse racism.

 

Prejudice: a preconceived negative opinion about a group of people that is not based on reason or actual experience

 

Discrimination: treating someone differently based off of a preconceived opinion about the group they have been categorized into

 

What are microaggressions?

Coined in the 1970s, the term ‘microaggressions’ refers to the daily brief, subtle, (often) unintentional and demeaning statements or actions that reaffirm stereotypes about a minority group, in favor of the dominant culture/group. Along this line, racial microaggressions refer to these types of comments, actions or slights towards people of color (POC), which create a hostile and/or derogatory atmosphere for them.

 

Due to their subtle and (often) unintentional nature, microaggressions can be hard to identify - especially because most people associate racism with overt racism (e.g. the KKK).

 

Nervous that you’ve unintentionally said/done something offensive to a POC? Here are a few examples of racial microaggressions that most of us have either heard and/or said. Below are some more common microaggressions which are decoded to provide a better understanding of how they are often interpreted by POC and why they are hurtful (so that we can learn from them and not say/do them again!)

 

What is said: “Wow, you’re really attractive for a dark skinned girl!”

What is interpreted: “Wow, you’re really attractive...which is weird because you’re dark-skinned and dark-skinned people are typically unattractive/ unappealing!”

What you can say: “You’re attractive!”

 

What is said: “But, where are you really from?”

What is interpreted: “You look/act/speak like you don’t belong here.”

What you can say: “What culture/ ethnicity do you most identify with?”

 

What is said: “You speak like a white girl/boy.”

What is interpreted: “You sound educated, which POC aren’t supposed to be”

What you can say: “You speak eloquently”

 

What is done: Clutching your purse or locking your car doors as a POC walks by

What is interpreted: POC are inherently dangerous and scary just by   appearance

What you can do: Not that. Don’t do that unless there is a valid reason (i.e. not the color of someone’s skin) that you think your safety is in jeopardy (Yancy does a great job explaning this effect in his book.)

 

What is done: Turning to the only black person in the class when discussing issues of slavery

What is interpreted: That one black person/ POC is the voice for the entire black community - which is incredibly pressuring.

What you can do: Not that. A POC is not the voice for his/her entire race and their accompanying experiences (which vary amongst individuals)

 

For more examples (in a variety of issues) check here. Also look at the #itooamharvard under "Lived Experiences" 

To see what microaggressions against whites would look like, watch this video!

 

 

But what about “Black on Black” crime? Shouldn’t the Black/Anti-Racist community be focused on that, rather than structural inequalities and police violence?

 

“Black on Black” crime, as it’s understood by many, is a myth. Unless we are talking about “White on White” crime in the same breath, it is a deeply misleading way to categorize crime. Here’s what we mean—statistically, people are much more likely to commit crimes (especially, violent crimes) against people in their immediate proximities and against people they know.

 

Why is this fact significant? As we’ve seen through our country’s history of housing segregation, redlining, and denying Black people loans, so called “ghettos” have formed around the country—areas in which a majority of Black population has been essentially forced to live, often without proper municipal services (think garbage removal, good public schools, clean water, etc.) These conditions, combined with the ugly history of racial discrimination by employers, has led to areas that have been entrenched in cycles of poverty for years. Furthermore, it’s well known that people in desperate conditions are more likely to commit explicitly violent crimes than people doing comfortably.


Let’s zoom out for a second. If people are likely to commit crimes against people they are in close proximity to, and people are more likely to commit crimes if they are living in desperate or impoverished conditions, then based on the descriptions above, it should not be shocking that most Black people being murdered are murdered by other Black people. The same is true of White people. Yes, White people murder other White people at similar rates to those of Black people killing other Black people. In fact, the vast majority of murders that occurred in 2013 (according to FBI Homicide Statistics) had white victims and white perpetrators. So, either we ought to start talking about “White on White” crime as a major epidemic, or we ought to start talking about the socio-historical conditions that have made race segregated crime a reality.

Do I have White Privilege?

Here is a checklist !

 

"“I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group”

How can I educate myself more?

Awesome! We're glad that you're interested in doing more research. Good news is with the Internet it's incredibly easy to learn more about the historical roots of racism and its manifestations today - the Internet can also provide you with a variety of different opinions and perspectives on some of the more challenging issues. Since it really isn't the job of your black friends to teach you about racism and these few individuals can't represent their entire communities, we've compiled some links for y'all to reference. 

 

  • White Noise Collective - an amazing blog and they have an extensive resources section for folks

  • Black Girl Dangerous - writes from a female black queer perspective

  • More information about the history of the social construction of race

  • A glossary of terms including structural racism, institutional racism, individual racism, and different power structures created by the Aspen Institute and UC Berkley

  • Don't wanna read that much? Here's a series of YouTube videos addressing how systematic racism affects different areas of our everyday lives

  • Books

    • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (X)

    • The New Jim Crow  by Michelle Alexander (pdf) (X)

    • Recommended books from the Huffington Post

    • Works by an endless number of black scholars and activists including: bell hooks, Angela Davis, Cornell West, George Yancy, Malcom X, Patricia Hill Collins, W.E.B DuBois, Dorothy Roberts, and many more

    • Citizen by Claudia Rankine (X) describes lived experiences in a long form poem

  • PBS Documentary Series

 

Although we didn't delve into it here, we have gathered a series of articles that address the common question/concerns: But isn't America post-racial? Why does race still matter? 

 

 

Who are you and why did you start this?

This page was created as part of a final project for an anthropology class (ANT 235) entitled “The Black Body.” In the class, we deconstruct issues of intersecting identities, exploring race, gender, class, and their physical manifestations on the body. For our final project, we were given the option to write a paper, or to do some kind of intervention based on the themes of the class, along with a shorter paper.

 

This webpage is that intervention.

 

 

 

*Note: Though the 4 of graduates created this website, we intend for it to live on through Professor Mariner's class (ANT 235: The Black Body). Beyond that, we are reaching out to campus organizations, with a special investment in issues of race, to determine if they would be interested in continuing the efforts of this site beyond graduation. 

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For more information on the intentions of this website, click here. 

Thank You

To all of the students of color, past and present, who have fought to make this institution a more inclusive place of learning, we thank you.

 

To all of the past and present employees, faculty, and staff of color who have fought to make this institution a more inclusive place of learning, we thank you.

 

Professor Mariner, thank you for conducting the course titled, The Black Body: Intersecting Intimacies at the University of Rochester. Had we not chosen to take this course, this intervention may not have occurred.

 

Doctr Griffs (Aleem Griffiths), thank you for utilizing your artistic vision to capture poignant moments on camera. We thank you for allowing us to use your photos.

 

Theodore Forsyth, thank you for taking the time to document important moments of social and political challenges. We thank you for allowing us to use your photos.  

 

To all of the allies to students, employees, faculty, and staff of color, thank you for taking the time to learn and thank you for your support.

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