Overcoming Racism Through Conflict

I will begin my thoughts focusing on what I might call classical United States racism, or the tension between blacks and whites. My thoughts and studies on the problem of race have led me to believe that simply having good feelings toward someone of another race or even having an appreciation of another race is not the same thing as not being racist. The best way to describe my old views of racism is to say that I used to think of racist as a verb and non-racist as a noun. In other words, I always associated racists with acts of violence or hatred and non-racist by their lack of violent or hateful acts. This definition leads people to believe that so long as they don't lynch, burn crosses in people's yards, use the "N" or talk disparagingly of another race, they are not racist. The other implication of this line of thinking is that racism is the perversion or deviation from the natural state of equality. That is to say, we are naturally born non-racist and become racist only through learned behavior.

While the absence of violent and hateful acts is certainly preferable to their presence, their absence does not ensure the absence of racism. In today's racism, if it ever was any different, non-racism should be the verb as it is the "active" state and racism the default. This is because racism is not really about color - which can be overlooked - it really is about dealing with those who are different.

Those people who claim not to be racist because they love everything about another culture know very little about racism. It is not how you react to those you admire who are different than you but rather about how you react to those whose differences challenge you; your self image, your sense of order, justice or decency. Those who have learned how to live alongside people who are different, and different in challenging ways, while retaining their own cultures, have something to teach us about racism.

It is for this reason that I value the moments when we realize the differences that separate us. These moments of conflict create the opportunities necessary to overcome racism. Efforts to overcome racism should not seek to gloss over or eliminate these moments of conflict. If these moments cease to exist it means either we have become homogeneous or rudderless, without culture or norms. Neither of these results would be desirable, the first, possibly more dangerous than the second, results in a society devoid of variety and no closer to tolerance than when it began. The second state would be one that lacked any conviction or community.

Overcoming racism means looking squarely at the differences that challenge you, make you uncomfortable, offend your sense of justice, order or decency and learning to respect one another all the same.