Equity Starts Here

Subtle differences in skin color can become important for a variety of reasons. Throughout history, pale skin has often been worn as a badge by elite classes, signaling no need to work in the sun.  In some cultures, this is so important that workers will wear very uncomfortable clothing while outside to prevent tanning. In others, skin whitening cream is sold to help people gain lighter skin.

It has been confusing to many sociologists that white society in the US came to respect tanned skin as a sign of beauty. Remember for a moment that some people actually spend money and risk cancer to have darker skin. You might be one of them.

As you continue your practice of noticing and enjoying the beautiful differences in the appearance of people of color, you will begin to see the tremendous range of colors in their skin. Some are so light that you may hear them referred to as "passing as white."  The latest popular figure with this attribute is Meghan Markle, the actress from the US/Canada who married Prince Harry.

This range of skin color is a result of genetic mixing and matching, combined with each individual's sun exposure.  In the US, the first Black children born with lighter skin were likely the offspring of female slaves and their owners. This was arguably never the result of consensual sex, even though it might not meet today's understanding of the word "rape."  Even though some slave owners maintained relationships with their Black mistresses that imitated marriage, it wasn't until 1967 when it became official for Black and white people to legally marry in the US.

For quite some time, the legal definition of "Negro" included the one-drop rule, which classified people as being Negro if they had one drop of DNA from any parent regarded as Negro back as far as they could tell.  This facilitated Jim Crow laws that mandated segregated facilities for Negros and whites.  So, "passing as white" was often an incredibly helpful condition, as it might allow a person with a Black ancestor to operate in society under the rules for whites.

This helped to begin a challenge within the Black community in which those with darker skin felt the impact of Racism more than those with lighter skin.  A type of sub-Racism developed that some call Shade-ism, where Blacks of differing shades feel differently about each other. 

As whites, we probably can't imagine what this might feel like, but we can start to understand it by considering how much we are able to tan.  How early did you know that you could or couldn't get a tan?  Did you try to tan early in the season and make sure to keep a good tan as long as possible?  Did you use tanning salons or spray tans to fill in the seasonal gaps?  How did you feel about those who were different from you? 

If you didn't tan easily, did it bother you that others could?  Did you feel less beautiful?  Did you endure bullying or taunts for your skin color?  If you did tan easily, did you ever think about what it would be like to not be able to?  Did you empathize with your friends who always burned when they were outside?  Maybe you still carry this characteristic as a driver of your self-esteem.

Now think about the shade differences in your own family.  Did you have a sibling that always tanned much more easily than you did?  Were there sibs that had dad's skin, and some that had mom's skin?  These subtle differences may not even have been noticeable to anyone outside your family, but you knew.  

Your practice today is to think about how many shades there are within the Black community and to become aware that they notice them as much as you when you knew who had the darkest skin in your family.  Look at Black couples you know and see which partner is darker.  Look at Black mothers and their children.  Who has darker skin?  What does that likely mean about the father?  How does your own experience with shade-ism drive your opinions of these observations?   

Every civil society needs a trusted police force to help us feel safe.  When we hear a noise in our home in the middle of the night, we know we can call 911 to summon public servants with guns who will come to our defense.  They will look in all the dark corners of our basement and risk their own safety to ensure ours.

People who choose this profession receive a lot of training and guidelines to reduce their personal risk. Even with that training, some do experience injuries and sometimes a tragic death.  Some assignments, like traffic stops on busy highways, put them at more risk than most of our jobs in society.

One of the consequences of our segregation is that we don't see how police are viewed in Black neighborhoods.  We don't know how families might not call for help, believing that they wouldn't come--or, if they did, someone innocent might be hurt or arrested.

We also don't know what it feels like to be conducting our normal business and to be stopped or pulled over while doing nothing wrong. Black people report this treatment both in their segregated neighborhoods and also in mostly white areas.

How did your parents introduce you to the existence of the police? Were they your protectors? Or were they the ultimate disciplinarian? Did you fear them or praise them?  When you are stopped for traffic violations, are you mad or afraid? Do you blame the cop or fate for getting caught this time?

Your practice today is to explore your earliest interactions with police.  How did you form your opinions?  Did you have a relative on the force? Maybe you had a favorite TV cop that shaped your vision of who cops are and what they do.  Think about how these formative views impact your reaction when you hear the reports of abuse and brutality from the Black community?

Some traits give you power or advantage over those who don't have that trait.  Some traits give you a disadvantage or strip you of power.

Some traits are inherited and some are not.  Some come and go, and some are lifelong.  Few people live out their entire lives without experiencing being the underdog in one of these pairings:

• Ageism is likely the easiest to understand, because at different times in our lives, we move in and out of the power position.
• Sexism might seem one that is established at birth, but with gender confirmation, people can change their power dynamics. 
• Ethnic and Religious power relationships occur in populations when there is a subordinate group defined by these cultural identities. 
• Classism is one that has some fluidity in our country, compared to a culture like India where castes can still control your lifelong position.
• Ableism is the general situation where able bodied people are given preference over people with disabilities like hearing or vision loss, mobility issues and birth defects.

If you have ever tricked a bouncer with a fake ID or changed your hair to pass as younger, you have experienced a need to be in a different age class.  We have outlawed asking for certain traits on employment applications to help prevent hiring discrimination, but there are some that are not so easy to keep a secret.

People have a great capacity for establishing a pecking order based on arbitrary guidelines.  It is easier to maintain these pecking orders when it is obvious which group you belong to. 

What groups do you belong to that are the subordinate group of a power-ism?  You may not sit around complaining about them, but you know they exist.  You may have been taught from birth that it is just how things work and you should make the best of it.  Or were you that kid who acknowledged your position in a subordinate class and set out to change the system? Did you prove the world wrong that a kid from your background could get ahead?  Do you feel that no one understands or acknowledges your struggle? 

Reflect on your own journey and that of your parents and your children.  Which classes are you stuck in and which did you work to get out of?  What laws have changed to help you and what is left to be done?

Defining our words and using them carefully is critical in moving forward towards solutions for Racism.  In the US, our Racism has had the power and privilege residing in lighter-skinned people, mostly from Europe and Asia.  The subordinate group has been darker-skinned people, mostly from Africa and Central/South America.

Other incidents of Racism have dotted modern history with variations on the above theme.  When the power base is established, usually through an initial atrocity involving warfare, genocide, slavery, or invasion, the dominant and subordinate classes are defined.  Done.

Then we can watch racism erupt, when individuals adopt prejudice, bigotry, and hatred towards the subordinate class.  You can certainly understand how the subordinate class would not be happy about that and would quickly develop appropriately negative attitudes towards the dominant class.

In fact, we have a famous fictional character to describe what it looks like when a Black person doesn't outwardly develop these attitudes.  Calling a Black person an "Uncle Tom" is accusing them of being compliant with the Racist power structure.

This natural animosity toward an imbalance of power is NOT Reverse Racism, because the power and privilege dynamics have not changed. If a Black person calls out a white for being racist, they do not become a reverse racist.  They may be prejudiced, meaning taking the behavior of other whites and attributing it to the person in front of them.  That is not helpful, especially if the person in front of them is you and you know you are not racist.  But we can certainly work through our own prejudice to understand how it can happen. 

When whites make an attempt to eliminate Racism by giving Blacks an equal opportunity for advancement (sometimes called affirmative action), this is also not Reverse Racism.  Since we have not leveled the playing field yet in so many measurable areas (education, wages, healthcare, etc.), we can't claim that the dominant class has become subordinate.  Giving a Black person some help in navigating a Racist system is more than reasonable and still not yet sufficient to fix the problem.

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt discriminated against because of a Black person's advancement?  Did you find yourself calling this episode Reverse Racism?  Were you mad?  Are you aware of affirmative action initiatives at schools you attended or employers where you worked?  Did you see those plans as causing you a disadvantage?  Or did you see the diversity that resulted as enhancing your experience there? 

Your practice today is to think about places where whites continue to be the predominant participants in an activity?  What action could be taken to help encourage Black people to participate? What barriers exist that restrict participation?  You might notice that transportation to activities is harder from areas where Black families live or that enrollment applications aren't made easily available to people from Black communities.  How would you feel if those barriers were reduced or eliminated?  Even if it meant that there wasn't room for you when you wanted to gain entrance?  Would you consider this Reverse Racism?

If you're lucky, you've had a special Black person in your life. If you're really lucky, you've known a lot of Black people.  Fifteen percent of our nation's population is Black, which means that one out of seven people in your life will be Black on average.  Due to neighborhood and school segregation, many of us have been separated from the Black population, so our numbers will be more like one in ten, or one in twenty, or one in one hundred--or worse.

Our parents bought homes in neighborhoods where they were hoping that their property values would grow and let them enjoy a financially successful retirement some day.  There was a commonly held belief that continues today that property values decrease when Black families move into a neighborhood.  Also, some still believe that homes in neighborhoods where many Black families live will not appreciate in value.  Maybe as you were searching for your first home, you used similar beliefs to make your buying decision.

Since it was less likely that we would meet Black people in our neighborhoods and schools, the ones we did meet and befriend are likely memorable.  We met Black people when their professions integrated them into our white communities.  You may have met a postal worker, or a teacher, or a garbage man.  Store clerks and bus drivers may have worked in our neighborhoods.  And certainly some of us had domestic workers like maids and nannies that came across town to work in our homes.

Today's practice:  Who were the special Black people you have known in your life?  By special, I mean the ones that knew your name, celebrated your gifts, and were there for you when you least expected it.  What did they teach you about yourself?  How did they help you through a tough time? 

Are you still friends?  Do you follow them on Facebook?  Do you know their children's names?  Do you still go to their birthday parties? Just think about them and how they helped form your attitudes and opinions about Black people.  Think about how some of them turned out to be very close to your heart and some of them moved on to take their place with other vague memories of childhood.  Think about how their lives might have been different than yours.  Were their families different, their academic paths different, or their career or financial successes different?  Just reflect. 

There is no right or wrong conclusion to draw from this practice.  Only to take inventory of your early impressions and where your attitudes were born.  Some will be loving, some will be judgmental, and some will be confusing.  Some came directly from your parents, but they are all yours now.  Don't worry about understanding them; just acknowledge them. 

It's hard to know when Racism will pop up in your personal life in a way that lets you strike back. It's a clever force that often hides in the shadows or disguises itself as other forces.

It's also hard to trust the laws of nature to automatically strike it down.  In a lot of situations where you notice something going wrong, it is easy to excuse inaction by reasoning that some automatic safety net will snag the wrongdoer. Or that it is not your job and there might even be a risk for you to blow the whistle.

If you do want to take the steps to bring attention to the power inequity, whom do you tell? Racism doesn't have a boss who can fire it or a parent who can scold it.  Have there been times that you have spoken up or taken action?  Or maybe you wanted to do something but didn't know how. Or maybe you saw evidence of Racism, and it scared you into doing nothing.

Your practice today is to revisit one or more of these experiences and think through your emotions and inclination to respond at the time. When did you notice the Racism forces at work? Could you have seen it earlier? But maybe you explained it away?  Who were the people involved? Was their closeness to you a factor in whether or how soon you took action?  Were you worried about looking silly or maybe experiencing retaliation?  Did you wish you could have done more? Or were you frustrated that your efforts weren't as effective as you had hoped? 

Think about whether what you were witnessing was actually Racism or if it was discrimination toward or hatred of a specific person.  For example, was there a company policy that prevented Black people from working there because of an educational requirement that was difficult for them to achieve? Or was there one person in the HR department who was hiding the applications of all the Black applicants?  Think about which situation you would feel more empowered to address.  Do you automatically assume one or the other is the cause?  Just think about your own action and inaction.  What skills have you already put into action, and which ones would you like to add to your Racism action resume?

How do you know if a person is a racist?  Are there certain criteria they need to meet?  Do they have to use the N-word in every other sentence? Or complain loudly that Black players shouldn't be quarterbacks? Or is it more subtle than that? Do they merely need to live in a redneck neighborhood or vote for Republican candidates?

Or maybe they are loving and polite people, but they deny that Black people face any disadvantages anymore.  Does that make them racist?  Is living in a bubble enough to make the cut?

Remember that in our dual definition-world, any white person is Racist because of their winning the race lottery with their white skin. But they need to exhibit outward signs of bigotry, prejudice, or hatred to be racist by our definition.

So think about how low your bar is to use this label.  Do you ever think that others might consider you a racist? Have you ever done anything that might meet someone else's criteria? How do you feel about that? Is it their problem that they haven't gotten to know you well enough?

Your practice for today is to think about a person whom you labeled as a racist with very little information.  And then think about something you've done that could be misinterpreted as racist. How can you change both of these situations in the future?

The most pure, instant, and undeniable love is between a mother and her child. And one of the greatest tragedies is the loss of that child. We may know families that have suffered the loss of an infant.  We know the love they have for the infant never dies. It is the deepest loss a human can endure.

It is no wonder that medical and public health professionals continue to work diligently to reduce our infant mortality rates.  During the 1800's, as many as 300 out of every 1000 babies died by the age of 5. It should be no shock that African Americans, many of whom were enslaved for over half of that century, experienced a higher rate of infant mortality, approximately 350 per 1000 infants, as compared to 250 per 1000 infants for whites.

Most infant mortality is not due to genetic problems like heart or lung defects. Globally, most is due to infection, disease, and/or malnutrition.  In the US specifically, we can point to poor prenatal and neonatal care, drug addiction, and other social causes that are on the rise.

The challenge continues to be even greater for Black families.  We can celebrate a world where the U.S. brought infant mortality numbers down to 5 white infant deaths per thousand, and we continue to chip away at it every year.  But we have to ask: Why is it that 10 Black babies per thousand still die annually?  Why do twice as many Black mothers have to endure that excruciating loss?

As we wonder how this can be, we begin to discover the invisible power of Racism.  Only the most deranged person full of hate would wish for another human's baby to die. This is a level of hate we only see in calamities like the genocides designed by Adolf Hitler or Mao Tse-Tung.

So without a collectively conscious decision to target and kill Black children, those children still die, leaving parents to grieve for a lifetime.  To understand Racism, we need to begin to peel back the underlying causes behind these statistics. We need to ask hard questions and look at our own reluctance to ask those questions. 

Your practice today is to remember the first infant loss in your extended family that you learned about.  The infant could have been a sibling or cousin that died before you were born, but still caused grief in the eyes of your grandparents.  The baby could have been your own.  Whomever it affected or whenever it happened, it is a memory you can summon immediately and probably still feel a good deal of the pain.

Think back through the blame and guilt that circulated around that infant death.  Did you immediately blame the parents?  Or did you immediately look for ways to reassure the parents that it wasn't their fault? 

Now think about your immediate reaction when you read that Black mothers lose twice as many children as white mothers.  Did you blame the mothers or did you begin thinking about how to help them shed their guilt? Did you blame their individual actions or forces beyond their control?

Every faith begins with love that comes from God's grace.  In our understanding of how to react and respond to unfairness in the world, we often look to our faith for guidance.

Compassion, forgiveness, charity, confession, and other complicated concepts are all intertwined in our reaction to racism and Racism.

For agnostic and atheist students, the guidance that you use for your life is likely just as complicated in how you approach your behavior on these issues.  This practice and reflection is just as important.

Think back to your earliest religious training.  How were Black people discussed or included in the lessons?  Was there an assumption that they were included in concepts such as "Love thy neighbor" or "Do unto others?"  Were there lessons specifically addressing race?

Did Black people attend your church or did they go to their own church?  Did you see Black churches as equal to your church in their understanding and teaching of God's love?  Have you ever attended a Black church, or do you only know what you've seen through movies and TV shows?

Many religious images are of people who were likely born in the Middle East or Northern Africa, where skin tones are darker than skin tones in Northern Europe.  In the images within your mind, are these people painted with light or dark skin? Does it bother you to see them depicted with darker skin? Or does it annoy you that they are traditionally shown with lighter skin?

Your practice today is to ask yourself or your God where you can look for guidance to understand your relationship to racism and Racism.  Think about your own personal discomfort and where your faith can help you find answers.

We all love babies, and babies love their mommies the most.   Not a startling comment, but what does it have to do with racism?   Very early, within days of birth, babies start to use all their senses to pick out their parents and other caregivers.  As they develop a visual sense of color, they can use that newfound sense to help tell the difference between people they depend on.  Researchers are finding more and more that babies who see skin color and other genetic traits early end up being able to sort other visual traits better, resulting in higher intelligence.  Remember the Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the other...."? We want our babies to see differences. 

One day, that baby sees a person that looks so different than their mommy that they point, laugh, or ask aloud about the difference.  And they are shushed!  If you're over 35 or so, you were likely taught to try to ignore the gift wrapping and look at the gifts within the person.  You've worked hard at that all your life, denying your amazing original talent.  You might have even achieved that beautiful state of color blindness, reporting that you don't see color. 

Our exercise today is to give up trying to be colorblind and acknowledge that you have a wonderful skill, developed from birth, to tell the difference in how people look.  Do you remember when one of the most insulting things you could say was that you thought all Black people looked alike and you couldn't tell them apart? You may have actually trained yourself to not tell them apart.

We've promised you that this course won't take a lot of time out of your day, but each step should take at least a day to practice.  Today's practice:  As you are out in the world, or home watching TV or Internet images, do this one thing.  For every person you see, find something unique about their appearance.  If they have a different skin tone than you, try to notice what it is.  Or look at the size of their nose, the texture of their hair, or the closeness of their eyes.  Just notice.  In your attempt to see past race, you may have trained yourself without knowing it to avoid looking at people different than yourself.  Do you hear your mother's voice telling you it's not nice to stare? I don't want you to stare, but I do want you to study another person with loving eyes and a smile.  If you find something unique about that person, you are allowed to offer loving comments like, "You have lovely eyes" or "Your smile is infectious" or "I've never seen such pretty hands."

Your practice will guide you to see new beauty in humans all around you and--more importantly--help your brain reset to a normal place where differences exist in all of us. And you're allowed to notice. Skin tone is only one of hundreds of subtle genetic differences that design our exteriors.  Immerse yourself in the beauty of the differences that the mixing and matching of DNA over the decades has brought us.