I found this online and felt it deserved a read. I find it interesting that even though this is an article written by a white woman and directed to a white audience, several of these rationalizing behaviors I have observed on some of the forums I have been on, by white and black folks... which says alot for how pervasive the conditioning is along these lines. IMO of course....
______________________________________________________
DETOUR-SPOTTING
for white anti-racists
joan olsson
For white people living in North America learning to be anti-racist is a re-education process. We must unlearn our thorough racist conditioning to re-educate and
re-condition ourselves as anti-racists. There is scant social or political
encouragement for this journey of re-education. We are constantly tempted to
detour off course by the racist propaganda of society and our own guilt and
denial. In the face of societys and our own resistance, sustaining the will to
continue this journey takes bold and stubborn effort.
This journey sends us into unfamiliar territory. No white person has ever lived
in a non-racist North America. We were never taught the skills of antiracist
living. Indeed, we were carefully taught the opposite: how to maintain our
white privilege. Racism, the system of oppression (of people of color) and
advantage (for white people) depends on the collusion and cooperation of
white people for its perpetuation.
Most of us first became aware of racial prejudice and injustice as children. As
white infants we were fed a pabulum of racist propaganda. That early training
was comprehensive and left little room for question, challenge or doubt. Our childhood games, rhymes and media conspired: Eenie, meenie, minie, mo;
Catch a n r by his toe We played cowboys and Indians. All of us knew the
Indians were bad and had to die. My WWII generation watched Bugs Bunny
outwit evil Japanese villains. As Lillian Smith acknowledged:
These ceremonials in honor of white supremacy, performed from babyhood,
slip from the conscious mind down deep into muscles and glands and
become difficult to tear out. (1)
Our generous child wisdom told us racism was wrong, but there was no escaping
the daily racist catechism. We resisted the lies, the deceit and the injustice of
racism, but we did not have the skills to counter the poisonous messages. Our
conditioning filled us with fear, suspicion and stereotypes that substituted for true
knowing of people of color. We internalized our beliefs about people of color,
ourselves, other white people and about being white. Those internalized attitudes
became actualized into racist behavior.
As I continue my journey toward becoming a re-conditioned and effective anti-racist,
I have become aware of habits, attitudes and their attached behaviors, which
divert me from my intended goal. To change the detouring behavior, I must first be
fully conscious of what Im doing, the behavior and its consequences. Next, I need
to reflect on the behaviors attitudinal roots. Finally, I determine the prescribed,
desired change I want to make and the best strategy for achieving it. Sometimes I
need to remove the behavior from my personal repertoire. More often though,
re-tooling is necessary, replacing the discarded pattern with new behaviors. It will
likely take repeated attempts before I have fully internalized and externalized the
desired change.
Most of the obstacles and detours encountered on our journey of re-education are
those same habitual behaviors birthed in our internalized beliefs. The behaviors will
vary with each white person. We recognize that no two white people share exactly the same experiences and societal moldings. We learned racism in our unique and
personal ways from different teachers and at different times. But we all learned the
lessons well. I have observed in myself and other white people some common
patterns of guilt, denial and defensiveness which appear regularly in our interactions
with people of color and other white people.
Eighteen common detours from our anti-racist journey are examined in this way:
#)The Detours Title
Attitudes or behaviors that signal a detour or wrong turn into white guilt, denial or
defensiveness.
Reality Check and Consequence
A clarification of the underlying meaning and consequence of this behavior pattern.
______________________________________________________
DETOUR-SPOTTING
for white anti-racists
joan olsson
For white people living in North America learning to be anti-racist is a re-education process. We must unlearn our thorough racist conditioning to re-educate and
re-condition ourselves as anti-racists. There is scant social or political
encouragement for this journey of re-education. We are constantly tempted to
detour off course by the racist propaganda of society and our own guilt and
denial. In the face of societys and our own resistance, sustaining the will to
continue this journey takes bold and stubborn effort.
This journey sends us into unfamiliar territory. No white person has ever lived
in a non-racist North America. We were never taught the skills of antiracist
living. Indeed, we were carefully taught the opposite: how to maintain our
white privilege. Racism, the system of oppression (of people of color) and
advantage (for white people) depends on the collusion and cooperation of
white people for its perpetuation.
Most of us first became aware of racial prejudice and injustice as children. As
white infants we were fed a pabulum of racist propaganda. That early training
was comprehensive and left little room for question, challenge or doubt. Our childhood games, rhymes and media conspired: Eenie, meenie, minie, mo;
Catch a n r by his toe We played cowboys and Indians. All of us knew the
Indians were bad and had to die. My WWII generation watched Bugs Bunny
outwit evil Japanese villains. As Lillian Smith acknowledged:
These ceremonials in honor of white supremacy, performed from babyhood,
slip from the conscious mind down deep into muscles and glands and
become difficult to tear out. (1)
Our generous child wisdom told us racism was wrong, but there was no escaping
the daily racist catechism. We resisted the lies, the deceit and the injustice of
racism, but we did not have the skills to counter the poisonous messages. Our
conditioning filled us with fear, suspicion and stereotypes that substituted for true
knowing of people of color. We internalized our beliefs about people of color,
ourselves, other white people and about being white. Those internalized attitudes
became actualized into racist behavior.
As I continue my journey toward becoming a re-conditioned and effective anti-racist,
I have become aware of habits, attitudes and their attached behaviors, which
divert me from my intended goal. To change the detouring behavior, I must first be
fully conscious of what Im doing, the behavior and its consequences. Next, I need
to reflect on the behaviors attitudinal roots. Finally, I determine the prescribed,
desired change I want to make and the best strategy for achieving it. Sometimes I
need to remove the behavior from my personal repertoire. More often though,
re-tooling is necessary, replacing the discarded pattern with new behaviors. It will
likely take repeated attempts before I have fully internalized and externalized the
desired change.
Most of the obstacles and detours encountered on our journey of re-education are
those same habitual behaviors birthed in our internalized beliefs. The behaviors will
vary with each white person. We recognize that no two white people share exactly the same experiences and societal moldings. We learned racism in our unique and
personal ways from different teachers and at different times. But we all learned the
lessons well. I have observed in myself and other white people some common
patterns of guilt, denial and defensiveness which appear regularly in our interactions
with people of color and other white people.
Eighteen common detours from our anti-racist journey are examined in this way:
#)The Detours Title
Attitudes or behaviors that signal a detour or wrong turn into white guilt, denial or
defensiveness.
Reality Check and Consequence
A clarification of the underlying meaning and consequence of this behavior pattern.
