12 Myths of White America
Hey friends: This is a rewrite and expansion of a piece I wrote last year. I am calling it, “12 Misconceptions of White America.” It is an intentionally provocative title that is essentially me processing, as a middle class white male, some of the misconceptions that I have either seen other white people ascribe to, or have even struggled with in the past myself. It’s not an exhaustive study and I don’t claim to be an expert on race relations. But maybe it will be helpful to some people, whether white or BIPOC, to examine some of the flawed thinking that exists around race in our society. Please be advised that this exercise is not an attempt to condemn anyone for holding erroneous viewpoints. It is written in love with the hopes that a few people will read it and some may find it helpful in challenging their thinking in a constructive way. God Bless.
?12 Misconceptions of White America?
2. Racism is usually explicit -- in most polite American society explicit racism is no longer socially acceptable. There are backwaters where people freely use the N word and?places where racist “jokes” are made. But in most of American society we avoid directly racist terminology, we no longer post signs in our businesses that say “no Irish need apply,” we no longer refer to indigenous people as “savages,” and no longer explicitly deny people employment based on race or ethnicity. The average American has little issue seeing those things as actually racist. But covert racism or implicit racism still runs rampant with little check on it. These are things like avoiding Asian owned businesses in light of the Coronavirus, referring to black people’s natural hair as “unprofessional,” disparaging people who have a different home language from English, believing that cultural expressions of language are unintellectual, not seeing as problematic that your place of employment or worship is monocultural when it operates in a neighborhood that is multicultural.?
3. Tokenism -- “I’m not racist, my friend Bill is black” -- This is one that we fall into a lot. We often believe that because we have friends who are people of color or even significant others who are BIPOC, we must not possess problematic ideologies ourselves. This is not the case and I’m sure your BIPOC friend does not prefer being used as your “I’m not racist” card. As weird as it sounds, I say a good step in challenging this ideology would be to ask your BIPOC friend about it, does s/he have to adapt certain parts of him/herself to be around you? Are there things you have said or done that make him/her feel like maybe you aren’t on their side.?
4. I don’t have white privilege because I’m poor -- Privilege is multifaceted and one can possess privilege in one arena and not another. There is racial privilege, socioeconomic?privilege, religious privilege, gender privilege, etc.?The term privilege is often misunderstood at first; as if people are implying that our lives have not been fraught with challenges and that somehow just by being white, we must have had all of life handed to us on a silver platter. The thing is though… that’s not what white privilege means. One of the best ways I have heard it explained is “White privilege doesn’t mean you haven’t had a hard life, it just means that your skin color is not one of the things that is making your life hard.” You are not being accused of an act of racism by possessing white privilege. It is only being pointed out that you have certain advantages that other people do not, and when that is the case you have the responsibility of stewarding that well. To compare this to socioeconomic privilege, everyone understands that being rich doesn’t mean that you haven’t had struggles, it just means that finances aren’t your struggle, and as a wealthy person you should steward your wealth in ways that honors people who don’t possess it. So the same with racial privilege.
5. Demanding justice for victims of police brutality is “anti-police.” -- Accountability is a part of support. I am a white Irish Catholic southsider who has never lived outside of Chicagoland for more than a few months. For anyone from Chicago you know what that means -- I have friends and family on the force and I love them to death. I grew up going to block parties where most of the attendees were police. Part of support is demanding accountability! To make this easier to understand, let's pretend instead of the police we are talking about teachers. I am a teacher and no one would ever accuse me of being “anti-teacher.” Unfortunately every few months we hear on the radio about a teacher being fired and charged for sexually abusing a student, a person who was in their care. Whenever this happens I am the first one to demand accountability. No one would ever say, “you want this teacher fired and charged for abusing his/her authority, therefore you hate teachers. The same logic applies to all public servants. You can be supportive of people who serve and demand that they serve everyone well. Nay, you MUST. One of my favorite spoken words uses the line “we don’t hate America, we just demand she keep her promises.” I think that applies.?
6. I am not prejudiced -- Yes you are. We all are. And by we, I don’t just mean white people. I mean people. A prejudice is “a preconceived notion that is not based on reason.” All of us have them, whether you are white, black, latinx, asian, straight, gay, christian, muslim, atheist, etc. For some of us, it is toward men, for some of us toward people of a certain race, for some of us toward people of a particular class. But the accountability piece comes in with what you do with that prejudice. It’s not about your first thought, it’s about your second thought and your action that follows. Recognizing and accounting for our prejudices is the only way to fight them. Pretending we don’t have them is very dangerous because recognizing the issue is paramount in being able to address it.?
7. White Man’s Burden/White Savior Complex -- In 1899 Rudyard Kipling wrote “The White Man’s Burden,” which essentially stated that the native Filipinos were savages and that it is the duty of the white man to civilize them. Many well meaning white people have a hint of this mentality without realizing it. We often develop a “white savior complex” wherein we start to believe that it is our job or responsibility to fix everything for disempowered people of color. This is not entirely true. We are important allies for BIPOC to have because we often have the most access to power. But we need to recognize that we are partners, not saviors. It is actually the members of these communities that best understand what their communities need, and hence are equipped to address these needs. It is listening and magnifying their voices that is required. If we don’t recognize this we continue to perpetuate a narrative in which BIPOC have no agency in and of themselves and need to be rescued, which ironically can be a form of racism in and of itself.?
8. I don’t see color -- Bruh, get your eyes checked. It exists. I say that sort of tongue in cheek. But for real. People started saying this as a way of avoiding the conversation about race. To be charitable, many people actually think they are being progressive when they say this because what they are trying to signal is that they do not disparage people of other races. But think about the statement itself, “I don’t see color/ race.” For so many people their race and ethnicity is a majorly important part of who they are: a source of pride, a source of joy, a place of hurt. We may think we are being loving by claiming not to recognize race. But we are often actually denying people their right to cultural expression and dismissing the particularities of what it means to be a BIPOC.?
9. I don’t really think in terms of race -- This is probably true. You probably don’t because you’ve never had to. Going back to myth number 4 this is a part of white privilege. Since whiteness is the default culture in the US, white people rarely have to think about what race means. Our history has always been taught, our voices, perspectives, and faces have always been represented in the media and in government. So we have rarely needed to identify with our race in a strong way. The same cannot be said of other people groups. We need to recognize that we don’t think racially because our society is structured around our race already.?
10. This doesn’t really affect me -- Yes it does. A society that is inequitable for all individuals cannot truly be equitable. It was Dr. King who said “oppression anywhere is a threat to freedom everywhere.” Additionally, your own life and perspective is enriched by friendship and community with people of color, and so making certain that their perspective is heard and valued is important for you!?
11. Issues that are often painted as race issues are actually poverty issues -- This one feels like a logical distinction at first. But when we really peel back the layers it is important to recognize that while certain issues are tied to poverty, the poverty rate among BIPOC is a direct result of issues around race. 9% of white Americans live below the poverty line compared to 21% of black people, 17% of Hispanics, and 24% of indigenous people. The only ways to explain those numbers are to either accept a white supremacy mythos wherein we believe that economy is a meritocracy and white people have simply worked harder; or we do the hard work of understanding the racialized structures that have historically subjugated and oppressed BIPOC, and limited their social mobility. So sure, certain issues like crime, education, healthcare, etc. are tied to socioeconomic status and not directly to race. But we have to acknowledge that racial disparity was the catalyst of those socioeconomic inequities.?
12. I don’t fully understand the issue so I can’t make a difference -- you are correct in saying you don’t fully understand. I myself have read dozens of books on anti-racism, worked in neighborhoods that are 100% minority, dated interracially, attended churches that are majority minority, maintained a diverse friend group, etc. But I will never actually know the struggle of being a minority in America because I can shut off my consciousness to these issues whenever I want. For this reason, no one expects me to understand first hand. If you read these myths thinking “wow, John is an expert on all of these things.” Sorry friends, I’m not. But that doesn’t make me powerless to do something. So start small, read a book on racial disparity, engage in dialogue around tough issues. Do hard things.?
I hope some of this is helpful to some people. I want to reiterate that I am not an expert on race relations or anything like that. These misconceptions are not exhaustive, and I don’t condemn or hate you if you unconsciously hold to some of them. I have struggled with many of them myself. Always challenge yourself to grow.?
-John Tyler