“We tell ourselves that good people can’t be racist. We seem to think that true racism only exists in the hearts of evil people. We tell ourselves that racism is about moral values, when instead it is about the survival strategy of systemic power..............The covert nature of structural racism is difficult to hold to account.”
Thank you @renieddolodge 🙌🏼💪🏼👏🏼 I couldn’t agree more with Reni on her wise words about structural racism. It’s the system that pressures us to meet its standards so that we can be accepted as one of ‘them’. We attend universities, go to work at posh places, acquire wealth, eat what they eat, dress what they dress, speak what they speak and live how they live. And we think we are free of racism without even realising that we have been assimilated into a racist system. We never question who created these standards in the first place! Working at a university and working with well-educated, usually kind professionals, one thing I remind myself that I should not take this academic system for granted. No matter how good people are, sometimes you need to tell them how power and privilege are bestowed upon them, earned it or not, because of their race, gender and class. Sometimes you need to tell them why you are different, and why it’s okay to be different from them. It’s sensitive but it’s not a sin to talk aloud about racism. When my fellow migrants from the same race speak of another race as they hang onto the stereotypes spread by mainstream media, I remind them of the similar stereotypes about our own race. Racism is multifaceted and don’t be silent when you see one.
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