The Race to Dismantle Racism

September 18, 2004
Photos by Vivian Stockman

Institutional Racism Still Haunts Us All

If you are a white person, you may think the bad old days of racism are gone. It's horrifying that there's still an occasional cross burning and some crazies here and there who commit other vile hate crimes, but society no longer condones racist behavior. 

If you are a person of color, you know otherwise.

About 20 people gathered in Huntington to learn more about racism at a workshop sponsored by the Commission on Religion in Appalachia (CORA), the Huntington-Cabell branch of the NAACP and OVEC.

The CORA website says: 

For people of color in America, however, racism is not just history, and it's not just at the extremes. Racism is part of everyday life. Sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle, it affects every interaction, every choice, every opportunity, every conversation.

Why? Because American society is not, and never has been, blind or neutral when it comes to racial identity. And as we have built our institutions--our churches, our government, our businesses, our community  organizations--many of those forms of bias and discrimination get built right in...As people of conscience, we have a responsibility to dismantle the racism that has been built into our organizations and our communities. Simply being tolerant is not enough. Saying that we oppose racism is not enough. We must actively work to recognize all forms of privilege and discrimination that we participate in--intentionally or not--and we must dismantle them. Then we must come together and build something new--an organization, a community, a society transformed.

CORA's Chetan Tawalker led the Huntington "Race to Dismantle Racism" workshop.  Chetan noted that racism really is not much discussed in our society. Participants agreed to make the workshop a safe place to speak up. We agreed that we are all victims of a racist society. Our attendance at the workshop signaled our willingness to become more aware, to begin changing not only ourselves, but also society. 

We agreed that the human family is deeply hurt by racism. "For any of us to say, 'I am not touched by racism' is like a fish saying, 'I ain't wet'," Chetan said.

We examined what we figured was better about racism in the United States since the 1960s civil rights movement and what we figured was worse.  We concluded that while society looks different, racism is still rampant. Though many individuals no longer hold prejudice in their hearts, institutional power structures, which act as enforcers of racism, have not changed.  Examples of such institutions are government, businesses, and financial, educational and non-profit organizations, and even organized religion.  If you think that isn't true, just ask yourself the following question regarding any of those institutions:  "Who wields power and who controls the money?"

We defined racism as having two parts: Race--race-based prejudice (which exists even though there is no biological validity to dividing humanity into distinct races) and Ism--referring to institutionalized power enforcing this labeling and hierarchical ordering of humanity. The "ism" in racism allows us to define others, who seem not to be like ourselves, as less than human. 

Every major institution in the United States was created, way before the 1960s civil rights movement, to serve the interests of white people, especially white males. People and ideas in American society have changed, yet the institutions have not. This is the unfinished business of the civil rights movement.

How do we bring about the change we need? For many, faith traditions provide guidelines. CORA aims to help us work toward positive change. If you want to become a part of CORA's anti-racism transition team, please contact Carolyne Brown, CORA's Dismantling Racism Program Coordinator, at cauc@aol.com or 304-920-2672.

In the meantime, see the sidebar for links to resources that can help you be a part of the race to dismantle racism.
 

Chetan Tawalker (standing in background) leads the "Race to Dismantle Racism" workshop.

Participants at the workshop discuss racism in American society.

Participants at the workshop discuss racism in American society.