Last week I just happened to turn on CNN at the exact moment
that President Obama walked into the White House press conference to make a
surprise statement in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin Murder trial
outcome. I almost never watch TV during
the day, but it was blazing hot and wicked humid out and I was stuck in the
house enjoying the AC. A little bored, I turned on the TV just in time to hear
the president make his extraordinary personal statement placing the reactions
of many African-American people to the Zimmerman acquittal in the larger
context of race and racism in the United States.
As someone who considers myself a white ally on issues of
race and racism, I was impressed by Obama’s statement and his intentional
injection of race and racism into the conversation about the Zimmerman trial. I
am so sick of hearing white people proclaim that racism is over and that this
particular incident had nothing to do with race. I am outraged that John Roberts and the
majority of the Supreme Court believe that it is no longer necessary to monitor
individual states’ efforts to make it difficult or impossible for poor people
and people of color to vote because racism is over according to their white
privileged world view.
I am angry that when African-Americans or other people of
color point out how race and racism are still prevalent and relevant in the
United States these efforts are attacked by white people as divisive attempts to
revive racial tensions of the past or dismissed as “biased” or “too sensitive.”
That is exactly what happened when Obama spoke out yesterday. The twitter world lit up with white conservative
politicians and pundits dismissing and criticizing his heartfelt statement.
The problem is not calling attention to race and racism and
demanding that we address the on-going institutional manifestations of it. The
problem is our inability as a nation and as individual citizens to acknowledge
that racism is still deeply embedded in the fabric of our culture and
ourselves. It is NOT calling attention
to the on-going significance of race and racism that is divisive; it is the
refusal to consider the effects of racism that is divisive. It is the dismissal
and erasure of the perspectives of people of color about their experiences in a
white-dominated culture that are problematic.
I do not expect blatant white racists to change their
perspectives any time soon. Neither do I expect the white conservative pundits
who claim that we live in a post-racial society to understand the complacent
naiveté of the white privilege embedded in their smug pronouncements. What I do expect is that white allies, me and
white people like me who claim to abhor racism, will stand up and speak out
alongside our friends and colleagues of color about the disturbing dismissal of
race and racism in our national and personal conversations about justice, both
legal and social.
It is simplistic and not productive to think that it is
enough to see oneself as a “good” white person who does not participate in or
condone overt acts of racism. This perspective places white people outside of
racism looking in. It separates white people from the need to engage in
self-reflection or action. This perspective enables “good” white people to
stand on the sidelines without confronting our own ignorance, fear, guilt and
privilege when it comes to difficult conversations about racism and the ways we
good white people are complicit in perpetuating it. The truth is that white people, all white
people, benefit from racism. Those of us who claim to believe in social justice
need to confront this uncomfortable reality.
Conversations about racism among white people are often complicated by our
guilt, fear and ignorance. Avoiding conversations about racism because we feel
guilty, afraid or uninformed is unacceptable. It is the nature of privilege
that it is difficult for those who have it to see it. Becoming aware of one’s privilege can be a
painful, yet liberating process. It is a process white people who claim to be
allies must engage in. President Obama called
this process soul searching. Unless “good” white people are willing to take on
this challenge (and the choice to refuse the challenge grows out of our
privilege), we will never effectively achieve racial justice and never
understand our roles in either perpetuating or eliminating racism.
Time Out.
If you are wondering why, in an LGBT sports blog, I am
talking about racism, then you are exactly who I would like to engage in this
conversation. A national conversation
among white people about white privilege and our roles in perpetuating racism,
consciously or unconsciously, is not only about the larger cultural issues of
racism and legal justice, voting rights, gun violence or poverty. We need to integrate these conversations into
our everyday lives including our LGBT sports advocacy, education and research.
To the extent that we unconsciously think of whiteness as
the “default” when we are talking about LGBT inclusion and discrimination in
sports, we are guilty of privileging white people and ignoring the experiences
of LGBT people of color.
Every time we plan an LGBT educational panel, conference
program, research project, course syllabus or workshop and fail to talk about
race and racism or include the voices of people of color, we perpetuate racism.
When we sit silently at LGBT sports educational or advocacy
events that do not include people of color or don’t even notice this lack of
representation, we are perpetuating racism.
When we leave it up to colleagues or friends of color to
speak out about racism or to remind us to include voices of color, we are enjoying
our white privilege.
When we discount the perspectives of people of color as “too
sensitive” or “seeing racism everywhere,” we privilege our own perspectives and
experiences over theirs.
When we congratulate ourselves for including a few people of
color in our programs without challenging our white privilege, we are
perpetuating racism.
If, when challenged about our ignorance, fear or lack of
action about racism, we let our discomfort or hurt feelings silence us, we are
retreating into our privilege.
If we claim to be white allies, but have not really taken on
the challenge of educating ourselves about racism and the white privilege
racism enables, then we are not really engaged in the kind of soul searching
that is required to reach our goal of full LGBT inclusion in sports.
One of the keys to social change is identifying our spheres
of influence and taking action to address social injustice in those
spheres. We must start with ourselves
and talk to other white people about white privilege and racism and then work
with people of color to challenge racism with the individuals and organizations
we are a part of.
That would be one way that we in the LGBT sports advocacy
world can challenge the white lie that race no longer matters and that racism
is no longer a problem in or out of sports.
I am in. Are you?
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