The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan in Color
Wednesday, October 31 2018— 7A

NOLAN FELICIDARIO/Daily

Figure 1

WILLA HUA/Daily

Figure 2

WILLA HUA/Daily

Figure 3

The University of Michigan just
scored an “F” on racial equity in
a public university study. And
since we are in the spirit of writ-
ing guides, I thought it would
only be right to create a guide
where a Black student attempts
to educate their peers on how to
be a little more civil and cultur-
ally competent.
I write this to the incoming col-
lege student, and anyone who
might’ve gotten too much expo-
sure to Fox News. I write this to
all of the racist, sexist, bigots in
the classroom and around cam-
pus. I write this to the parents
who failed miserably to educate
their pasty-ass kids in their lily-
white neighborhoods. I write
this to the professors who’ve
essentially told me that they’re
sorry, but I need to sit down,
shut up, and deal with it. I write
this as solace — in solidarity to
those who have had to put up
with too much for too long from
their oppressors.
“I am tired of being sick and
tired.” — Fannie Lou Hamer

How to not be racist: a starter guide for UM

Basics/101- (Shit You Should Know, But Your Parents Probably Failed to Learn and Teach You)

Common Myths that derail actual conversations on racism

MYTH 1: The Irish were

slaves, too. You don’t see me
complaining.

The Irish were never slaves.
“While it is true that anti-

Irish sentiment was present in
the United States until well into
the 20th century, but that is a
separate issue from 17th century
indentured servitude,” Leslie
Harris, a professor of African-
American history at Northwestern
University, said. “The descendants
of indentured servants, Irish or
otherwise, did not face a legacy
of racism similar to the one faced
by people of African descent.”
Harris also notes “an indenture
implies two people have entered
into a contract with each other
but slavery is not a contract . . . It
is often about being a prisoner of
war or being bought or sold bodily
as part of a trade. That is a critical
distinction.”

MYTH 2: Asians are able

to pull themselves up by their
bootstraps — why can’t you all?

Asians are not, and have

not, been subjected to the same
complex and purposeful systems
that were built to oppress Blacks.

Let me emphasize: Asians

definitely were (and are)
discriminated against. There
were lynch mobs, housing
discrimination, internment camps
and immigration quotas to oppress
Asian people. But the system that
oppressed Blacks has been here
longer, was enforced more brutally
and has remained to this day.

Let us not forget: Asians were

not subjected to as heavily as
a community to slavery, black
codes, segregation, redlining,
ghettos, police brutality and prison
systems. And let’s remember that
stereotypes cast Asians as smart
and workaholics, while Blacks are
portrayed as lazy, dangerous and
dumb. These stereotypes can cost
jobs, opportunities and even lives.

The struggles that Asians and

Blacks went, and continue to go
through, are completely different.
Asians came over mostly as willing

economic migrants or as refugees
fleeing war. Blacks were forcefully
taken from their homelands to
work as slaves.

3. MYTH: I am not

responsible for my ancestors’
ills.

Yes, yes you are. Whether

your ancestors owned slaves
and exploited their labor to
gain familial wealth, or you are
simply white, you are benefitting
from a system created to help
you succeed. Most recently, the
history of immigration law, civil
rights law, and this country at
large has one people’s history at
large. Name one law that helped
Black people that wasn’t undoing
some shit white people did.

You benefit from their ills every

day.

As Jeanne Curran, a emeritus

faculty member at California
State University-Dominguez
Hill campus wrote, “When past
actions, such as colonialism and/
or slavery, exploited some and

privileged others, the exploitations
and privileges became part
of our system of law through
the unstated assumptions of
privilege. The law was created
by the privileged, and so
reflects their perspective to the
exclusion of the perspective of
those colonized, enslaved, or
exploited. To the extent that
we continue to take advantage
of the unstated assumptions of
privilege on which our current
system is based, we continue to
bear responsibility for the effects
those unstated assumptions have
on people harmed by them.” She
goes on to say, “Institutional
racism is racism that arises
from the rules and normative
structure of social interaction
in personal relationships and in
institutions, rather than from any
discriminatory or racist intent of
an individual perpetrator. In other
words, some acts of discrimination
and racism occur because
someone, operating on racist
or discriminatory assumptions

and beliefs, intends to exclude or
harm a specific group or person.
But other acts of discrimination
and racism occur simply because
‘that’s the way we do things,’ or
because ‘we’re just following the
rules.’”

MYTH 5: Get over it. Slavery

was so long ago.

Lol. See figure 5 in the online

version.

For more on why you shouldn’t

blame Black people for what you
did to them.


MYTH 5: Africans were

complicit, and sold other Blacks
into slavery.

Africans and Europeans

had different definitions and
understandings of what a slave
was, so don’t even start with
“Africans were complicit in the
slave trade” when there is little
evidence to support that they did
understand the totality of what
they were doing.

A.B.

MiC Contributor

“Why is it so easy for white

people to fix their barely-there
lips or curl their fingers to tell
people of color to leave the
country if they don’t like it?

I wanna ask them why

they don’t leave? Most, if not
all, white people know their
lineage. So why not go back to
where they came from? After
all, their ancestors chose to
come here. Mine were stolen
from Africa.” — WOC Allies

White people have been

saying “Go back to your
country” for ages, even though
they all should be the first to

leave. You stole this country
from Native Americans. You
committed genocide to keep
it. You profited off Black and
people of color’s labor for
centuries to build this nation.
You even created immigration
loopholes to benefit from
cheap labor. See: the Bracero
Program. And now you want
us to leave, so you can reap
all the benefits? Further,
many racists assert that if
you acknowledge how racism
affects you, a community
or any social or political
interaction, you are playing

the victim.

I’m here to tell you — that’s

categorically false.

If someone stabs you, do you

just say, “Oh, it’ll heal itself”?
Acknowledging institutional
racism exists isn’t antithetical
to social progress.
Acknowledging wrongdoing
is the healthiest way to move
on and repair damage that has
been done to communities for
centuries.

Someone is not a victim

for acknowledging what has
happened to them.

Racism is not over. It is built

into the fabric of American
society — into how suburbs, cities,
education systems, income levels
and every single tier of existence
are created. This system, which
has been fashioned in America over
centuries, is far too complex to be
broken down in this starter guide.
But to be fair, let’s look at just a few
recent statistics on discrimination.

Blacks and whites in Educational

Attainment:

As you can see from the data in

figure 1, Blacks and Hispanics are
enrolling more in college than ever
— but why are they conferring less
bachelor’s degrees?

Spoiler alert: It’s not because

they’re lazy. Maybe it’s due to the
institutional barriers they’ve been
facing since they were children.

The idea of education being the

great equalizer is a tall tale at best.
The “American dream” is largely
dead. And even though exceptions
exist, social mobility has remained
stagnant and even decreased over

the past 30 years.

In Harvard’s “Civil Rights

Project,” “Lee and Orfield identify
family background as the most
influential factor in student
achievement. A correlation exists
between the academic success of
parents with the academic success
of their children. Only 11% of
children from the bottom fifth earn
a college degree while 80% of the
top fifth earn one.”

Maybe institutional and

generational wealth has something
to do with all of this, because

“But I’m not racist! I don’t see

race! I’m colorblind.”

In any conversation about race

in modern America, resorting to
“colorblindedness” is a defense
mechanism in order to avoid
talking about race because you
“don’t see it.”

“But then what do you do at a

stop light?” — Trevor Noah

Put bluntly in the words

of writer Hayley Burroughs,
colorblindedness does the
following:

“It denies cultural heritage and

negative racial experiences.

It fails to acknowledge the

racial construction of whiteness
and supports systems of privilege
and oppression.

It discourages people from

acknowledging the racism they
face.

It views racism at the

individual level without looking at
the larger societal, institutional,
and structural mechanisms in
which racism operates.

It assumes we live in a country

where race no longer matters,
even though is still a major issue.

It invalidates people’s

identities.

It narrows white people’s

understanding of the world,
disconnecting them.”

We all see color, or, more

importantly, are capable of
understanding that someone’s
race affects how they move
throughout the world. We know
that obtaining money/resources
does not alleviate racial struggle.
As a result, colorblindedness
ideology encourages and fosters
racism, as it fails to recognize the
economic, political and social
differences within race.

Racism is alive and well in

America. And it’s not going away
anytime soon.

Racism is not just being a part of

the Ku Klux Klan. Racism is also an
attitude, in which you would prefer
not to get involved with issues of
race, or understand how race works
and operates to keep minorities
around you disenfranchised. Racism

is putting your own comfort over
the lives of the marginalized and
oppressed.

In America, you have two options

when it comes to racism:

1. Ignore all of this, and continue

perpetuating the problems.

OR
2. See exactly how this is, fight

against it and stand up to it.

Sitting and repeating “I’m not

racist” does absolutely nothing to
change racism. And pretending that
you do not see it definitely does not

change anything.

I am tired of sitting in a class full of

white racist students who have done
nothing to educate themselves on
how race works and operates in this
country.

Their “opinions” work to maintain

the status quo and actively endanger
my livelihood.

I wrote this so that you can be

better, and so that this country doesn’t
have to fall for the same reasons Rome
did: the failure to incorporate people
of different backgrounds into society.

Blacks and whites in

Unemployment:


“In 1954, the earliest

year for which the Bureau of
Labor Statistics has consistent
unemployment data by race,
the white rate averaged 5% and

the black rate averaged 9.9%.
Last month, the jobless rate
among whites was 6.6%; among
blacks, 12.6%. Over that time, the
unemployment rate for blacks has
averaged about 2.2 times that for
whites.” - PEW Research Center

Is it clear yet?
Disparities between whites and

Blacks exist. Racism is alive and
well.

“Victim Mentality”/ “Victimhood”/ “If you don’t like it here, then leave!”
Colorblindness

Racism Is Over

people of color haven’t had

access to the “old boys network,”
or nepotistic practices — those
white people have had to keep
their wealth insulated for years.

Blacks and whites in Household

Income:

The data in figure 2 show

that there is around a $30,000
income disparity between the
median Black household income
and the median white household
income.
Spoiler alert: it’s not

that the Blacks are lazy!

“In 2016, the most recent

year for which all of these data
are available, the median black
worker earned 75 percent of what
the median white worker earned
in an hour; the median black
household earned 61 percent of
the income the median white
household earned in a year; and
the value of net worth for the
median black family was just
10 percent of the value for the
median white family. Related
to these relative proportionate
differences is also a wide range

of absolute differences. While
median hourly wages vary
by a few dollars ($14.92 for
black workers, $19.79 for white
workers), the difference in median
household income is tens of
thousands of dollars ($39,490
for black households, $65,041
for white households), and the
difference in median family net
worth is hundreds of thousands of
dollars ($17,600 for black families,
$171,000 for white families).” -
Valerie Wilson, Economic Policy
Institute

The rest of this guide will be published online on

Thursday, November 1. To view the published guide,

visit michigandaily.com/section/MiC.