I wrote this in 2005, after a spate of debates about whether or not men could call themselves feminists. (I say yes!) It’s not exactly what I’d write now, but I offer it, for what it’s worth.
I have been reading on the feminist blogosphere a few potent debates. One is about the existence of male feminists, who some women believe are “rare as unicorns.” One is about the racial tensions in feminism. To these two debates, I respond:
I Am an Anti-Racist Racist.
I am Racist. I am not color blind. When I meet someone, I note their race. I make instant assumptions about people based on their race. Such as: I assume non-whites will be liberal. Such as: I assume black women to be more enlightened than other people. Such as: I assume young black men in certain styles of dress to be threatening. Such as: I assume Asian men will be nice; I assume Native Americans will understand privation and despair; I assume Mexican men will be sexist; I assume many other things. I try to correct these assumptions when contradictory evidence occurs. I try to correct these assumptions when I notice them.
Writing this list is painful. This is because I am not on easy terms with being racist.
If I believed I was color blind, I would still be racist. Being color blind is a privilege of whiteness. I would not really be color blind.
I benefit from systems of privelege, as a white woman. I operate in the world with the assumption of the absense of race. When my whiteness becomes part of the equation, it is a shock to me. I am used to being part of the majority. I am not used to beind judged on my color, subjected to violence, or viewed as property. I am used to being treated seriously at interviews. I am used to being treated as someone with the capacity to be intellectual. I am used to being treated with modern forms of chivalry. I am used to people accomodating me and making space for me, when there are not accomodations or space for everyone. These benefits make me racist, because they are denied people of color, and because they are earned from the dehumanization of people of color.
I am Anti-Racist. I believe race is a social construction. I believe race is a damaging social construction used to make people into things they aren’t, used to make people less, used to hurt people. I believe people of color deserve more assistance and consideration in the public square as part of an attempt to correct historical balances of power which have kept many people of color economically and socially disadvantaged. I believe whiteness is a form of social capitol, and that this system must be demolished.
I believe in writing and saying radical things about race. I believe in saying them in circumstances when racism is being engaged in, unnoticed. I believe in challenging racism. Nevertheless, I do not always challenge racism or do so in appropriate ways. I believe in challenging my racial privelege. Yet I benefit from it. I believe it is my duty to be informed on racism. Nevertheless, I don’t read as much as I could. I believe in writing fiction that challenges racism. I acknowledge my racism may appear in my fiction anyway.
I know that I need to be told when to shut up, when to listen to people of color and not to myself. I know that anger will be directed to me and that, in addition to reacting as an emotional being, I need to listen to the message behind that anger. I know that, because of my race, I represent many things to many people, and that sometimes my perspectives will be judged by my color. I need to acknowledge that when that occurs, people are reacting out of deep hisotrical scarring, and that reaction is reasonable. I need to expect criticism. I need to be comfortable with criticism. I need to act anyway, despite the fact that I will be justifiably criticized. I need to allow people to tell me when I have strayed, I need to allow anger directed toward me, I need to learn about the racist places in my soul depsite the fact it hurts, and I need to continue acting in anti-racist ways despite and because of these things.
I need to keep learning. I need to act more. I need to fight my racism as well as other people’s racism. I need to follow other people’s lead. I need to know when to listen. I need to educate myself.I need to be and act as often as I can as an anti-racist. I need to acknowledge I will always be racist.
I believe that contradiction is possible. I believe that it is possible for people to be not just Anti-Racist Racists, but Sexist Feminists; Homophobic Queer Supporters; Transphobic Trans-supporters; and others. I believe people should strive to be these things. I believe that these categories should be respected. I believe that ideology can be embraced by anyone, despite their physical circumstances, and despite their mental conditioning. I believe that these ideologies should not be embraced lightly or easily, but as hard mental work. I believe these identities represent a continuum of progress — I am not the kind of anti-racist I was in high school, nor am I the anti-racist I hope to be. I believe the work of Anti-Racist Racists and other contradictory identities should never eclipse the work of people of color, women, queers, transsexuals, etc. Nevertheless, I beleive that it is important to embrace a conflicted identity that acknowledges both barriers to be overcome, and aspirations to be striven for.
I think that’s a beautifully written post.
Acknowledgement is the first step.
I think this is a really excellent post.
“It I contradict myself, I contradict myself. I am large and contain multitudes.” ~Walt Whitman
I think the notion of a completely coherent/ logically valid belief system is a myth and is anti-human.
Not bad. As a woc I have what I call my “Good white people days” and my “Bad white people days” today was shaping up to be a “Bad white people day” but you just made it a little brighter.
Great post. As a white woman, I know that racism is white people’s problem, and it’s cowardly to just walk away when you can say or do something in a constructive way that might change people’s minds about how they think about race and racism. What’s been most disappointing to me is how hard that is to do, and how little other white people think that race is a factor in everyday life – how willfully blind we are.
On a forum far, far away, I commented on the racism I thought was present in an article in the local paper, and people jumped all over me for it – demanding proof of the author’s racism, wanting to know where I got off making such vicious accusations, etc. I explained myself (twice), but people just willfully misunderstood me. And I know that this is nothing (nothing!!) compared to what POC experience in the real world (as opposed to the internet world).
It is not an insight at all to say that white people blindly hold on to our priviledge, but it is disappointing.
“I assume Mexican men will be sexist”
To me, there is a diference between Mexican Immigrants living in the U.S. and Mexicans who live in Mexico. I hardly ever see people treat them as the two different groups that they are. Though sexism is a definite trait of hispanic culture, it is exagerated through stereotipes and a large groups of immigrants in the U.S. who unfortunately for the most part do a terible job of representing our culture.
Did you know that Women in Mexico were allowed to vote sooner than women in the U.S.?
Did you also know that women in Mexico do not automatically take on their husbands last name?
I enjoyed your post though. I always get upset when people in Mexico generalize in their so called opinions about Americans and the U.S.
Regards.
Seth makes an important point: immigrant groups (not just in the US and certainly not just Mexicans) tend to be more conservative than the people still living in the culture of origin.
Which is important, as people living in the dominant culture, such as Anglo Americans, tend to get their stereotypes from immigrants, and then apply them to people still living in the culture the immigrants came from (god, this is hard to express accurately).
Also, Seth: sexism is as big a part of Anglo culture as Hispanic, it’s just expressed in slightly different ways. Because Anglos tend to see their own culture as “normal”, though, they are able to see Hispanic sexism more easily and, because it’s different, they classify it as “worse” and “more.”
Those are really good points, chrys and Seth.
I think what I meant when I was originally writing the post two years ago is that “I assume that there’s a greater chance that I will be verbally sexually harrassed on the street by Mexican-American men, or that the women I am with will be verbally sexually harrassed on the street by Mexican-American men, than by Anglo men.”
Partially, this is because I’m overweight, and so I’ve tended to get more aggressive attention from non-white men. Partially, it’s also the culture of where I live: in my experience, anglo men in the silicon valley tend to be less verbally sexually aggressive than anglo men in, say, NYC, where I’m more likely to be approached by white or non-white men than by either group in the silicon valley.
However, the fact that I would condense verbal sexual harrassment to sexism in general is itself probably an illustration of chrys’s point.
That was an excellent post. I believe that the world needs to change its veiws on a lot of things, not just race. If we constantly observe the flaws in things, then we ignore the flaws in ourselves, which if left ignored, eventually leave us embittered. See, when we acknowledge flaws in someone else’s beliefs or race or sexuality, we give them the ability to prove us wrong. If we are proven wrong, then anger takes over.
I am very anti-racist, but I must admit that I have known and even respected some racist indivisuals. Even my own father was racist. He would always talk about people behind their back, and it angered me. So, I humbled him by telling him I am homosexual. Now, he is quiet, because he realizes that he is not perfect himself.
Thank you for such a wonderful post. It takes people who are willing to speak out and stand up to change the world.