How to have more productive conversations about racism: Stop focusing on individual intent [View all]

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How to have more productive conversations about racism: Stop focusing on individual intent
Racism doesn't require that somebody consciously decide to do something racist. Focus on outcomes instead

By PATRICIA ROBERTS-MILLER
FEBRUARY 15, 2021 5:00PM


So, someone said they thought something we said or did was racist. Our first impulse is to say we aren't racist, and therefore we could never have intended to do or say something racist. And, therefore, what we said or did can't have been racist. But racism doesn't require that somebody consciously decide to do something racist.

Racism can be built into systems even without there being any individuals who have the conscious intent to be racist. Think about this in terms of how some people are physically excluded from some older buildings because the buildings are anti-accessible. I teach in a building that was designed to have heavy doors that are hard to open, stairs all over the place (often just for aesthetics), a ramp that is much too steep, one small elevator that doesn't go to one of the floors (where some instructors have office hours). The building was designed such that anyone who used a wheelchair, scooter, or even crutches or a cane was physically excluded. That exclusion was probably not conscious on the part of the architects or builders, but it was a manifestation of the beliefs at the time about what sorts of bodies were imagined to be part of the university community. There was no good reason to exclude people in wheelchairs and so on—they were perfectly capable of contributing to the university as much as anyone, except for the ways the university structures and institutional practices excluded them from doing so. That kind of cruel and unnecessary exclusion was the consequence of a sort of bigotry that is so widespread that participating in it doesn't require conscious thought—it can rely on thoughtlessness.

....(snip)....

We live and work within figurative structures that were designed to be racist, perhaps consciously, perhaps unconsciously—the intentions of the designers don't change the reality that the design is racist. The end goal of activism about accessibility is not to make those without disabilities feel shame and guilt; it's to motivate people to make the university more accessible. Indifference is as much a problem as hatred.

....(snip)....

If you persuade me that I'm a racist and I think being a racist means that I'm a monster, then I'm just left in a world of self-loathing and I'm not any less racist—or any less likely to do racist things. If you persuade me that I've said or done something racist, then I can stop saying or doing that thing: not because this conversation should be framed in terms of actions rather than identities out of concern for being nice to racists—or even being particularly careful about the feelings of people doing racist things—but because it's a more productive conversation to have overall. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/02/15/how-to-have-more-productive-conversations-about-racism-stop-focusing-on-individual-intent/