Eracism Minute April 8, 2018

Good morning,

My name is Lauralee Carbone, here to present an Eracism Minute, a minute of consciousness-raising on behalf of the BUF Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team. Eracism is defined as the removal from existence of the belief that one race is superior to another.

First I’d like to acknowledge the anti-racism work many of you are engaged in: you take weekly Eracism minutes to heart; you attend seminars like the recent “How to Talk to Your Racist Uncle;” you encourage your book groups to read books about race such as Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, Waking Up White by Debby Irving, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas; you’re googling concepts like “white supremacy,” “white fragility,” “checking your privilege,” “intersectionality,” “the school-to-prison pipeline,” and “microaggressions.” You’re attending some Black Lives Matter meetings both here at BUF and in the community and checking out the Racial Justice Coalition’s page on Facebook to keep up with local racism as well as reading about police brutality in the national news. You’re listening to your children-- they so often “get it” more than we do. You’re looking inward to your own heart and mind when feeling defensive in conversations about race. In other words, you’re adding to your anti-racism toolkit to navigate our complex racial landscape and taking action because you’ve learned that keeping silent is complicit in maintaining a racist culture.

I was recently given a new book by one of my BUF comrades, So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo. I’d like to share a passage that added one more tool to my anti-racism toolkit. It can further understanding of systemic racism among the people we interact with, linking the systemic effects of racism whenever we talk about racism. Here goes:

Instead of posting on Facebook: “This teacher shouted a racial slur at a Hispanic kid and should be fired!” you can say all that, and then add, “This behavior is linked to the increased suspension, expulsion, and detention of Hispanic youth in our schools and sets an example of behavior for the children witnessing this teacher’s racism that will influence the way these children are treated by their peers, and how they are treated as adults.”

Good, right? Here’s one more:

If you hear someone at the water cooler say, “black people are always late,” you can definitely say, “Hey, that’s racist,” but you can also add, “and it contributes to false beliefs about black workers that keeps them from even being interviewed for jobs, while white workers can be late or on time, but will always be judged individually with no risk of damaging job prospects for other white people seeking employment.” That also makes it less likely that someone will brush you off saying “Hey, it’s not that big of a deal; don’t be so sensitive.”

So there’s the new tool I’ll be practicing: tying individual racism to the system that gives it power, and hopefully making a difference in our culture.

Thank you,