Racism Isn’t About Race
by
Ted Miller
(originally published February 2018 in Tumbleweird)
“The
travel ban isn’t racist because Muslim isn’t a race.”
“Saying
all Mexicans are rapists isn’t racist because Mexican isn’t a race.”
“Referring
to some countries as shitholes isn’t racist because a country isn’t a race.”
“That
can’t be racist because <insert name of marginalized group here> isn’t a
race.”
I’ve
heard this logical fallacy repeated by people trying to defend a clearly racist
statement or action. But this argument is nothing more than a red herring, a
deflection from the very real issue of racism.
Debating
the meaning of “race” to avoid
acknowledging the evil of racism is,
itself, racist.
Race
is an arbitrary distinction that has no scientific basis. According to
dictionary.com, race is “a socially constructed category of identification based
on physical characteristics, ancestry, historical affiliation, or shared
culture.” Arguing about whether a discriminatory action or statement is based
on some narrow definition of race is irrelevant to whether it is racism.
I
don’t mean to imply that race isn’t important. Race is a significant part of
individual identity, like gender, culture, ancestry, sexual orientation,
religion, nationality, eye color, body type, or any number of other factors
that make us uniquely who we are. When race, or another facet of identity used
as a proxy for race, is used to marginalize a group—dividing us instead of
recognizing our common humanity—that divisiveness is racism.
In
the United States we have no aristocracy, no birthright that gives any one
citizen more rights than another. Our worth as a human being isn’t based on who
our parents are, where our ancestors came from, or the color of our skin. The
American ideal of human equality is captured in the opening words of the
Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal…” In two and a half centuries, our society and our laws have
come a long way toward that ideal, but we still have such a long way to go.
There
are those among us who work to undermine these self-evident truths. In their
view of the world, people are defined by their race and deserve to be treated
differently. To them, racial diversity is somehow a threat to America’s
greatness. In their divisive rhetoric, people are, to paraphrase Dr. King,
judged by the color of their skin and not by their character. In their mind, it
is justifiable to marginalize entire groups of people based solely on an
arbitrary definition of race or some other characteristic that ignores our
common humanity and inherent self-worth.
Racism
feeds on the idea that some of us are less human than others. Whether that type
of bigotry is based on skin color, cultural identity, religion, or national
origin, it is ignorant and hateful. And whether it is racism, misogyny,
homophobia, xenophobia, or any other term that places one group above another,
treating someone differently because of who they are is wrong and un-American.
History
teaches us that racism can lead a society to do abhorrent things that are
unacceptable; the subjugation of millions of Africans through slavery, the
murder of millions of Jews in the holocaust, the internment of our own citizens
based only on their Japanese ancestry. Few would argue that we should allow such
history to repeat itself.
But
racism exists in our society in ways that those of us with privilege are
unaware of or purposefully refuse to acknowledge. Systemic racism still exists
in housing, healthcare, employment, education, and criminal justice. We need to
acknowledge this and work to overcome it. We must face the fact that black and
Hispanic men are 2.8 and 1.7 times more likely to be killed by police than
whites1. We must push for changes in laws that disenfranchise
minorities through gerrymandering and voter suppression efforts. And we should
continue to call out racism whenever and wherever it raises its ugly head.
If you are
neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are
neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. – Bishop
Desmond Tutu
Maybe
your definition of race is narrower than mine, but that doesn’t change the fact
that racism exists. Maybe we need a new word to describe racism, but no matter
what you call it or how you define it, treating someone as less than human ignores
our common humanity and diminishes us all.
Anytime
we allow someone to be treated differently based on their identity, rather than
on their individual worth as a human being, we are complicit in racism.
1 Source: “Racial/Ethnic Disparities in the use of Lethal Force by
US Police, 2010-2014,” American Journal of Public Health, as reported by CNN,
December 20, 2016).
