“Martin Luther King Jr. called for us to be lovestruck with each other, not colorblind toward each other. To be lovestruck is to care, to have deep compassion, and to be concerned for each and every individual, including the poor and vulnerable” (x).

Paulo Freire coins the term "conscientization" in his book titled Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The term itself, which is translated from the original Portuguese as “consciousness raising” or “critical consciousness.” Freire writes that the term is about “learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality.” In a similar manner, “This book is not for everyone,” Michelle Alexander writes in the preface. "I have a specific audience in mind--people who care deeply about racial justice but who, for any number of reasons, do not yet magnitude of the crisis faced by communities of color as a result of mass incarceration.” As Alexander tells her own story, she readily confesses that as recently as ten years ago, she would have been deeply skeptical about the claims she herself is making in her book. And she freely admits that she was “beyond thrilled” at the election of our first black President (2). But the more she learned about our criminal justice system the more she became convinced that the result was a de facto New Jim Crow that “permanently locks a huge percentage of the African American community out of the mainstream society and economy” (13). The reason I mention Alexander’s own initial skepticism about a revitalized racial caste system in the U.S. as well as her celebration of President Obama’s election is because I don’t want any sense of overreaching, any sense that Alexander may be overstating the case for a New Jim Crow, to cause anyone to dismiss this work without wrestling with it seriously. I began by noting the sharply increased rates of mass incarceration because perhaps large segments of our society can at least agree that such high rates of incarceration are a trend that needs to be reversed, although the troubling privatization of prisons complicates any proposed reversals. One response to this dire situation could be despair. My own response when reading Alexander’s book oscillated somewhere between deep sadness and righteous anger. However, I believe the first step in transforming our Prison-Industrial Complex is raising awareness that there is even a problem, that the situation is much more complex than “getting tough on crime,” and that colorblindness may be more a part of the problem than the solution. To again quote Cornel West from the Foreword of Alexander’s book, the lesson West takes from MLK’s dream is that we are not called to be “colorblind toward each other” rather, we are called to be “lovestruck with each other” (x). The bottom line remains that the higher percentage of black males in the prison system and the practice of the justice system in forever labeling them, even after their sentence is served, as a new form of segregation (58). Thus, we relatedly need to do a much better job about teaching, promoting, and protecting our Fourth Amendment rights. Disturbingly, the trend in recent years has been many court rulings that seem to many to undermine the Fourth Amendment and encourage unreasonable search - including rampant racial profiling, contributing to a disproportionately high rate of incarceration for racial minorities. It should be our task not only to end mass incarceration but to permanently dismantle all oppressive systems that plague our society. This indubitably cannot be accomplished without implementing conscientization in our lives and being lovestruck with one another.

 Partaking in a thorough review of the United States as a nation founded (in part) on racist principles is necessary. We tend to underestimate the impact of systemic white racism, rationalizing it as an individual affair rather than a system of oppression involving 246 years of slavery and 90 years of Jim Crow for roughly 85 percent of our existence as a nation. Recently I watched a movie titled, Traces of the Trade, where the producer/director tells the story of her forefathers, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. The film follows the producer/director and nine fellow family members on a remarkable journey which brings them face-to-face with the history and legacy of New England’s hidden enterprise. The narrator states, “In Ghana, we attended a ceremony that was for people from throughout the African Diaspora who'd come back to their homeland. We were a conspicuous minority. The ritual was at a river in a town called Assin Manso. It's where captives, after being marched from inland, were brought for a last bath. They were washed and oiled, primed for sale at the coast. An African-American leader was performing a ritual to help people heal from the past. My cousin Dain asked if he could perform the ritual for us DeWolf descendants. The healer smiled and said he could do that, but he thought we should ask our own elders to play that role. I think he was basically saying go home. Look no further than your own backyard. Do the healing there, with each other. So I've come full circle, back to my community, back to the church that my family has attended for generations. And I don't know exactly what the ritual or the healing process would look like. But I do know that it should be grounded in the spirit of love for all. And I do know that we'll figure it out once we face the history...together.” I believe at the core of this statement is fundamentally Wise’s argument, “…if people such as that can be redeemed, then perhaps anything is possible – even justice and the end of white supremacy altogether” (156). Neither shame nor guilt are ineffective and are unnecessary in attempting to decipher: what is our responsibility? It takes bravery, empathy, and the effort of being cognizant to not simply tolerate but to accept and love individuals who are not similar to you, which is not an easy undertaking. We as a society need to heal together and forgive each other. However, along with this forgiveness there needs to be an awareness and commitment to bring about change within yourself and others.  Bell hooks states, “The moment we choose to love, we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love, we begin to move toward freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.” In congruence with Wise, I am not willing to simply give up on the fight because “what is required that we be prepared to die for our principles if need be, but even more so, to live them. So let us begin” (271). 

“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” As much as do not wish to quote a sensationalized figure, who is an embodiment of the erroneous “hard work” model like Steve Jobs, this quote has always resonated with me. Pain can force an individual out of a set mold, just as an insect or a crustacean departs its exoskeleton, life has strange ways to enforce enlightenment upon you. Wise, citing a quarrel (centered around race) with his mom states, “And for that experience I thank her, because without it, I may never have really seen how distorted white people could be as a result of racism” (91). Similarly, I honestly doubt I would be the aware self I am today if I did not see and hear the blatantly racist remarks my parents took part in. At least in my experience, I have found that for some peculiar reason, hurtful words of loved ones have the ability to puncture the depths of your heart and make it cry in ways a stranger never could. I was jaded, saddened, and frustrated with the consistent generalizations, which would spew out of my own mother and father’s lips. These generalizations would more often than not turn in to heavily negative stereotypes, which then would be applied to other members of the same race (it is worth mentioning this incident never occurred with anyone belonging to the white race). They have not (at least not yet) realized “what it means to be white: the murderous actions of one person do not cause every other white person to be viewed in the same light” (186). When do generalizations move into problematic stereotypes? Stereotypes are over-generalizations and they often involve assuming a person has certain characteristics based on unfounded assumptions. These stereotypes can easily lead to prejudice and result in some forms of discrimination. While generalizing helps us navigate our lives, stereotyping puts us in a dangerous place in which societal members are limited from their true potential and face barriers to contributing their talents and assets to the societal mix. I would like to believe this distinction is the precise differentiating factor between my parents and I. I can easily point out the instances where my parents’ words and at times actions towards blacks have hurt me tremendously because they could not embrace nor accept the shared humanity we all share. However, I can only connect the dots of my life looking backwards. As counter-intuitive it may seem, I would like to thank my parents and my extended family for every overtly racist comment ever uttered, for every instance where they felt it was perfectly acceptable for them to belittle the “inferiors” and place themselves up in a pedestal built upon a false sense of superiority. Thank you for every emotionally and psychologically draining and exasperating occurrence centered on race – there is no, nor will there ever be a replacement for those invaluable illuminations.

Wise’s early schooling experience, in relation to his early awareness of racial constructs propelled me to think about my own schooling system and the fact that I have been betrayed by the school system which consistently reminded me of the “perfect” nature of history when, in truth, this was never the case. I could not help but connect his narrative to my own life and consequently an article titled Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work by Jean Anyon. She observed five elementary schools over the course of a full school year and concluded that fifth-graders of different economic backgrounds (which correlates with race) are already being prepared to occupy particular rungs on the social ladder. Anyon describes that in two working-class schools (observed for the sake of her study), work is following the steps of a procedure. The procedure is usually mechanical, involving rote behavior and very little decision making or choice. The teachers rarely explain why the work is being assigned, how it might connect to other assignments, or what the idea is that lies behind the procedure or gives it coherence and perhaps meaning or significance. Available textbooks are not always used, and the teachers often prepare their own dittos or put work examples on the board. Most of the rules regarding work are designations of what the children are to do - the rules are steps to follow. These steps are told to the children by the teachers and are often written on the board. The children are usually told to copy the steps as notes. These notes are to be studied and work is often evaluated not according to whether it is right or wrong but according to whether the children followed the right steps. Now, if this is contrasted to the executive elite school, work is developing one's analytical intellectual powers. Children are continually asked to reason through a problem, to produce intellectual products that are both logically sound and of top academic quality. A primary goal of thought is to conceptualize rules by which elements may fit together in systems and then to apply these rules in solving a problem. 

School work helps one to achieve, to excel, to prepare for life. School experience, differed qualitatively by social class and race because the lower class schools/classes are almost always occupied predominately by minority students. In most instances, education the primary factor that influences one’s schema regarding social structures, race being one of them. Thus, by improving the "good" and disregarding the "bad" schools is creating the disparity among races even further, especially because education and income are tightly knit. All attempts to reform urban education are doomed to failure unless and until racism is remedied. There is a generational and systemic dysfunction, abusiveness, low expectations and incompetence within the school systems and an even more fundamental truth is that almost all schooling in the United States is inherently oppressive and dehumanizing. Wise states, “Even as my mother had stood up against the obvious bigot, she had dropped the ball just like everyone else when it came to institutionalized racism” (49). Education is indubitably one aspect where institutionalized racism is ubiquitous. Especially in scenarios where some students are given more preference over others: “Rudo confirmed everything they needed to believe about their nation. She was like a soothing balm, allowing them not only to push away concerns about institutional racism, but also avoid confronting their own biases, which played out against the other black students in their classes every day” (51). This is precisely what the majority of pre-secondary education serves to do today – instead of providing factual and realistic occurrences, the focus in on maintaining the “harmonious” status quo, no matter how fallacious. It is extremely difficult to dismantle oppressive systems. The oppressors and the oppressed are equally captive, equally invested. A loving, life-affirming education system would be threatening to the established order, and many vested interests would be dislodged by a truly revolutionary education consciousness.

“Hold fast to dreams,

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird,

That cannot fly.”

― Langston Hughes

Courage is not something you have. Courage is something you learn.

The ability to go against the grain is a tremendously difficult task. Wise, as “a privileged white member of the society,” demonstrates this courage in adamantly stating that whites have to accept that their advantage in life has been passed on from their families who have also had advantages given to them from the government. That is the true meaning of the word, “inheritance” (24). Often times we do not recognize what we have been blessed with, we take some, if not most things prevalent in our lives for granted and examining why certain things are especially beneficial is an incredibly difficult task to undertake.  This is essentially true for what Wise is attempting to do with white privilege – deconstructing how his life has been impacted by the whiteness of his skin and how his life has been structured. 

Wise goes on to state, “My mom did what she should have done, and what any white parent in that situation should do. But there is an interesting aspect to this story that is equally worthy of attention, and which demonstrates that even in our acts of allyship we sometimes miss the larger issues” (48). To transcend this issue one needs to and must want to deconstruct your life.  To scrutinize every essence of your makeup is not something innate, something one is born with but rather learned. I myself had to recognize that (although I am not white) I do benefit from the racist structure we have at play. I need to become hyper aware in most situations because race permeates every aspect of my life.  Wise often states that although his mother actively encouraged the immersion in diverse spaces, she did not completely understand institutionalized racism, which is something I have struggled with tremendously in the past. Mustering up courage to confront the members of my own family, my friends, or myself regarding institutionalized racism led me to often ponder: how much more progress would we need make for racial justice? I have since then learned that even if it means that I need to fight this vicious fight alone, it is my duty as moral, responsible, being to see each other’s colors and accepting that color, without simply tolerating it. Courage grows when we try something risky and hard, and come out on the other side more or less intact. It becomes more “natural” the more we practice it. And when we do it enough to actually experience from-the-inside-out the liberation and freedom of not being silent, not compromising our moral compass, not swallowing our voice we start to crave liberation and freedom so deeply that acting and speaking with courage becomes almost a default position. And not only courage, but we can learn to see, understand, and feel deeply the landscape of race in ways that make it possible for us to respond constructively (and courageously) to racism in daily ongoing ways, large and small. Of course, this won’t come naturally. As in the case of courage, our socialization in a white dominated, white supremacist, and patriarchal society works directly against developing deep learning. Courage is learned. If it is wanted, it can be learned. 

"Your silences will not protect you…What are the words you do not yet have? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? We have been socialized to respect fear more than our own need for language.

Next time, ask: What’s the worst that will happen? Then push yourself a little further than you dare. Once you start to speak, people will yell at you. They will interrupt you, put you down and suggest it’s personal. And the world won’t end.

And the speaking will get easier and easier. And you will find you have discovered your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And at last you’ll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking." - Audre Lorde

Taylor indubitably brings up various scenarios/instances where racism is ubiquitous. However, his central motive behind this chapter and consequently this book resides in the fact that he is attempting to state that all oppression is intertwined - everything from immigration, exploitation, to exceedingly imbalanced incarceration of blacks (especially men). A quote from bell hooks comes to mind which encapsulates Taylor’s main premise behind this chapter/book. She states, “Until we are all able to accept the interlocking, interdependent nature of systems of domination and recognize specific ways each system is maintained, we will continue to act in ways that undermine our individual quest for freedom and collective liberation struggle. The ability to acknowledge blind spots can emerge only as we expand our concern about politics of domination and our capacity to care about the oppression and exploitation of others.” The inauguration of President Obama is indubitably a triumphant occurrence. However, linking this to post-racial beliefs, it simply provides a “justification” for our colorblind and “post-racial” society.  Taylor mentions in chapter 4, that Latinos are now dominate paid domestic work, like African Americans once did (144). When analyzing history, the dominant white supremacist, capitalist, and patriarchal system has always oppressed or exploited the “inferior” minority.  It is no coincidence that illegal Latinos are the new exploited group in the United States, taking the place of African Americans, who “gained their rights” (186). Thus, minorities (i.e. non-whites) have been and still are among the most exploited groups in the world. Taylor states, “The post racialist concludes that we have put race behind us and embarked on a new phase of human social relations” (184). However, race does matter – and as Michelle Alexander eloquently stated, “it is time for us to wake up from the slumber of colorblindness.” Although one’s skin color does require acknowledgement, an individual possess more layers than simply what is visible in the exterior - a person is more than simply than the pigment of their skin. Combating thoughts dominated by post-racial ideologies requires the realization that being a human means to see humanity in us all.

A thought experiment was proposed by a member of the class: “What if race didn’t exist? Would there still be some form of hierarchy and/or discriminating factor among individuals?” After contemplating for a bit I began to ask myself why is this question even being asked and especially in this particular class. It is at that moment I realized that while thought experiments or certain hypotheticals are incredibly intriguing, they do not offer practical answers to realistic issues (such as race, which cannot be removed). Additionally, the fact that someone was even implying the idea of eliminating race was especially problematic. It is not always recognized that “past instances of racism still shape current social conditions…current instances of racism can be mediated by such deep-seated  psychological attitudes and well established institutional arrangements that they can easily avoid detection” (Taylor, 126). Additionally, racial constructionism “insists that we can effectively work on shaping our lives and ourselves only if we accurately gauge the conditions under which we do this work” (Taylor, 129). This is precisely why race-thinking is crucial. It should not be our goal to merely “eliminate” or tolerate each other’s races but one has to learn to be accepting and willing to be consciously engaged in metacognition without fearing the presence or belittling of another who possesses a different exterior. It is also worth pointing out that every injustice is intertwined and that it is not simply the black race that has suffered the harsh consequences of a white supremacist, capitalist, heterosexual, and patriarchal system. It is briefly mentioned that Latinos are now dominate paid domestic work, like African Americans once did (Taylor, 144). It is no coincidence that Latinos are the new exploited group in the United States (taking the place of African Americans). And taking into consideration the interlocking nature of race and exploitation, it is also not a coincidence that minorities (i.e. non-whites) have been and still are among the most exploited groups in the world. It is incredibly easy to go about life being unconscious of your thinking and actions, keep from going through your comfortable and respectable life as slave to your head, day in and day out. However, in order to even attempt to combat any oppressive system, the individualistic internal change needs to first precede any external action. Therefore, double consciousness, especially for whites, entails an omnipresent acknowledgement of the historical legacy of white identity constructions in the persistent structures of inequality and exploitation, as well as the comprehension of the fact that looking at one self through the eyes of others and continually being paralleled to the negativities of subordinations is not an easy burden to be carried by a soul. 

Covert Racism

Most would agree that society is stratified by occupation, income, and educational attainment. However, race is equally a factor in this stratification of individuals. With reference to color coded modern races, whites remain at the top and black Americans would be near the bottom (Taylor, 81).  In context of the United States we currently reside in, significant weight should be given to the structures created by racism, which, while clearly lessened, still lingers in the form of laissez-faire racism and, of course, covert racism. It is important to note that Taylor successfully intertwines the racialized play of symbolic capital and the distribution of goods (Taylor, 83). Therefore, it is incredibly problematic that the majority of our class continually attempts to justify that it is not an individual’s race but instead their economic class that matters. Perhaps it is the presence of a black president that has encouraged so many to believe that race is simply no longer a significant factor. It is true that we have come a long way since the days of Jim Crow segregation. However, the plain fact is that race still matters. It matters with the alarming frequency in the encounters of young black men with the police and perhaps incarceration, the ability to get access and retain affordable housing, and the preservation of wealth accumulated by families. I have personally observed hints of covert racism in the language used by our class, which focuses predominantly on avoiding blatant honesty and is instead adamantly focused on “how not to offend others.” There have been a plethora of "we" statements but an incredibly few "I" confessions. Additionally, without hesitation, I am willing to admit that our class (more specifically, white members of the class) have mastered the art of not recognizing (intentionally or unintentionally) the racial privileges they experience on a daily basis. To date, I am able to recall only one white individual who has outwardly identified themselves as racist. As difficult as it might be, I firmly believe that without the honest will for this recognition and acceptance of the white race, the white privilege that accompanies this race, and perhaps the involvement in covert racism from the white members of the class, we indubitably cannot take a step forward to becoming a more racially conscious group of individuals (Taylor, 116) and engage in an utterly sincere and fulfilling exchange of sentiments. 

Biology & Race

It is not simply in class that the notion of biology has arisen. More often than not, this is the central argument that is chosen to defend why people are different, in terms of race and I have found this to be especially irksome and exceedingly disturbing. I believe that it is important to state that there is not a single biological element unique to any of the groups we call white, black, Asian, Latino, etc. There has never been a successful scientific way to justify any racial classification in biology. This is not to say that humans don’t vary biologically, we evidently do, a lot.  However, that variation is not racially distributed. If your thinking deviates from this notion, I would highly recommend doing some degree of independent research (to start, there are some links to studies I have attached below). While race is not biology, racism can undoubtedly affect our biology, especially our health.  Racial social structures, from access to health care to one’s own racialized self-image, have the ability to impact the ways our bodies and immune systems develop. This means that race, while not a biological unit, can have important biological implications because of the effects of racism. Thus, solutions to racial inequalities and the problems of race relations are not going to emerge if a large percentage of the public holds on to the myth of biological races. There is currently one biological race in our species: Homo sapiens, and that does not mean that what we call “races” don’t exist. However, an issue arises when there are constructions of racial classifications, not as units of biology, but as ways to lump together groups of people with varying historical, linguistic, ethnic, religious, or other backgrounds (Taylor, 49). Additionally, these categories are not stagnant, they change over time as societies grow and diversify and alter their social, political and historical make-ups.

There is no genetic sequence unique to blacks or whites or Asians. In fact, these categories don’t reflect biological groupings. Its was difficult for me to believe (when I first learned) that there is more genetic variation in the diverse populations from the continent of Africa (who some would lump into a “black” category) than exists in all populations from outside of Africa (the rest of the world) combined. Additionally, there are no specific racial genes and even something thought to be as omnipresent as skin color works only in a limited manner as dark or light skin tells us only about an individual’s ancestry relative to the equator, not anything about the specific population or part of the planet they might be descended from. Therefore, the biological argument is inherently flawed because it does not hold any factual evidence.

Human DNA Sequences - More Variation and Less Race:

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/62133/21011_ftp.pdf?sequence=1

Human Variation: http://personal.uncc.edu/jmarks/pubs/tenfacts.pdf

September 1, 2013

Language is an element which is prevalent everywhere. However, it is exceedingly imperative to realize that it is more often than not non-verbal and similarly, racism is not simply verbal but largely non-verbal. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writes in The Letter from Birmingham Jail, “when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people.” Race talk is ubiquitous but it does not by any means have to be verbal. “Interpretive devices” and “expressive devices” (17) are significant in that they shape how one shapes their thinking and action in the world. Thus, race is something that needs to be deliberately thought about on a daily basis if the definitive aim is to combat racism. Pensive thoughts and scrutiny of your daily engagements are not easy tasks.  Therefore, it requires an individual to purposefully think and act in a manner where love is unconditional for everyone, which requires a tremendous degree of audacity to accomplish. We know how to categorize people and often we also involuntarily know how we are hypothetically to “treat them.” However, it takes bravery, empathy, and the effort of being cognizant to not simply tolerate but to accept and love individuals who are not similar to you, which is not an easy undertaking. bell hooks states that “Love is really more of an interactive process. It's about what we do not just what we feel. It's a verb, not a noun.” This act of loving does not and should not simply apply to race – it should apply to every “social identity” (13). It takes a conscious effort to not simply say “I don’t see color” or “I don’t see race” because if an individual is making such claims, simply put, they must be blind to not see the most important aspect of our society’s eclecticism. We as a society love compartmentalizing our lives – weather it is economic status, sexual identity, or any other marker and the same is indubitably true for race. One needs to learn to love all without normative social influence.