I have to admit to occasionally performing social media experiments. It isn’t scientific, and it doesn’t prove anything conclusive but it does make one think. On Facebook, I find that anytime I post anything about people of color and racism it is mostly ignored. If anyone is brave or interested enough to find out what I am saying, it is usually a person of color. For example, in the last week, I posted the Silent Beats video which a classmate posted in our classroom forum. I also posted a question about whether people feel the law is impartial when it comes to race. In one instance the only person to share was an indigenous person. I had a few more responses when I posted a YouTube video of how a person of color was discriminated against during a hockey game. Again, most of the “likes” were people of color. The reason it means anything at all to me is that I normally have a fair number of people of all races like my posts, but I have tested my theory time and time again and find that when I post thing anything about racism or people of color, I hear crickets. Not scientific, but interesting.
White people are afraid to hear anything said about the possibility that we could be racist. DiAngelo presents a very accurate description of White fragility in the Globe and Mail article when she says Whites are “highly fragile” when they talk about race or White worldviews. After all, in this day and age, racism isn’t REALLY a thing anymore, right? After all, Canada is a multi-cultural country, and we are very accepting. Except that it isn’t. Except that people of color are afraid to tell us how they really feel because it might make their situation worse, or hurt our feelings, and so they don’t tell us. No one wins. Certainly not People of color, who live with the consequences of institutional racism on a daily basis. Certainly not Whites who could be changing the future, growing as people and helping to tear down institutionalized racism. Our feelings get hurt, we feel bad, we feel guilty. We don’t want to be THAT person.
It is difficult for many of us to accept that racism still exists on such a grand scale. Many of us were brought up to keep the status quo, not shake the boat. We were told that racism was an individual issue, not a systemic institutionalized one. We know racism is bad, but it is always that one person over in the distance. The loudmouth redneck who spews racial slurs to whomever will listen. It is the bad people at a hockey game in another locale shouting racist slurs to a man of color. It is the couple of police officers in a department who treat Indigenous people in a discriminatory fashion. There are always a couple of bad apples, but it isn’t us.
I equate racism with the way rape is viewed. I don’t think they are the same, and they have different consequences, but they present in similar ways. There are the “grey” areas people pretend to ignore, the guy at the office who is a little too grabby, the jokes told in front of the secretary that make her blush, and the phrase, “boys will be boys.” and it escalates from there up to rape. Like the rape scenario, there are escalating levels of racism. There are the microaggressions such as the racist jokes, asking people where they are “really” from, or indicating surprise that a Person of Color can be smart. There is the person who says he is “OK” with People of Color immigrating from other countries. It is the security of our country he is concerned with. White immigrants from Europe, Britain and Ireland are OK however. The person of color becomes guilty by association of having colored skin. It also escalates from there, It can be difficult to find jobs, racial profiling happens, sometimes People of color find it difficult to obtain the finances and education White people are able to access. There are also the hate crimes we often hear about. These are all things that White people don’t have to worry about. We tell ourselves as White people that we aren’t the extreme version of racist like something you would see in a movie set in the South. As long as we aren’t that type of racist we are OK.
Once when I lived in Calgary, I witnessed a crime. An Indigenous girl and a white girl walked out of a store at the same time. An alarm went off, and a security guard came out and grabbed the Indigenous girl. The white girl made a run for it. It became immediately obvious who had stolen an item. White equals innocence, therefore the guard grabbed the wrong girl.
Indigenous women have been going missing for years. Only recently have the police been taking it seriously, yet when a white person goes missing, especially a young girl or woman, the media response is a million times stronger. Often the sentiment for a Person of Color is that someone from her community was involved, or perhaps she was into drugs, wandered off, or was involved in prostitution. White equals innocence.
Whiteness is all around us. It is on the commercials we see on TV. It is in our schools where in the past we have learned only a white version of history largely by white teachers. It is prevalent in our systems of law where people of color are largely over represented in prisons and courts. It is presented by our government, who still has a largely colonial hold over Indigenous people in Canada.
When I first considered the concept of White privilege, I had not heard of the term. White Privilege and White fragility were things I often thought about, but I didn’t have a framework with which to understand and express my feelings. I also hadn’t thought of the myriad of ways Peoples of Color are affected on a daily basis other then the obvious ones. Considering white privilege is awkward and uncomfortable, because it involves vulnerability and admitting to benefiting from an institutional and colonized racism that benefits all white people. It means we have to be willing to break normal normatives about racism in Canada. It means learning to have vulnerable conversations about race and showing humility, a thing most of us are not good at doing. It means not having hurt feelings when a Person of Color tells us how it is to be discriminated against on a daily basis. I had to think of times when I may have been inappropriate with someone of color, such as touching the hair of a friend without asking. I feel at times I deal with Ideological In-congruence as I have always just felt we should treat each other as equals regardless of race.
If you ask me today what I feel about it, I will respond that I find it difficult not to see whiteness all around me. I often think about how it affects my friends and family of color even in small ways. I feel that this is a positive change and hope to continue to learn and also to see more education available for White people in this area, especially in schools.
Citations
57. DiAngelo, Dr R. Why It's so Hard to Talk to White People About Racism 2017
56. JonMchu. Silent Beats 2006
Robyn Reeves Jones - 
Wow, Robyn! Very well written! Your response alone helped me gain even more insight on this topic, even after reading all the assigned articles and listening online. The way you related racism to rape was very eye-opening because rape, especially currently, has been taken so seriously and people have been voicing out their experiences so often, that it is overall seen as a very serious issue. But because, as you mentioned, racism is not talked and discussed as much, particularly on social media, it is sometimes not seen as such a serious issue, but it is, victims of racism are just too scared to speak ut because of the possible negative reaction.
Your discussion on all types of racism really made me think, and develop a few questions. I agree that there are “grey” areas of racism and all need to be noticed, but do you think that all forms should be treated the same? Should we react to security guards being harsher on indigenous women the same way we should react to spewing racial slurs on social media? While each DO need to be dealt with and should have their consequences, I believe they are different. The person ranting racial slurs on social media knows exactly what they are doing, while a security guard being harsher on an indigenous woman, may be doing this subconsciously because of what he was taught growing up, or what his boss might have told him.
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Thanks for your response Emily.. As to your question should all forms of racism be treated the same, I believe that there are always consequences for actions, even innocent ones. Consequences should always match the “crime” if that is possible. For example, if my daughter doesn’t do her chores properly then she won’t be allowed to use her tablet. If she purposely damages something in our house however..then her consequences are going to be far more severe then no tablet for a day. Perhaps she would have to work to fix whatever she purposefully damaged, or earn the money to pay for it, so yes. I really do agree with you. If I made extreme statements, it is because I have exceptionally strong feelings on the subject. As to how they should be treated? I think that takes someone far more learned then me to decide.. I have a sharp tongue, and a strong emotional response, so I probably respond far quicker and harsher then I should at times. I think the important thing I want to point out with my response is that I would like to see people “see” whiteness everywhere. For example.. yesterday I was in the emergency room with my little girl, and I saw a security guard hassling an indigenous man, who from my point of view hadn’t done anything yet. To be fair, it was obvious they had other interactions before yesterday, but yesterday, while I thought it was highly possible the man may have earned his repercussions, I thought about what may have happened in his life to bring him to that point. IT was obvious white people frustrated him. Perhaps the security guard could have waited for him to actually do something wrong before speaking to him.
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as far as racist responses on social media, I have little patience, and I react quickly and harshly. I have a rule for example that on my facebook page I have people of many religions and races and I won’t tolerate racist comments or bigotry. For the most part people have respected that despite the fact I often get involved in political conversations, or conversations about Muslims or race. I have had to remove a couple of people. I have no problem with discussion or disagreement, but when it gets into actually insulting people, I have no patience.
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Thanks, Robyn! With my response, I did not mean to suggest that you were too harsh with what you were saying at all! If anything, I admire what you said. After learning about white fragility, I definitely can say it is something that I personally struggle with, and therefore I admire you for having a voice for racism on social media. I tend to remove myself from controversial conversations and if I see one of the social media, I may read it, but I never reply. I am now conscious of this and am very aware that I need to work on this.
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Thanks Emily, I didn’t think you were saying I was being too harsh… I just wanted to clarify my position and give examples for anyone else reading the conversation.. Race is a difficult discussion for anyone and you are doing great 🙂 I think we all have areas of fragility that we need to deal with including myself and it is a difficult battle at times.
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Hi Robyn,
your story was very interesting to read and you provided many examples of racism which I liked. One story you talked about was your experience when you lived in Calgary when the made discriminatory decision to arrest the Indigenous girl without asking questions. I know many people of colour who can relate to that story especially in Canada and the USA. You see it all over the news, from small things like arresting the wrong person to killing someone because of the colour of their skin makes them guilty by default.
You compared rape to racism, I personally disagree with that statement. Rape is black and white no grey area but, sexual harassment, what I think you were going for, is more of a grey area.
Talking about race can be a difficult topic to discuss. It is very awkward and uncomfortable. Especially because you do not want to offend someone. I think schools need to start talking about it and forcing children to talk about these uncomfortable topics so they do not become racist in the future.
Overall I enjoyed your story! One thing I would like to mention is when you are editing your work to watch for consistency with your capitalization. You have “People of Colour” capitalized then later on your have “people of colour.”
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Thanks for pointing out about the rape vrs. sexual harrassment. You are quite right. What I am trying to point out is there is a spectrum which starts out from small acts of harrassment all the way up to rape.. which indeed there is no black or white. I feel the same about racism. There is also a spectrum.. which ranges from unintentional acts all the way up to black and white acts of violence if you will…
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“Many of us were brought up to keep the status quo, not shake the boat. We were told that racism was an individual issue, not a systemic institutionalized one.”
These lines really spoke to me. Growing up of course I was taught about racism but I truly believed that it was just the persons being affected to deal with and the person delivering the judgment or discrimination that was considered to be the racist. I wasn’t taught about my whiteness and my white privilege and how my day to day activities could effect someone of colour. It hasn’t really been until recent that I’ve really noticed how many issues our society really has.
I really enjoyed this read and can see that you feel really strongly about this topic. Your well written piece make a lot of strong points. The security guard example is sadly something that probably happens way to often. I do agree that there should be a way for consequences to “match a crime” like you stated in a previous comment. A crime is a crime no matter who has done it, and punishment should all be the same
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Thanks for sharing Brie! I think most of us were brought up to keep the status quo in one way or another. We are all on a learning curve.. and you are right. I feel very strongly about racism.. 🙂
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