I first published this post on August 22, 2018, but I am re-publishing it to give a specific example of something I referenced in my post yesterday.
Several years ago, I attended a 3 day "Undoing Racism" workshop taught by People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. It was such an enlightening workshop, and it has helped me so often to identify situations of internalized, systemic racism where I might otherwise have overlooked it.
During the workshop, I remember one of the instructors, a Hispanic woman, talk about one of the ways that systemic racism manifests. She said that when there is a crime that gets national attention, she prays that the perpetrator will not be Hispanic. She went on to say that when the perpetrator is a minority, then it is part of systemic racism's nature that the dominant culture will paint that entire people group in the light of that perpetrator. Yet, when the perpetrator is of the dominant culture, then he/she gets viewed as one individual who did this very bad thing.
We are seeing an example of that this week in the national spotlight. Yesterday, law enforcement was led to the body of Mollie Tibbets, a 20 year old college student, from Brooklyn, IA, who disappeared on July 18. I am heart sick for her and for her family. I have a wonderful, beautiful daughter the same age, and I cannot imagine the pain and grief of family and friends. Mollie's life was cut short by a man named Cristhian Rivera, a 24 year old male from Mexico who was undocumented. Rivera was sick to follow, abduct, and take Mollie's life. He needs to be brought before the courts and to pay for such a tragic crime. He, however, should not be viewed as a representation of all 24 year olds, males, Mexicans, or undocumented people in the United States.
This week, the national spotlight is also on the murder of 34 year old Shanann Watts, 4 year old Bella, 3 year old Celeste, and unborn Baby Watts, by the hand of Chris Watts, their husband and father who is a white, 33 year old middle class male. Chris Watts was sick to take his wife and children's lives. He needs to be brought before the courts and to pay for such a tragic crime. No one in dominant culture, however, will paint all white 33 year old males as dangerous, bad, or evil. Heck, this news story doesn't even want to paint Chris Watts in that light:
https://people.com/crime/chris-watts-triple-murder-suspect-seemed-like-family-man/ Dominant culture will, because of the entrenchment of systemic racism, naturally see this criminal (Chris Watts) as an individual while seeing the criminal above (Cristhian Rivera) as an entire people group.
After being told this, I see it often. We saw 64 year old white male, Stephen Paddock, as an individual. He killed 58 people in Las Vegas out of his hotel window while they attended a concert.
Statistics show that mass killings are committed predominantly by white males (https://www.statista.com/statistics/476456/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-shooter-s-race/), but we will continue to view each of these criminals as an outlier rather than to create a general stereotype. Dominant culture will not afford that to minorities, however. This is a characteristic of how internalized systemic oppression holds on to the superiority/inferiority dynamic. Sometimes people have trouble getting a grasp on the systemic, internalized nature of racism, so I thought I would share a pretty visible example of it at work.
Have you seen examples of this?
Very well stated.
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