Lauren D. Week 4

“Karl Marx once wrote, “The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” That perfectly sums up my view of race. I think that race is a destructive and oppressive delusion—a nightmare. The idea of race has facilitated war, genocide, chattel slavery, and oppression for thousands of years…….Think of the racism still rampant in the world today—and the poverty, mass incarceration, and exclusion that comes in its wake. All of these, and many more, are legacies of racial thinking.”

David Livingstone Smith

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-j-benz/race-illusion-its-all-in-_b_10095430.html

So how do we as a society move beyond these ingrained ideas of society? How do we stop individuals from marinating in this foundational racialized thinking taught within educational systems?  How do we stop politicians from continuing to heighten and instill such nonsense and fear into our people? How do we as our project this semester names “bridge the gaps for social inclusion?”  In a 2016 Huffington Post article, titled Race Delusions: Lies that Divide Us, David Livingstone Smith suggests three core components to “getting over race”. These include:

v  Shifting our psychological self that enables racial thinking

v  Social and Political Campaigns to collectively challenge racial thinking

v  Address the distortion of race and dehumanization educationally

This week in our weekly meeting with youth from Southern Maine, we conducted a focus group to engage participants in voicing their own ideas for bridging the gap racial divide. Similar ideas to those of Livingstone Smith were brainstormed, including the utilization of education as a vehicle for social change.  Youth described that education and trainings need to be provided to systems of care including schools/educators and law enforcement. Youth further voiced a real fear of being harmed or killed existed for them when thinking of implementing such changes or challenging the norm.

An exciting conversation grew in this week’s group encompassing America’s standard of viewing race as a checklist. The youth discussed the options that are often provided on applications or other such documents, which include: Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, etc.… But does this list really do justice to identities individuals hold?  For example, one male in the group explained he gets upset having to circle African American because his identity is Congolese.  A female participant supported this notion in explaining that even though her skin is white and she often will check Caucasian, that is not who she is; as she was born and raised the first part of her life in Sweden.  Race is far more than a checklist, in fact, as Livingston Smith states, it is a delusion that only continues to divide us. Why can’t there be one option to check? Human! 

References:

Benz, Robert. 2016. Race Delusion: Lies That Divide us (Blog). The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-j-benz/race-illusion-its-all-in-_b_10095430.html