I may be racist, but I'm practicing anti-racism to be the ANTI-RACIST human being I want to be. Look, I obviously don't go around calling myself RACIST because I'm neither ignorant nor hateful and I understand that racism is structural and systemic.
But I do and must acknowledge that there are ways that I think and feel that come from the same racist narratives I've been told during my indoctrination into this White Supremacist world of ours. And, if I'm not mindful of this reality, I can cause a lot of harm with my willful refusal to unpack the ways in which I may cause others harm.
Racism is taught to most, if not all of us, both explicitly and through mere observation and experience. The instruction we receive has lasting implications whether or not we admit it. So, I think it would behoove each of us to recognize that we are all, at least, a little bit RACIST. That statement is not meant to excuse poor behavior or misguided ideas; nor is it meant to demonize anybody. The whole point is to simply establish some common ground and assert that exhibiting racist traits even in this day and age doesn't necessarily make one evil; it makes us all human as we've all been educated to believe in the same fallacies and false hierarchies.
For example, I'm Latinx and I consider myself a Brown person. Still, I'm well aware of my mestizaje and know that the Indigenous blood that runs through my veins has been diluted by that of my colonizer ancestors, leaving me with less melanin than many in my family. As a result, I have light-skin privilege that has and will continue to afford me certain advantages; it's true! And it does me no good to reject that reality as much as I may want to. And, I imagine, many others who are straddling the borders of their identities are wishing some aspects of them weren't a part of them just like I do. But alas, acceptance of this, for me, helps me grow my empathy.
Instead of fighting it, I do the work to own that privilege and use it to support those who don't have it because colorism, like racism, is a real thing, particularly among communities of color. I'm not gonna go into it all right now, but my personal experience and my subsequent research has made clear to me that passing for white or having a lighter skin-tone affords one benefits those who are darker, let alone Black people, don't easily get. Why? Because anti-black and anti-indigenous sentiment is in all our Western cultures and it's alive and well in our systems and structures. How people don't get that still is beyond me, but denial and ignorance are powerful and forgetting about our histories of slavery and genocide is way easier than facing our past and present honestly.
It makes me angry to talk to members of my own extended family and my own Latinx communities who say some seriously racist things, but firmly believe they are NOT racist. It drives me mad to hear cousins who are darker and more recent immigrants than I am claim that racism isn't the American problem that it is and jump on some racist bandwagon trying to prove that the problem are the very people that are speaking out against it - the most marginalized and systematically disenfranchised. I've had to come to terms with the fact that my family has consistently denied it's own Indigenous and African lineage to align with those in power and those in power have historically been the most privileged among them - white or light-skinned people.
And now that more of us are here in the USA, some in my family have been pulled in by the Right's propaganda and use their talking points to side with the regressive GOP in spite of their clear disdain and oppressive measures against us, immigrant Americans. The most fervent among them are my male cousins between the ages of 30 - 45 who've expanded upon their sexist and homophobic inclinations to support candidates that are ultimately NOT for them either no matter how much they like to pretend.
Still, they use their observations about our native country's political corruption that we left NOT to more clearly see that the same thing is happening here, but to prove that whatever is happening here, it's not as bad as what we left behind. And they're right; it's not as bad as what's happening in Peru. But they miss the fact that it is also NOT GOOD.
Now, while it may be true that politics here are not as bad as they are there, they don't use their point of reference to acknowledge the decline of the systems here because it is here where they've made gains they could not have made there. They more easily align themselves with the business and professional classes because that's how they ultimately see themselves, as superior to those who, in their eyes, didn't take advantage of the opportunities this country extended to them.
Of course, they discount all of the assistance they received from my parents, the first ones to arrive. They forget that before they came to establish their claim to this great nation, my parents arrived with nothing and experienced indignities they were spared. They don't know the full history of this country and the ongoing plight of Black or Indigenous people so they fall for the lies those in positions of power - positions they want - sell them. And they're not technically white, but they seem to want to be the way they turn a blind eye to the atrocities and crimes of the white elite and condemn our own BIPOC for petty stuff.
If that's what's happening in my family of immigrants, I can only imagine how easy it is for white people, weather immigrants or native born, to decide that the racism isn't systemic or a current epidemic, but rather a made up thing that "snowflakes" or "lazy people" call up when they don't advance like they'd hoped. They will never see how the systems are rigged against some people more than others or they'll refuse to acknowledge that their racist ideas are not facts, but falsehoods they've been trained to parrot back to anyone who protests. And, I'm talking about the ones that don't think of themselves as racists; not the ones that claim their White Supremacist ideas proudly.
The proud racists frame their xenophobia and antisemitism as well as their racism as moral righteousness. They declare themselves as defenders of some ideals that appeal to vulnerable people who feel alone or neglected or misunderstood. All men, in general, but white men in particularly fall for such lies because they're the ones who feel the loss of power the most. It's no surprise that the more egalitarian and more multi-racial/multi-cultural a society we become, the more they lose their historical hold of power and claim to the throne. And so, the leaders among them preach all sorts of nonsense that evokes all kinds of escalated emotions that leads many of them to act against their own interests if it means "owning the Libs." Those with less critical thinking skills devolve into mindsets and actions that are very destructive whilst in this fog of self-righteous ire and will.
The RIGHT know that men, in particular, are the most susceptible to respond with aggression when presented with some type of injustice; so, they pander to them and their sense of losing control and mass confusion. There's a reason why there is a growing militia of supposed "patriots' who wish to take us back to some other made-up era of when things were better. Better for whom? Certainly not better for me; better for me remains in the future. The kind of better I want isn't here yet.
But culture wars are being won by the RIGHT because they LEFT can't seem to get it together enough to counter back forcefully with facts and a clear message. Why is that? Why can't the Left find a way to coalesce around certain issues that matter to most of us? I have ideas but not the full picture. Mostly, I believe the Left is much like the Right in that they're duty bound to their corporate sponsors. But I still can't understand how they consistently fail at messaging, bungling some easy shots out of fear that the corporate dollars will dry up. It's sickening and as a result, the party that's on the right side of history on many issues, but particularly on the culture wars can't seem to coherently speak up and shut down the kind of inflammatory rhetoric from the RIGHT with FACTS. Instead, we're rather not engage at all; letting ourselves off the hook by assuming we're all better than that.
The truth is that our political discourse has devolved; we know this already. The bigger question is how in the world do we try to co-create forums and spaces that actually welcome nuanced dialogue. Or are we supposed to just give up? I dunno about anybody else, but for me, the key to getting back to talking across lines of difference is to first be quiet and self-reflect and in doing so, work to grow our individual compassion for the opposite side. It's a hard thing to do, I know; but I think it's worth it.
For that reason, I do what I can to not completely disregard the RIGHT wing in this country as REGRESSIVE and OPPRESSIVE as it's been and continues to be. I reach out if and when I can and try to listen, but first and foremost, I check my mindsets for blinders and work to understand the privileges I have that may impact my perspectives. I try not to disparage others' belief systems even though I may want to. I practice holding my sharp tongue for a bit do my best to put myself in their shoes even though some within the GOP seem to be off their rockers and many leaders are just money-grubbing cowards and power-hungry scammers.
The legislation the RIGHT proposes does not help or support me or anyone I know. The ideas that the RIGHT spews are abhorrent lies and pure fear-mongering and perhaps I wouldn't care so much if only white people supported this nonsense, but that's not the case. There are people who are within my demographic groups that do support the red agenda; from white queers to Christian POC folx, we turn against each other and align ourselves with the party that says they stand for our values but who've demonstratively shown us that they are not really with us.
I still bother talking about Racism and the Regressive Right because I see the harm it's doing to all of us and can feel the tighter grip it has on many within my own circles who, were it not for the poor messaging and neglect from the Dems, might actually vote Blue. Sadly, too many people are discouraged by the lack of courage and follow-through from the Democratic establishment and can't begin to compute the Progressive calls for socialism when that word has been made dirty just like the word "woke".
The Right has the short-cuts and slogans the Left doesn't, but the Left has the truth; it just can't seem to get out of its own way to sell it effectively. And that's a huge problem.
