Alternate title: “Levels of Racism: Why White Fans and Creators Have a Responsibility to Confront Our Biases”
So here’s a thing I’ve been thinking about for a while. I’m pretty sure it’s nothing new and if anyone knows of resources written by Black people that address this, please send me the info because I definitely want to read them.
(Also if I’ve misstepped or misspoken in any way, please let me know. Criticism is welcome.)
Part of the difficulty of discussing racism, particularly with other white people, is that we don’t actually think about the same thing when we talk about racism. The way I see it, there are three levels:
- Individual beliefs and actions that are rooted in racial prejudice
- Subconscious racial bias that comes from socialization
- Systemic racism enshrined in institutions of power
There are probably more in between, and obviously these aren’t strict black and white categories; there’s a lot of overlap and blurred lines involved. I don’t know if any particular level is worse than the others, and I don’t think I’m qualified to speak on that. But I think these work well as large bucket categories.
The problem is that often people are talking about different levels without actually realizing it. When I try to get my parents to understand why level 2 might lead them to judge Colin Kaepernick’s method of protest unfairly, they respond as if I’ve accused them of level 1 racism. When I tell my coworker that I don’t like the Bruins because the crowd booed PK Subban every time he had the puck, I can tell he’s desperately trying to come up with a reason other than race because he doesn’t want to accuse an entire stadium of people of being level 1 racists, when really the problem is probably a mix of 1 & 2.
And obviously, they’re all bad. They’re all racism and we should fight against all of them. But I think we have to fight against the different levels in different ways, which is why people get frustrated with these conversations.
So You Think You’re Not Racist
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