I went to a workshop on racism and how to fight against it today and we were divided in two groups – white and racialised. To explain the reason for dividing people in two groups, the organisers mentioned feminist discussions as an example. It’s true that I would not want to have a man participating in a discussion about feminism. I do want to discuss feminism with men, but not at the ‘preparation to the fight for rights’ stage. So the same for workshops about racism, except that in this case I am part of the dominant group.
When I was a teenager I did not consider myself 100% white (my husband says I am not white because I am Italian ihihihih), but now I think that it doesn’t really matter, as I didn’t experience systemic racism, so 100% or not, I am white. I have been a victim of racist comments a few times, but nothing more. And such comments were caused by my name, not by my appearance, my being, my presence in the world.
Anyway, here below a few points to make you, us, reflect further on racism, drawn from the workshop;
- During the workshop the animator said “you white people are racist” (I guess she didn’t see the Netflix tv show, otherwise she would have started with a “Dear white people. Face it. You are all racist“). She said that partly to provoke us (I guess), and it did work, at least with me. I protect my ego by thinking “I am not racist”. She continued and said that probably the biggest privilege that we white people have (it’s important to remember that this discussion took place in Brussels, it wouldn’t have been the same in the US, or in Nigeria, or anywhere else) is to be seen as individual persons, and not as a group. I often said or heard women saying “men are….”. We know that not all men are sexist, or unconsidered, but we still refer to men as a group. Even if I feel like replying and saying “I am not racist”, I am fine with accepting “you white people are racist”, because my presence, my being white, my being part of a group of privileged people is a constituent part of this system of oppression between white/black, dominant/dominated. And I cannot deny that I am not a beneficiary of this system of oppression that I live in and that I am part of. To summarise, we can say that we are at the very least guilty of perpertrating a system of racial (and social) oppression.
- The workshop animator said that if we are a (white) woman, queer, we might not consider ourselves as part of the dominant group, because how can we when the State dominates us? But in this debate we are.
- We should avoid acting like a “white saviour”. This is something I thought about a lot when I was working for a European NGO in the Middle East. As much as I enjoyed the experience I am not sure I will repeat it, exactly for this reason. (Note for near future self: develop this thought in a future post).
- A woman from the audience told us that once she was talking about feminism with a male friend when he told her “you are not going to convince me with this aggressive tone”. She said she realised that she didn’t want to convince him of anything at that point, you don’t convince someone the first time you push him/her to put him/herself into question. She wanted him to recognise his privilege and put his ego aside.
- Conceiving racism simply as being/not being racist, bad/good person, doesn’t allow us to understand how socialisation and implicit prejudices work.
Reads, podcasts and movies on this topic
Robin Di Angelo What Does It Mean to Be White?
Robin Di Angelo: ‘We have to stop thinking about racism as someone who says the N-word’
Amandine Gay, L’antiracisme commence avec la déconstruction du privilège blanc
Robin Di Angelo, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism
Ouvrir la voix, movie by Amandine Gay
Ruby Hamad, How white women use strategic tears to silence women of colour
Urban Dictionary: Disarming White Woman Tears
Podcast series Kiffe ta race
Podcast series Vocal about it
Blabbering of a millennial 
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