I-Open
  • Home
    • Main Page
    • Principles
    • Leadership
    • Backgrounder
    • Membership
    • Donate
    • Newsletter
    • Subscribe
    • Submit Your Blog Article
    • Contact
  • OSED
    • The Innovation Framework
    • Civic Forums
    • Strategic Doing
    • Strategic Initiatives
    • Testimonials
    • FAQs
  • Connect
    • News
    • Blog
    • How To
    • Research
  • Engage
    • Abundant World Day
    • Movies
  • Store

blog

Shifting My Stance on Racism – How Listening to Racism is Changing the Way I Think

11/8/2015

0 Comments

 
In matters of humanity, there's often no easy solution for situations affected by social complexity. How dialogue and listening revealed a simple, but powerful insight into the distinction between prejudice and racism, leading this author to examine personal assumptions.
Flat Color Run
Salt Cracks
Shifting My Stance on Racism – How Listening to Racism is Changing the Way I Think
By Ken Homer


Part One – Wherein the Author Learns the Difference Between Prejudice and Racism
A few months ago, I published a blog post on this site entitled, How to Frame a Conversation about Race in America. In that post I made the assertion that everyone is racist, at least unconsciously so. In the intervening months, my colleagues and I have hosted some dialogues we’ve entitled Listening to Racism. As a result of those dialogues I’ve learned a few things that are changing the way I think about racism.

Until recently I thought that everyone was racist, at least unconsciously so. I thought that such a position afforded a way to level the playing field in conversations about race. After all, if we start with the idea that we are all racists, then nobody is in a privileged position, which has a certain utility for dialogues on race. 


However, I heard a distinction between prejudice and racism that struck me as very powerful, and it led me to examine my assumptions.

The distinction is this: prejudice is personal and racism is social.

Prejudice is Personal


Prejudice is personal. Using a special machine that flashes images to the visual field of volunteers at 1/1000 of a second, researchers have uncovered some fascinating things about how our minds work. Now, 1/1000 of a second is far too quickly for our conscious minds to grasp what was shown to us. Yet, when asked if they felt attracted to, repelled by, or neutral about the image they’d been exposed to, the responses participants gave revealed just how quickly we form judgments and opinions. Even though the images went by so fast that no one in the study really knew what they had seen, some people were drawn to images that others were repelled by or felt neutral toward. 

The lesson for me here, is that we all form unconscious biases, prejudices and preferences about people and events whether we intend to or not. Prejudice is a personal bias, it's instinctual, unconscious and automatic. People around us may, or may not, share our prejudice.

​Prejudice is an inescapable part of the human condition, and every one of us is subject to its effects. Individuals can, with significant effort, overcome their prejudices. It’s demanding and difficult work and those who undertake that work usually reap the rewards of a fuller, richer, more satisfying life. 

Racism Is Social


Racism is social. Racism leverages individual prejudices through the creation of a socially constructed web of agreements, practices, and narratives that give one group the power to oppress another group by denying them their rights, their dignity, and their humanity. Racism in the USA empowers white people to oppress people of color – especially black people.

​Racism is enshrined in our laws, honored in our traditions, taught both at school and at home, and tends to live in our bodies as mostly unexamined, knee-jerk reactions, to people and events that trigger our fears and take advantage of our ignorance. Witness the vitriolic and sometime violent reactions that some white people have at the mere suggestion that racism is a problem, let alone that they are contributing to it.

Racism is not an inescapable part of the human condition - it is a socially-inflicted wound that comes from denying the humanity of people who we view as “other.”
Like overcoming individual prejudice, racism, too, can be overcome, but unlike prejudice, the work of overcoming racism cannot be done in isolation. The work of dismantling racism requires us to work collectively. ​
Another way to put this is that prejudice comes from within us, while racism is constructed between us. The work of redesigning the social systems that keep racism intact is demanding and difficult. Sadly, it can also be dangerous. It can seem so huge and overwhelming as to feel impossible. But do it we must if our country is to survive and flourish. 
Eliminating racism is part of the developmental work that responsible citizens engage in on their way to creating healthier societies and cultures.
When I understood more fully the difference between racism and prejudice I had to rethink my assertion about everyone being racist. I now see that I was using the terms prejudice and racism interchangeably, when in fact, they are substantively different.

​It was a mistake on my part to do that, and if I offended any readers with that phrasing in my earlier blog post, I ask your forgiveness and forbearance. I still have a long way go in educating myself about racism.

Picture
Ken Homer, Founder of Collaborative Conversations and Advisory Director at I-Open, helps organizations leverage collaborative conversations to access awareness and insight for 21st century business transformation and enlightenment. Learn more about Ken at his Author Page here.

Support I-Open
Ensure education, economic and workforce development services such as knowledge sharing, communications and engagement for a network of community and economic developers. Send your donation to I-Open by clicking on the secure PayPal donate button below.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    BLOG

    The I-Open blog publishes member topics, issues and point of view in technology-based community and economic development. We hope the articles here inspire and inform your success as a leader and collaborator.

    Picture
    Betsey Merkel
    Editor & Publisher



    Who Is I-Open?

    The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) is an educational initiative developing and deploying new practices and tools in Open Source Economic Development.
    We invest in five areas of the Innovation Framework: Brainpower, Innovation & Entrepreneurial Networks, Quality, Connected Places, Dialogue & Inclusion, and Branding Stories.
    Strategic activities focus on research, networks, enterprise and education in open economic networks.
    PHOTOS

    Support I-Open

    Ensure education, economic and workforce development services for a community of developers. Send your donation to I-Open by clicking on the donate button below.

    Interested in submitting an article to the I-Open Blog? Click the button below for detailed information!
    Got a question or comment? Send us an email. We'd love to hear from you!
    Submit Article

    Follow Us On Twitter

    Tweets by @iopen2

    Archives

    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All
    Abundance
    Arts Education
    Brainpower
    Brainstorming
    Bruce Waltuck
    Careers
    Cavana Faithwalker
    Change
    Cities
    Civic Engagement
    Civic Enterprise
    Civic Insights
    Cleveland Colectivo
    Collaboration
    Community
    Complexity
    Contemplative Sciences
    Conversation
    Creativity
    Culture
    Daniel Bassill
    Dennis Coughlin
    Disruption
    Education
    Emotional Intelligence
    Energy
    Entrepreneurship
    Facilitation
    Giving Circles
    Gloria Ferris
    Graphic Facilitation
    Holonomics
    How To
    Innovation
    Ken Homer
    Knowing
    Leadership
    Listening
    Mindfulness
    Moods
    Networks
    Nicole McGee
    Ohio
    Organization
    Pop-Up Shop
    Projects
    Race
    Reiki
    Sensemaking
    Sharing
    Social Behaviors
    Social Venture Capital
    Solutions
    Steve Banhegyi
    Survey
    Systems
    Technology
    Tom Romito
    Transformation
    Tutor/Mentor
    Volunteerism
    Workforce Development

    RSS Feed

    © 2005-2014  I-Open. 
    Content posted by I-Open users is dedicated to the public domain.
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.