Taxonomy of Racism

We all think we know about racism.  We are used to seeing overt hate and violence associated with racism.  Groups like the KKK, and other white supremacists are notorious for this kind of violent racism.  But there are more subtle types of racism.  

I will note that racism is a emotionally charged word.   An accusation of racism will often bring up strong protests from the person being accused.  I have been accused of racism.  It struck me to the core.   To the credit of the person making the charge, it opened a conversation that would not have happened if that charge were not made.  

I am not a sociologist.  I am only a guy trying to figure out the world.  This is my way of wrapping my brain around what I am seeing.

I think there is racism where it is not seen, and just as often no racism where it is accused.

Most people don’t actively desire to “promote racist propaganda.”  Racism is largely unconscious or subconscious, and ingrained into the fabric of our culture.  That is why it is so hard to see and to fight.  It takes a real hard look at one’s self to identify it.

I have also noted an interesting thing as I began to study racism and culture differences.  I realized that there is a lot more to racism than what people normally talk about.  I adopted a little girl from Central Asia.  I get all sorts of comments about her from “oh she is so cute” to “why would you adopt from there, when there are so many here.”  Some questions are pretty invasive and personal like “how much did she cost.”  To this end, I started to study race and culture.  

I know that as a white parent of an Asian  child, I will never be able to understand what she will go through.  I can only hope to set her up with a strong identity, a strong sense of humor and good defenses for when people make fun of her, call her names, ignore her or screw her over because of what she looks like.

Culture

To start off, I am going to define culture.  Culture is the understood rules of how people in a given group behave.  There are different cultures all around us.  Family, corporate/work, friends, etc all have slightly different ways of doing things, and different rules by which people behave.  There are rules about how people talk, dress, eat, and behave and act towards each other and outsiders.  Many of these unwritten rules have been engrained into our fiber in ways we don’t really understand.  Sometimes it is easy to switch cultures, sometime it is not.  Moving from a job in one company to another is sometime easy, sometimes not.  The things that make it difficult are the unwritten rules that we have to figure out.

I am going to define race as ethnicity and culture.  We can believe that race is obvious – the color of one’s skin.  But there is much more – and less - to it than that.  It is the culture of that ethnicity that is important.  If you have ever been to a country different from yours, you know that people do things different.  The further away from home, the harder it becomes to understand the culture.  When I spent a month in Central Asia, not only was the language a barrier, but understanding how things get done was difficult.  The society I was in was very different from what I was used to.  I did not understand the rules.  

The rules are different for different places.  If you think about it, people living in a city live by different rules than people in the suburbs or rural areas.  Some are obvious like transportation, some are more subtle, like do you greet or smile at strangers.  

When cultures clash, there are problems.  These concepts can be applied to not only ethnic cultures across borders, but also within borders as well as gender, sexuality and religion.  I am sure I am leaving something out, but I hope you can fill in the gaps.

Forms of racism

Let’s start with the obvious types of racism.  The overt, this is the violent type like we see with the KKK, and other white supremacist groups. Most people can acknowledge that this is wrong, and this is racist.  I am not going to spend much time here at all.

From here, I am going to list out some reasons for racist or biased behavior.  The first is an active belief of being better, and wanting to be separate.  The second is a cultural unawareness, the next is ignorance, and the last is naivety.  All of these are ways to

There is a belief that “not seeing color” or ethnicity is not being racist.  This is not an accurate statement.  I will come back to this and explain.

Active beliefs

We can all point to people think they are better then everyone else.  We can even point to some people who are actively think they are better because of who or what they are.  This can be overt or more subtle.  Do they actively resist being with people that are different?  Will they turn up their noses when they see someone who is different?  Do they say that a person is worse, or behaving in a certain way because of their race or ethnicity?  You can see this type of behavior many different places.  I read a story once about an African American actor looking for an apartment.  He would call the phone number in the ad.  When he used is “black voice” he was told there were no openings.  When he used his “professional voice” he was told to come on down to see the place.  Then when he arrived, he was told that the apartment had just been rented.  Why - what is it about him that made the difference?  You can read this kind of story all the time.  It isn’t just African Americans, it happens to most, if not all ethnic groups.  

Some people may smile, and say nice things, but then turn away and do something totally different.  This can come from fear.  This can come from an ingrained sense of betterment, this can come from a misguided belief in stereotypes.

Cultural unawareness

The second level is cultural unawareness.  This type of racism stems from not being around other people, and a belief that other people should believe, and behave like you do.  Sometimes this can be an active denial that others are different.  We can easily see this when Americans go to a foreign country and act like everyone should be speaking English and treating them special.  But this is only one example of cultural unawareness.  Other types include questioning the motives or behavior of people that are different.  Saying things like “they are killing each other because they are (what ever ethnicity),” or “Why do African Americans feel put down, Slavery was ended 140 years ago?”  Again, these kinds of statements show a real cultural unawareness.  I can assign motives to this kind of thinking, but I won’t.  

In many of the debates about undocumented aliens comes a veiled racism.  I had a conversation with someone recently, and after a long rant about “illegal Mexicans and immigrants taking our culture” I explained that both my wife, and my daughter fit categories he reviled.  His immediate come back was “I don’t mean you”.  Well, then, make a better argument, and don’t include race in it, and acknowledge that your arguments about culture are racist because you want to protect your “white” culture as you see it.

Ignorance

The third level of racism is ignorance.  One researcher believes that much of racism is sub-conscious.  This type of racism again, stems from being culturally unaware, but this may not be an active belief that others are lesser.   Many people will try to compliment someone by saying something like “I see you as white.”  This kind of statement discounts the cultural background of the person.  Again, the expectation is that people should not be different.  Another statement I hear quite often is “I don’t see the people as color, I see them all the same.”  Again, this statement discounts ethnic and cultural differences.  The racism in these statements essentially silences the voice of the person because it does not acknowledge the cultural differences among  us.

Naivety

The last level of racism is naivety.  This kind of racism is not an active belief, nor an ignorant belief, but instead due to a complete lack of exposure and a lack of skills to be able to see differences or question differences.  This is typified by a little kid who growing up in a neighborhood where there are no people from other cultures or ethnicities.  I typified this when I was a kid.  I remember pretty vividly an experience when I was about 6 or seven.  We were downtown, and needed to take a taxi somewhere.  I remember realizing the cab driver had dark brown skin.  I asked my mom why he was so dark.  The cab driver over heard the question, and turned around looked at me and said, “well, sonny, it is like flowers in a garden.  We can’t all be the same color”.  That statement made an impact on me.  It started a realization that people were different.  I will admit that it took until high school that I began to expose myself to people of color, and try to understand that they were different.  

I readily admit that I went through many of these levels of racism at different times of my life.  At any given time, I find myself struggling with various stereotypes and thoughts.  There are some cultures which I will not understand.  I know that I come from a white suburban perspective, and that colors my beliefs. I can only try to ensure that my actions and statements try to acknowledge racial differences yet at the same time not assign stereotypes and motives to others.