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The journey towards understanding structural racism still requires people of colour to prioritise white feelings.
Who really wants to be alerted to a structural system that benefits them at the expense of others?
debate about whether racism was simply discrimination, or discrimination plus power.
1984 Annual Report, writing ‘Police strategy is two-faced. The brutality, the racism and the denial of civil liberties are meant, in the main, to be hidden from public view. The counter to this is “community policing”, “neighbourhood watch”, “the police/community consultative committee”, “Community Liaison Officer” – all part of a public relations exercise to convince us that the police have a genuine interest in the community’s well-being.’
Faced with a collective forgetting, we must fight to remember.
institutional racism as a form of collective behaviour, a workplace culture supported by a structural status quo, and a consensus – often excused and ignored by authorities.
If all racism was as easy to spot, grasp and denounce as white extremism is, the task of the anti-racist would be simple.
People feel that if a racist attack has not occurred, or the word ‘nigger’ has not been uttered, an action can’t be racist.
We tell ourselves that racism is about moral values, when instead it is about the survival strategy of systemic power.
Structural racism is dozens, or hundreds, or thousands of people with the same biases joining together to make up one organisation, and acting accordingly.
Research from a number of different sources shows how racism is weaved into the fabric of our world. This demands a collective redefinition of what it means to be racist, how racism manifests, and what we must do to end
Productivity alone does not make a worthwhile human being.
2013 British report revealed that black people are twice as likely to be charged with drugs possession, despite lower rates of drug use.
you’d have to be fooling yourself if you really think that the homogeneous glut of middle-aged white men currently clogging the upper echelons of most professions got there purely through talent alone.
Representation doesn’t always mean that the representer will work in the favour of those who need representation.
It was in that moment that I had to reluctantly accept that pushes for positive discrimination were not about turning the whole place black at the expense of white people, but instead were simply about reflecting the society an organisation serves.
Structural racism is never a case of innocent and pure, persecuted people of colour versus white people intent on evil and malice. Rather, it is about how Britain’s relationship with race infects and distorts equal opportunity.
When we live in the age of colour-blindness, and fool ourselves with the lie of meritocracy, some will have to be silent in order for others to thrive.
Colour-blindness does not accept the legitimacy of structural racism or a history of white racial dominance.
indulging in the myth that we are all equal denies the economic, political and social legacy of a British society that has historically been organised by race.
Not seeing race does little to deconstruct racist structures or materially improve the conditions which people of colour are subject to daily. In order to dismantle unjust, racist structures, we must see race. We must see who benefits from their race, who is disproportionately impacted by negative stereotypes about their race, and to who power and privilege is bestowed upon – earned or not – because of their race, their class, and their gender. Seeing race is essential to changing the system.
When I was four, I asked my mum when I would turn white, because all the good people on TV were white, and all the villains were black and brown. I considered myself to be a good person, so I thought that I would turn white eventually.
white privilege is an absence of the negative consequences of racism. An absence of structural discrimination, an absence of your race being viewed as a problem first and foremost, an absence of ‘less likely to succeed because of my race’. It is an absence of funny looks directed at you because you’re believed to be in the wrong place, an absence of cultural expectations, an absence of violence enacted on your ancestors because of the colour of their skin, an absence of a lifetime of subtle marginalisation and othering – exclusion from the narrative of being human.
reminding white people that their experience is not the norm for the rest of us.
‘an injury to one is an injury to all’,
When I talk about white privilege, I don’t mean that white people have it easy, that they’ve never struggled, or that they’ve never lived in poverty. But white privilege is the fact that if you’re white, your race will almost certainly positively impact your life’s trajectory in some way. And you probably won’t even notice
White privilege is dull, grinding complacency.
And it was only when the issue became close to me that I began to feel infuriated by it.
This is the difference between racism and prejudice. There is an unattributed definition of racism that defines it as prejudice plus power.
Alana Lentin and Gavin Titley call ‘white victimhood’:6 an effort by the powers that be to divert conversations about the effects of structural racism in order to shield whiteness from much-needed rigorous criticism.
Racism does not go both ways. There are unique forms of discrimination that are backed up by entitlement, assertion and, most importantly, supported by a structural power strong enough to scare you into complying with the demands of the status quo. We have to recognise this.
left-wing writers drew the conclusion that those affected by racism were actually the most privileged, because talking about the effects of racism somehow gave them the moral high ground.
but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice;
‘Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
racism is more than a one-off incident. It’s about the world you live in, and the way you experience your environment.
for white people who are in interracial relationships, or have mixed-race children, or who adopt transracially, the only way that it will work is if they’re actually committed to being anti-racist. To be humble, and to learn that they are racist even if they don’t think that they are.’
couples of different heritage must discuss race – what it means to them, how it currently affects their lives, and how it might affect their future children’s lives.
Our demographics are changing faster than our attitudes, and it is causing confusion.
white parents who adopt children of colour take on a new responsibility to be race aware. They embark on a very new journey of self-discovery, and they have a duty to no longer commit to the limiting politics of colour-blindness.
Doing things when there’s nobody there to see it, because it’s not really about somebody witnessing it or patting me on the back for it.’
the phrase ‘anchor baby’ is used in the pejorative sense to admonish US-born children of immigrants.
Tackling racism moves from conversations about justice to conversations about sensitivity.
But when you are used to white being the default, black isn’t black unless it is clearly pointed out as so.
White people are so used to seeing a reflection of themselves in all representations of humanity at all times, that they only notice it when it’s taken away from them.
There is an old saying about the straight man’s homophobia being rooted in a fear that gay men will treat him as he treats women.
Your life chances are still drastically influenced by your race and class.
‘When feminists can see the problem with all-male panels, but can’t see the problem with all-white television programmes, it’s worth questioning who they’re really fighting for.’
structural racism prevails because white people are treated more favourably in the society we live in.
‘To be feminine is to show oneself as weak, futile, passive, and docile . . . any self-assertion will take away from her femininity and her seductiveness,’
historical context of establishment clampdowns on the black struggle. All the signs were there: a closing of ranks, paired with a campaign of misinformation, lies and discrediting.
