So You Want to Talk About Race

by Ijeoma Oluo

Race was not only created to justify a racially exploitative economic system, it was invented to lock people of color into the bottom of it. Racism in America exists to exclude people of color from opportunity and progress so that there is more profit for others deemed superior.

1. It is about race if a person of color thinks it is about race. 2. It is about race if it disproportionately or differently affects people of color. 3. It is about race if it fits into a broader pattern of events that disproportionately or differently affect people of color.

Often, being a person of color in white-dominated society is like being in an abusive relationship with the world.

Systemic racism is a machine that runs whether we pull the levers or not, and by just letting it be, we are responsible for what it produces. We have to actually dismantle the machine if we want to make change.

Tying racism to its systemic causes and effects will help others see the important difference between systemic racism, and anti-white bigotry.

Privilege, in the social justice context, is an advantage or a set of advantages that you have that others do not.