9 Truths All People Need to Accept About Racism So We Can Finally Have an Honest Conversation About It

Racism is a difficult discussion to have, especially when people do not have an understanding of what racism is, how it works and who it is perpetuated by. Here are nine truths that we need to accept about racism if we want to have honest conversations. Can Black People Be Racist? "There is an element of whites who are nothing but cold, animalistic racists. That element is the one that controls or has strong influence in the power structure. It uses the press skillfully to feed statistics to the public to make it appear that the rate of crime in the Black community, or community of nonwhite people, is at such a high level. It gives the impression or the image that everyone in that community is criminal." - Malcolm X, speech at the London School of Economics on Feb. 11, 1965 Black people cannot be racist. We could possibly be prejudice, but the power dynamics of the system of white supremacy proves that Black people do not have the ability to oppress other races. Malcolm teaches that racism uses a system to oppress and hold power over a person based on their race. Racism Ignores Humanity "White man, hear me! A man is a man, a woman is a woman, a child is a child. To deny these facts is to open the doors on a chaos deeper and deadlier and, within the space of a man's lifetime, more timeless, more eternal, than the medieval vision of Hell." -- James Baldwin, "White Man's Guilt" Racists ignore the humanity of others when they are from the darker race or Black race. Baldwin demands their attention in recognizing this, yet in his essay he knows racists do not care to consider the fact that Black people are indeed human. The White Liberal Is a Problem "Look how far we’ve come, just forty years ago it would have been illegal for us to even be a couple blah blah blah, because you know what we’re thinking when they say that? ... But we don’t say any of this stuff. We let it pile up inside our heads and when we come to nice liberal dinners like this, we say that race doesn’t matter because that’s what we’re supposed to say, to keep our nice liberal friends comfortable." -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah Numerous scholars argue that white liberals in society are often presented as the "good white people" of this world, but they are very much part of the problem. Their existence causes unease because they do not want to have honest discussions about racism either. White liberals are part of the problem because their struggle is not a shared one with Black people, and their issues are more about class than race. Racists 'Don't Exist' in the 21st Century “In America, racism exists but racists are all gone. Racists belong to the past. Racists are the thin-lipped mean white people in the movies about the civil rights era. Here’s the thing: the manifestation of racism has changed but the language has not. So if you haven’t lynched somebody then you can’t be called a racist. If you’re not a bloodsucking monster, then you can’t be called a racist. Somebody has to be able to say that racists are not monsters.” -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah Adichie cleverly states that "racists belong to the past" because 21st century racism has evolved into a monster that appears to be nonexistent or undetectable. When white people are able to sit in the same room with Black people without calling them "n*ggers" then in the world's racist view that is progress. The truth is that racists still exist, but they are able to hide behind so many things just not to appear racist. The Police Represent the 'Force of the White World' "... The only way to police a ghetto is to be oppressive ... Their very presence is an insult, and it would be, even if they spent their entire day feeding gumdrops to children. They represent the force of the white world, and that world's real intentions are, simply, for that world's criminal profit and ease, to keep the black man corralled up here, in his place." -- James Baldwin, "A Letter from Harlem" Although stated decades ago, this is the case even today. There are news stories and videos that circulate around of police officers hugging Black children or donating toys to distract from the real issue. It doesn't matter if these sorts of police officers exist or not because the reason why their presence exists is a problem. Their presence represents a higher systematic power built off racism while upholding white supremacy. Racism Destroys Black Minds "For political reasons, Blacks are being programmed for self-destruction and 'Black suicide' is one of the results. Lynching by any other name is still lynching. The method that has been developed and is now being implemented cannot be found in any literature or in any research data, but is one of the greatest discoveries of psychology. The author has classified this process as 'mentacide,' (Wright, 1976) which is defined as the 'deliberate and systematic destruction of a group’s minds with the ultimate objective being the extirpation of the group.' " -- Dr. Bobby Wright Wright proves that racism is not only physically damaging but is also mentally damaging. The effects of racism on Black minds, which Wright refers to as "mentacide," are not limited to hating ourselves and other Black people, but it also urges complacency. Racism in Education Is to Deny Black Existence "... Certain political constructs impose definite limitations in concepts and content on all discourse about reality. Out of these limitations the oppressed, nonfree people, who are exploited by ruling classes, those whose wills are enjoined, are challenged to struggle against a structural discourse that denies their right to freedom and, indeed, their right to existence." - Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, The Afrocentric Idea Racism is found in academia. Asante's quote highlights that much of what is taught is from a white or Eurocentric perspective, and when it is taught to oppressed people, such as Blacks, it denies our history and our existence. Racism Cannot Be Negotiated With "Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them." -- Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography Shakur believes that Black people must remember that conforming or assimilating into whiteness will never destroy or diminish racism. In many ways, it causes more issues and it supports and buys into the false narrative. This false narrative says that we should appeal to white people and that if we do that white people will begin to treat us better. 'We Have Nothing to Lose but Our Chains' “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.” - Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography Shakur argues that freedom will not be given to us by a racist system. Freedom must be taken, and Black people must be able to liberate themselves, which means to find freedom mentally. Their oppressor cannot and will not ever be their liberator. As Black people, loving one another is imperative if freedom is a demand.

Related Stories

‘This Is Racism’: Small Black Alabama Town Accuses State of ‘Intentionally’ Flooding Their Community, Causing Homes to ‘Sink’ to Force Them Off Property, Distraught Resident Says

‘I Will Hunt This N—-r and Kill Him’: Racial Slurs and Punches Fly As Cops and Angry Fans Brawl at Florida-Georgia Game, Viral Video Shows

‘Touch My Tree Again… I Will Shoot You’: Minneapolis Police Under Fire After Black Neighbor Shot By White Suspect They Knew Was ‘Armed and Dangerous’ But Ignored for Over a Year