The Ubiquitous Nature of Race and Racism In America

I have studied race and racism for more than fifty years. I am 72 years old, black, married, a mother, a grandmother, a greatgrandmother. I have a PhD in Educational Leadership, have worked at colleges as both professor and administrator. I was a Library of Congress Research Fellow at one point. Id did a stint at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as the Director of Diversity Education, Research and Assessment, retiring in 2013. Most of my life I have lived in or near Xenia, Ohio, a town that could teach Selma of the 1960s something about racism. I now live in Wilberforce, Ohio, home of two HBCUs.

The events in America since a white supremacist was elected President in 2016 have brought into focus what I have been saying for at least 40 years. We have not conquered racism, we have not even wounded it. We drove it underground, made it covert, sneaky, back-door but even more difficult to defeat because it was so engrained in our society and so well protected and hidden.

Just finished reading an article about how school employees, presumably including teachers, charted a bus from a Aiken Schools in South Carolina to attend the riot in DC. In justice to them they may or may not have known about the planned attempt to overthrow the government, but the fact remains that people trusted with teaching children, including black children, were heading to Washington to demonstrate not only their support for a white supremacist President, but their belief that the election was stolen. In other words they were going to protest something that has been proven not to have happened. And they are teaching kids?? What do you suppose they are teaching kids? How do you suppose they treat the black kids?

Racism and racists are everywhere. They make decisions that impact the lives not only of people of color, but of white people who do not toe the white supremacy line. Did you write a letter to the local paper expressing your dismay about a recent racist incident or other injustice? You may find yourself not getting such good service at the tire place. Did you speak out at a Board of Education meeting beause you object to one of your children’s teachers injecting her religion into her teaching? You may find so extra scrutiny of your local tax return.

Racism is sometimes not only covert but systemic, particulalry in education. Your school district has plenty of black employees. In elementary school they are fairly numerous. In secondary education where they have to learn more than ABCs they are often much rarer and tend to be hired to teach special ed, gym, home economics and shop. They also work in the cafeteria and are custodians. Your college clusters it black faculty in less well respected schools and disciplines like education and has never had a black provost or Vice President or President.

In your city government there may be black people if your black population is large enough but they are often not in decision making positions. City Council in a City Manager government is not a place where decisions are actually made generally.

Since the murder of George Floyd we have been bombarded with public service social justice ads. Virtually every family shown in advertisements for anything from cars to diarrhea medication are multi-racial. I have not seen a same race couple in an ad for a few months. However, some thing have not changed.

When Ohio State and Alabama met for the championship recently all of the all American shots of fans celebrating and cheering on their teams from home were of white people. The two men chosen to represent their respective teams were both white players. No matter how these people and pictures were chosen they flashed on the screen a message, this American game is a wholesome iconic thing aka white.

America has been shown what white supremacist will do by the riot in Washington on January 6th. White supremacy has its roots wound deeply around every institution, village , town and city in America, around financial institutions and public schools and colleges. It has to be discovered and pulled out by the roots. That means work, lots of work and it mean learning how to detect racism and white supremacy when it is hidden behind other things and woven into the very fabric of some institutions.

But, like any daunting task it can be done. We must attack white supremacy and racism the way we attack any pandemic. Organized and perssitent discovery of the root of the illness and dedicated treatment until it is gone.