Racism Understanding Racism Undoing Racism and Faith Educational

Racism Understanding Racism Undoing Racism and Faith Educational Resources

Understanding Racism • • Individual attitudes and behavior Institutional practices and procedures Structural policies and patterns Who benefits?

Paradigms / Conceptions of Race • Biological/genetic • Cultural “ethnicity” • Structural/materialist

Defining Race • A population considered different because of physical characteristics • A social construct, an epiphenomenon with little or no scientific justification • However, “race” has enduring social significance

Defining Racism • A system of racially conferred -- and denied – – Privilege Advantage Benefits Status • Racism: a defense of racial privilege

Racism is Prejudice Plus Power

Distinguish Between Personal Prejudice and Personal Acts versus Systemic and Institutional Preferences for Whites

Individual Racism • Discrimination Model – Victim/perpetrator – Prejudice (bad actor / bad apple) – Intent (purpose and motive)

Institutional Racism • Recognizes that racism need not be individualist or intentional • Institutional and cultural practices can perpetuate race inequality without relying on racist actors

What is Structural Racism?

If the KKK keeps people out of school, we understand that as racism

But if Fewer People of Color Can Afford to Attend Private Schools, College and Graduate Schools Is that Racism?

Structural Racism • Attention to inter-institutional arrangements and interactions • Structure: “the arrangement or interrelation of all the parts of a whole” (Webster’s Dictionary)

Flip side of stark racial disparities • White privilege: – The reality of unearned advantage, conferred dominance, and invisible privilege enjoyed by white Americans, to the detriment, burden and disadvantage of people of color. – the reality that in U. S. society “there are opportunities which are afforded whites that people of color simply do not share. ”

We have long since grown accustomed to thinking of Blacks as being “racially disadvantaged. ” Harlon Dalton

Rarely, however, do we refer to Whites as “racially advantaged, ” even though that is an equally apt characterization of the existing inequality. Harlon Dalton

Race Advantage

Racism enters into every sphere of social relations – – – – Economic exploitation Military subjugation Political subordination Cultural devaluation Psychological violation Sexual degradation Verbal abuse • Racism: a defense of racial privilege

Racism is “a whole of interacting and developing processes which operate so normally and naturally and are so much a part of the existing institutions of society that the individuals involved are barely conscious of their operation” James Boggs, Racism and the Class Struggle 147 -148.

Not Just White and Black

HISTORY Racism has been part of the social fabric of America since its European colonization. Whether it be the tragic past of the Native Americans, the Mexicans, the Puerto Ricans, or the blacks, the story is one of slavery, peonage, economic exploitation, brutal repression, and cultural neglect. None have escaped one or another form of collective degradation by a powerful majority.

Racial Justice Economic Justice Gender Justice Are Intertwined

Isn’t Racism Over?

Because the Courts have eliminated statutory racial discrimination and Congress has enacted civil rights legislation, and because some minority people have achieved some measure of success, many people believe that racism is no longer a problem in American life.

The continuing existence of racism becomes apparent when we look beneath the surface of our national life.

Look beneath the surface

Education? • African-Americans receive more and tougher disciplinary action than their white counterparts, even for the same infraction. • Drop-out rate is far higher than their white counterparts' rate.

Housing Segregation Patterns

Opposition to Immigrants

Blacks comprise 13 percent of the national population, but 30 percent of people arrested, 41 percent of people in jail. Human Rights Watch: Incarceration and Race

Opposition to Affirmative Action:

Undoing Racism: Moving Beyond • Beyond “polite behavior” • Beyond “intentionality” to results • Beyond our “comfort zones” Start “at home” and look more deeply within the worlds around us

How start to combat racism?

Can You Restrict With One Wire?

Depends on How You Arrange the Wires

Start with the understanding that racism is “hardwired” into our society and institutions. It is like the electric wires in the walls, or the plumbing, or the air and heat ductwork. Invisible. Important. Always There. It is a life-long struggle for justice.

Structural Racism Directs Us to Examine the Way the Wires (Institutions) Are Interconnected

Importance of Structures

Race Disadvantage

6 Stages of Becoming Anti-Racist Institutions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Exclusive Segregation Passive “Club” Symbolically “ Multicultural” Anti-racist identity Structurally transforming institution Fully inclusive transformed society

Stage 1 Exclusive Segregated Institution • • Intentional exclusion Enforce racist status quo Formal policies institutionalize racism Usually also excludes other oppressed groups

Stage 2 Passive “Club” Institution • Tolerant of limited # of “proper” people • Secret limits despite public policies • Intentional maintenance of white privilege through policies, decisions • “We don’t have a problem”

Stage 3 Symbolic Change A Multicultural Institution • • “Multicultural” policies “non racist” open self identity Intentional inclusivity “recruiting” Expanding view of diversity BUT • Little or no change in culture, policies • Unaware of continuing patterns

Stage 4 Identity Change an Anti-Racist Institution • • • “Anti-Racist” Institutional identity Growing understanding of racism Analyzes systemic racism Anti-racism training Conscious of institutionalized power and privilege • Beginning accountability to excluded BUT • Unchanged structures and culture

Stage 5 Structural Change: A Transforming Institution • • Process of intentional restructuring Based on anti-racist audit All aspects of institution examined Inclusive decision making Commits to dismantle racism Multicultural diversity as an asset Redefines all relationships based on antiracism

Stage 6 Fully Inclusive Transforming Institution • Future Vision of overcoming racism • Full participation with diverse groups – shared power, shared decisions shaping the institution • Sense of restored community • Becoming allies with others combating oppression

Racism and Faith Christian Social Responsibility Feeling Right Thinking Right Social Analysis Theological Reflection Acting Right

Catholic Resources • Brothers and Sisters to Us (1979) • Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself - Compendium (1997 -2000) • Catholic Charities USA: “Poverty and Racism: Overlapping Threats to the Common Good” 2008

Sinful Racism: personal and social

Racism is a sin: a sin that divides the human family, blots out the image of God among specific members of that family, and violates the fundamental human dignity of those called to be children of the same Father.

Goal is Justice not Guilt

Movement toward justice demands a simultaneous attack on racism and economic oppression.

Bishops point to 5 areas that illustrate continuing racism: Employment Education Housing Criminal Justice Opposition to Affirmative Action

The educational, legal, and financial systems, along with other structures and sectors of our society, impede people's progress and narrow their access because they are black, Hispanic, Native American or Asian.

The structures of our society are subtly racist, for these structures reflect the values which society upholds.

They are geared to the success of the majority and the failure of the minority. Members of both groups give unwitting approval by accepting things as they are.

Perhaps no single individual is to blame. The sinfulness is often anonymous but nonetheless real. The sin is social in nature in that each of us, in varying degrees, is responsible.

Under the guise of other motives, racism is manifest in the tendency to stereotype and marginalize whole segments of the population whose presence is perceived as a threat. Racism is manifest also in the indifference that replaces open hatred.

The minority poor are seen as the byproduct of a postindustrial society -without skills, without motivation, without incentive. They are expendable people.

In my class and place, I did not recognize myself as a racist because I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth. Peggy Mc. Intosh, 1988

Today's racism flourishes in the triumph of private concern over public responsibility, individual success over social commitment, and personal fulfillment over authentic compassion

Be willing to move beyond your comfort zones

Transformative Education Educate Self and Community about history and reality of the barriers of structural racism How it affects us, How it affects others.

CREATE a safe environment for open and honest discussion

Study Bishops Pastorals “Brothers and Sisters All”

Listen to People of Color

There are resources for training & expert help

Secondary Educational Resources • • School atmosphere School structure Campus ministry Academic disciplines – Social science – Natural science – Literature, etc. • JSEA?

Questions for Reflection • Personal observations of examples of Prejudice Plus Power? • Structural or Institutional Racism in our community – Housing patterns? Criminal justice? Education – public & private? Employment? Response to Affirmative Action? Economic Justice, Gender Justice • Not about guilt, but identifying and challenging unearned privilege and replace it with Justice.

Future Ethical Reflection Bryan Massingale • • • Shift from racism to white privilege Shift from parenesis to analysis Shift from personal to structural sin Shift from “decency” to distributive justice Shift from moral suasion to liberating awareness • Shift from unconscious supremacy to intentional solidarity

• Roots/Genesis • Mission • Activities • Staff

Roots/Genesis Ø Jesuit Province Initiative (pre-Katrina) ØThe Mission of the Society of Jesus: Øserving faith, promoting justice ØRecent Document: Ø“The Importance of Social Research” ØJSRI “Concept Paper” developed 2005 -2007 ØProposes a collaborative institute between SJ Province and Loyola

Joint Loyola/Province Committee – – Provost Walter Harris Dean Brian Bromberger Dean Larry Lorenz Vice Provost George Capowitz …and several others representing SJ province and Loyola

Memorandum of Understanding (11/26/07) • Purpose • Mission • Geographical Scope

Affiliation (CSS) • Activities • Collaboration • Structure – Staffing – Board – Facilities

Mission • Based in – Catholic Social Thought – & SJ mission • • • Interdisciplinary Participatory research Social analysis Theological reflection Practical strategies focusing on • Migration • Poverty • Racism

Resources • Funding: Operating Expenses – New restricted endowment – Not out of “salary pool” – 1/2 Province 1/2 Loyola – Goal: $6 million -- 2/3 already raised • Projects, Presentations and Programs – Income based on stipends, fees, grants, donations

Activities • • • Research and Analysis Education Facilitation Advocacy Immersion Experiences

Activities: 20072008 • Year of planning and development • Consultation / Listening – Within Loyola – Southern/ Southwestern U. S. – Gulf / Caribbean Region – Mexico & Central America • Common reflective process

Activities: 20072008 • Infrastructure, board and staff development • Migration: articles, testimony, visits to detention centers, advocacy. • Racism: collect, study of “best practices” e. g. , “Black Males Left Behind”. • Poverty: consulting on economic development project in Central America

Staff: 2007 -2008 • Edward B. Arroyo, SJ, Ph. D. Duke – Director / Senior Fellow / Sociologist • Michael Bouzigard, SJ, D. Phil. Oxon. – Research Fellow: Poverty/Economic Development • Thomas Greene, SJ, J. D. Loyola – Research Fellow: Migration • Mary Baudouin, MSW Wash. U (1/4) time – Link with SJ province ministries / Social Justice • Shera Maiden, MA Southern U – Administrative Assistant

http: //www. loyno. edu/jsri JESUIT SOCIAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE Loyola University New Orleans Website: www. loyno. edu/jsri e-mail: jsri@loyno. edu 6363 St. Charles Avenue, Box 94 Mercy Hall 306 New Orleans, LA 70118 Tel: (504) 864 -7746 Fax: (504) 864 -7745