Friday, June 19, 2015

Millenials, it's time to admit to our generation's racism

A week ago, on June 12, America commemorated Loving Day. On June 12, 1967 (only 48 years ago!), in Loving vs. Virginia, the Supreme Court made interracial marriage legal across America. Today we remember it and commemorate legalized interracial love.

(Of course, its convenient that the last name of the interracial couple involved was Loving, because “Smith Day” or “Richardson Day” to remember interracial marriage would be far less memorable.)

This is a big deal to me, because I'm in an interracial marriage. To think in my parents' lifetime, in states such as Georgia, Virginia, and Texas, my marriage would not have been recognized is still shocking. Even travel through these states would have posed dangers for my husband and me.

But there was something slightly disturbing in this year's Loving Day articles that bothers me even more now in light of the racially-incited terrorist act at the Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC.

The theme of many Loving Day articles seemed to be a sort of “Remember when...” and “Isn't it so great that the youngest generation is marrying interracially in droves?” And really, it is pretty impressive that just 48 years after Loving vs. Virginia, interracial marriages make up 9.5% of marriages in America.

However, one quote stuck with me and made me very uncomfortable:

It's millennials, who... 'are the best generation because they have been raised with less prejudice than other generational groups,' she said.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about that quote, questioning if it was true. As millenials, are we so far beyond the racism of the past? I get we totally are the most politically correct in our speech, and I get that things that were acceptable in the past, we now challenge. These are good changes. And the results of these changes certainly is that interracial marriage is not the extreme taboo that it used to be. I am so grateful for that, but...

Today I can point out the 21-year-old white man, who was willing to go into an African American church and take lives in act of terrorism that looks no different than something that might have happened in the 1960s. If a 21-year-old isn't a millenial, I don't know who is. And this in a year which our children will one day read about in history books, as the country has reeled from the realization of on-going police violence against African American men and women (only how much the average white person has really realized it, I'm not sure, because I'm not in America and am attempting to watch the reactions from far away).

White Millenials, let's talk. Let's seriously talk.

We're racist.

We hate admitting it, but it's true. In fact, according to the General Social Survey, we're pretty much as racist as our parents (with the exception of our overwhelming approval of interracial marriage... yay, Loving Day and closing our eyes to systems of racism).

I remember, as a 17-year-old I found myself driving in the car with a young 9-year-old girl, who was also biracial. Her family had been going through a lot of struggles, and her mother had asked if I'd “mentor” her for the summer. So about once or twice a week, this young girl and I would take a drive together and just talk... talk about everything...

Truthfully, I wasn't at all equipped for many of the conversations we'd have, most of which would center on race and gender and God. I've often wondered about her and about who she has grown into, knowing there were so many pieces of our conversation that I'd do a little differently today than I did then. I was only 17 and so many of my own assumptions had not been challenged yet.

However, this young girl helped me in many ways, and one particular conversation has stayed with me.

At one point, we were parking to get some lunch or something, and she clear-out-of-the-blue asked me point blank, “Kara, are you racist?”

No one had ever asked me this question, and for a second, I was getting ready to reassure the child that, no, she needn't worry about that. Then, before the words got out, some hitherto unknown point of conviction answered instead, “Probably. I try not to be, and I don't want to be, but I kind of think the problem with racism is we're blind to it. I probably don't really understand the ways in which I'm sometimes racist.”

This young girl, in that moment, changed something in me. By challenging me and asking me, forcing me to reflect, she opened my eyes to a piece of truth. I am extraordinarily grateful to for that opportunity.

The point is, as a generation, I think we're also wildly blind to our racism. In some ways, it would have been easier to recognize racism when it forbid interracial marriage. Instead, today, while theoretically recognizing that Black Americans and White Americans should have the same freedoms and rights, our generation holds about as tenaciously to persistent stereotypes as the last (like, that “Blacks are lazier than White,” an assumption which just boils my blood). If we don't begin to talk, really talk about racism and cut off any racist assumptions or stereotypes, the following will remain true of our generation:

Beyond generational comparisons... substantial minorities of white millennials hold racial prejudices against blacks. Over 3 in 10 white millennials believe blacks to be lazier or less hardworking than whites, and a similar number say lack of motivation is a reason why they are less financially well off as a group. Just under a quarter believes blacks are less intelligent, while fewer express opposition to interracial marriage or living in a 50-percent black neighborhood. Holding these attitudes is not the same as making racist comments in public or even among close friends, but there's clearly an audience for race-based judgment among the Millennial generation.”

And for as long as these sentiments are permitted among our friends and colleagues in our generation, extremists will rise up and kill people on the basis of their color of skin. Friends, we must stand up against racism, fight the overwhelming impact of racist systems, and not let slide the racial assumptions that lead to violence, wherever we are. Our silence is not permitted.


(P.S. - Yes, I know I've been silent for a while again. This broke my silence.)




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