On: "Casual Racism"

 

On:  “Casual” Racism

Colleen Rogers

Confessional.  Putting these sentiments all out there.  Because, if we don’t honestly speak on it, we can’t make any genuine attempt to ever address racial issues productively.  Here’s what I have come to learn about racism based on my own personal observations and experiences …

1.    All of us are racist, but not everyone owns it.  Most of us deny our racist tendencies.  Yet, if you have ever laughed at a racist joke, rolled your eyes at the alternative behavior of another ethnicity, not called someone out for their use of a racial slur, minimized another race’s call for justice, or refuted someone's perception of their own ethnic story, you are indeed a racist.  If we were to be honest with ourselves and each other, we would all have to admit that we have committed at least one of the aforementioned offenses. 

2.    Racism is like a cancerous disease. It is occasionally in remission, but it can always be triggered and flare.  When a race perceives social injustice and responds with political activism and protest, the reactive cancer of racism comes out of remission, sometimes in the most vehement and violent ways.

3.    Really, there is no such thing as being a “casual” racist.  Saying so is like saying you’re “a little pregnant”.  If you were to go to a foreign country and break a “minor”code of conduct because you “didn’t know”it was objectionable, you still might be (at the very least) guilty of a faux pas in the eyes of the residents.  Such as it is with “casual” racism--you may believe you are making an attempt to show commonality, but in actuality, you are acting offensively.  It is up to you to attempt to learn the code and switch your behavior.

  

4.    Conversation about racism is the only taboo left in this country. We have been able to discuss issues like transgenderism, mental health, and  controversial parenting styles, but we cannot talk about racism judiciously without stirring fiery outrage.

I cannot speak on anyone’s experiences with their own racist conduct, so I will cite several instances in my own life where I have recognized this tumor in myself to serve as a starting point for discussion.  Feel free to comment below WITHOUT THE USE OF RACIAL SLURS (you know what they are).  Such epithets are counter-productive for any sincere attempts toward understanding each other's perspectives.

The instances I am relating will not show me in the best light, but they are honest and, I believe, express what some feel but do not share.  I am working here toward recognition and reflection…

Many years ago, my husband and I built our first home.  It was a typical suburban house—one bedroom on the first floor, two on the second, two baths, etc.  It was not palatial, but to us it was a great starter place after renting for too many years.  The black family across the street was amazing—the wife there was a nurse, and her husband taught high school, as did I.  Their home was definitely an upgrade from our place across the street.  Their house had additional rooms, a fancier facade, and a slightly larger lot.  Since we knew both of our families’ incomes were comparable, and that they had the additional expenses of raising two wonderful children, my husband and I tried to figure out how they managed to more successfully budget their assets.

At a block party, in casual conversation without inquiry on our part, the husband mentioned that he and his wife had gotten a significantly lower interest rate loan as part of a “boost” program that enabled minority families to finance their first homes.  My husband mentioned to our neighbor that it might not be such a good idea to share this information with the rest of the block party guests (all of whom were white).  When the party ended, and my husband and I returned home, we had a simmering, low-grade resentment over our neighbor’s financial “perk”.  We felt like a sibling who gets the smaller Christmas present even though he does the same number of chores around the house. 

There it was, through no fault of our neighbors, the tinge of animosity that we suppressed (but still felt).  We carried this the whole time we lived across the street from them.  We continued to extend all the requisite courtesies by picking up their mail when they went on vacation and the like, but we never recovered from feeling that some benefits, although intended to fast track another race toward upward mobility, would never be comprehensively available for us.  I do not believe that many others in our race relate or admit specific instances in which affirmative action policies have picked at and affected the relationships with previously included and accepted minority neighbors.

Many other personal instances of racism have, in my eyes, been an even more heinous snake for me.  As I stated, I was a teacher in a predominately black high school.  The students there were amazing—they were energetic, bright, and creative in every way possible.  I absolutely loved working with them, in spite of my failure sometimes to truly understand where they were coming from, or interpret how they would struggle to get to their personal and professional destinations. 

It was arduous for me to become their teacher.  My parents were blue collar people, my Dad a trucker, my Mom a waitress.  Three of us siblings were in college, at one point at the same time.  As I was the first to attend college, my family struggled to navigate the financial burdens of me getting a degree.  My Mom worked more hours, my Dad took on a weekend job as a bartender, and I waitressed while going to school as well.  My parents signed promissory notes and borrowed money.  It took me an extra year to finish getting my degree, not because of poor grades, but because I had to work more hours and save before I could return to graduate.  Finally, I got my degree and my certification to teach.  The rough road was treasured because it had so many landmines for me and my family to dodge.  As the first college graduate in my family, it was an overwhelming accomplishment for us all. 

At some point, toward the middle of my teaching career, one of my students proudly approached me to tell me that he had earned a full-ride minority scholarship to attend my own Alma Mater.  He stated that he wouldn’t have to work at all, just focus on his studies, and attend his classes.  I remember stepping outside my classroom, into the hallway, suddenly feeling tears streaming down my face.  His high school grades were decent, but I had been a State scholar. I was painfully reminded that I never, ever received a free ride.   

I prayed that at least, since he had been given an opportunity that I had not been privy to, he would hunker down and do his best.  He did not, and left college after his first year.  I was devastated by how cavalierly he received, and then tossed aside, a gift that would have made my family’s own struggle so much less overbearing had it only been offered.  I remember that the sense of inequity I felt at the time stung me to the core. I worked hard at flat lining my feelings with the goal of celebrating my students’ advantages toward their betterment, even if I recognized that their advantages appeared to divest from my own.  I find my feelings then to not show my character in the most favorable light, no matter how "justified" they were at the time.  Back then, I perceived these two instances to be a kind of reverse discrimination, a component of affirmative action. The term “white privilege” seemed non-applicable to me, since in my eyes it did not generate any special considerations for MY socially limited designation.  White privilege seemed to refer to a "white-someone" who was wealthier, with insider trades and the connections that my family lacked. "Privilege" meant having stacks, not being able to walk around a mall "untracked".  

My own personal issues with racism continued to be noted even into my last teaching position.  We had a student there that I’ll call Dontrell.  Dontrell was, as they used to say, a “spirited” young black man.  All of us white teachers had difficulty “reigning” him in.  We did not know how to “keep him seated”, get him to be “compliant” with the rules, etc.  Essentially, none of us white teachers “related to” or “understood” Dontrell whatsoever.  The last straw for us was when Dontrell took his school-issued laptop, laid it on the ground, stomped on it, and then demanded another computer as a “replacement”.  Dontrell had no learning disabilities, mental illnesses, or any other detectable cause for his conduct—it was just that we had no ability to connect with...all...that...behavior... 

One day, when all the students were in the cafeteria, his white teachers were sitting in the classroom at our own lunch table.  That day had been one of the most insufferable days of “Dontrelling” and one of the exasperated white teachers finally broke down and said, “I hate Ni**ers”.  With two administrators there, and three other teachers present, no one checked this teacher’s blatant racial slur.  No one.  Including myself.

I will tell you that I am not a white supremacist, white nationalist, or a member of any minority hate group, but I do believe that I have been complicit in allowing my own perceptions of racially-oriented benefits and  failure to halt the blatant racial slurring of others, to be inexcusable behaviors.  I have since tried hard to recognize these basest tumors of my own racist cancer. 

I am still struggling with what I have since been taught are characteristic expressions of “casual racism”, a kind of localized, insidious, nasty sub-texted racism generally exhibited (and denied) by "nice" white folk. 

I often now retreat from bringing up any uncomfortable issues on race.  I do not discuss black on black crime, use the phrase “not all white people are...” or even quote the mantra that “all lives matter”.  I'm still not always able to use thoughtful consideration when dodging all of the mumbled, taboo triggers of “casual” racism.

I know that some of my comments herein will be considered racist, even though I have stammer-attempted to explain my vantage point.  I do realize, though, that neither muttered sentiments nor high-pitched shouts are the volumes needed for solutions. 

Graphic from:    
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2016/10/11/comment-can-racism-ever-be-casual

On: "Security Breach" Teaching

“Security Breach” Teaching

Colleen Rogers

Lately, a lot resolutions have been proposed concerning re-vamping schools’ security systems by arming a select group of “defensive” teachers at every instructional campus.  “Teacher designees” would receive bonuses and special para-military training to diffuse any potential threats by a school shooter in their building work-sites.  Many overburdened and under-willing teachers have recoiled at the idea of manning educational professionals with weaponry.  Considered yet another worrisome, horrific classroom responsibility, faculties across the nation view school personnel as, once again, being held liable for another societal ill, which they alone are required to “fix”.

Although statistically only one in a million students nationwide is a victim of a school shooter, parents’, politicians’ and media outrage have issued this “call to arms” as an immediate, knee-jerk response to school invasions.  One of the problems with arming teachers that is not openly discussed, however, is the issue of liability.  There should be concerns over these guns’ thefts, accidental discharges, and student injuries in crossfire shootings as teachers attempt to diffuse attacks.  After all, aren't these weapons to be housed in or near classrooms?  Who is actually to carry the responsibility for each of these weapons’ maintenance, safety, storage and usage?

Truly, who is to bear the emotional and financial burden of liability if a stolen, school-issued gun is used in the commission of a crime?  What if an innocent student is shot from the accidental discharge of a school-housed weapon?  What happens if someone other than the shooter is injured by a teacher in a “take down”?  

Schools, by their very nature, are not steel security vaults.  Schools, instead, are actually beehives in a flurry.  Parents pick up their sick child, students board buses for field trips, teachers attend workshops outside of the building, administrators leave for District offices, and deliveries are made on loading docks.  No classroom or office on any school campus is secured twenty-four hours a day, and no door is ever one-hundred percent guarded.  Is the burden of holding onto these weapons the responsibility of the Federal or State government, local law enforcement, or the school districts?  

 My suspicion would be that, if something goes terribly wrong with one of the school-sanctioned guns, the responsibility and financial liability would fall squarely on the shoulders of the weapon’s assigned teacher.  Each teacher needs to think carefully before co-signing with such programs—think about your career, your family, and your students.  Even with a proposed bonus for the teachers armed, they need to ask themselves…Can you bear and insure the loss that you’d carry?

 

Image from:

 

http://americanfreepress.net/arming-teachers/

On: Profiling and Preventing School Shooters

On:  Profiling and Preventing School Shooters

Colleen Rogers

In light of the events this past week in Broward County, Florida, addressing concerns over the heightened number of school shootings has been broached in the media once again.  Gun control mandates, advanced security measures on school campuses, and better funding to secure treatment for mental health issues have all been “forefronted” by whichever political party needs to promote their platform d' jour.

With everyone’s “good intentions” in place, the need to look at what truly is the “framework” for the mindset of a school shooter needs to be our starting point.  Before planning any course of intervention in schools, communities, or in Congress, we need to look at the most significant profile of a young person triggered to rampage. 

The statistical data below, presented on a Homeland Security Reference Guide provided by the state of Iowa, indicates that over 50% of school shooters have exhibited the following tendencies:

School shooters...

-- attack during the school day

-- have a known history of weapons usage

--have weapons that come from their own home or that of a relative

-- have exhibited behavior that has caused concern by others prior to their attack

-- plan their attack in advance

--and are generally current students of the school.

Additionally, about a fourth of the school shooters also show an interest in violent movies, and a little over one-third of the attackers seem to demonstrate violence in self-created written works like poetry, essays, or journals. 

School shooter’s motivations for their acts of violence are (in order of greatest significance)…

--the perception of being persecuted, bullied, or threatened by others

--the desire for revenge

--their own multiple motives.

Approximately one third of  shooters believe that their act is an attempt to “solve a problem”,  while about a quarter of the shooters are motivated by suicide or desperation. 

Contrary to what we might think, only about a quarter of the school shooters are actually motivated by the pursuit of recognition or attention.

Prior to implementing any beefed-up, structured plans in an attempt to prevent these horrific incidents of school violence, there are some observable warning signs that could indicate the possibility of a young person heading down this deadly path. 

Here’s what to watch for:

--Probe whether or not the young person has appeared to have researched, planned or prepared to commit an act of violence.  If you note that there has been an effort to secure a weapon, know that this has escalated the risk factor for violence.

Please also note that…

--In over two-thirds of the school shootings, at least one other person  had information about what the shooter’s thoughts or plans were BEFORE the attack.  In about 66% of the attacks, more than one person had information about the attack BEFORE it occurred.

 In almost all of these cases, the person who knew about the attack was a peer—a friend, a sibling, or someone from school.

As an aftermath, we need to recognize that…

--Interventions by law enforcement generally are not how attacks are ultimately stopped.

--School personnel need to realize, too, that the “Werther Effect” may be in effect for days or weeks after a heavily-publicized attack.  Students in their own buildings may make some attempts toward “copycatting” after such a sensationalized event has happened elsewhere.

For the purpose of discussion, perhaps we could consider the following immediate “interventions”…

--Law enforcement training for parents on securing and monitoring weapons in the home

--Heavier enforcement of fines and fees for the unlawful possession or usage of guns by a minor

--Student training on “what warning sign to look for” as potential signs of violence from peers

--An "anonymous” peer to adult plan of reporting “warning signs of violence” as they are exhibited by friends or classmates.  (This should include relating online posts, class notes, etc.)

--Increased counselor follow-up of classroom discipline issues that involve fights, bullying complaints, etc.

--Additional peer mentors for incorporation into comprehensive anti-bullying campaigns

--Community Health Programs and Suicide Crisis Centers that have staff visiting schools regularly to provide students with information on depression, post-traumatic stress disorders, bereavement, and other mental health issues

--Re-structured building crisis drills to prepare students and staff for potential incidences of school violence

--Classroom structures developed to serve “double duty” in the event of shootings (i.e., whiteboards that “flip” and serve as bullet proof barricades or shields, etc.)

Although it is of hollow comfort at this time for our country, only one in one million students die at their school as a result of a violent act.   

This though, is of no consequence to the friends and families who have just suffered the greatest of losses.

Statistics herein are credited as originating from:

homelandsecurity.iowa.gov

Art courtesy of:   

https://drawception.com/game/WgYehmTbz3/caillou-becomes-a-school-shooter/

On: The Old Lady and Colin K.

The Old Lady and Colin K.

Colleen Rogers

Tomorrow is the Superbowl Sunday, and I am still angry.  For two years running, politics have still “colorized” this national event. Here’s my offering on this piece of American Pie, as it’s lovingly served by someone who could be your Granny.  You’re are free to opt out of dessert if you are not boycotting tomorrow's game, or if you are in unequivocal support of Colin K.’s stance and are not interested in having another slice on this issue.  If you decide to keep reading, I sincerely appreciate your time at my table. 

I am a 62 year old White lady.  My father was a Navy man, and my brother-in-law is a cop, so you can probably see where I am going with this preface.  I taught in a Black (if that is still p.c.) High school in the southern suburbs of Chicago for 21 years before my retirement in 2015.  I was not blessed with children of my own, so my students have been literally everything to me.  My feelings for and support of them have never wavered.  I have joyfully followed them post-graduation on Facebook.  I have watched the gender reveal of their children, seen them as they go off for a tour of duty in the military, and jumped for joy to see screenshots of their college acceptance letters.  That all changed when Colin K.’s protests began.  I have been blocked.  Beloved students who sat in my classroom five days a week for nine months have disavowed me for being “racist”.  To say that this was a shock, deeply hurtful, and a lesson for me would be an understatement.  Evidently, you see, I am considered a “casual” racist by some of the students I loved.  

I am not sure exactly when it happened, but it is definitely a direct result of me expressing my opinions online about Colin K. and his protests.  When Colin K. began sitting on the bench, wearing the Pig socks, and kneeling on the field, I truly took his protests to be “attention seeking antics” similar to those of any class clown.  To me, he was the student who keeps pushing the perimeters of acceptable conduct until he ultimately is expelled from school.  Metaphorically, this is exactly what happened to Colin K.  

My beliefs about Colin K., whose future with the NFL at that point was somewhat dicey, was that he was attempting to generate a “cult of personality”.   He hoped to assure that his dismissal would be proactively questioned had he become a fan favorite.  Any empathy I might have had for his cause was negligible at this juncture because, for me, the methodology he used to grandstand for the purpose of raising awareness overshadowed his message.

Like many football fans, I could not understand why Colin would pick his job site to protest a personal social cause in front of what were essentially his bosses’ clients.  Ostentatiously, Colin’s conduct cut the recognition of his protests’ goals  off “at the knee” and effectively curtailed his objectives.  On Facebook, I expressed my true distaste for Colin’s behavior.  Expecting to hear an empathetic, well-considered debate over issues concerning coordinating your medium with your message, I instead was met with a barrage of Black Power rage.  Assuredly, I must be racist for not understanding precisely why Colin, at a football game, would be protesting the violence shown by law enforcement toward essentially 200 Black youth.  I had minimal knowledge even of the protest’s issues, but I could clearly see the boulder rolling downhill.  The glaring sun of racial miscommunication suddenly burned my retinas.  At that moment,  I realized that the flagrant disparity between expected conduct and blatant racism may likely be the cause for what has now become a frightening precipice for racial chaos.  

My take was that, when I go to events for leisure, I do not expect to see any disruptions.  As an older White woman, I anticipate an orchestrated protocol.  I expect a certain order, tradition, and sequence of “mandates”.  It provides a sense of comfort, even at a boisterous sporting event.  As working class moments of leisure are limited, diversionary “tactics” to draw any immediate, unwilling attention to social justice issues are sure to be met with resistance.  Even if there is measurable sympathy for the cause of another race, this is a high level intrusion.

While in-your-face disobedience has always been a necessary trail toward the recognition of injustices for the Black community, it is not fully acknowledged in a gathered time and place of leisure “procured” by another race.  "Jumping the broom" into precious moments of free time, in a space primarily occupied by “someone different”, is a sure-fire catalyst for discord.  I suspect that diametrically opposed views on life, not racism, may be partially the cause for our current tour of discord.  For instance, some of us sit quietly in church in worshipful prayer, while others lead shouting Gospel fests.  Some of us see the flag as an honorable remembrance of our fathers who’ve served, while others see the flag as a symbol of a repressive history.

         What I have learned from Colin K. is this…our racial divide may be something that will more likely require “polite containment”, remaining a dismissal failure long after earnest Civil Rights marches.  We steadily hold firm little realization of the issues for racial division in our own country. We hold even less willingness to have civilized discourse on these issues without hurling racial epithets.  We are continuing to display middle school re-activism in broaching any race-related issue.  So, I suppose, at this point, I remain labeled an unhappy and accidentally “casual racist”.  The rapport I had hoped to continue to share with my former students has to start all over, with long marches of deeply trenched hope.

On: Polarizing Presidencies and Race Relations

On:  Polarizing Presidencies and Race Relations

Colleen Rogers

With the inauguration of Donald Trump as an immediate antacid to the aperitif Presidency of Barack Obama, we need to ask ourselves what has shifted in the mood of our country, and try to analyze why we as a nation have taken such a sudden right turn.  In my humble opinion, the central core to our current polarization stems from the deep-rooted, unresolved racial tensions that have been walled in repressive captivity, held against an honest reveal.

The election of President Trump is perceived, and perhaps rightly so, as an indicator of White America’s “Negro fatigue”, “Blacklash”, or “Black-X-Sauce-tion". With the good faith election of two-termed President Obama, White America appeared to extend an olive branch of acknowledgement for injustices and inequities in many positions of leadership at the highest levels of governmental power. While serving, President Obama’s turn of allegiance to perceived symbols of Black "criminality" felt like a jolting betrayal to White Americans, who had used their majority votes to assure the President's election.  Obama’s telling statement:  "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon" confirmed the President’s alignment with the Chicago South Side African American community from which he came.  In spite of the President’s bi-racialism, it was his symbolic identification with a core Black culture that shocked middle America, and revealed his “true colors”.  The sudden mobilization of African Americans as a new generation of activists, (as evidenced in the Malcolm X inspired Super Bowl performance by Beyonce) enraged a sleeping White middle America.  At the onset of angry young Blacks’ protests, some of which triggered reactive criminal behavior, little old White ladies once again began to clutch their purses more tightly while shopping, as they did in the 1960’s.

Many White Americans have responded to this show of Black racial unity in tax-anger, electing a President who no doubt will eliminate or minimize minority targeted programs.  Entitlement advances, welfare subsidies, Section 8 housing, etc., will most likely now take a hit.  At the center of this lies a frustration and White sentiment that no matter what is provided to serve as a “leg up”, it will never be enough to cement the inclusion of the Black community into mainstream America.  The "perception" of African Americans as having a culture of irresponsibility, with an inability to acclimate or follow the rules of American standards, has heightened.   The perpetually boarded up HUD huts have caused many predominately White communities to refuse federal funding as an isolating tactic against urban blight.

White America is done—tired of funneling funds to what is now viewed as an unfixable state of affairs.  Neighborhoods with high crime rates (and the moral code theme “snitches get stitches”) are deplorable and cannot really be revised by vocal Black ministers and their charges. There is no longer a desire to understand and support such communities—isolationism is currently preferred over inclusion.  Any attempt to even say “some of my best friends are Black…” has suddenly been squelched.  It is hard for White America to understand why other people of color (Hispanics, Asians, Indians, etc.) seem to have no difficulty excelling as part of the collective in the U.S.  It is hard to comprehend, too, why African Americans broad brush White America as if Whites are from one homogeneous culture, with no distinctions in diverse ethnic upbringings or trials.  There seems to be a lack of recognition by the Black community of the hard-fought struggles to power exhibited by many other ethnic groups (i.e., “Irish need not apply” shut outs, Japanese internment camps, etc.).  The perpetual perceived slights and “unjustified” remuneration requirements by African Americans seem to finally be a never-ending form of “extortion” to the many White Americans.  While Blacks insist that they do not receive their fair share of the pie, much of that is attributable to population ratios in the country, and is not really a result of any prejudicial intent.  Additionally, the insistence by African Americans that they, themselves, cannot exhibit prejudices, but yet make cultural distinctions between light-skinned and dark-skinned people, is difficult to comprehend.  A race that perpetually screams having been served intolerance over skin color frowns upon gradients of their own. 

The Black community has had a public relations issue when it comes to promoting success that is not related to arena of athletics or entertainment.  Black contributions in science and medicine, social service and justice, invention and entrepreneurship are just small blips on the historic radar, only observed under a microscope during February’s Black history month.  The aspiration of so many Black young people who desire careers in athletics or as Hip Hop artists belies a limited world view of role models for advancement.

Perhaps the primitive resurgence of racial slurs and violence is a way of purging our anger as a precedent to dialogue, tolerance and, ultimately, understanding.  Right now, I don’t think so.