My final essay for Cognition, Culture, Race, and Identity

Dear Betsy and Larri,

I chuckled a little bit when I saw the description of the assignment for our final paper. Three important factual things I have learned? Simplification has never been one of my favorite things to do, particularly of horrendously complex issues. The farthest I can break down the information I have absorbed is into systems, groups of ideas with a common theme. Even then, these systems are exceedingly difficult to separate from each other; they are too intertwined. The first is the legacy of racism and discrimination, which is still with us today; the second is why the black kids sit together; and the third is who is responsible.

Society does not develop in a vacuum, and to think that it has always been the way it is is foolish and wrong. Our society developed from a past rife with conflict and hatred, and there is no way to escape it. Even today, we still see vestiges of slavery, the “wild west,” Jim Crow, World War II, and the Civil Rights era, though in much more subtle ways than we’ve seen historically. Patterns of thought, language devices, schemas, economic situations, and more have all been tainted by those time periods. Sexism today is directly descended from sexism in the Biblical times, as are common conceptions of the roles of men and women. To say that we have moved on past these things, past slavery, Japanese internment, the Holocaust, the conflicts with Native Americans and Mexicans is the same as dropping a brick wall in front of a person running a race; it stops dead all chances to move forward. I’ve learned to acknowledge and see how our history relives itself in us, to recognize and analyze how we perpetuate the legacy of prejudice and racism in our lives and in society.

“Micro-aggression” and “micro-assault” are two names for concepts that I have long believed in, but couldn’t verbalize. When I read these names and learned the concepts, many things fell into place and I was finally able to fully conceptualize why “all the black kids sit together.” It is because of all the factors that ultimately end in micro-assaults. Stereotypes and schemas, ignorance, fear, misunderstandings and miscommunications; all create a constantly risky environment for people of color, from which an escape is often necessary. No matter how much they try, members of the “outgroup” can never fully “fit in” to society because one aspect of themselves deviates from the established norm. This is not a comfortable situation, particularly for teens, who already have the common complaint of “nobody really understands me.” It is a fact that these are everyday conditions for people of color, women, and homosexuals, so it is no small wonder that they seek to avoid the micro-aggression inherent in American society.

I have also learned much about where the burden lays in regards to fixing society. It lies with us, white people, to change our attitudes and to correct the injustices that we perpetrate. However, people of color must take responsibility as well; not because of some culpability, but because we are in this together, and many hands make light work. It is the job of whites to change ourselves, but we must all change society. Accusatory methods of interaction get us nowhere, and neither does isolationism: we must struggle hand in hand as a greater whole. But the onus is on white to recognize the harm that we, as a group, do to others. As I have said many times in the past, the first step to fixing a problem is recognizing it, and for this we require outside aid; again, we must bring together groups to create a larger whole in order to improve the greater American society.

I find it difficult to write out three important emotional things I have learned, because so much of prejudice is emotional; I suppose that would be one emotional thing. In social psych, we learn that issues are best addressed in the ways that they are supported; i.e., emotional issues are best addressed by emotional arguments, and informational issues are best addressed by rational arguments. Prejudice is a highly emotional issue, and we must face these emotions, not couch them in economic terms, or statistics. Prejudice is a people issue, and people are nothing if not emotional.

A second emotional thing I have learned about is pain: the pain of victims, as well as the pain of fighting prejudice. Though I had been introduced to institutional racism in previous classes, I was mostly ignorant of the psychological and developmental effects of racism, simply because I had never had exposure to it. But films like “Blue Eyes” really drove the point home to me: the humiliation, the pain, the frustration of being a minority group trying to survive in white America.

Third is anger: anger of subjugated groups, anger at injustice, and anger against being accused of being racist. The micro-assaults constantly experienced by members of marginalized groups, not just VREGs but also women and homosexuals, are a source of constant pain and anger. The need to cope with this often develops in ways that frustrates many (particularly whites), such as black churches, Horizons Weekend, Black History Month, and Women’s Week. Anger develops from this lack of understanding, and now that I understand both sides of perceived issue, I can see the necessity of it all. I am an excitable person, and I do not take kindly to things I perceive as morally wrong or unjust, so I have also learned, in a way, to redirect my anger and frustration more towards the systematic racism than towards individuals. This redirection of emotion, the focusing of anger towards a real enemy, is a catalyst for positive action.

What will I do differently? I believe a more appropriate question for me is what am I doing differently, because throughout the semester I have developed and adopted the following changes. Each thing I have learned has motivated me to change my behavior, and these changes will not start after the class ends, they have started and persist. Injustice will not wait for us to be done with class, and neither will I.

One tangible and definable change in my behavior is a determination to better understand the implications of three important quotes that we have discussed in class, and then inject their meanings into my life. “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” This quote is central to much of my thoughts, for reasons two-fold. First is its most obvious meaning: listen and understand before pressing your self upon others; consider other perspectives and take them in before passing judgement. Second, and more generally, I take from it a deeper drive for thoughtfulness and care. It is an entreaty to empathy, to sharing commonality and embracing diversity rather than falsely forcing the former and denigrating the latter. “Seek first to understand” implies acknowledgment, the seeing of another, and thus the honoring of another. To understand, we must first honor. This quote encourages us to see people, to care about the lives of others. Only once we see and understand others can we truly be loving, thoughtful individuals. Eric Fromm writes in his book The Art of Loving that “If I perceive in another person mainly the surface, I perceive mainly the differences, that which separates us. If I penetrate to the core, I perceive our identity, the fact of our brotherhood.”

Second is, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Change starts with the self, and more importantly, change is reinforced by its existence in the world. It is a positively reinforcing phenomenon; as a musician by the pseudonym of “The Nightwatchman” sings “If you take one step towards freedom, it’ll take two steps toward you.” But it also means lead by example, and confidently do so. When the people around us see our behavior–our understanding and tolerance–and how it positively affects all those around us, it will rub off. Even subconsciously, through social learning theory and other forces, care and love will spread. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. championed this: loves begets love. If we wish the world to be just, we must have justice within ourselves, because if we should not expect others to do what we do not expect of ourselves. To seek first to understand is to live by this idea; to criticize the prejudicial nature of our society and culture but not fight it within ourselves is hypocrisy.

Third is the quote “It makes a difference to this one,” which is said by a child throwing starfish back into the ocean. This has only recently entered into the catalog of my thoughts, but has already had an enormous impact. It tells us that no good deed is too small; each step towards goodness is still good. It helps me keep in mind that even though I am merely one person—a fallible human being, a white male—if my efforts make just the smallest of difference, then the effort is worth it. In the hustle and bustle of this capitalist, competitive American society, it is often too easy to attempt to create a cost-benefit analysis of our time and effort, to quantify the meaning of our lives. This quote is a reminder to me that no good deed is unworthy of my efforts, no matter how insignificant it may be in the larger scheme of things, because big things are made up of little things. Furthermore, what may be a small deed in my mind or in the minds of others may be the most important thing in the world for another. In order to change the world, we must be the change we wish to see, seek first to understand ourselves and others, and make a difference no matter how small of a difference it may seem.

Continuing along the path we’re on is the only course of action. We must set small goals to reach the big one, the big one being an ideal condition of perfect diversity, understanding and tolerance. However, there is no panacea for diversity, only constant labor. To me, it isn’t so much of a goal like a mission objective, getting to a certain level of diversity, or a mileage to be reached. Tolerance, understanding, and respect are the everyday battles of being a good person, the principles of being a decent member of society. The only 100% effective way to truly fight racism and intolerance, is to do it in our own lives and spread it to others. We must make justice a habit, and programs that facilitate this are the next step, but at this point, there is no miracle cure or even any giant leaps of progress that can be made. In a way, I feel we have been spoiled by the legacy of the civil rights movements and the great men and women who led them, who succeeding in taking down Jim Crow, segregation, and other forms of de jure racism. These were giant leaps of success. But now we are in the time of baby steps, and we must also remember that those great goals were achieved through baby steps. We are fighting the invisible battles now and are subject to the laborious grind of eliminating implicit biases and structural racism. I compare this in my mind to plowing snow. Early on, the pile is small and great progress can be made quickly because there is only one way to go. But as we continue along, the pile of snow grows and becomes heavier and larger, such that a single person can no longer push it himself. More power and more people are needed to keep pushing it, and it only gets harder. We must continue to enlist allies and push on an individual level, and we can not and should not rely on sweeping governmental or administrative programs or systems. We must grind away the façade of an equal America in order to create a just America, and ultimately a just world. We must scrub away the taint of the legacy of racism and prejudice in our lives and behavior. We must strain and groan against the wall of ignorance and denial in order to breakthrough to realization and acceptance.

I can’t emphasize enough the need to avoid deluding ourselves with the prospect of a “cure” for racism, some monumental program that will, through great leaps and bounds, establish equality. I say this for two reasons. First, it’s unrealistic, as I pointed out above. Second, it is more discouraging in the end to think this way. If the child saving the starfish languished over the fact that he couldn’t save them all, to solve the problem in one fell swoop, then none of the starfish would have been saved at all. We as individuals must adopt these changed values and live them, then spread them. And they will spread.

In conclusion, I have to say that this class has opened my eyes immensely, not only to the outside world and prejudice, but also to my internal world. I have gained insights into my values, into culture, race, and prejudice in America, and also to my own identity as a white male. But this is only the tip of the iceberg; I have learned so much more about my relationships with the world and other people that I can definitively say that this class has guided me to develop into a better person, and I truly feel that I have made significant progress in this regard. The ideas of justice and understanding, of being the change and making a difference apply to every facet of life, not just socio-economic and political equality. I have put my mind, my values, and my self through a crucible, of sorts, and discovered that there is more to diversity than skin color, culture, or sexual orientation. Diversity of needs, desires, ideals, of thought and feeling; all are just as important for self-actualization and for the development of an authentic self. Seeking first to understand has opened an entirely new world to me, one that I intend to fully embrace.

Thank you.

Much love,

Andrew