Letter to Friend: Personal Definition of Racism and Discrimination

My dear friend,

I know we don’t always agree on things, and that’s ok. In fact, I think that it’s really valuable to be able to hear the opinions and ideas of those who disagree with you, and to engage with those ideas rather than simply dismiss them. This is why I’m writing to you about definition of racism essay, because I know that I’m about to tell you things you probably won’t agree with. But please, hear me out.

If I were to call you a racist, you would passionately deny it, but both you and I know that I would not be the first person to say that. I don’t know if anyone has ever taken time to try to explain that perhaps the definitions of racism are different, and that maybe that is the cause of the disagreement. I believe that your definition of racism is probably more or less an act to deliberately discriminate against somebody because of their race – correct me if I’m wrong. That is not my definition, and I don’t think it should be yours either, even if many people you know and agree with think that definition is correct. It is just not good enough and does not capture the full picture of racism, as argued by Robin DiAngelo in her book White Fragility . I know that what I’m saying might not agree with mainstream culture or popular news outlets – but when were they ever the ultimate source of knowledge? With that said, I acknowledge that what we see around us is often what we assume to be true, so when the media tells us that racism is a single and intentional act of discrimination in isolation, we often just believe it. Combine that with the basic assumption that we all have about ourselves that we are a good and moral person, and it is easy to come to the conclusion that we cannot, in any way, be connected to the issue of racism. I know that I had come to the same conclusion not long ago.

So, what made me change my mind? I realised, quite recently actually, that I have a race. To some people, that might seem like the strangest statement. Of course you have a race – you’re a human! To that I would say this: it isn’t that simple. There are things that you don’t notice nor appreciate until you really focus on them, and quite simply, my race – our race – had never been one of them. We had very similar childhoods, you and I, and I suspect you might feel the same way. We both grew up white, in white families, in white neighbourhoods. Being white was the default, the unmarked trait, and if race was talked about, it was always someone else’s race, not your own . I had the realisation that not only is being white my race, but also that the whole society we live in is racialised. Race matters, and not just other races but your own too, and that is the truth, even if you wish it were not.

We are both white, and that’s never been a problem – right? Why is that? Do you think someone of colour living in Australia could say the same thing? I don’t think so, and I don’t think that you could say so without knowing you were lying to yourself. You know as well as I do that the power in Australian society is held almost exclusively by white people, and mostly white men at that. This has clearly got something to do with race, since it isn’t just by chance that all the elite and powerful levels of society don’t represent the racial diversity of Australian society as a whole. This is where your definition of racism has to change. The structures in our society favour and privilege the white population, and that is the core of structural racism. In order for a definition of racism to include this type of bias, one that is built into a system, it can’t just be about immoral people committing individual acts of discrimination. The reality is that racism is a complex and nuanced social dynamic into which the whole population is socialised . When you consider just one action, isolated and away from the society in which it was made, you lose so much of the picture. The full picture includes a complex and interconnected system that is tied into the history of a particular society and it is important to acknowledge that history, and who wrote it – that is, who had the power and why.

It’s really not hard to see where the power has been in Australian society. It’s hardly hidden, given the racial profile of the `elite’ and the politicians. We even had a white Australia policy, but started at colonisation with the persecution of the Indigenous population. I don’t believe you when you try to tell me “Sure, but that was then, and our society isn’t like that now – everyone is equal”. I wish I could believe you, but I can’t because it simply isn’t true. You have to recognise that not everyone starts on an equal playing field, and recognising the impact of these historical power structures, and their role in the present day, is key to understanding that something like the booing of Adam Goodes is, and has to be, racist. I can hear what you’re saying back to me, that they were just booing, and how can that be a racist act. That’s the thing, only a fraction of the story is about the ‘act’. It’s about the historical context, which Coram and Hallinan highlight in their paper . The concept of racism is misunderstood in Australian society as being about the overt and the intentional, but that’s just not true . I’m trying to show you how it has to be seen as an element of social structure .

I know that this broader definition might seem too philosophical to you. It’s harder to see and point a finger at than someone’s individual act and it doesn’t seem concrete enough, right? Well, yes and no. Structural racism often doesn’t have easy to see edges and it pervades through all levels of society, but I believe that the consequences are so much easier to see. I know that once I was aware of it, I could recognise the impacts everywhere. When looking for a job earlier this year, I would do research into a company and their background. What I found shocked me, but somehow, simultaneously, wasn’t a surprise at all. On every single ‘Our people’ type page, almost every person listed was an old, white man. Sure there were some exceptions but overall, time and time again this pattern occurred. I know that this wouldn’t have been intentional, and these companies wouldn’t have actively sought out these people, but they went with the flow of the system, the system that is riddled with structural racism.

So, with this broader definition of racism, I hope you agree with me that structural racism exists throughout society and it is a product of the historical context of our society. I want to now discuss something that I know we disagree on, so again, please hear me out. The climb on Uluru was permanently closed in October this year but the traditional owners, Anangu, had been asking people not to climb the sacred site since the 1990s . Do you think that not recognising their wishes, and by extension not acknowledging Indigenous culture, is racist? I urge you to think of the context here, everything from colonisation to the Stolen generation. There is a long, sad, history in Australia of the white population, at best, ignoring the Indigenous peoples, and at worst, actively persecuting and killing them. That history is not dead and can be seen to this day in a vast array of statistics on ‘the gap’ which is the focus of the ‘Close the Gap’ campaign and the associated annual reports . When someone believes that white, Western culture is more important than other cultures, implicitly or explicitly, that did not happen in a vacuum. In the same way that racism is a part of social structure, so too are the vast majority of the population socialised into that structure, such that many don’t even know that it’s there. It is this ignorance that can contribute to racist structures and perpetuate them as the norm. If you can’t see how you fit into a bigger picture of society, then you won’t easily see how that picture has to change for the better.

By now, you might agree with me that racism is complicated and that the prejudice is not just skin-deep but embedded into the very fabric and history of Australian society, amongst many. These structures benefit and privilege white people and being white, both you and I benefit from this unfairness. If you’re like me, then thinking about this makes you feel so guilty – and you can’t even control it! It’s not your fault that you were born white, into a society where white people have the privilege! Indeed, it is not your fault, as much as it isn’t mine. That doesn’t mean, however, that we can forget about it. I found help dealing with this sense of guilt about my race in reflexive anti-racism, as introduced by Kowal, Franklin & Paradies in their paper ‘Reflexive antiracism: A novel approach to diversity training’ . They explained that it is essential that you both recognise the privilege and to be aware of it as often as you can, but it is also key that you come to terms with the fact that you can’t erase your whiteness and you mustn’t pretend that it doesn’t matter at all . This must all sound complicated, and a long way from just saying “I’m not racist – trust me!”, and that’s because, honestly, it is. Anti-racism is not a “one-stop shop” or something that can be done once and finished with. It’s an attitude or approach that involves an ongoing process of reflection and self-appraisal .

If you come to me and claim that the hiring practices of one company or another are racist because they favour Indigenous Australians, or people of colour, I will disagree. I want you to know that “both racist and antiracist acts are racialised” so therefore, a racialised act – such as affirmative action in hiring processes – is not racist, but rather antiracist. It is hard living in a racialised society, especially when you are trying to be an antiracist – and I hope you will try. But no one ever said that the world was simple or that being a good person was easy. I don’t mean this to be a discouraging statement, but rather encouragement that everyone is in the same boat. We all live in the same society, and it is up to us – the people with the privilege and the voice – to try our best to be a positive contribution to society.

My friend, I wrote to you because I know that we disagree on various matters, and I also know that there will probably be things that I have said today that you disagree with and I look forward to your reply and the discussion we will have. At the same time, I hope that some of the things I have said have made you think and reflect on our society and our place in it. If that is the case, and I have shed some new light on racism and it’s forms, then I hope that you will share that with others. I truly believe that being able to have discussions about structural racism is especially important for white people like us, since we are, at the end of the day, the people most likely to not see the effects it has.

Yours truly,

Your dear friend.