Unlearning Racism: What it Means to put in the Work

How can you Unlearn Racism?

The fact that you are reading this article shows you are interested in self-examination and improvement or at least a curiosity. And admitting that you aren’t perfect is half the battle.

Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn. – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

From here, like any habit, unlearning racism takes action, repetition, and commitment for the change to stick. The goal here is not to be “color-blind,” which invalidates the history and journey of entire groups of people. The goal is to become more aware – to recognize and immerse yourself in alternative perspectives and understand the different values and histories, contributions, and obstacles that have been a part of the unique story of BIPOC community DNA.

So…How can you unlearn the white-centered narratives you’ve been steeped in since grade school?

Let’s start with some easy changes.

The Easy Changes

There are things you are aware of, explicit biases, and things you may not be aware of at this moment, implicit biases. The easiest first step is to change the behavior that you know is wrong and harmful.

Here are some examples:

• Does your language include harmful insensitive terms or slurs, whether regarding race, differently abled people, or queer individuals?
• Do you try to shake hands differently with people of color or call them “sister” “girl” or “brother” or if they seem Latinx, speak to them in Spanish? Treating people differently because of how they look is isolating. Stop doing that.
• Are you hanging out with people who are racist and allowing racist speech to go unchallenged?
• Are you spending time in spaces you know other groups of people would feel unwelcome in?
• When interacting with a BIPOC person do you feel the need to ask where this person is from? Understand that what you are really asking is why are you not white. Stop doing that.

Remember that the opposite of love is not hate, but inaction. Can you diplomatically correct your colleague or friend or share your discomfort? Can you change your associations? Are you able to push past your discomfort? If you find your answer is no, ask yourself why you are uncomfortable doing what feels right, and start on the work here.

Expand Your Perspective

Just like with learning racism, unlearning racism takes an equal commitment to education, and a desire to learn. It is a privilege itself to get to the option to learn about racism and how to uproot it rather than be on the receiving end experiencing it. When breaking any habit of thinking, being and acting, you want to replacing it with a new healthy one. In this case, we are working on becoming anti-racists.

Do Some Research

Understand the history of “whiteness” and where it came from. Racism and race itself is a cultural-construct, and not biological. Race was a concept introduced in the 1600s and 1700s during colonization and later used to “scientifically” justify slavery. Before then, whiteness was not a concept.

Here are some articles to get you started:

The Invention of Whiteness: the long history of a dangerous idea

How whiteness was invented and fashioned in Britain’s colonial age of expansion

Whiteness – the Smithsonian

The Evolution of Whiteness in the United States

Look into how racist institutions like red-lining and gerrymandering have impacted what your community looks like, what resources go where, and even where highways and landfills are placed.

Here’s two for Rochester locals: Race and Place in the Flower City (the Inner Loop) &  How Black Residents have been Kept Out of Rochester Suburbs for Decades

Read Books From a Non-White lens – Here’s a Sprinkling of Selections:

Please please please... buy these from black owned book stores.

Practice Awareness

Identifying Racism in the Body

Becoming aware of how racism manifests itself in your body and actions relies on awareness. Here are some things to ask yourself when sharing space with BIPOC individuals:

What happens in your body when you see a person of color approach you or share the same space with you?

Does your body tense up? Do you cross your arms? Are you subconsciously clutching your purse or scanning the room for a reason to leave?

When in a car, do you tend to lock the door driving through areas that are not majority white? Ask yourself why you do this. The answer will reveal a bias or belief that you can now directly tackle.

Understanding your discomfort allows you face it, be more aware of it and work through it.

Identifying Unearned Advantages from Racist Systems

Whiteness is not the neutral or default state.  It’s a privilege to move through life thinking it is.

In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate. – Toni Morrison

Understanding your power and privilege is the first step in being able to wield it for good.

There are many different areas of privilege, whiteness, being male, being heterosexual, and being physically able. This article focuses on white privilege.

I have often heard narratives like this, “I grew up poor. My grandparents were immigrants. I’ve worked for everything I have. I’m struggling. White privilege is nonsense! What privilege?”

The answer is simple – regardless of the state of the white person, unhoused, substance dependent, abuse victim – the fact remains that their whiteness was not a contributing factor to any of these misfortunes. That’s the simplest way to understand white privilege.

White Privilege Questions

To consider it in the context of how it works in society, here are some questions to ask yourself to help you reflect on your privilege.

• Regardless of your troubles in life, have any of them been caused by the color of your skin?
• If I go into a store, am I followed or watched? Does someone immediately ask how they can help me, but in a cold non-helpful way?
• Am I represented in various ways on television, in the news, in books, in kids’ toys? Is my skin color represented as “flesh” colored Band-Aids, tights, and “nude” makeup?
• If I walk around my neighborhood people are pleasant to me or neutral and don’t ask me questions about living there. i.e. I don’t need a dog or kid with me to feel humanized in white spaces.
• If a cop pulls me over, am I more annoyed at the inconvenience than afraid for my life?
• Am I able to blend in, become invisible in public settings – or am I always hyper vigilant, feeling eyes? This experience has been described as feeling the “white gaze.”
• Am I tokenized, or asked to speak for all members of my race or burdened with providing explanations for every situation that involves my race?
• Do I have to go out of my way to get health care providers to take my concerns seriously?
• Can I drive on a road trip across the country and feel safe stopping at any town to eat or get gas?
• Do I have an inheritance of generational wealth based on the exploitation of people of color?
• Am I less likely to be arrested or receive a lower sentence because of my skin color?
• Do facial recognition technologies used by police and federal institutions rely on racist algorithms to discriminate against you?

Understanding the unearned advantages that you have helps you see all the ways your life has benefited just from having unmelanated skin. It’s important to correct the perception people have that they are because they deserve to be – meritocracy does not exist in societies with unequal starting lines.

Put Those Unearned Advantages to Work

The final step in unlearning racism is putting in the work – having the willingness to act on what you’ve learned to transform society

Even small actions can ripple out and influence family, friends and neighbors.

Every movement towards racial justice, from abolition to reconstruction to the civil right movement, receives the same response from the institutions unwilling to change, “We need time.” The answer to reversing and unlearning racism is action, not the passage of time and continuation of status quo. Working anti-racist actions into your daily life is easier than you think.

Take Indirect Action

Here’s are examples of indirect actions you can take that support marginalized communities:

• Eat at black-owned restaurants, google your city and black-owned restaurants and see what comes up. Here’s our most recent result for Rochester, NY.
• Shop at black-owned stores – here are some results we’ve got for Rochester, NY
• Donate to organizations that center BIPOC voices like City-Wide Tenant Union of Rochester 540WMain, CityRoots Community Landtrust,  Taproot Collective, Blackintheburbs, 441 Ministries Beechwood, The Avenue Blackbox Theatre
• Virtue signaling (it’s underrated) – a BLM sign in your yard means you aren’t ashamed to wear your feelings on your sleeves and shows neighbors you’re not indecisive when it comes to racial justice. Although often treated negatively, virtue signaling at scale can ripple out to impact systemic beliefs  – take the gay marriage equality campaign, which has now become widely accepted into the norms of Americans at large. Being unabashed of anti-racist beliefs helps these views trickle into the national dialogue and builds support for broader movements of change.

Take Direct Action

Here are some direct actions you can take if you’re ready to get your hands dirty with uprooting racism:

• Join a local community groups and bring your talents to the table, whether its legal skills, accounting, social media expertise, a pair of hands for labor, or just showing up to give support with your presence
  • Affordable housing groups
  • Mutual aid groups
  • Community gardens for food sovereignty 

• Join diversity boards at your job and suggest big changes that center BIPOC voices
• If you are in a position to bring people up in your company advocate for the underrepresented for a seat at the table
• Vote for your values and if you don’t see them on the ballot consider running for local office
• Work to remove racist covenants off your home title – even though they are not enforced, the legacy of discrimination still stains your home and your neighborhood – finish the work, get the covenants removed because there is nothing more important than creating welcoming spaces within your community for all people

There is literally so Much you can do

Unlearning racism opens up a universe of opportunity for connection, growth, and healing.

We want to hear about your journey unlearning racism and invite you to join us for a semester of curated curriculum to learn, confront and dismantle racism in the world around us.

Looking to do More?

Enroll in an anti-racist education college-style seminar. 540WMain will be taking participants through guided exercises, guest speakers, thought-provoking texts and collaborative group discussions to build community and journey to the heart of achieving anti-racism. Sign up today!

About Allison Bondi

Allison Bondi is a copywriter out of Rochester, NY by way of Atlanta. Her work appears online for various tech companies, nonprofits, and in print for lifestyle magazines and local publications. When she’s not writing, she’s trying to keep her indoor plants alive and making postcard collages. You can find her portfolio on Upwork.