Introduction to Blogpage B -
“Race, Racism and Anti-Racism”

NEW FORMS OF RACISM

You could already tell in the early 1970’s: something was still very wrong. Even while the first new and exciting steps were being taken to implement the victories won in the civil rights movement, it was clear that racism was not dead, was not even mortally wounded. Integration and equal rights had become the law of the land, but integration and equal rights were not nearly sufficient medicine to cure our nation’s sickness. The cancer of racism had not been eradicated, but rather metastasized into an advanced form of the disease, a form that could be neither detected nor comprehended through the old diagnostic filters of bias, bigotry, and prejudice. New descriptors of racism as “systemic” and “institutionalized” took the place of personal prejudice and legalized segregation.

The problem is, the fox was put in charge of the henhouse. The task of implementing the new goals of equality was given to the primary systems and institutions of society: the systems of education, law enforcement, social services, banking and finance, media, religion, etc. But there was a basic design flaw in every one of these systems and institutions that made it impossible for them to carry out this task. For hundreds of years they had operated with a design that produced adequate service only for the white society, and when they used that same design to try to serve everyone, it was a total failure. Serving everyone with equity was something they simply were not designed to do.

It is now 50 years after the civil rights movement and the data is in. The evidence has been piling up decade by decade. Although the institutions of our society have obeyed the letter of the law by providing service for everyone, they have done so with enormous disproportionality and disparity with regard to communities of color. Our society now has integrated inequity and institutionalized racist multicultural diversity. While focusing on the achievements of a few can produce an illusion of progress, the reality is that communities of color are collectively more behind than ever when measuring the wealth gap, the justice gap, the education gap, imprisonment gap, etc. The systems and institutions of our society are simply incapable of doing what the law intends. At the end of 50 years, systemic and institutionalized racism remains the outstanding problem facing anti-racism work.

NEW FORMS OF ANTI-RACISM

But there is an exciting counterbalancing news story that describes an ascending power of the movement to resist racism. During this same 50-year time period, from the 1970’s until today, keeping pace with the evolution of new forms of racism, we have seen the evolution of a new movement to resist, challenge and work toward dismantling systemic and institutionalized racism in the US. Underlying this new anti-racism movement is a new definition and a new analysis of racism, and a new way to organize for racism’s demise. The new movement understands that the underlying issue is power: anti-racist power, decision-making power, power to demand accountability, and power to re-design systems and institutions. The new movement goes far beyond civil rights, desegregation and integration, far beyond personal measurements of prejudice, bias and bigotry. Building on the earlier teachings of the Black Power movement, the primary assumption of today’s anti-racism movement is that new possibilities of justice and equity rest on the full participatory power of people of color in society’s systems and institutions. One of the goals of this series of blogs is to identify and describe people and organizations involved in this new anti-racism movement.

ANTI-RACISM AND THE NEXT 50 YEARS

No one ever said there could be a quick solution to America’s (or the world’s) racism. White supremacy has dominated US society for more than 500 years, while during this same period of time a powerful movement to resist white supremacy has also been taking place. The struggle continues. This Blogpage exists to explore the past, present and future of anti-racism organizing in our society. To be more specific, I will be sharing information and activities that help respond to two questions:

1. What have we learned, and how do we understand and analyze systemic and institutionalized racism? Especially, how can we measure the effectiveness of anti-racism organizing since the civil rights movement? And, what have we learned that can be passed on to the next generation of anti-racism’s leaders?
2. What can we expect to accomplish in the coming years? What will the next 5 years or the next 50 years of anti-racism organizing look like? How close will we come to racism’s complete eradication? What next steps are required of us, particularly in the areas of leadership development and new organizing directions?

As with all the other blogpages in this website, I’ll keep asking these questions and reporting the answers I receive. And, you will be notified each time a new contribution to “Race, Racism and Anti-Racism” appears (assuming I have your email).