“Personal racism has gone down”, a wise colleague told me recently, “but institutional racism has gone up.” This is both good and bad news.The good news is that over the decades of my lifetime more and more people have become increasingly sensitive to the issues of race in their own lives; and as a result have become more accepting of racial difference, more willing to accept racial equality, and less inclined to issue racial slurs and prejudicial put-downs.
The bad news is that many people, the Supreme Court, and especially President Trump think that the racial problems we have faced as a society have mostly been solved, that as a country we need to move on; and in so doing are refusing to recognize that racial prejudice has been culturally, if not intentionally, woven into the fabric of practices, policies, and pronouncements.The opponents of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion insist that DEI programs have been designed as indoctrination laboratories, the purpose of which is to punish the white majority for its very identity, and in their hostility make the bizarre claim that DEI is tantamount to reverse racism. DEI is now being regarded as a pernicious virus that must be eradicated. Any whiff of DEI in libraries, schools, businesses, or curricula must be shut down and repudiated.
Racism is a kind of membrane that has enveloped the American project from the beginning. Membranes are meant to be protective; yet for most of America’s history the racial membrane has been constricting. There have been moments, notably during the civil rights movement, when the membrane was able to be pulled back a bit, which exposed the perniciousness of the membrane itself, and at the same time revealed that racial inequity was not the result of fundamental differences between races, but a political and economic system which protected the majority and the expense of the minority. The opening of the membrane is now not only being closed, but an extra layer is being placed over it and sutured up with stronger thread. The result is a spike in fear, a rising in hostility, and an undermining of the personal awareness around the issue of race that – for all of us – is a lifelong journey.
Where does this leave us? For some, the dismantling of anything to do with DEI is a victory over what is regarded as manipulation, if not racial brainwashing. This perspective holds that the white majority has been indicted with an unforgivable complicity in establishing and maintaining racial inequality, a charge they believe is not only unfair, but untrue. To be sure, there have been some instances of DEI programs which have been heavy-handed, and have proceeded with an agenda that have been received as an exercise in force-feeding its participants. I think much of this negative reaction is due to the perception, if not the actuality, that some of these programs require people’s attendance, and as such are regarded as an invasion of people’s privacy and a threat to their agency. (It is interesting to note that other mandatory programs, such as safe children and CPR trainings, do not receive this sort of hostile response.) But for the most part, programs that address the thick membrane of racism have been honest attempts to help people look beyond their own experience and see how our institutions and systems have supported and reinforced racial inequity. With enough awareness, the thinking goes, systemic racism can be exposed, and can ultimately be mitigated, with the outcome being a more fair and just society.
So many people I talk with these days are disoriented, distressed, if not depressed by the unrelenting chaos generated by firings, tariffs, deportations, the abandonment of due process, and the growing displays of systemic racism. As so many of us struggle with all of this, many of us for the first time in our lives, we can learn from those among us for whom these sorts of pronouncements and policies are not new: African Americans. A common mantra, which originated during the period of slavery, was “making a way out of no way”. There are countless stories of African Americans whose resilience, courage and faith found a way forward in the face of relentless cruelty and unbridled oppression. “Making a Way out of No Way” is the title of an online exhibition which opened in June, 2022 at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which depicts stories over the centuries of African American grit, courage and commitment to freedom.The Museum, which opened in 2016 in Washington DC as part of the Smithsonian, is one of the most popular museums in the country. Millions of people every year enter the 655,000 square foot building to learn about the American experience, as lived by those among us who have been the most threatened and abused.
In this current climate of restricting any references to our racist history there are intimations that the Smithsonian in general, and the African American History Museum in particular, may be designated for a shut-down or a cutback in staff and hours; so that the millions of people who voluntarily choose to enter its confines will have a harder time getting in, or may be denied altogether.The membrane is being ratcheted down ever more tightly.
We need to make a way out of no way.
