{"id":14617,"date":"2020-03-26T22:05:07","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T04:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=14617"},"modified":"2020-04-02T20:41:08","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T02:41:08","slug":"white-black-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2020\/03\/26\/white-black-etc\/","title":{"rendered":"White, Black, etc."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article is a part of the Dialogue on Diversity series.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the thing: We should all talk about race. It\u2019s central to our self-concept, because it represents more than just color. Our notion of racial identity contains our ideas about family, belonging, commonality, discrimination. Race is endlessly multifaceted. We should acknowledge, and, when appropriate, celebrate that. But it isn\u2019t easy to talk about for everyone, and it certainly isn\u2019t an inclusive conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question of race has never been clear cut for me. I have never had a straightforward answer to the question, \u201cWhat are you?\u201d because the question of race, in my experience, hasn\u2019t been black and white. It feels instead like a million shades of gray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first glance, people are confused about my race. If you look at me, I\u2019m not exactly white, but I\u2019m not any other distinct shade either. I\u2019m sort of just \u201cbrownish.\u201d If race is defined as \u201ca category of humankind that shares certain distinctive physical traits,\u201d according to Merriam-Webster, I\u2019m not sure I fit into one. I\u2019m half Filipino, but I don\u2019t look as Filipino as other Filipinos I know. I don\u2019t speak Tagalog. I\u2019ve never been to Manila. I don\u2019t fit into that group, or any given category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might be easy to assume that if you don\u2019t identify with one distinct race, perhaps you have a better idea about your ethnicity, seeing as it pertains more to your cultural expression and identification. But in that category, I have even more conflicting data. My dad grew up in Hawaii, but I never lived there, so it isn\u2019t quite mine. My mom grew up in Texas, but I never lived there either. I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon \u2014 a city comprised of 80.5% \u201cwhites\u201d and 0.3% \u201cNative Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders,\u201d according to the 2010 census. Visibly, I wasn\u2019t part of the majority. Yet, at the same time, an important part of me was. My mom is white, and all my family in Oregon is white \u2014 so, naturally, I felt pretty white. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the confusing thing about being biracial. Very different ethnicities are often folded into oversimplified racial categories, which makes a seemingly uncomplicated categorization very complex. Physical appearance and cultural experiences are so often assumed to be correlative; but the reality is, the stories we\u2019re told about the groups with which we identify are never properly inclusive or representative. The story I was told about success and belonging and meaning and normalcy was, as may be expected in Portland, a white story \u2014 but, throughout my life, I was never sure if it was mine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How white do I have to be to be white?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody fits into any category. Even if they seem to, it\u2019s never that easy \u2014 for anyone, even if they do check only one box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, it\u2019s only natural that we sort people into groups based on shared experiences. Social grouping is a rational way of making sense of the otherwise endlessly variable species we populate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem with grouping is it tends to overgeneralize. Commonalities tend to highlight differences between \u201cour\u201d group and \u201ctheir\u201d group, which creates divisions. One group comes to power as the \u201cother\u201d is disempowered. One group colonizes the norm, while the \u201cother\u201d is marginalized and, historically, dehumanized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People start wars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People build walls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to clarify some things before I continue. First, I don\u2019t think the question of race and the issue of racism are the same thing, and I\u2019d prefer we make space to talk about the two separately. Racism is systemic, economic, psychological, inherited. Race, however, as a conversation topic, has the ability to be much less charged. When it comes down to it, racism closes doors, but race has the ability to open them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, groupings and categorization aren\u2019t one race\u2019s fault. Everyone does it. The cognitive process of generalization is an important tool we use to make sense of the present using data we gathered throughout our lives. The root problem is when we fail to practice healthy discrimination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all know what unhealthy discrimination looks like. We see it on the news. We see it in the White House. In my experience, healthy discrimination looks like this: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat are you?\u201d says the partygoer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy mother is Irish-English, and my father is Filipino,\u201d I say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, that\u2019s so interesting. What does that mean, to you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Healthy discrimination doesn\u2019t make assumptions. It takes information and wrestles with it instead of deferring to the unconscious mind to make decisions about who people are or aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Practicing healthy discrimination, then, means reclaiming our ideas about race and replacing destructive stereotypes. Healthy discrimination does not mean becoming colorblind. Colorblindness is the opposite of the kind of mindfulness that can decrease implicit bias. Healthy discrimination is work. It means asking questions, then listening to the stories people tell about themselves, rather than the one our world tells for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an era where racial categories have cultural, social, even economic consequences, it has been difficult to determine where I fall on the spectrum. But what if I didn\u2019t have to? What if nobody had to? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What if we allowed ourselves to relish our shared, cultural experiences without all the presumptive baggage? What if we changed the way we think and talk about race, so people had all the freedom in the world to be whatever they wanted to be?
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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