With the archetype rich old white guy hurling tear gas and muscling his puffy pink cheeks through protesters; mimicking the very bully boy behaviour that got us all here, hundreds of thousands of citizens are protesting in the streets over black racism after the murder of black man George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Along with the protests, opinions on racism and everyone's role in it are pouring from every orifice of media, driven by a million different agendas.
We are all complicit in isms, but with all the noise, it's sometimes hard to unpack both what what our personal responsibilities and contributions are to this and what success will look like for protesters. It's fair to say that we mostly all understand that George Floyd's death finally ignited a literal fire that has been fueled by years of stoking. And with that, has created a deadly reality show down. This is serious. It's about who lives, who dies and who decides. We're all in it and it's important to understand how we are in it, what we are complicit in, and what we can do to both understand and to help.
ALL OVER THE WORLD, INCLUDING AUSTRALIA, THE PROTESTS HAVE COUNTRIES BOTH JOINING THE PROTESTS IN SOLIDARITY AND SIMULTANEOUSLY LOOKING INWARD AT THEIR OWN BEHAVIOUR.
Channel 10's The Project dedicated a whole show last night, attempting to straddle both the USA situation and Australia's own poor history with racism - specifically in relation to our first nation people. The program covered many excellent points, but was awkward and didn't really work, especially if you went there looking for answers. The USA point was lost and the Australian point somehow got confused in the connection. At a broad level, the issue is the same, but context changes the way it plays out.
I found myself watching Waleed Aly and wondering what Aly was thinking as he interviewed various first nations people about Australia's racism. Aly has been the target of racism himself with his ancestry and faith as a Middle Eastern Muslim. He wrote an article in 2013 for The Age, part of which is below, on how racism works in Australia, which certainly exposes some of the Aussie context:
The racism that really matters in Australia isn't the high-level, weapons-grade derangement that winds its way via YouTube into the news. The truth is we can't compete with Europe for hardcore white nationalism or the US for white supremacist movements. We can't compete with Asia or the Middle East for the maintenance of an explicit, institutionalised and sometimes codified racial hierarchy.
Our racial and religious minorities aren't having their communities torched (though the occasional building has been firebombed), and our handful of far-right politicians aren't leading political parties that attract 20 per cent of the vote.No, our real problem is the subterranean racism that goes largely unremarked upon and that we seem unable even to detect. Like the racism revealed by an Australian National University study, which found you're significantly less likely to get a job interview if you have a non-European name. The researchers sent fake CVs in response to job advertisements, changing only the name of the applicant. It turns out that if you're surname is Chinese, you have to apply for 68 per cent more jobs to get the same number of interviews as a Anglo Australian. If you're Middle Eastern, it's 64 per cent. If you're indigenous, 35 per cent.This is the polite racism of the educated middle class. It's not as shocking as the viral racist tirades we've seen lately. No doubt the HR managers behind these statistics would be genuinely appalled by such acts of brazen, overt racism. Indeed, they probably enforce racial discrimination rules in their workplace and are proud to do so. Nonetheless, theirs is surely a more devastating, enduring racism. There's no event to film, just the daily, invisible operation of a silent, pervasive prejudice. It doesn't get called out.
While it's not his point, Aly's piece clearly illustrates how racism permeates societies differently and as such, dealing with it is relevant. As an individual, your colour, race, religion, gender, age and sexuality also defines your experience and relationship with an ism.
I was lucky enough to hear Hawk Newsome from Black Lives Matter speak a couple of years ago. His stories and passion changed my life and gave me my first real understanding of the USA brand of racism. He is an activist and a massively charismatic and passionate leader. When asked what an individual could do, he gave what I have come to understand as the very valid and standard response, "Turn up. demonstrate, campaign and ask for change."
THE PROBLEM OF COURSE IS THAT YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE ASKING FOR WHEN YOU TURN UP. WHILE MANY FOLK KNOW THERE IS A VERY VERY BAD PROBLEM, MANY DON'T UNDERSTAND EXACTLY HOW IT PLAYS OUT.
WE MIGHT KNOW THE GENERAL HISTORY AND WE MIGHT EVEN KNOW BLACK PEOPLE - OR ASIANS, JEWS OR MUSLIMS, BUT JUST KNOWING SOMEONE IS NOT ENOUGH. YOU ALMOST NEED TO BE THE VICTIM TO FULLY UNDERSTAND. OR YOU HAVE TO ASK.
We need to hear the stories of what happens to people every day - to actually ask and to actually listen. And then decide what we can do within our own lives to make whatever difference we can. Turning up is different for everyone. It might mean protesting on the street. It might mean making sure you interview everyone for that job. It might mean talking publicly about the problem.
It might simply be asking, listening and sharing as one 45 year old white woman in the USA did. Her words are now a symbol of clarity for hundreds of thousands of people, including me. As is the face of Ernest the repair man. Here is what she said.
I am a 45 year old white woman living in the south, and today was the first time I spoke frankly about racism with a black man. When Ernest, my appliance repairman, came to the front door, I welcomed him in. As this was his second visit and we’d established a friendly rapport, I asked him how he was feeling in the current national climate. Naturally, he assumed I was talking about the coronavirus, because what white person actually addresses racism head on, in person, in their own home?When Ernest realized I wanted to know about his experience with racism, he began answering my questions. What’s it like for you on a day-to-day basis as a black man? Do cops ever give you any trouble?The answers were illuminating.Ernest, a middle-aged, friendly, successful business owner, gets pulled over in Myrtle Beach at least 6 times a year. He doesn’t get pulled over for traffic violations, but on the suspicion of him being a suspect in one crime or another. Mind you, he is in uniform, driving in a work van clearly marked with his business on the side. They ask him about the boxes in his car--parts and pieces of appliances. They ask to see his invoices and ask him why there is money and checks in his invoice clipboard. They ask if he’s selling drugs. These cops get angry if he asks for a badge number or pushes back in any way. Everytime he is the one who has to explain himself, although they have no real cause to question him.Ernest used to help folks out after dark with emergencies. Not anymore. He does not work past dinnertime, not because he doesn’t need the business, but because it isn’t safe for him to be out after dark. He says “There’s nothing out there in the world for me past dark”.Let me say that again. Ernest, a middle aged black man in uniform cannot work past dark in Myrtle Beach in 2020 because it’s not safe for him. He did not say this with any kind of agenda. It was a quiet, matter of fact truth. A truth that needs to be heard. When I asked Ernest what ethnic terms he gets offended at, he said that the most offensive term people use is ‘boy’. Ernest has a bachelors in electronics and an associates in HVAC. He is not a ‘boy’, and the term ‘boy’ in the south implies inferiority in station and status. He came to Myrtle Beach and got a job at Hobart. The supervisor repeatedly used the term ‘boy’. Ernest complained. After several complaints Ernest was fired.Ernest says most white people are a little scared of him, and he’s often put in a position where he has to prove himself, as though he’s not qualified to repair appliances.After getting a job for 2 years at Sears appliance, Ernest started his own company, one he’s been running for several years. He is the best repairman we’ve had, and has taught me about washer dryers and how to maintain them myself, even helping me with another washer/dryer set and a dishwasher without charging me. I highly recommend his company, Grand Strand Appliance.I asked Ernest what he thought of “black bike week” in Myrtle Beach, where thousands of black people come with bullet bikes and trash our town. He says it hurts black people in our city, and he disagrees with the NAACP coming in to sue businesses that close on black bike week. He hates working that week. Ernest doesn’t have hope that racism will change, no matter who the president is. His dad taught him “It’s a white man’s world”, and he’s done his best to live within it. When I asked him what I could do, he said, “everyone needs to pray and realize we’re all just one country and one people”.I am a 45 year old white woman living in the south. I can begin healing our country by talking frankly with African Americans in my world---by LISTENING to their lived experience and speaking up. I can help by actively promoting black owned businesses. That’s what I can do today. Let’s start by listening and lifting up. It’s that simple.#listenandlift=====Edit: I asked Ernest if I could take his picture and post our conversation on facebook. He thought it was a great idea. As he left my house an hour later, he looked me in the eye and said, "If you ever march, or have a meeting on this topic, or want to change things in Myrtle Beach, I'll stand with you."What a great idea. Let's begin standing together.
This story and image was seen on facebook on the page of Daniel Orr Main Image: Unsplash | Julian Jemison