| Understanding Racism |
|
The definition of racism can vary across cultural contexts. For the purposes of this guide, racism is defined as the combination of prejudice and power. Prejudice and power are interdependent and interrelated. Together, they enable racism to transcend generation and intersect with other identities such as gender, sexual orientation and identity, class, and more. The video below, Race “Race” by Erica Pinto further explains this.
Anti-Blackness is the root of racism and oppression in the United States and across much of the globe. Understanding this fact is central to understanding the rest of this guide. As Walter Johnson, an historian who studies race in the United States, argues that racism is a technique for exploiting Black people through the systematizing the hostility towards Black people to enable white capitalists to extract value from everyone else. Capitalism requires the creation of different social classes through race to devalue the labor of certain members of society in order to create the conditions for profit. The video below explains the concept further. Anti-Blackness also shows up as colorism, which is a type of discrimination that preferences lighter skin tones over darker ones. White supremacy, an implicit or explicit belief that white people are a superior race and should therefore dominate society, is one of the concepts that drives colorism. This is because proximity to whiteness results in real social, political, and economic advantages in society. It is important to understand that race is a social construct, a concept that is a result of human interactions rather than a scientific or objective reality. There is no genetic or otherwise scientific basis for racism. This does not mean that anti-Blackness, racism, or white supremacy are not real because they very much are. Anti-Blackness shows up in our educational, legal, economic, and political systems, causing real harm to Black and brown people everywhere. What it does mean is that anti-Blackness and racism can be unlearned, and practices of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion can be learned. In a 2016 report titled Confronting Racial Bias at Work, Race Forward documented that over 48% of workers of color experienced explicit and/or intentional acts of discrimination as a frequent or daily reality in their industries. Nearly 42% reported that firing or retaliation was common in response to complaints about racist behavior. The following video on the effects of racism explains the significant harm that racism in the workplace inflicts on workers. The environmental sector is not immune. Anti-Blackness so shows up in the high rates of turnover in mainstream environmentalism. As Grace Anderson’s article “Misogynoir in the Environmental Field” details, Black women and femme-identifying persons experience horrific racism compounded with misogyny in the workplace. Anderson’s article demonstrates why the internal reforms required by JEDI are so crucial to the success of organizational initiatives for increasing diversity. Linked Resources
Supplemental Resources
Navigation |
10/17/2022BIPOC in ECJ is LIVE!
8/27/2025BIPOC in ECJ Information Update
The upcoming calendar is currently empty.
Jacqui Patterson is the Founder and Executive Director of the Chisholm Legacy Project
Print Page