It's been an interesting week of dialogue or set of commentaries about how racism works. It has led to questions about how to best respond to such prejudicial, discriminatory, or blatant racist comments. In psychology, it is very hard to understand perceptions of discrimination and racism and even harder to understand how to best cope or respond to discrimination and racism. In my work with graduate students, we have found that many college students of color tend to report less personal discrimination and more group discrimination. In other words, they acknowledge that it happens to others more than it happens to themselves. There are a few explanations for this discrepancy. One is that people may minimize personal experiences as a means to psychologically protect themselves. Another reason is that individual experiences are less frequent than the collective experience of a whole group. A third reason is that people vary in terms of their own awareness or understanding of racism and discrimination. In most instances, minorities who identify strongly with their ethnic or racial group are more attuned to such actions than those who are not.
In my own life, I have found that early in life, I tended to make alternate attributions when I experienced something overly racialized or downright racist, such as "Oh, he was trying to be friendly and just said it awkwardly" or "He didn't mean it" or "She misread what I did or said." Then, as I started to become more knowledgable about the history of race and racism, I was better able to make the attributions to racism. However, this can come at a high cost - emotionally, psychologically, socially. I have lost some friends when I called them on their prejudices. I have gotten more anxious and avoidant in other situations where I can feel racial threat (through snide comments, glares, etc). At some point, I felt the need to be more empowered to do something proactively and reactively. This development coincided with a greater security in who I was as a person.
In psychology, we are all about reducing phenomena to the smallest unit of observable measure. Once we can operationalize something, we can properly measure it. Using this measurement, we collect data and try to make sense of the data. What we are attempting to do is to understand, predict, and eventually learn to control. Understand, predict, and control. These are the three steps toward modifying human behavior. It may sounds reductionistic (and it is!), but just stop to think about how often we engage in this type of rational thinking in daily life. It's all the time! The key, however, is how to efficiently and effectively do so.
So, when it comes to responding to racism, it has required me to learn what is racism and how does it operate in daily life. It also has required me to identify instances of its occurance and to recognize its patterns and manifestations. Through these observations, I am better able to predict its consequences on me, on others, and in society. With this knowledge (is power!), I can set about trying to control the aspects of the situation under my domain. That is, I can work toward responding as effectively as needed for me. This process requires me to generate response ideas and coping strategies, rehearse them in my head, out loud, with my friends, and subsequently in action. Maybe in benign situations at first and later in more "live" scenarios such as what happened last week.
Over time, something amazing has happened in me. I have come more alive. I have felt freed of the chains of oppression (to be a bit melodramatic) and like a real man - autonomous, independent, respected. I am not as weighted down by the burden of race. Instead, I am more empowered. I can look myself in the mirror without hints of shame or disgust at not knowing how to respond or having done nothing about it. Such is the power of understanding, predicting, and controlling a situation to the best of my ability.
Ironically, what I am describing is a self-reliance that is revered in this country but seen as a threat by the majority when the minority develops it. Hopefully, we can find a balance in which all parties are allowed to be as self-reliant and independent as our democracy professes.
Posted by richlee at December 6, 2006 11:37 AM