Racism and you
My first experience of racism occurred when I was in grade 1, in 1980-81. There were a number of kids there that would constantly call me nigger and other, more childish names. I took it personally and obviously felt shitty for much of the year. Luckily, I had a good friend in the class so that I wasn't isolated and completely alienated. Plus, I was smarter than any of them or all of them combined. I know that other kids haven't been so lucky. My mistake was in telling the teacher about it. Mrs. McIntyre did absolutely nothing about it except to say that I should ignore them and "take the high road". Back then I believed that teachers knew best and that their word was gospel. Unfortunately, this advice didn't help and I was resigned to the fact that there was no one that could help me.
What I should have done was to tell my mother. She didn't take shit from anyone, and when someone was bothering her children, well, that was pretty much the end of them. If I had realized this then, things would have been a lot different that year. I never mentioned it to her until about 8-10 years later. I wasn't hiding it, I just didn't think to bring it up. Actually, that's not entirely true. After Grade 1, it didn't really come back for many years, but in that year, I saw it as a sign of weakness to run to your mommy. Teachers are different because it's their job. At least that was my 5-year-old logic.
When I was in my final year of high school, a classmate and I were working on (actually heading up) a task force to examine the lack of multicultural awareness and to design a multicultural educational policy in Leeds-Grenville county schoolboards. The task force consisted of, besides the two of us, principals and vice-principals from several high schools and elementary schools from around the counties. Towards the end of this process, we (my co-chair and I) were invited to speak to the local school board about our findings. My job was to talk about my experiences in Grade 1 and some of the insensitivity shown to me by my so-called friends and even staff later on. I gave an inspired speech, briefly going over what happened to me during that time. I had mentioned that I had met people that had never seen a black person except on TV until they met me (and these are only the ones that had admitted it to me) and that I was completely different from what they had seen. Unfortunately, the school board (it's 1992 at this point) did not want to hear about it. In fact, one superintendant in particular, Grace Wyatt, after whom the new media library in my old high school is unfortunately named (she must be dead by now as she was a fossil then) denied my experiences to my face, in front of everyone there. And this is a matter of public record, by the way. She said that these events must not have happened and that I must have made them up, or exaggerated. And then the chair promptly ended all discussion of the topic. The reforms that we had worked on for months were scrapped and never seen again as far as I know.
Three years later I went back to my high school to talk to one of the math teachers. I was home for reading week and had a problem with an assignment at university. I was hoping that he could help. He couldn't, as it had been years since he had done any such work, and class was about to start anyway. He then asked me to look at the kids entering the class, to examine the diversity in front of us. There were Middle Eastern kids, a Jewish kid, some East Asians and so on (no black kids, though). "Look at that," he said. "Isn't it awful?"
Needless to say, I excused myself and never spoke to him again. I must really appear to be white or "like everyone else" if this white teacher can say such a thing to me.
I tell you all of this because I wonder; what are your racist experiences? Have you ever really been on the receiving end? Here's a much tougher question: have you been on the giving end, or did nothing when you saw it happening? Before answering that question, you may want to check out Jane Elliott's work here and here, especially if you are Canadian. I highly recommend you seeing her if you get the chance.
Lastly, here are some stats about where I grew up.