"If White People Did That....."

Some of the most ignorant and frustrating assertions I hear from white people start off with the familiar line of, “Well, if white people did that….” before going on to declare how “it just wouldn’t stand!” or “there’d be a scandal!” or, most candidly, “we’d be the racists!”

And I’ll admit, when I heard this from various family members growing up, in my ignorance, I agreed. Because, at the time, with my frighteningly scarce knowledge of African-American history and institutional, systemic racism that pervades our nation today, it seemed to make perfect sense. Why do African-Americans have an entire black pageant to themselves? Why is that not racist if it would be racist for whites to do the same? Why do blacks get to have BET without it being racist, but if we ever created a White Entertainment Television, the country would be in uproar? These phrases were said aphoristically, all from the lips of white people, and without sufficient context, I thought they were right.

One of the reasons I never considered that there was racism at play here was how my parents had raised me to regard and treat all people as equals – people of different races, genders, socioeconomic classes - you name it - my parents made sure we knew that we were not above anyone else. It turns out, to my dismay, that even white people who feel true disdain for racism and teach equality to their children are indeed not immune to the blind spots our culture produces in us. I had a very cut-and-dry view of racism growing up: you were either a blatant, raging, heartless, idiot racist, or you had not a racist bone in your body. I thought I – and my family – fell into the latter category. In the past several years, I have seen how much more complicated and nuanced it is. If even black Americans can internalize racism, I will certainly never be rid of its stubborn effects, despite my honest beliefs in equality and my desire to see justice and equity accomplished.

When, at the beginning of the semester, Professor McKinney rattled off a list of societies and groups that systematically excluded black people – resulting in the formation of black societies/groups/etc. by black people, for black people – it finally clicked. For the past several years, I have been pushing back against white assertions such as, “well, if there was a White Entertainment Television, we’d be called racist! It’s such a double standard!” with comments such as, “well, have you considered that television is white entertainment television? There’s no need for White Entertainment Television; it exists without being named.” Now, I know that there is a long, specific, and accessible history of whites excluding blacks from literally anything and everything. This is what has prompted the formation of things like black churches, black fraternities and sororities, black honors societies, black academic journals, etc. The formation of these groups and institutions by African-Americans were and are not random or out of prejudice, as many whites would believe – the formation of these groups were the only available option.