Will street protests, dialogues and policies slay the racism dragon?

By WAIRIMU NDERITU

At the height of George Floyd killing demonstrations, I spoke with my friend Hawa, who studied in the United States. She was highly skeptical that the massive protests, in which black and white people participated, would lead to changes in beliefs and practices about privilege, which had for centuries been deeply woven into political and sometimes even legal doctrine to deny black people rights granted under a constitution that declared “all men as created equal”.

These beliefs and practices had justified slavery and the definition of black people as non-human, in time upgraded to three-fifths of a human being, she said heatedly. A few minutes after our discussion ended, I saw her post on social media light up my screen, it read; “When the protesters go home, all the black people will realise that indeed, they remain black, and nothing changed.”

I did not agree that nothing would change, largely because of the work of one friend, Prof Paula Green. For decades, Paula worked in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East on dialogue programmes for people separated by war, enmity, fear and/or ingrained prejudices. After the divisive elections of 2016 in the US, Paula began holding the same programmes for her fellow Americans, many of whom initially rejected the idea that solutions they saw as fit for third world countries could work for them.

Paula found a community that had overwhelmingly supported the Donald Trump campaign and began a residential dialogue and cultural exchange programme with Hilary Clinton’s supporters, building bonds despite political divisions. She then created a racially diverse dialogue group, focusing on racial justice. Next was a Muslim and Jewish dialogue group that explored histories and shared hopes.

It was with Paula’s initiatives in mind that I suggested to Hawa that maybe, just maybe, the US was on the cusp of addressing racial injustices. Hawa laughed at me, saying “dialogues do not facilitate the handing over of privileges.”

However, I could have the last laugh as many friends in the US say conversations on race, initiated by people like Paula, have grown in large numbers. The discussions begin with the scientific conclusion of race being a social construct with no biological meaning or significance as the gene for skin colour is completely independent of the genes for intelligence and personality type, contrary to what racists believe.

My friends say that despite the presence of a critical mass of white racist supremacists, there is increasing acknowledgement of the existence of structural racism and how privileges associated with “whiteness” define opportunities for individuals and groups. The Aspen Institute defines structural racism as “a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity.”

Another friend, Latonya, an African American, said listening to white people speak on how far America has come since slavery and the civil rights movement exasperates her.

However, Latonya recognises this as an important conversation and has learnt to build patience to explain over and over again why racism is not a historical event but something she lives through every day.

She cites the devastation Covid-19 is having on the black community to explain how policies and practices generate differences and emphasise a hierarchy of people of colour and whites. She speaks of the death of George Floyd, and several other black people and how racism contributed to their killings by the police.

Latonya also says much of the value from the dialogues is learning a lot more about the racial dynamics of other communities like the Latino and Native Americans.

Other friends say many such dialogues discuss America’s racial legacy, stereotypes, discrimination, present-day racism and its manifestation in legislation, policies, institutional practices and cultural representations. They are also conversations on community and individual internalisation and response to racialised structures. Some groups are drawing up policies to end structural racism.

These discussions are so widespread that Angela Davis, a civil rights activist, has had to point out that the anti-racist movement that’s been going on for years despite the fact that no one outside the communities of colour was listening needs to be recognised.

Hawa is not impressed, saying she only knew she was black when she arrived in the US and realised her skin had significance on where she could live and who she could interact with. “There are some attitudes, such as what I experienced as a black person — that dialogues and policies cannot change.”

Only time will tell which of us is right.

Wairimu Nderitu is the author of Beyond Ethnicism. Mukami Kimathi, Mau Mau Freedom Fighter and Kenya: Bridging Ethnic Divides, [email protected]