Transformation in the world context involves a multifaceted process of generating a different

conceptualization of possibilities for how humans will live together in a global community where "war" no longer

means the same thing as it meant historically. The "theater of war" concept, developed at least 500 years ago when

States. One way is to acknowledge and rethink the origins and current impacts of intra-group tensions within our

own country.

hand, I was horrified and deeply saddened as I realized how many people were dying. Then I got scared as I thought

about my brother-in-law and his family who live and work in Manhattan and my cousins who work in Washington,

D.C., near the Pentagon.

Next came a vivid memory from October 1969. After what was called a "riot" in my newly desegregated

public high school in eastern North Carolina, National Guard Troops were called into my school and placed in each

classroom for many months. This fact seems especially ludicrous to me now in light of the violence our nation and

the world have witness since 1969 and most recently in the months following September 11. Yet the posting of the

National Guard in my school represented a "worse case scenario" that most whites in our community had anticipated

for years. Such folk believed that if blacks and whites did not stay in our respective places, with whites clearly on

top, we would end up with racial violence. Blacks were feared as the aggressors yet, ironically, none of the National

Guard – the only people who had guns – as I recall were black.

Two weeks after September 11, 2001, the bishops of the Episcopal Church, USA met for a scheduled meeting on the

topic of "globalization and difference." The book Waging Reconciliation is a compilation of papers and speeches from

that meeting, including Dr Batts' following presentation. See: Douglas, Ian T. ed. Waging Reconciliation: God's Mission

in a Time of Globalization and Crisis. New York: Church Publishing, 2002. www.churchpublishing .org

It was always clear to me that as an African American young adult who spoke out against injustice, I could

be a target for the National Guard and other government officials if I was not careful. I also knew at some level, that

my brother, my friends, or I could be a random target because of the color of our skin, even if we were not speaking

out against injustice. Such "racial profiling", as it is now called, was one of many "laws of the land" that we had to

deal with growing up black in the l950’s United States South.

Looking back on my life in the segregated South, I realize that among the buffers from the intense racism

and white supremacy of the time, was the tiny black Episcopal Church in which I was coming of age. In church I

met the first white person I could trust, Father Jack Spong, who was then and continues to be a challenger for justice

in the faith community and beyond. My father was for many years a senior warden in the parish and took his job

seriously. Even in the Christian tradition, commitment to justice and equality is often obscured by the politics of our

economic and social history of oppression or liberalism so much so that it is hard to see our call to humility in the

modern day. As a result I also grew up knowing how oppressive Christianity can be.

As the 60’s progressed, and I became increasingly politically conscious, it became clear to me that the

United States government defined political activism that attempted to change governmental policy toward groups as:

"a threat to national security" at least, and as "terrorism" at worst. Many of my friends and I lived with much pain

and anger at being part of a country that professed "freedom of speech" yet was a country where we saw repeated

Interestingly when I recently talked with a divinity student colleague about conflicts post September 11th,

her response was very different. She grew up as a middle class, white, United States citizen in rural Maine. She

was raised to believe that "America" was a free and open society and that anyone who worked hard could get ahead.

As a teen, she participated and led many social events for soldiers who came through her town on their way to and

from military missions to protect our soil from the "evils of communism". She did not even fully know, for

example, that segregation continued in the South of the United States until the late 1960’s and had no understanding

about its continuing impact. As the student has become aware of injustices both within our society and across the

world, it has been an often painful and wrenching process to reconcile her earlier views with what she sees around

her. A future religious leader, she is trying hard to find ways to contribute her on-going learning to her community

in ways that can be heard and utilized for community transformation and reconciliation.

2

Reconciliation is, at its core, a process of transformation for both sides in a conflict. The same

transformation is also critical to an effective multicultural strategy of change. In our work on anti-racism and

multiculturalism at VISIONS, Inc. we define multiculturalism as: the process of recognizing, understanding and

appreciating one’s own culture as well as the culture of others. Multiculturalism stresses learning to appreciate the

impact of differences in social location based on such variables as race, gender, class, age, sexual orientation,

religion, physical ability and language. This learning process is dynamic; as we begin to see the impact of

differences, our sense of ourselves, others, and the world shifts. We impact others and others impact us differently.

There is an interactive process occurring, potentially at four levels: the personal, interpersonal, institutional and

cultural. (See Figure 1 below).

3

Several social activists in recent history have described how this multicultural reconciliation process plays

She quotes from the work and experience of several critical leaders in this field:

According to Paulo Freire (1970), humanization is the vocation of human beings: ‘As oppressors dehumanize

others and violate their (the oppressed’s) rights, they themselves also become dehumanized.’ Freire further

states, ‘Dehumanization, which marks not only those whose humanity has been stolen, but also (though in a

I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man

who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrowmindedness.

I am not truly free if I am taking a way someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free

Martin Luther King, Jr. also noted this connection: "I can never be what I ought to be until you are what

True reconciliation can happen, then, only when all parties understand each other in ways that lead to

behaving differently. For those with historic and current social, economic and political power, i.e., United States

citizens of European ancestry, White Australians, White South Africans and many others of European descent,

reconciliation requires acknowledging the historic and continuing impact of racial privilege as well as working with

the "targets" of this power imbalance in order to effect reconciliation at the personal, interpersonal, institutional, and

cultural levels.

Racism, however, is not the only form of oppression in need of reconciliation. My colleagues and I at

VISIONS, Inc., since 1984, have used in our anti-oppression work a framework for understanding the multiplicity of

ways in which dysfunctional power imbalances can occur in the United States and in the wider world (see Figure 2

below).

4

Racism Race/Color White

People of Color

(African, Asian, Native,

Latino/a Americans)

Sexism Gender Men Women

Classism Socio-Economic Class Middle, Upper Class Poor, Working Class

Elitism

Education Level

Place in Hierarchy

Formally Educated

Managers, Exempt,

Faculty

Informally Educated

Clerical, Non-Exempt,

Students

Religious Oppression

Anti-Semitism

Religion

Christians, Protestants

Christians

Muslims/Catholics, and

Others

Jews

Militarism Military Status W

W I&II, Korean, Gulf

War Veterans Vietnam Veterans

Ageism

Adultism

Age

Young Adults

Adults

Elders (40+ by law)

Children

Heterosexism Sexual Orientation Heterosexuals Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual,

Transgender

Ableism Physical or Mental

Ability Bodied

Temporarily Able-

Bodied

Physically or Mentally

Challenged

Xenophobia Immigrant Status US Born Immigrant

Linquistic Oppression Language English

English as a Second

Language

Non-English

VISIONS, Inc.; 2000

Although forms of oppression vary, we have found the model and the process of change outlined in the remainder of

this chapter to be useful in identifying and challenging power imbalances and thereby leading to a process of

transformation and reconciliation. I invite you to "try on" our model of combating "modern racisms" as one

framework or strategies necessary for "waging reconciliation."

The national debate continues regarding whether or not affirmative action is still a necessary and effective

strategy for attempting to correct historic power imbalances between the races. This debate is another example of

the complex and insidious ways in which racism and racial prejudice in this country continue to inhibit the effective

5

at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, in the late 1970's, I worked with researchers who were

demonstrating that such debates are actually covert or "symbolic" ways of expressing deeply ingrained biases that

understand this subtle or "modern" form of racism. I will also offer a model for identifying and changing modern

racist behaviors. This model has evolved from consultation and training services offered to individuals and groups

from the public and private sector since l984.

racism. Examples of white behavior will be given, followed by a discussion of the impact of modern racism on

conclude by reviewing the change process I have developed with many colleagues. Our interventions strive to

eliminate guilt and blame and to encourage acceptance of responsibility and understanding of personal and systemic

dysfunctional consequences of practicing modern racism and internalized oppression.

As briefly alluded to above, I was born in the segregated South of the United States in the early l950's. My

parents were educators and were involved in efforts to ensure quality education for black children. My father was

the principal of the first black middle school in our community. This school was built under the doctrine of

"separate but equal" in the mid-nineteen sixties. I remember numerous "battles" that he, my mother and their

friends and neighbors fought to keep bringing adequate resources into our community. I remember our struggles to

integrate public facilities. I remember both the fear and the determination within our community to bring about

equal access. I remember when the struggle began to change from economic and social parity to integration.

I completed my junior year of high school in the last year of the existence of the segregated Booker T.

Washington High School. My last year of high school was completed at the forcibly desegregated Rocky Mount

Senior High School. Upon reflection, I believe my interest in addressing the subtle forms of racism began then. As

a student activist, I was involved in several efforts to expose unstated assumptions and to encourage honest

acknowledgment and dialogue about racial prejudice. Something kept telling me, "If we do not examine people’s

hearts, this desegregation process will not work."

6

Upon entering college in 1970, I became part of the largest class of black students to enter the University of

North Carolina at Chapel Hill up to that time. There were approximately 200 of us. There were about 200 other

black students already on campus. Given a student body of over 20,000, we were a small and largely invisible

group. Part of how we survived this "foreign" experience was by forming a black support group, the Black Student

Movement (BSM). Even when taking age into account, the "culture shock" I experienced during those first years at

UNC was as great as any I have experienced while traveled across the U.S. and internationally as an adult.

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was and still is a liberal Southern community. Howard Lee was mayor during

those years, making him among the first black mayors since reconstruction. Hubert Humphrey won the presidential

election in Orange County, North Carolina. It was the only county in the state that Ronald Reagan did not carry.

The late Richard Epps was elected student body president and made national headlines as the "first black student

body president" of a major Southern university.

At the same time, other black students and I were still battling assumptions of inferiority and continual

pressures to assimilate to white cultural norms. Such efforts typically occurred as "off the mark" attempts to help us

by whites or were expressed by them in the ways that we were unseen or our cultural expressions were

misunderstood and/or minimized. The absence of role models or symbols of our worth and value also contributed to

the perpetuation of assumptions of inferiority. As black students we developed many "survival strategies," (i.e.,

manipulating guilty whites, playing the clown, and working extra hard, etc.) some of which ultimately proved

detrimental to us. The seeds were being s sown for the life’s work I was to move on to.

After leaving Chapel Hill, I decided to teach in a predominantly black Southern medical school. It was an

see how the "survival strategies" that I had seen among us as students existed also among black people in

predominantly and historically black environments. I began to ponder the impact of racism on blacks and how it can

affect us even when we are the majority group in an educational system. I also began to notice how black students

responded differently to black and white teachers.

I left this work in l977 and went back to graduate school, this time at Duke University. The social

psychology literature was beginning to assert that racism was all but gone in the United States. Public opinion polls

the position that we as a country had solved the racial problem and made efforts, for example, to dismantle the

7

The stance that racism had all but been eliminated in our country was quite problematic for me. It

discounted both my experience as well as what I saw around me. In talking with others, I discovered that it was

troubling to many blacks and whites who realized that it is not possible to change over three hundred years of

resistance to integration of public institutions and facilities and to equal opportunity efforts to change the status quo

and bring blacks and other people of color into positions of power and influence. This resistance became a symbol

of a modern form of racism.

Fortunately, there were social psychologists at Duke working to challenge the notion that racism had

declined significantly in the then thirteen years since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of l964. Their work

provided a theoretical framework for conceptualizing the experience I had been having throughout my journey into

"desegregated America." The differentiation of racism into "old fashioned" and "modern" forms was very useful.

corollary, of course, is the myth of white superiority. Until 1954, racism was the law of the land. Old-fashioned

racism involved behaviors, practices, and attitudes that overtly defined blacks as inferior and whites as superior.

Blacks were thus entitled to fewer of society’s benefits and resources. Behaviors, such as whites expecting blacks to

defer to them in department stores, or practices of separate entrances to these stores, with blacks coming through

small back entrances, are examples of the old forms. Laws prohibiting contact between blacks and whites, ranging

from separate school systems to segregated seating on buses, are also examples. Lynchings, cross burnings, and Ku

Klux Klan (KKK) activities are extreme forms. Even the paternalistic treatment by whites toward their black

nannies is a kind of old-fashioned racism. The nanny is loved and valued as long as she understands her subservient

role. She is expected to be seen and not heard around adults, to appreciate the family leftovers, to take her meals in

the kitchen with the children, as well as to be called by her first name by them.

These forms of racism all have in common the overt acceptance of blacks as less than equal and whites as

better than blacks. The civil rights movement that reached its zenith in 1965 in this century with the passage of the

Civil Rights Act made many of these behaviors illegal for the first time. Although anti-lynching laws had been

passed earlier, they were more stringently enforced as a consequence of public response to the new ruling. As

8

overtly racist behavior in the public arena became illegal, it also became unpopular even in personal, private

rather than the supremacists’ rights to freedom of speech. It appeared that our country’s three hundred year legacy

of subjugation of brown peoples was beginning to abate.

At the same time this explicit resistance to old-fashioned expressions of negative racial attitudes, we still

saw painful struggles across the country as black people attempted to attain parity in the public and private sector.

We saw this more subtle type of resistance justified on non-racial grounds.

Modern racism has been defined as "the expression in terms of abstract ideological symbols and symbolic

behaviors of the feeling that blacks are violating cherished values and making illegitimate demands for changes in

the underlying beliefs, that blacks are inferior and whites are superior. The negative affect that accompanies these

beliefs does not change just because of changes in law and practice. Rather the affect has to be submerged given the

changes in what is viewed as legal and acceptable in the society.

What happens, then, when whites are in a position of having negative affective responses to blacks or other

people of color? Given the lack of appropriateness of old fashioned racist behaviors, it is likely that the affect will

detrimental to change in our society as old-fashioned racism. The expression of such behaviors continues to result

in blacks and other people of color being targeted to receive fewer of the benefits of being a citizen in the United

States. The impact also perpetuates the "invisible knapsack of privilege" that whites are more likely to experience

"It’s not the blacks, it’s the buses;" beliefs that affirmative action is "reverse discrimination"; acceptance of "the

doctrine of color blindness"; or minimization by whites of the systemic causes and impacts of continued disparate

treatment that whites and people of color receive in the United States.

9

Behavioral strategies used in the struggles to change old-fashioned racism typically included cultural

exchange activities as well as confrontational training seminars or workshops. The cultural exchanges often

heighten awareness of differences but without continued contact did not create substantive change in attitudes or

behavior. Confrontational change workshops often left participants feeling blamed or attacked. Other participants

came away having a sense of what it feels like to be oppressed but feeling guilty and powerless.

When I left Duke University and started working as a professional psychologist, I began to conduct

of settings: a variety of educational settings, including public and private schools, universities and community

colleges, mental health agencies, psychotherapy practices, hospitals, religious groups, community groups, arts

groups, affirmative action organizations, legal services, corporations, state and local governments, and long-term

care settings. On-going consultation relationships with several organizations from the public and private sector have

how each level operates and a definition of each level.

A female workshop participant who grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, was a teacher in a northern public

school system. She was trying to understand why the black and latino students in her classes perceived her as a

racist when she felt she treated everybody the same. If anything, she admitted, she tried harder to make things fair

and equitable for them. In her tone of voice was the message, "After all, I feel sorry for all the injustices these

children face and for the poor conditions surrounding their lives. I’m trying to help them. Why don’t they value my

efforts?"

The school teacher was genuine in her desire to help, yet exploration of her behavior led her to realize that

outside of her awareness, she was operating on a personal assumption that black and latino students are inferior due

to their upbringing in non-mainstream (i.e., less adequate) communities. She behaved toward them in interpersonal

situations as if they were helpless and less capable. This form of racism is different from old-fashioned racism in

that the woman’s genuine desire was to correct for past inequities, not to perpetuate them. The consequence,

10

however, was the same. The students were still being treated like second class citizens and thus were being set up to

either accept the inferior helpless point of view or to reject the white person or the educational system she

represented.

An exploration of this woman’s racial learning was revealing. She was born in a northern city in the late

40's. As a young child, she liked to ride at the back of the bus when she and her family members went downtown on

Saturdays. Her family moved to Louisville when she was nine. This was before buses had been desegregated in

that town. The woman remembered vividly the first Saturday that she and her mother took the bus in her new

hometown. She got on the bus and eagerly started to walk toward the back as she had always done. Her mother

called out to her to stop and sit at a seat near the front. As nine years olds are prone to do, she resisted, saying, "No,

come on, let’s go to the back." Her mom grabbed her arm nervously and said, "Sit down." She pulled her down.

The woman remembers feeling confused and puzzled. She noticed with interest her mother’s discomfort but said no

more.

They reached their destination, went shopping, and then returned to the bus for the ride back home. The

young girl again got on first and decided to try to go to the back. She was hoping her mother’s previous behavior

was just a fluke. Just as she said, "Look Mom, there are seats at the very back, let’s hurry," her mother grabbed her

and shook her, saying, "If I ever catch you going to the back of the bus again, I’ll spank you." Her mother was

shaking with apparent fear and rage. The woman remembers being shocked, then scared. She looked around the

bus and noticed for the first time that all the people at the front of the bus were white and that all of the people at the

back were black.

The woman immediately flashed on other things she had heard from her family about colored people and

said to herself, "Oh, I am supposed to stay away from these people." She remembers feeling sad and scared on the

ride home. She was finally learning her place as a white person. She remembers that all through public school she

stayed in her place and kept to her own kind although she never quite believed it was right. She went to college

during the sixties and became an active supporter of the Civil Rights movement. She decided to go into teaching

partly as a result of taking a sociology course in which she learned about the problems facing disadvantaged

minorities. She remembers being filled with guilt during college about the ways blacks had been treated. She was

ashamed of her family and angry with them. She genuinely wanted to make things better for black people.

11

This woman tried hard from the time of her college years "not to see color." As she started teaching black

and latino students, she dismissed subtle nagging sensations of guilt, disgust, or fear. She convinced herself that

"people are just people" and turned any remaining negative affect into pity for the "victims" of systemic oppression.

She stayed away from whites who expressed overtly negative racial attitudes and tried hard to be fair and honest and

to get her students of color to perform just like white students.

As will be outlined in detail later, this woman’s personal and interpersonal responses actually set up the

perpetuation of dysfunctional interracial behavior even though that was not her intention. Further, she was

employed by a school system that had a majority of black and latino students, while 80% of the school personnel

were white. Few of these white staff members had contact with people of color in their personal or professional

lives, except for students. The school system saw its role as helping to prepare students to succeed in the United

States of America, as defined by white, male, Protestant, middle class, middle-age, heterosexual, physically able

norms.

The school’s culture reflected the values of this "normative" group as well. Most black and latino students

felt isolated and alienated in the environment. In addition to experiencing interpersonal racism from school

personnel like the workshop participant, they also were experiencing racism in its institutional and cultural

expressions. There were no bilingual education programs. The administration could not see the usefulness of such

activities as their job was to teach these children standard English. When latino students spoke to each other in

Spanish, they were often reprimanded. Black English was viewed as substandard even though many of the black

children communicated clearly that they were, in fact, bilingual as well. They spoke Black English at breaks and at

home, yet knew how to speak and write the way they were being trained to do at school. In both cases, the students

were comfortable with their two cultures; school personnel were not.

Similarly, most of the textbooks stressed "American" (i.e., United States) and European culture. Except on

special occasions, typically because of student or parent interest, little attention was focused on African, African-

American, or the variety of latino cultures. Faculty and administrators felt the students would not be adequately

prepared for the "real world" if they spent a lot of time focusing on such "frills" as jazz, salsa, life in Brazil or Cuba,

or issues in South Africa. For the students of color, these were very important issues. No attempts to use these

interests to teach basic skills were being considered. Again, the assumption of those in charge about how learning

should occur, both in terms of process and content, did not allow for inclusion of cultural differences.

12

In summary, a definition of each level of racism is offered below:

At this level, racism is prejudice or bias. It is the maintenance of conscious or unconscious attitudes and

feelings that whites are superior and that blacks or other people of color are inferior or that these groups’ differences

misinformation may

be learned directly, as through overt messages, or indirectly as through observation.

Behaviors based on conscious or unconscious biased assumptions about self and other are interpersonal

manifestations of racism. It is often through uncomfortable or tense cross-cultural interactions that individuals

An examination of power relationships reveals institutional racism. The question to be asked is, to what

extent do the intended and unintended consequences of policies, practices, laws, styles, rules, and procedures

function to the advantage of the dominant group and to the disadvantage of people of color? To the extent that

whites in this society have the political, economic, educational, social, and historical power and access to

institutionalize prejudices (i.e., the myths of white superiority and black inferiority) against blacks and other people

The ability to define European-American and Western cultural preferences as "right and beautiful" is the

consequence of having institutional power and access in this country. When the standards of appropriate action,

thought, and expression of a particular group are perceived either overtly or subtlety as negative or less than, cultural

racism has occurred. Conformity to the dominant culture is then viewed as "normal" when in fact the myth of the

inherent superiority of the group setting the standards is operating. If such is the case, it is likely that a given

individual will need to change her behavior to fit those of the dominant group just to be accepted as competent,

13

As illustrated in the example above, modern racism is often not malicious by intent. Understanding the

expressions or levels just outlined helps in clarifying how the consequence of particular behaviors can result in

racism regardless of motivation. The schoolteacher, for instance, was very supportive of institutional changes that

would bring in more black and latino teachers. Yet, her personal and cultural biases and preferences made it hard

for her to accept a prospective latino language teacher who in English classes taught Spanish to English speakers

and English to Spanish speakers, and then had them spend some time dialoguing in the non-native and then the

native languages in each class. The white teacher found herself agreeing with the administration that while this idea

perhaps had some merit, it was not efficient and it was redundant with what the students learned in Spanish foreign

language classes.

Following is a description of suggested ways that modern racism occurs. It is useful to consider that the

behaviors outlined can manifest themselves at each of the four levels defined above. It is also the case that currently

racism is likely to manifest itself in subtle forms. This is not to discount, of course, the increase in overt

might be thought of as the backlash from a decade or so of denial in our country that racial problems do continue to

approximately 1975 to 1985 as well as the current controversy or tendency to explain racism away or to be reluctant

to see it.

Institutional gains made between 1954 and 1965 were clear and obvious. As civil rights issues became

more substantive, however, and therefore more of a challenge to the power brokers, the character of racism began to

change. Derrick Bell notes:

Rather than eliminate racial discrimination, civil rights laws have only driven it underground, where it

flourishes even more effectively. While employers, landlords, and other merchants can no longer rely on rules

that blatantly discriminate against minorities, they can erect barriers that although they make no mention of

race, have the same exclusionary effect. The discrimination that was out in the open during the Jim Crow era

could at least be seen, condemned, and fought as a moral issue. Today, statistics, complaints, even secretly

filmed instances of discrimination that are televised nationwide… upset few people because, evidently, no

Let us take the issue of education, for example. The first battle for equality was to allow blacks entry into

previously all white schools. The struggle for this civil right was arduous but resulted in a clearly definable

outcome: blacks going to schools with whites. Once this goal was accomplished, whites quickly wanted to move to

14

all children receive; what relevant materials will be used that reflect and affirm diverse cultures as equal or

important and that expose the myth of white and Western superiority; where schools will be located; and how much

The other reality is that whites, as a group, never really accepted open enrollment. Instead, white flight was

clearly the option taken by the majority, while blacks and other target groups remained in schools that they no

longer controlled. This phenomenon became more entrenched as bankers, realtors, and developers engage in

housing and lending discrimination while the federal government fails to enforce housing discrimination law. It was

a much more silent strategy than the anti-integration mobs of the late 1950's and early 1960's. Yet its power to

negatively impact the educational experience of much of the country’s youth has yet to be fully realized.

Stated differently, our society’s actions by its shift toward a belief that racism has ended, discounted the

unavoidable impact of more than three hundred and fifty years of history. It did not allow individuals and

institutions to alter structures, materials, attitudes, and, in many cases, behavior to fully create equity in a

multicultural sense. Rather, it forced whites and people of color to struggle in new ways to attempt to handle the

remains of these centuries of oppression. Legislative changes were made but the hearts and minds of people

racism is now "wrong," how can we admit that we still struggle with it?

The following list of behaviors or manifestations of modern racism for the dominant or non-target groups

come from our work in educational settings.

This form of modern racism is characterized by helping people of color based on an assumption that they

cannot help themselves; setting them up to fail; being patronizing or condescending; helping people of color in such

a way that it limits their ability to help themselves. This "help that does not help" is often motivated out of guilt or

shame. It may be conscious or unconscious and is often embedded in the "culture of niceness or politeness" thus

making its limiting aspects hard to discern.

15

A white teacher "gives" a black student who is making a "B+" an "A" instead of challenging her. The

student is active in the black student association and is obviously quite bright. The teacher feels vaguely guilty

about societal injustices and worries that the student might see him as racist. The teacher is not active in campus

efforts to change institutional racism and believes that if he just "does right by blacks," everything will be okay.

A white department head brings a 30-year-old black female into a previously all white male biology

department. He feels good about insisting that she be chosen and denies the importance of the reluctance of his

colleagues. All of these faculty have been at the institution for at least 10 years and have failed to support the hiring

of any target group members. The department chair fails to recognize the potential set up for failure involved in

bringing target groups into a hostile environment without a plan for impacting the culture. "Tokenism" is another

name for this process of "doing what’s right" without preparing the existing organization for this change.

In this form, racism is expressed by attributing the results of systemic oppression to the target group;

ignoring the real impact of racism on the lives of blacks or other people of color; blaming people of color for their

structural and status changes but to give inadequate support, that is, time, training, or mentoring, for the

development of positive and constructive outcomes, is one illustration. The non-target accepts little or no

responsibility for current inequities and puts all the responsibility on target group members for negative outcomes.

Examples of blaming the victim include:

A black student is labeled as having misplaced priorities because of her work on black issues on her

campus; she is considered bright but too busy being angry to study. She was not accepted into a student leaders

campus honorary society because her concerns were viewed as "too narrow."

A latina female becomes depressed and exhibits paranoid symptoms in a faculty meeting after being the

lone latina and female faculty person for a year in a previously all white male department where she is largely

avoided or patronized. The chairman recommends she get psychiatric treatment.

16

Modern racism may also be manifested by not having social or professional contact with people of color;

making no effort to learn about life in communities of color; living in all white communities; or exercising the

choice that whites most often have of not being involved in the lives of people of color.

Examples of the avoidance of contact are:

A white university administrator who lives in an all white neighborhood says, "I just don’t have the

opportunity to meet black people."

A white supervisor is a very pleasant person but does not confront a situation when two black male

employees engage in conflict. The supervisor, however, would confront the situation if the employees were white.

In this expression, modern racism means minimizing obvious physical or behavioral differences between

people as well as differences in preferences that may be rooted in culture; discounting the influence of African

culture and of the African-American or Asian-American experience; or being color-blind in a way that masks

discomfort with differences.

Examples of the denial of cultural differences include:

A white faculty member describing the only black faculty member he works with, and trying hard to avoid

saying that the faculty member is black.

A white administrator says with much exasperation, when being given information about racial differences

in retention of blacks in his university, "What does race have to do with it? Aren’t people just people? Skin color

doesn’t matter, we are all just people."

Finally, modern racism may be manifested by not understanding or denying the differential impacts of

social, political, economic, historical, and psychological realities on the lives of people of color and whites,

minimizing the influence of such variables on all our lives and institutions. This modern racism may be

accompanied by an attitude that cultural differences are just interesting or fun. Such a stance results in an

unwillingness to acknowledge the multiplicity of ways in which the impacts of the myth of white superiority

continue. The stance also minimizes white privilege as well as the insidious nature of the prevalence of the

mentality and practice of "West is Best" by those in positions of power and control in key aspects of life in the

United States and most of the world as the beginning of the 21st century. This type of modern racism is firmly

17

entrenched and is perhaps the most binding. Unraveling the hold of a dominant Western perspective will take a

massive rethinking of many of our ways of being and doing in the United States, especially in light of September

Examples of the denial of the political significance of differences are:

A white middle level manager came to a workshop very upset about the affirmative action plan his

company has implemented. He was convinced that affirmative action was reverse discrimination and said, "We

don’t need affirmative action here. We hire blacks." Blacks comprised 10% of the management positions (up 8% in

two years because of the plan) and 90% of the custodial positions.

A white faculty member dismissed Jesse Jackson’s campaign for president as minimally important at best,

for after all, Jackson had no governmental experience. When students pointed out the number of voters Jackson had

registered and the large number of popular votes he had obtained, the faculty member said, "That’s not really

important; what’s important is that he is not a qualified applicant."

As discussed in the definition of institutional racism above, African-Americans and other targets of racism

are in a reactive posture. This is not to minimize in any way the personal, economic, and political power that target

group members have available to them. It is intended to challenge targets and non-targets to think seriously about

the extremely detrimental impact of maintaining a society where institutional power is distributed predominantly to

one group.

It is difficult for those who suffer at the hands of oppression not to buy into, at some level, the

negative or limiting messages regarding our way of being and responding in the world by targets of systemic

oppression. We define our uniqueness as inferior or different in an unhealthy or un-useful manner. As the character

of racism changes, so does the reaction of people of color to it. Most forms of internalized oppression had their

behaviors are most likely to occur initially as survival responses in institutions or in situations where the target

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This expression of internalized oppression involves attempting to get over on, or around the system;

manipulating others or the system through guilt, psychological games, or illicit activities; acting out anger; or

playing dumb, clowning, being invisible. The strategy involves an awareness that one is an outsider; on the belief

that the target group member cannot succeed by being direct and/or by being herself or himself. The target group

person feels a need to "take care" of whites feelings or to hide parts of oneself for fear of being misunderstood or

viewed unfavorably because of his or her "difference." It may also take the form of using anger or hostility to

manipulate whites.

Examples of system beating are:

A black student manages to go through four years of college with a reading deficit. He is a star basketball

player and learns through the grapevine how to take courses where he can "get over" and receive a passing grade.

A latino teacher in an "upscale" independent school does not speak out, for fear of being disliked, when

faculty and staff condemn latino yard workers for speaking Spanish and using English poorly.

A black hospital employee intimidates all of her white superiors such that she just comes and goes to work

as she pleases, and does as little work as possible. Any negative feedback is defined by this employee as racism on

the part of her bosses.

This manifestation is characterized by deflecting responsibility for one’s actions; putting all the blame on

the other or the system for one’s problems; or refusing to learn about and acknowledge mental, emotional, and stress

related issues as real. This expression results in an externalizing and blaming of others that in effect gives away the

target group members’ ability to effect change. It sometimes masks a sense of hopelessness in the target group’s

ability to visualize and/or implement a more desirable system.

Examples of blaming the system include:

A black student, who is not studying, blames his teacher and the "system" for his bad grades. He is

unwilling to accept what role his lack of preparation may have in his failure to succeed.

A latina employee applies for a job for which she is not qualified, and says it is the system’s fault when she

does not get hired. She is unwilling to take advantage of opportunities to get the appropriate training and "blames"

it on the fact that her English is too poor.

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This form of internalized oppression includes avoiding contact with whites; distrusting all whites

(obsessive concern and suspicion); being overly sensitive to rejection; rejecting people of color who are perceived as

"not black enough" or "not Chinese enough," etc.; escaping (through fantasy, dreams, drugs, alcohol, sex, food,

withdrawal). Such a stance is fueled by a rage that can be self-destructive to the person who carries it. The utility of

anger is to stop injustice and to insist on and create equity; when it becomes internalized it can hamper the autonomy

of the target group person.

Examples of anti-white avoidance of contact are:

A Chinese employee who refuses to talk to a white supervisor about a job related problem because he says

the supervisor will not understand. He does not admit that he is really uncomfortable talking to whites. He

therefore limits his own chances for a positive change in his situation.

A black who calls another black an "Uncle Tom" because the latter is working hard to get a promotion and

because he is light-skinned. This perpetuation of "colorism" and of a denial of the impressive "profound work

ethic" among black people is self-limiting.

In this expression, internalized oppression means distrusting one’s own group, accepting that one’s group is

inferior, giving deference to whites, ejecting or devaluing one’s cultural heritage, valuing and overemphasizing

white standards of beauty, valuing and accepting whites as the highest authority and white standards as superior.

Such a stance colludes with the myths of "white superiority and inferiority of people of color."

Examples of denial of cultural heritage include:

A latino patient who does not want a latino nurse or doctor because the patient thinks they are not as well

qualified as a white nurse or doctor.

A black employee who does not associate much with blacks, who is uncomfortable considering her African

heritage, and who, when with whites, aggressively expresses negative opinions of blacks as a group.

Internalized oppression can also be manifested by being passive and unassertive; feeling powerless (learned

helplessness), misdirecting anger to persons with less power, having difficulty expressing anger, avoiding conflicts

at all costs, turning anger inward resulting in high blood pressure, strokes, ulcers; buying copiously (symbolic status

striving; conspicuous consumption of goods,- clothes, cars, etc.); in-group fighting, displaying sexist or other "’ism"

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behaviors, e.g. heterosexism, classism, etc., taking advantage of the lack of information or feelings of powerlessness

of other people of color. This stance involves failure to examine the pervasive nature of racism and the multiplicity

of ways in which target group members are set up to collude with its perpetuation. It can also result in an

unwillingness to accept that the historical legacy of racial oppression has not been corrected systematically and its

effects continue to impact most aspects of life.

Examples of a lack of understanding or minimization of the political significance of racial oppression are:

A black first level manager is unwilling to apply for a promotion because he does not think he will get it.

He is sure that the organization will not promote a person of color simply because there are none presently. He has

the necessary skills but does not believe he can be successful. He does not understand how to seek out and organize

support to promote systemic change.

An Asian supervisor always does what the white manager wants and is harder on the employees of color

whom he supervises. He believes that the white supervisor cannot be and should not be successfully confronted but

feels powerful as he "pushes" his supervisees of color.

One can see that the five modern racisms have their corollary, or parallel in the five internalized

oppressions. Figure 3 below shows their relationship to each other:

1. Dysfunctional rescuing 1. System beating

2. Blaming the victim 2. Blaming the system

3. Avoidance of contact 3. Anti-white avoidance of contact

4. Denial of differences 4. Denial of cultural heritage

5. Denial of the political 5. Lack of understanding of the

significance of differences political significance of differences

Challenging modern racism and internalized oppression begins as individuals give up the need to deny that

"isms" still exist. Rather, they start to look for manifestations of oppression in the personal, interpersonal,

institutional and cultural contexts. Modern racism and internalized oppression are often played out in a

complementary fashion. Given a white who practices dysfunctional rescuing, for example, many people of color

will resort to system beating rather than confront the behavior, if they perceive it to be the safest choice, or if they

21

have no permission to be assertive with whites. Such actions reinforce the dysfunctional behavior on both parts and

keep the system intact.

People of color, who for a variety of reasons have adopted a "Don’t trust whites" stance, will often be

misunderstood by whites who practice avoidance of contact. The white person will take the person of color’s

avoidance of contact stance personally, and will often use it as justification of further avoidance. Such whites

discount the realities of racism for blacks or other people of color and do not seek information about their

experiences. They are also likely to perceive blacks or latinos, for instance, who are in a pro-black or pro-latino

posture as anti-white when the individuals are not.

At the institutional level, most welfare laws of the late 1960's were written from a dysfunctional rescuing

position. Recipients, typically children and their mothers, were set up to fail and are now being blamed for their

plight. Monetary benefits were inadequate, the process for attaining help was dehumanizing, and the incentives for

blame to justify their actions while avoiding any responsibility for changing their conditions.

Using the system when there are no other feasible options is "survival behavior" and not reactive

internalized oppression. Indeed, a critical question to be asked as individuals are teasing out "the dance" between

modern racism and internalized oppression is: when is a given target group members’ "difficult behavior" reflective

of a survival strategy? In the face of overt or covert racism, internalized oppression behaviors can be the key to

psychological or physical survival. It is very important that such behaviors which are reactive to racism not be used

to blame people of color or other target group members for their adaptations to oppression.

consultation efforts since l984. Participants in these efforts typically share a common goal: learning how to

incorporate an appreciation of cultural diversity and multicultural strategies in their work or organizational settings.

They want to be able to create or enhance this appreciation both interpersonally and structurally. There is an

apparent debate among change agents in this field regarding the focus or outcome of such strategies. There is

considerable discussion regarding the questions: Are we providing diversity work, anti-racism work or are we

promoting multiculturalism? Where does anti-bias work fit into this discussion?

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Such a debate can become distracting to the effort. It is our assumption that we are essentially looking at

cases, perspective. It addresses who is in a given organization and what ideas, images, processes, etc. are included

in the group’s work. Cultural diversity speaks specifically to the inclusion of such aspects from a cultural instead of,

or in addition to, an individual perspective. Anti-bias efforts are also aimed at ensuring that multicultural work

looks at all forms of bias or discrimination. We believe that successful anti-racist, multicultural work has to include

this focus.

Anti-racism efforts speak to the need to explicitly address historic and current power imbalances.

Addressing these imbalances successfully will include attention to how they play out with respect to all power

discrepancies. Women of color, for example, are targets of racism and sexism. To address sexism successfully, one

must address racism. To address heterosexism successfully, as another case in point, racism must be addressed as

well since there is differential access for lesbians and gay men of color. In both instances, non-targets experience

costs in addition to privileges as men and as heterosexuals. And the list goes on. It is not possible to successfully

address racism in any lasting manner without raising these other aspects. The issue for change agents will be: where

do we begin, not, will we consider all of these parameters?

We see multiculturalism as the process through which change occurs. Multicultural strategies are designed

to increase the ability of individuals and groups to recognize, understand, and appreciate differences as well as

similarities. This three-step process occurs most often in stages and involves first recognizing and unlearning one’s

biases. For most of us in the United States, our world-view incorporated negative perceptions or other dysfunctional

adaptations to people who were different from the accepted norm. This norm, unfortunately, for most United States

citizens from both non-target and target groups, involved an evaluation of how close one fits to being white, male,

young to middle aged (i.e., 25 to 45), heterosexual, United States born and American English speaking, Protestant,

middle class and physically able.

The second step of a multicultural change process involves seeing and thinking about the content of

cultural group differences. Reclaiming one’s ethnic background is part of this process, as well as giving up

dysfunctional ethnocentrism. The goal is coming to experience that being equal does not mean being the same and

that valuing diversity means being willing to accept the validity of ways of being other than one’s own. As a third

step this belief begins to be applied personally and systemically. It includes explicit attention to power sharing,

23

redistribution of resources, and redefinition of "what is right and beautiful" at all levels. As the implementation of

this worldview starts to occur, appreciation becomes the process. Participants start to embrace the value,

philosophy, and practice that any system, institution, program or curriculum is enhanced by the acknowledgment

and usage of cultural differences as a critical factor.

Personal and interpersonal change involves, then, acknowledging and valuing one’s own cultural

background and recognizing the particular dynamics found within different cultural groups. This process includes

working through cognitive and affective misinformation about other cultural groups as well as about one’s own

group. It is facilitated by regular contact with persons from and information about different groups as well as with

on-going contact with members of one’s own group as mentors. Willingness to try on new behaviors, to make

mistakes, and to disagree are necessary parts of the process.

It is important to stress that unlearning modern racism and internalized oppression in all of its expressions

when behaviors or practices arise which are, in their consequences, regardless of their intent, discriminatory. It also

means examining fully the multitude of ways in which our society currently still functions economically, socially,

politically, and culturally to the advantage of whites and to the disadvantage of people of color. As long as such

institutional and cultural racism continues to exist, modern racism behaviors or practices will continue to emerge

even among well-intentioned people.

Changing institutional and cultural racism involves a commitment by all members of an organization to

examine norms, values, and policies. Overt power discrepancies must be changed. More subtle reward systems that

reinforce status quo behaviors must give way to systems that include diversity and multiculturalism at every point.

Institutions typically have to start by acknowledging the fear among those who control the current structure of either

losing that control or of doing the wrong thing (i.e., being called a racist or making things worse by focusing on

differences). These fears often manifest as anger, backlash, need to control how change occurs and/or as guilt,

shame or the experiencing of target group authority figures as not experienced or competent enough. There is a

Training in racism awareness and multiculturalism is crucial to removing fear and other barriers. Such

training helps organization members appreciate what they will gain as individuals and as an organization by fully

24

embracing multiculturalism. Training should occur within and across different levels of the organizational

all individuals come to see that some of the work in dismantling oppression entails working within one’s own group;

that is, whites need to learn to challenge and support other whites, and people of color need space for continual self

definition, and within-group problem solving and agenda setting. Successful group coalitions at this point in our

history entail the ability to coalesce and to separate.

Review of organizational structures, processes, norms, and values by multicultural teams is a crucial next

step. Individuals working within a structure to create change will need to develop allies. Involvement of team

members as facilitators, trainers, and institutional change agents with high visibility helps employees see that the

organization’s commitment is real and is on-going. The team should set up methods of communicating their process

and important outcomes. Problem spots within the organization need to be highlighted and changed. Areas that are

Unlearning racism in all its expressions is offered as a model for understanding how oppression works in

positions. Multiculturalism, then, involves committing to the process of altering the variety of ways in which

individuals and groups establish one-up/one-down dynamics. To paraphrase James Baldwin’s comments in an open

letter to Angela Davis, "If they come for you tonight, they will be back for me in the morning."

I believe the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops, as well as religious and spiritual leaders from around

the world and in all traditions have a critical role to play in developing an effective psychology and spirituality

necessary to create a peaceful world discourse. The above model for combating modern racism and its many

manifestations is offered as one way that religious leaders can become effective change agents for a reconciled

human community. Many within the world’s religious traditions have boldly or quietly done such in the past. Now

is our time to do the same. If not now, when? If not us, who?

Another of the prophetic words of Martin Luther King Jr., written about the United States in the 1960’s, are

bringing me both comfort as well as fear at what will happen if we do not provide such leadership at this time.

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I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell

of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in

Although Dr. King no longer lives with us to inspire us, his message lives on. As bishops and religious leaders

dedicated to "waging reconciliation" we must "keep on keeping on" following King’s prophetic words:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of

destruction . . .The chain reaction of evil – Hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or

26

Oaks, California: Sage Publishing, 2001), p. 122.

1994), p. 544.

4

(Cambridge: Episcopal Divinity School Occasional Papers, 1998). A form of the paper was distributed to the

bishops as background reading in preparation for their meeting of September 2001.

6

7

1986).

8

Target group is a term used to describe blacks (that is, Africans from across the Diaspora) and other people of color

as well as other groups who have been historically and currently "targeted" within U.S. society as "less than" or

different in an inferior way from the dominant population. The statistical odds for successful outcomes are less for

members of a target group. Non-target groups, by contrast, are more likely to operate from a view that their "way"

is better and to receive unearned privilege and increased life chances such as longer mortality, employment, access

to credit and higher incomes. See Figure 2 above.

black-white relationships is the paradigm for understanding the myth of superiority based on color. I see that the

dynamic plays out among Africans across the Diaspora as well as among indigenous people world-wide, people of

color from Spanish speaking countries, and Asians from all parts of Asia and the Pacific rim. When I use the term

"black" I encourage readers to think inclusively and to note how the example I am sharing or the theoretical point I

am making fits or does not fit for their target group experience.

27

Plenum Press, 1988).

Carroll and Graf Publishers, 1992).

(1984): pp. 12-16; Pettigrew, "Modern Racism."

K. Swim, Kathryn J. Aikin, Wayne S. Hall, and Barbara A. Hunter, "Sexism and Racism: Old-fashioned and

through Work in Women Studies." Stone Center, Wellesley College, Working Paper no. l89 (1988).

Association, 1990), pp. 9-16.

Batts, "Modern Racism."

28

York: Oxford University Press, 1992).

the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Los Angles, 1985).

Effects of Racism" (Paper delivered at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Los

Angeles, 1985).

Analysis." Center for Research on Social Organization, University of Michigan, Ann

Arbor, Working Paper no. 412 (1989); "Racism in Higher Education II: Challenging Racism and Promoting

Multiculturalism in Higher Education Organizations." Working Paper no. 558 (1997).

29

Psychological Association, 1996).

King, "Dysconscious Racism"; Natalie Porter, "Empowering Supervisees to Empower Others: A Culturally

"Confronting Intolerance and Promoting Multiculturalism: Frameworks and Strategies for Adults, Youth, and

Communities" (Paper prepared for the Sun Prairie Research Project, University of Wisconsin, 1994).