It’s taken me two weeks to find the words to write this post because I learned unconscious racism exists in my very own family. I’ve witnessed overt racism in social media, the news, and from our very own President but to see it show up unconsciously for the first time so close to home hit me hard. Unfortunately, I have some family members who have shown up overtly racist due to their upbringing and the beliefs that were instilled in them. I do not bring this up as an excuse but to paint a picture that it’s one thing to stand up for a belief and a whole other issue to defend a belief that you think you know a lot about but in reality, you’re just poorly educated.
I realized unconscious racism can be so much more harmful than overt racism; you think you’re doing the right thing and you don’t hear how you’re hurting people due to that belief that you’re doing good. It’s a vicious cycle that’s hard to watch and see where one can help. This is why I continue to write these posts; I hope I can at least help one person re-educate themselves and rewire the learnings they’ve been taught as truth.
To help further my learning, I’m now reading “The Color of Law” to better understand how racism was perpetuated in the United States and supported by our own Supreme Court. I also hope I may build more empathy for those who are still unconscious to the privilege they have and so that I can find the right way to reframe their unconscious behavior to show the harm they are causing with their racist actions.