What Can Families do to be Anti-Racist?
By Andrew and Terri Lyke

Many families carefully screen their language. The “N” word is banned in many homes. This is an example of being non-racist. However, to be anti-racist families need to take action that works against systems that perpetuate racism in our midst.

First, check your own denial. Denial is like two fish that were swimming in the ocean. They probed the coral reefs, examined aquatic vegetation, swam for many miles. Finally one fish asked, “What are we looking for?” The other answered, “I heard there is water down here someplace.” Racism is all around us. Yet, we can be oblivious to it. For many white people, the truth of the core belief of white supremacy smacks in the face their sense of morality. One coping mechanism is to buy into it. Another is to disbelieve it. To buy into it one has to dehumanize non-whites. To disbelieve it one must rationalize evidences that may challenge the belief. For example: When you look at the population of prisons in the United States, clearly there is a disproportionate number of men of color, specifically black males. Our national credo, “All men are created equal,” would naturally have us question the system by which such inequities persist. This would lead us directly to that core belief of white supremacy and systemic racism in our penal and court systems. However, this so challenges our national credo, what we believe about ourselves as an American people, we are rescued into denial with the question, “What’s wrong with black males?” and dehumanize them as people of color.

It’s not so difficult for many non-whites to accept the core belief of white supremacy in whites. Its’ another issue in accepting this core belief in ourselves. The idea of racism as a white problem is very useful to people of color who are struggling to emerge from a history of subjugation and inferiority. “Say it loud! I’m black and I’m proud!” Somehow we believe that if we say it loud enough it will drown out the self-repugnance that was handed down to us by well-meaning ancestors. It’s much too easy to deny our own collusion-going along to get along-for the sake of survival or for the sake of “success.” It is much too overwhelming to face the fact that embedded in African American culture are roots of “wannabeism” that shape our standards of beauty and acceptance. Oh yes, the truth is a hard pill to swallow. Denial saves us from the pain of such truth.

Seek the truth. Read, read, read! Subscribe to magazines and publications written by and for people of color. Learn to value the cultural contributions of people of color. Regularly critique the depictions presented in the media of people of color. Encourage your children to take African American History in high school, and African American Studies in college.

Understand that anti-racism is not something new. It’s old as racism. When racism rose its ugly head in the Western World some 400+ years ago, the work of anti-racism began. And throughout our history in the Americas there have always been multi-racial coalitions working against racism, and resistance to white supremacy by people of color. This activism is prophetic and rests on the shoulders of those who began the work centuries ago.

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