Recent letters to the editor criticize County Human Rights commissioner Elenita Muniz for saying “…everyone who is white-skinned is racist.” One author says she "…should be investigated for hate speech and terminated.” My purpose for writing is not to judge or get into an argument. Rather to offer a personal statement originally written in 2002 (with slight updating). It also contains a prayer from me and my Friends Meeting for this holiday season, a time of Light returning.
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Hello, my name is Rachel and I'm a racist. No, I'm not secretly a member of the KKK; rather I have come to admit that my attitudes and assumptions around race are unmanageable in a just society. I look to a Power greater then myself to restore me to sanity.
Just as our collective thinking about what it means to be an alcoholic has changed from simply a derelict with a paper sack to include "respectable" people, so my personal thinking has changed regarding the affliction of racism. The American Heritage Dictionary defines a racist as a person who “…believes that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.” While I certainly don't consciously believe this, what about an unconscious belief because of being raised in white privilege? Doesn't this count?
At a very early age I was very carefully taught and conditioned. Being from a "good" Quaker family, it was most easy for me to deny any part of this problem. Of course prejudice is wrong. And after all, Friends were on the forefront of the civil rights movement. Yet white privilege has affected the very structure of my mind. I viewed white practices, customs and attitudes as the norm against which others were to be compared. My spirit requires that I now struggle with the results of these attitudes and entitlements not enjoyed by other groups, including:
• Not having to see or feel that Ferguson or all such incidents — before and after — are in any way connected to me or are my problem.
• Still looking at faces of my society’s leaders and seeing mostly people of my race (congress is 87% white yet people of color make up 30% of our population).
• Having my race be the source of all the art and music "Great Masterpieces.”
• Being taught in school about all the famous explorers, philosophers, leaders, etc. who happened to all be members of my race. The list goes on.
Although I have been slow to precisely name my addiction, I have been in recovery for some time now. Knowing that I am FAR from perfect, I try to educate myself, promptly admit it when I am wrong regarding issues faced by people of color, and work at make amends. Just as importantly, I seek through prayer to bring spiritual energy for a solution both within my heart and the world. I look forward to someday reaping a harvest of Joy, Light and Oneness.
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In closing we ask each reader: Are we morally, spiritually and visibly, stepping into this moment? Are we bearing witness both to the injustice and also to how Spirit is being made manifest for us at this particular time and situation? How do we build a truly beloved community that embraces that of God in everyone? Are we a part of this awakening, speaking Truth about who we are in relationship to all humankind, all our relations?
At this season, may each of us be lamps of pure Love and Light to bring a new dawn of real peace into this beautiful world.
Rachel Carey-Harper
Barnstable Friends Meeting
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