Part Two: Why Deracializing People is Essential to Combating Racism
In part one, our colleague and guest writer Amiel Handelsman began making a case for deracialization by explaining the costs of racial essentialism, how there’s more than one way to be an anti-racist, and ended by explicating the distinction between race as “topic” and race as “classification.”
We’ll move to part two by including the last part of the previous post, and continue from there.
The anti-race antiracist says yes to Race as Topic and no to Race as Classification.
Yes to Race as Topic. It’s important to discuss racial bias, racial inequality, and racial injustice.
No to Race as Classification. It’s not helpful to view people as members of a biological race. Human beings are complex creatures who differ in culture and ancestry, but not biological race.
Embracing Culture
Americans use the word “race” to refer to two other things: culture and ancestry. This confusion is understandable yet unfortunate. Culture and ancestry are important phenomena, but neither requires a belief in biological racial categories.
Let’s start with culture. Although there is no such thing as a black race, there is Black American culture. This culture is based not on immutable biological categories but on shared traditions and social practices. Take, for example, President Obama. Although he was born with darker skin than me, he grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, places with little Black American culture. Only after moving to New York and especially Chicago did he immerse himself in and become part of this rich culture. Obama wasn’t born with Black American culture. He grew into it. That’s because culture is related to but not dictated by skin color, and neither is connected to the falsehood of biological race.
This is good news. It means that you can let go of the disaster of Race as Classification while staying true to the dignity of culture.
Doing this brings a second benefit. It allows you to more fully appreciate the power and flexibility of culture. Once culture is something you learn rather than something you are born with, it opens up enormous possibilities. No music, art, language, movement, or humor is the sole and exclusive property of any particular group. There is no divine European right to Beethoven any more than there is a divine Black American right to Louis Armstrong. In both cases, you can listen because you are curious and keep listening if you enjoy it. Over time, the music becomes part of your own cultural makeup. Such is true with art, language, humor, movement, and every other dimension of culture.
Acknowledging Ancestry
Then there is ancestry. Ancestry is about geography: where your great-great-great-great grandparents came from. Whereas biological race is an immutable category, ancestry is a story of traveling. Whereas biological race has no scientific basis, ancestry is something you can trace (as long as a record of it exists). Most importantly, the origin of your ancestors tells you nothing about your character and very little about your genetics. On a genetic level, a person from Senegal is 99.9 percent as similar as a person from Northern Ireland as they are to a second person from Senegal. Think about that for a second.
This brings more good news: you can love and acknowledge your ancestors even while ridding yourself of biological race.
This also has vital medical implications. Certain diseases are disproportionately present in specific portions of the population. Knowing who these groups are helps health care providers diagnose and treat their conditions. Fortunately, we don’t need Race as Classification to do this. Ancestry will do. For example, sickle-cell anemia is common in people with ancestors from certain African counties like Senegal (among other places, like India and Greece), and cystic fibrosis in people with ancestors from certain Northern European countries. Scientists describe such correlations by referring to these countries, not to terms like “black” and “white.”
We can rid ourselves of racial essentialism while still tending to distinctive medical conditions.
Benefits of Being an Anti-race Antiracist
The path of the anti-race antiracist may appeal to you if you are:
Committed to combating racism and wrestling with American history yet uncomfortable with the simplistic thinking and dogmatism that marks much of today’s antiracism
Attracted to thoughtful critiques of antiracism yet longing for the passionate engagement with injustice that is often absent in these critiques
Open to reconsidering long-held worldviews if they prove counterproductive and/or unscientific
Willing to experiment with deracializing yourself and others as part of your growth journey as an adult
This journey allows you to:
1. Combat racism more effectively. As we’ve seen, racial essentialism underpins hateful ideologies and makes all racism possible. Growing beyond this and showing others how to do the same help you stand for something better.
2. Focus on improving lives. Having a broader vision than most antiracist thinkers allows you to prioritize the impact of proposals on actual people’s lives. Consider this: If you heard of a public policy that didn’t directly combat racism but improved the lives of Americans racialized as black, would you support it?
3. Speak more freely. It’s exhausting to walk on pins and needles while having conversations. That’s the problem with believing in racial essences. When you call someone “black” or “white,” you’re not just talking about their skin color or hair. You’re invoking assumptions about their character, personality, and intelligence — even their genetic makeup. In such a minefield, being careful with your words isn’t paranoid. It’s prudent. In contrast, when you abandon racial essentialism, things feel different. Instead of calling someone “black,” you note that they have “mocha skin.” This is a factual assertion that suggests nothing about the person’s essence. When you know this in your heart, you don’t need to worry about offending them. And if others get offended, you don’t need to take responsibility for their emotions. At the very worst, you’ve displayed your own ineptitude with finer color distinctions. This you can correct.
4. Carry less burden. When introducing the possibility of deracialization to others, particularly folks identified as white, I hear one reaction over and over again: “I feel liberated.” That’s because racial essentialism places a heavy burden on all of our shoulders. By letting go of this notion, we feel less burdened and more energized to act. Some people reading this may think, “The purpose of all this isn’t to unburden white people.” Consider: If you could improve the lives of Americans racialized as black, but this required unburdening white-identified people, would you do it?
5. Sleep better at night. Refuting the core foundation of the ideology of slaveholders and white nationalists feels good. It creates a peaceful and harmonious feeling. This is good for sleep.
6. Build backbone. It’s easy in today’s climate to get knocked off balance. When a true believer antiracist suggests that your perspectives aren’t strong or radical enough, part of you believes them. Recognizing the problematic nature of racial essentialism changes all of this. Now it’s you, not the true believer, who is aiming more directly at the roots of racism. You don’t have to take a back seat to anyone.
7. Get more curious about people. The less you classify and categorize someone, the more dimensions of their experience you have to explore. If you don’t know their essence, that leaves much to discover.
There is more than one way to be antiracist. Growing beyond racial essentialism is a useful place to start.
By Amiel Handelsman