In which order (or where on the continuum) did you discover the existence of racism? You could categorize your level of insight using my "5M" model: Menace, Mayhem, Misfortune, Mandelbrot, and Machiavelli.
Menace - You experienced or were raised to believe and perceive, either explicitly or implicitly, that the Black "race" is a problem and the cause of racism; they are portrayed as a danger to Society either by means of violence, sexual predation, drugs, inferiority, laziness, entitlement, economic burden, or activist troublemaking. Just read the newspapers. No, not THAT one. THIS one...
Mayhem - You were raised to be oblivious to race, which means oblivious to racism. If you paid attention to history and current events, you swallowed whole the "vanilla" interpretations in history books and main stream news media. When major events involving race broke the threshold of your awareness, they seemed to come out of nowhere. You waited (or are waiting) hopefully for things to "return to normal."
Misfortune - You were raised to be aware of the unfortunate history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the two and one half centuries of slavery at the founding years of the British American colonies and first 87 years of the new United States of America. You may or may not know about Jim Crow laws; You may or may not know about real estate redlining; you may or may not know about the demonization and criminalization of marijuana being conceived as means to target and incarcerate Black people; you have a cursory awareness that there was a Civil Rights movement in the 60s (it actually began in 1954 with the Brown vs. Board of Education case that went to the Supreme Court). Your overall sense may have been one of sincere regret for the misfortunes of these people. What a shame that people can't just be good to each other. A nice sentiment.
Mandelbrot - Benoit Mandelbrot was the mathematician who coined the term "fractal" regarding mathematics and geometry. The simplest way I can think of to describe it is endless complexity that follows an seemingly chaotic but mysteriously recognizable pattern.
As with the Mandelbrot set (depicted geometrically here as continuous progression with a computer model), some of you will or have, at some point, perceive for the very first time, either through observation or explanation, that there is a previously undetected pattern. The dots connect in away you didn't previously believe they did or could. RACISM; systemic and pervasive. You CAN'T unsee it. You can, however, choose whether to explore its extent or try to ignore it. Some DO; some DON'T.
Those who DON'T still find the pattern disturbing, but look for comforting explanations that will bring them back to a perspective of Misfortune or Mayhem. Most succeed most of the time, at least temporarily.
Those of you who DO (or did) will (or did) find the exploration even more disturbing; like taking a bite of an otherwise good-looking apple with a small, ugly blemish to find out its rotten on the inside. The discovery may be (or was) a call to action. In doing so, you may approach it in one of two ways or both: a mission of enlightening Society to realize something is very wrong that can be fixed with education of the masses; and/or transition to the 5th "M"
Machiavelli - Niccolò Machiavelli was a 16th Century political philosopher known for his massive influence on Western philosophy and politics. Machiavellianism's definition in dictionary.com:
1. a political theory advocating the principles of government analyzed in Machiavelli’s The Prince, in which political expediency is placed above morality, and craft and deceit are used to maintain the authority and carry out the policies of a ruler:
In this and other countries, Machiavellianism currently dominates foreign policy.
2. behavior characterized by subtle or unscrupulous cunning, deception, expediency, or dishonesty:
The dark side of social intelligence includes the impulsive, thrill-seeking, callous behavior of psychopaths and the deceitful and exploitative nature of Machiavellianism.
To see racism from this "M" means to have discovered that there were seeds planted to germinate and cultivate this pattern of racism that spans centuries and continents; that this was and is no accident, but a collective sin of mass proportions born of callused greed and collective narcissism, both which are alive, well, and in control; collective sin that still harms its victims and stains even its unwitting beneficiaries.
What was perhaps once thought to be a troubling pattern of Mother Nature that only shows up if you turn your head diagonally turns out to be a deliberate design by men that we are still powerfully influenced by every day. This realization chills one to the bones. Only now comes the realization that change means a battle to overturn the institutional policies which deliberately BUILT the situation and to challenge the minds of those who still fail or refuse to see it. The 5th "M" is a really a revolution of the mind and heart. It does not require a political revolution, but it does require a revolutionary spirit of activism and policy changes to repair the damage.
So, where is your M?
Growing up in suburban NJ during the 1960's and '70's, it was nearly impossible to deny that racism was an overriding fact of life for many people. To a White kid with his own bedroom, though, those people always seemed to be in other places - places like Memphis, where Martin Luther King was murdered, and Alabama, where a particularly vulgar politician by the name of George Wallace held sway.
It never occurred to me then that Black people were congregating in nearby towns like Red Bank out of any imperative other than that born of the poverty of their desire - when growing up in an alcoholic household, that explanation alone can seem perfectly sufficient. A few years…