In this moment of cultural awakening, I have been reading and watching films to learn about systemic racism. I recommend the documentary 13th which outlines the history of black racial disparity. Although I have had a sense for how racial injustice plays out with the school to prison pipeline, I admit to ignorance and living in a bubble of white privilege. Now that I know what I don’t know, I am motivated to become informed and antiracist.
About twenty-five years ago in a masters’ program, I researched feminine epistemological practices or ways of knowing and learned about the power structure of our society, especially its impact on women. Experience or knowledge learned from the inside out is a key component of feminine knowledge practices. Now I am connecting the dots in how that power structure has institutionalized racism.
If your way of knowing something does not come from the group in power which is composed of predominantly white men, but rather comes from your lived experience, then it is not valid. What is valued and not valued is determined by those in power.
Incident after incident of the injustice of our criminal system failed to get our attention because the narrative was being written by those in power, invalidating stories that don’t align with it. That narrative devalued black lives and justified exploiting them.
Slavery was abolished in 1865 in the 13th amendment – except as punishment for a crime. The penalization of black men allowed white men to use their labor for economic gain. That’s when the campaign to demonize and criminalize black men was instituted.
That narrative replaced the true stories of black men with the myth that they were dangerous. They were relegated to a realm that is outside of the power structure of Western culture.
Over a century and a half later, that paradigm has been in place so long, it had become almost invisible.
The prevailing power paradigm values what is:
white
masculine
straight
rational
studied and proven by others (known from the outside in)
man-made (as in artificial medicines and whatever can be manufactured and measured)
and devalues what is:
black (and basically all colors and heritages that don’t fit the prevailing definition of “white”)
feminine
queer or nonbinary
intuitive or emotional
based on personal experience (as in known from the inside out)
natural (as in herbal or homeopathic medicines and the like)
This structure leaves a lot of people on the outside and overall keeps the privileged white men in charge and deciding who joins the club. It reinforces stereotypes of power, strength and beauty and everything connected to the lists above, which are just the tip of the iceberg.
This is a simplification of a rather complex structure that has been in place a long time, but it is a start in understanding how entrenched this all is and it can help us untangle our own thinking.
Consider our leaders. Consider who controls the wealth and decision-making power in our country. Consider what happens when ideas are brought that challenge that power structure. A large portion of our society has been disallowed their own stories in order to fit in with the dominant culture.
Racial injustice is written into the map of my hometown. Those who you live on the eastside are disproportionately black and poor, with inadequate access to quality education, health care, food and more. Facts are that black boys experience harsher discipline in schools and in adulthood have higher incarceration rates. Not a recipe for success by any measure.
The thing about the prevailing power structure is that in order for groups not on the favored list, to align with the dominant culture, they must swallow the attitudes of those in power and devalue themselves. When the conflict is both outside and inside, it becomes what is, invisible like the air we breathe.
We have seen this play out when women reject their own bodies, emotions and voices to align with the dominant culture. When their stories are heard, healing begins.
The same is true of black men who have learned to devalue themselves and each other rather than stand up to the powers that be, the powers that hold them down.
Once a system is in place, it is easier to sustain rather than to make systemic change, but I hope and pray that the time for that change has come!
Imagine an end to the mass incarceration of blacks, more blacks in power and mutual support rather than infighting within the culture.
When the door is opened for the humanity of blacks to be valued within the dominant culture, they will gain access to power and all that comes with it and we will be on our way to justice and freedom for all.
Everyone will be better off for it. Power is not gained by putting one group over another; that’s domination. True power empowers others.
