Email this page  Print this page  del.icio.us  digg

Healing racism

We must confront the bias within ourselves to deal with prejudice

Years ago, I worked at one of the community colleges in Maricopa County as a program advisor. I had an appointment with a student who only knew me by my first name. Upon entering my office and seeing my name on a certificate on the wall, she let out a stunned “You’re Mexican?!” That statement was followed by “You don’t act Mexican!”

That wasn’t the first time I had heard such comments. They had been whispered throughout my life. You see, I am of mixed Mexican and English ancestry. However, what most disturbed me was that the student was a Latina.

My response to this student was that I must “act Mexican” because I am one. This type of exchange has not only shaped my identity, but my academic and professional endeavors as well. I deal with racial issues and discrimination almost on a daily basis through my work on the counseling faculty at Estrella Mountain Community College. I am a student of psychology, race and oppression.

Sometimes people ask, “How will we ever eliminate racism?” I believe that to heal the damage caused by racism we need to begin by healing ourselves. This self-healing grows more important as the debate about illegal immigrations heats up in Congress and in our Arizona communities.

In the Latino community, we face challenges with regard to racism and discrimination, both socially and professionally. Oppression can be either overt (blatant and open discrimination) or covert (hidden under the surface or unconscious).

But there is a type of racism that festers inside us. The incident at the beginning of this article is an example of internalized racism, one of the most toxic forms.  This student’s response reflects how an identity has been shaped by stereotypes to the extent that she is shocked to encounter a Mexican that didn’t act, in her mind, “like a Mexican.” 

For racism to exist in any form, it requires two things: power and subordination. Whether it is economic power or simply the power of being the majority, you can’t exercise racism against a subordinate group without it. In addition, there has been a system of “deculturalization” in this country for several hundred years – the slow and systematic stripping away of minority cultures in favor of a mentally unified, light-skinned, English-speaking, Christian God-fearing country. We have all been judged by outsiders on how we match up to that standard. Internalized racism is when we start judging ourselves, our families and our own communities by that same standard.

The racism that we grow inside us is the “acceptance” of one’s own oppression. This student has probably heard the message many of us have heard. That we, Latinos or Mexicans, aren’t college material or that we will never amount to anything more than what the blue-collar world offers.

The perpetuation of this way of thinking is facilitated in two ways: First, externally by members within our own community, our own ethnic group; second, internally, upon ourselves, by way of self-doubt, isolation, fear and feelings of powerlessness.

Internal racism begins outside of us and works its way into attitudes about oneself, such as self-doubt, isolation, and fear. These feelings can result in negative actions, such as violence and name calling, against others like us. Or it can result in apathy, such as not doing anything to help others like us.

Internal racism causes people to find fault, criticize and invalidate each other within their own ethnic community. What follows is divisiveness. This conflict is used to keep each other in check when we act “too White” or “too Mexican.” It is used to attack, criticize and create unrealistic expectations of anyone who has the courage to step forward and take on leadership responsibilities to fight against or contradict stereotypes. This undermines the support people need to effectively and positively change our community.

I believe that to heal the damage caused by racism we need to start talking about racism. We must face and identify racism by not being afraid to discuss the issue. By not discussing the topic and being intimidated by others accusing us of pulling the “race card,” we are denied an outlet to fix the problem. We need more educational seminars and debates in public forums, such as Latino Perspectives Magazine.  These conversations must involve the key players in the debate, including those from other ethnic communities.

The answer to healing racism begins with healing ourselves, and therefore being available and open to healing our own and others.  

Jason Zapata Martinez is a member of the counseling faculty at Estrella Mountain Community College.