Race, racism and marginalisation
Nim Njuguna reflects on the question: ‘How does it feel to be the only Black person at a weekend event?’
We were standing at the platform waiting for a train after a weekend workshop when a Friend posed this question. ‘I am used to it’, I assured her and added: ‘It happens so frequently that I have come to expect it’. As the train was fast approaching and we were not sharing a compartment, we left it at that. I would have liked to further explain that when I said ‘I was used to it’ this was in a manner of resignation and the acceptance of something that was undesirable but inevitable.
In my case, as a meat eater, it’s like visiting a friend who is a vegetarian. I visit her because she is a friend, not because she is a vegetarian. She may well never convert me to her lifestyle nor I convert her to mine. We have both made our beds and are currently lying on them comfortably. However, what I miss most in our friendship is that vegetarianism as a topic is outside our conversational bounds. It’s a no-go area for her and I believe we are both the poorer for it.
I believe we need to engage in open and honest ongoing conversations about race, racism and marginalisation. This would give us a chance to look at the real situation as we experience it in society and our Meetings and not continue with only an idealised history of our glorious Quaker ‘anti-racist’ past. (Evidence of Quaker history of social reform is undeniable.)
We live in diverse communities, and encountering others who have an entirely different way of viewing and experiencing the world can be unsettling and challenging to one’s sense of security, as it may demand that one must change. However, for us as Quakers, with our long history of challenging the status quo, challenging oppression while promoting racial justice is both a practical necessity and a moral imperative.
It is also, admittedly, a challenging and potentially divisive exercise for individuals and Meetings to undertake as it moves people beyond ‘celebrating’ diversity and concentrates on confronting the systemic marginalisation and unconscious bias, personally and within our own organisation and Meetings.
In their well-researched book Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship, Donna McDaniel and Vanessa Julye challenge us to see that Friends are not immune to the pernicious racism that bedevils other religious organisations. The main claim, for me, from the book is that as Quakers we are often blind to our own racist assumptions, embracing the narrative that good intentions absolve of us of the ability to do harm.
My experience of being a Black Quaker in the UK has been largely informed by what I refer to as ‘the five mind sets’ I have encountered: talking about race may threaten to unmask both conscious and unconscious biases and prejudices and I have been astonished at the extent to which intelligent Friends differ on this matter. These are my observations, not judgements.
The bedmate Friend
This is a Friend involved in a social justice agenda, including racial diversity issues, as a personal commitment. This is not an abstract commitment. They are not just in touch with the issues. They are in communion with the people affected by the issues. They know some the people affected by name. They know their individual struggles and stories. Their activism is based on a deep sense of identification with the victims. They don’t have the benefit of my lived experience, but they carry the scars of this identification by not acting out of their ‘White Privilege’ mindset. They understand unconscious bias and have no problems in seeing the systemic linkages among racism, sexism, classism, ableism, heterosexism, ageism and all forms of oppression. In my opinion, they have ‘walked in my moccasins’.
The roommate Friend
This Friend is also involved in social justice issues, including racial diversity issues, but in a less entangled way as the bedmate. They generally engage with the issues and with the people affected by them. However, they give less of themselves and more of their resources to the cause. They may make occasional contact with the marginalised by visiting or jetting to their turf, but walking in their moccasins is a step too far. However, their actions are products of their spiritual contemplation and I admire them for this.
The housemate Friend
This Friend is a great supporter of the ‘justice for all’ agenda, including racial justice. They are well informed of the issues, have read the recent research findings and deliver popular workshops based on these findings. They also frequently journey to speak at training events on these issues. Their repertoire on social justice is wide and admirable. However, they don’t recognise that individual transformation must occur concurrently with social and political transformation. I may not see eye-to-eye on everything with this Friend, but I warm to their enthusiasm.
The next-door Friend
This Friend, at best, displays uncomfortable ignorance about the complexities of racial justice issues: ‘I don’t see race, I only see human beings and some of my friends are black.’ They mean well and there is no malice in their naivety. It’s just that they are oblivious to the notion of a ‘Black experience’ and cannot imagine that a Friend is living a completely distinct experience simply by virtue of their race. If agreeable and open to the challenge, they would be a perfect candidate for consciousness raising and a white privilege workshop as a first step.
The across-the-street Friend
This Friend is rarely known but encountered occasionally. I am afraid they are going to throw a tantrum during our conversation about lack of racial diversity in Quaker gatherings. Normally I encounter polite nods or change of subject when I converse with some Friends on racial justice matters. However, this Friend launches into a disconnected rant parroting what they were told, I suspect, by certain media groups about ‘certain groups of people who abuse the benefits of our tolerant democratic way of life’. They are the kind of person who causes offence without deliberate intent. I nod politely and change the subject!
I am beginning to entertain some suspicions that I could very well be describing myself at various stages of my personal development and transformation as a Quaker. Hopefully, since I am still developing and transforming, I will employ self-compassion as a companion on the journey. I know there is only one human race and we are all flawed and unequally determined to meaningfully engage. However, I think now is the time for white Quakers to wrestle with the reality of white privilege.
Comments
Nim writes from personal experience and he need to be listened to with respect and attention. On the other hand, there are some loose links in his argument which need to be challenged. He writes of ‘systemic linkages among racism, sexism, classism, ableism, heterosexism, ageism and all forms of oppression’. So he seems to be saying that prejudice and ignorance are the same as oppression, when they might just be no more than they are: a failing on the part of individuals not of society at large. And there are no societies, past and present, when there hasn’t been prejudice and ignorance. The logic of Nim’s claim is that, for example, failure to provide wheelchair access in a public building is an example of ‘oppression’ - when in fact it is against the law promoting rights for the disabled.
More can and should be done, but we need to maintain perspective. For all their faults modern western liberal democracies are the least systemically discriminatory societies there have ever been.
By frankem51 on 22nd March 2018 - 12:10
Please login to add a comment
