“Race absolutely still matters and racism persists in every sector of society. We can easily see evidence of these realities every day in the news, on social media, in film, television, publishing, academia, the workplace, medicine, government, politics, law, etc. Proclaiming “race doesn’t matter anymore” is willfully ignorant, colorblind, avoidant, and worse – in being complicit – perpetuates racism itself through inaction. To make the point how powerfully shaping racial reality is: The finely-tuned concept of race alone (i.e. belief that human beings can be organized into a handful of hierarchically organized groups based on the way they look) has not changed in centuries. Elite white male thinkers fully congealed value-laden racial categories by the late 1700s which are still the very same categories we use today. This way of thinking has been infused into the fiber of society; the words we use; the way we interact with each other; even our Constitution. Every time we check a race box on a form, every time we read a report where people are filed into races (e.g. Pew Research), every time we watch a news anchor talk about Black Lives Matter protestors – we are living the reality of the racist foundation this country was built on. Nobody is immune or escapes that history that continues to shape us all today.” —Sharon H. Chang
Grace Hwang Lynch “Interview With Sharon H. Chang on Raising Mixed Race,” Hapa Mama: Asian Fusion Family and Food, December 7, 2015. http://hapamama.com/2015/12/07/qa-on-raising-mixed-race-with-sharon-h-chang/.
