The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly “separate but equal” status for black Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages… Wikipedia contributors, “Jim Crow laws,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. |
I’m not the only mixed race person who longs for a space where I can work through my complicated relationship with race free from fear of hurting the cause for racial justice rather than helping.
Elise Chen, “The quest for racial validity,” The Berkeley Beacon, November 2, 2017. http://www.berkeleybeacon.com/opinion/2017/11/2/the-quest-for-racial-validity.
The quest for racial validityPosted in Articles, Asian Diaspora, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Social Justice, United States on 2017-11-17 02:12Z by Steven |
The Berkeley Beacon
Boston, Massachusetts
2017-11-02
Elise Chen, Beacon Correspondent
I identify as a person of color, but in the fight for racial justice I often feel more like an ally than a member of the POC community.
I’m biracial—Chinese on my dad’s side, European descent on my mom’s. As I navigate through the world, I usually pass as white, which provides me with privileges most of my POC peers don’t have. I understand I have a responsibility to use this privilege as a tool to amplify the voices of people who continue to be silenced.
In many POC communities, members are encouraged to prioritize the voices of those within the group who are most marginalized. They often discourage centering whiteness in conversations, because it’s exhausting for members to hear about white people again when so much of life already revolves around the systemic inequality created and upheld by white people.
But when you’re a POC whose existence does, in fact, center on whiteness, it can feel isolating…
Read the entire article here.