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The Origins of These Vignettes
In the healing racism work I have done over the last ten years, I’ve had the opportunity to examine some of my own prejudices and stereotypes regarding people of color. I’ve also had the privilege to hear people of color speak about what has been troubling for them in some of their interactions with white people. As I look back on some of my encounters with people of color before I started this work, I see them in a new light. I am struck by some of my assumptions -- for example, a black person will, of course, like the voice of another black person on a relaxation tape -- and by how I must have sounded to the person of color. What did she or he go through as a result of what I said? It’s not that I was a flaming racist. In fact I have been specifically anti-racist since I was a young child. This anti-racist point of view, however, did not prevent me from holding unexamined assumptions about non-whites and about myself as a white person or enlighten me as to what goes on in the hearts and lives of people of color. I believe that reflecting on such encounters and unearthing the racial assumptions they contain provides a means to look deeply into our racial conditioning. Some of the vignettes you are about to read are based on these previous interactions with persons of color. I also invited numerous whites and people of color to contribute situations or narratives of interracial interactions which would be particularly instructive for white people who want to explore their racial mind set. Most of the vignettes are contributions from these people. A few are from situations I have read about. |
