The word racism needs a better definition.
The nuances of everyday modern life make it hard to identify what racism looks like in every incident of discrimination or prejudice, making it even harder to address. However, defined as prejudice, discrimination or hate towards another person based on their race or ethnic group, racism tends to happen to people in a minority or marginalised group.
Rooted in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, this prejudice, discrimination, and hate, with its legacy of long-term psychological and physical impact, helped shape what racism looks like today.
The Man Equal Ape Theory.
Would you believe that Darwin’s theory of evolution in the 1800s paved the way for scientists in the 1900s to conceptualise a so-called “science” that aimed at proving that black people were the closest humans to apes and, therefore, should be treated as such? The scientific community advanced this thinking by developing human zoos to help demonstrate this theory. Again, the story of Ota Benga comes to mind. He was a young man born into slavery and subjected to being kept in the Bronze zoo in New York for public entertainment for many years. He eventually took his life because of overwhelming feelings of depression and isolation from his experiences.
This treatment of Ota Benga was one of the lowest forms of inhumanity towards black and brown people. It suggests that our ethnicity and race did not meet their standards of what it meant to be human. Yet, it was given credence by some of the most influential men and women of science then legitimised in law and immortalised in people’s minds over the generations.
I don’t think I would be wrong to believe that there are still many aspects of black and brown culture that indicate that we, too, consider this to be true about ourselves.
So I ask myself, what does racism look like when an incident does not fit neatly into the definition of the law?
The New Racism
I can remember one friend trying to convince me to say that the discrimination I’d experienced at a local fish and chip shop was “the person was just not a very nice person, and despite the while what I had experienced was horrible, the person may have just been having a bad day”.
On another occasion, someone explained it by saying, “it could have been a simple mistake; after all, no one is perfect, and it could have been unconscious biases.
So, if it is the case, how do we recognise racism, or should the question be; how many faces does racism have?
Despite the progress made regarding racial discrimination and equality over the years, many “faces of racism” still exist today that cannot be identified and called out. Here are those I see in my everyday walk of life, those that cannot be identified or measured .
The Pretty, pretty girl, please face!
An award-winning hair and make-up artist who prides herself on being exceptional at making people look great told me that she wouldn’t work with my skin tone because “she is just not comfortable working with darker skin tones. The comment had me thinking. I wondered if it would be the same response if “Wakanda Forever” called asking her to do make-up for the next instalment of a Black Panther movie. Just a thought!
The Weird Hair Day face
A hairdresser told me she would need special training and specific products to wash and straighten my natural hair after explaining that my coily hair washes and straightens like every other hair. Again, would she say the same to Beyonce’ I heard she keeps her hair natural and wears wigs.
The Waiting to Exhale face
After standing in a queue of six people, I finally got my turn when the cashier looked behind me and asked the woman in the back, can I help you? I was so furious, and the look on my face just said, “really”, and when I was just about to exhale, thank God, the lady in the back told her I was next in the queue (pointing at me)
The Fish Out of Water Face
At a chip shop, waiting in the queue, I asked the lady serving the food if they had fish bites because they weren’t always on the menu. She responded yes to my question, however, the man she was serving responded by asking “Oh, you have fish bites do you?” to indicate that he wanted fish bites as well. She immediately turned to the guy and asked him, “do you want fish bites? He replied yes, she then turned to me and said, “we don’t have fish bites” and continued serving the guy. You should have seen the look on the faces of those in the queue. They were all feeling what I was feeling. I left and never returned. Oh, and by the way, I think I was able to
convince over 15 not to go use this “chippy”
The Know Your Place, Face
Some years ago, I quickly realised that the only time I had a positive interaction with a coworker was when I behaved in a subservient manner. One very difficult experience culminated with a reminder that “they were only trying to help me”. I had to remind them that if I needed help, I knew where I should go to get it. Saviourism, it’s a thing.
The “Mine, Mine Face