To the Editor:
I am writing in response to an idea presented in last week's Review : "people of color cannot be racist because they lack power. Because they have power, white(s) are intrinisically racist."
Simply because you're white doesn't mean you're a racist, simply because you're not doesn't mean you can't be. Power alone does not make someone a racist.
Racism is intimately connected to power. To actualize it, one must have power. Racism is a belief, but no belief is meaningful if it is not acted upon. In order to act, one must have the power to act. If one wishes to institutionalize racism, one must be in power within that institution.
However, on an individual level we all have an equal power to be racist. Someone, anyone, can open their mouth and cause someone else pain because they are ___ race. Anyone can raise their hand against someone of another race. The color of my skin does not increase or decrease my ability act on my racist beliefs, and to claim such is ridiculous.
Some people would argue that on an institutional level whites have more power than other groups. I would agree that the system is biased toward whites. However, to assume that just because I was born into a more privileged postion than you means instantly, automatically, that I hate you, or even that I don't like you is, in my personal opinion, stupid. Just because I am on the privileged side of the power structure does not mean that I think it is right and good! I think to make such an assumption is to turn around and take on the same attitude as those people who started the idea of racism. It is assuming negative things about someone based only on their race. It is judging someone on the color of their skin, not by the content of their character.
Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 21; April 18, 1997
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