Social Justice: Racism

T. Kathy
Center for International Studies at Huey Deng High School

Guiding Questions: What is racism and how does it affect

me and others? Does Taiwan have a race problem? What
can I do to promote racial equality?

Contents
What is Racism? Categories, Types
Racism in America
Institutional Racism
Racism in Taiwan?

Definitions of Racism 1.

2. The belief that human races have

special characteristics the idea that
ones own race is superior
and has the right to rule or dominate
others. (Germany)
3. Offensive or aggressive
behavior to members of another race. (
Trump, Childs Def.)

What does the law say about Racial Discrimination?

Australia: The Racial

Discrimination Act 1975 was
Australias first anti-discrimination
law. This law protects everyone in
Australia from discrimination on
the basis of race.

American Law and Racism

We hold these truths to be self-evident, thatall men are

created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these areLife, Liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness. - US Declaration of Independence

The past almost 250 year history of the United States can
be understood in part in terms of its peoples effort to unify
the Constitution to be in line with the Declaration of
Independence.
The first law against racism was the 13th and 14th
Amendment against slavery. (Vid1)

Taiwanese Law and Racism

The closest Taiwan has is the

Anti- Discrimination Employment
Act

Is this enough?

Categories of racist behavior

1. Physical assault and harassment
2.Verbal abuse , threats , derogatory
language, ridicule, stereotyped comments
(1)

3.Racist propaganda e.g. symbols, signs,

graffiti

Categories of racist behavior

4.Incitement of others to behave in a racist
way (Liverpool)
5.Refusal to cooperate with other
people because of their color, ethnicity, religion
or language
6.Institutional racism e.g. biased policies
, rules or curriculum (Apartheid)

Categories of racist behavior

Cyber racism (Video, 2)
Bystander racism (Video,

2)

Have you ever seen any of the above in Taiwan? Explain.

(review game with Chinese definitions, English definitions)

Extra: The Good Samaritan story ( )

Types of Racism
Internalized racism: absorbing racism
against your own people of color, self hatred (

Malcolm X, Michael Jackson)

Ex: Black identifying as white, Asian woman , 3)

subtle racism (or everyday

racism): commonplace forms of
discrimination, that seem innocent and small,
but add up to have a powerful impact.

EX: being ignored, ridiculed or treated differently (Video, 1, 2 3)

Racism in America: reading Vocabulary

Racial Stereotypes (Family Guy, Top 10 )
Race
Racism
Malcolm X X (mini Bio, House and Field Negros)
Racialism -a theory that race determines human
traits and capacities
Identity
Consensual
Discrimination
racial :
Racial prejudice

Reading 1: : RACE CARDS, WHITE MYTHS, AND POSTRACIAL

AMERICA

Pre-Reading Questions:

1. Do you think race is real?

2. What are some misunderstanding

about race?

3. What is the race problem in America?

Stereotypes of Blacks

There are stereotypes of blacks that go back at

least two hundred years: the sexual ,
animalistic African, exotic seducer of
white women. The philosopher Frantz Fanon (1925
1961) calls this the sexual myth surrounding
black men. As Fanon puts it, The white man is
convinced that the Negro is an animal; if
it is not the length of the penis , then it is the
sexual potency that impresses him. ( 1, 2, 3)

Stereotypes of Blacks

Summary: Black men are

sexually more powerful than
white men

The Example of Malcolm X X

Malcolm X claimed, that he was
really sentenced to a lengthy
prison sentence for sleeping
with a white woman
(not for burglary ). The judge
couldnt bear the sexualized
Negro having a white woman

The Example of Malcolm X

Summary: Black power leader

who said his arrest was for
sleeping with a white woman,
not burglary

Racialism
Racialism, is at the center of this
misunderstanding of the problem of race.
Racialism is the belief that races exist
equally, but not necessarily that any hierarchy
between the races exists. Racialists typically
reject claims of racial superiority.- modern philosopher
Kwame Anthony Appiah
(Video 1, Social Exp, Conan)

Compare : Both are dangerous, why?

RACISM

RACIALISM

Unacceptable in good
society
A belief in the existence
and significance of racial
differences

Acceptable in society

hierarchy between
the races exists

Reject racial superiority

Ex: may simply prefer to date

people within his/her own race

Ex: interracial
relationships are wrong

A belief in the existence

and significance of racial
differences

Race a myth ?
Appiah argued that no such groups exist, that
the idea of race is a myth. Grouping races for
biological purposes , your classification
will have so much human genetic variation
as there is in the whole species. The most we
can classify as a race is a group of reproductively
isolated people. This means that no large
social group in America is a race.

Race a myth ?

Summary: races cant

biologically exist, as theres
too much genetic
variation (Appiah)

(Videos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

The Problem?

The problem is that we seem to be stuck thinking

that races are real. This can lead people to adopt,
or even to be forced into, particular kinds of
identities . (Videos: Biracial, Reframing, Appiah, Latinos,)
Once the racial label is given to people, ideas
about what that means, may be much less
consensual and has negative social and
psychological effects. (Video: Transracial?, Racial Identity Disorder, Other)

The Problem:

Theres still a lot of discrimination based on the

false idea that races are essential
to who one is. How does racial prejudice go
away?

The fact that race is socially real but

biologically untrue, makes issues of racial
equality all the more difficult. We want to have
race and do away with it too. (Videos: Bill Nye, Animation,

The problem?

Summary: Believing in races

forces people into negative
identities that hurt society

(Videos: Race as Label, )

Conclusion:
When we see that races arent biologically real,
and that thinking of them as real leads to
inequality, we put ourselves in a position to
give up both racism and racialism. Well be
better able to see the consequences of
our assumptions about race when they
bubble upand this will give us time to act to
fix whatever injustices we find.

Conclusion

Summary: If we give up
racialism, we have a better
chance to see our own
prejudices and help others.

(Review Game)

Racism in America: Institutional Racism

Q: How is Institutional racism different from racism?

Institutional Racism: process by which a
government supports or engages in clearly racist acts

Who did/does it effect?

EXAMPLES:
1. Native Americans: Forced relocation (Indian Removal
Act) and The trail of tears to reservations (1, 2, 3, 4)

Jackson-Tubman

2. Slavery, Jim Crow, Stop and Search

3. Japanese Internment Camps

(1, 2, 3, 4)

(1, 2, 3, 4)Brown Vs Board

Black Lives Matter(BLM)

is an international activist movement , that began in 2013

An African-American community movement . They
campaign against violence towardblack people, organizes
protests around the deaths of black people inkillings by
police, as well asracial profiling,police brutality, andracial
inequality in the American criminal justice system.
use of the hashtag#BlackLivesMatteronsocial media, after
theacquittalofGeorge Zimmermaninthe shooting deathof AfricanAmerican teenTrayvon Martin. Black Lives Matter became
nationally recognized for its street demonstrations ( )
following the 2014 deaths of two African Americans:Michael Brown
, resulting inprotests and unrest in Ferguson, and Eric Garnerin
New York City.

Black Lives Matter and Eric Garner(September 15, 1970 July 17, 2014)

was a Black man fromNew York City who died when

apolice officerput him in a chokehold for 15 seconds.
New York City Police Departmentofficers talked to Garner
because they thought he was sellingcigarettesillegally.

On December 3, 2014, a grand jury decided notto

indictofficer. This led to protests and rallies with charges
of police brutality.[As of December 28, 2014, more than
fifty demonstrations had been held across the United
States.

Black Lives Matter Movement

Eric Garner rally: His death was one of the
defining moments of the Black Lives Matter
movement. (1,2,3,4)
Interrupting Presidential Campaigns (1/2, 3)
The Confederate flag came down in Charleston

(1,2,3)

Black communities do not need more community

policing, he said. They need jobs, better education
and better housing.

Charleston church shooting

On the evening of June 17, 2015, amass shootingtook

place atEmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church,
that was the first church forblack peopleever in America,
inCharleston,South Carolina,United States. Nine people
at the church were killed and another was injured. Among
the dead was a female minister and state senator.

Public protest about the use of the Confederate

Flag in, SC became a hot button issue at the same
time of high profile police brutality of Blacks. (Videos 1
, 2, 3)

Confederate Flag
a widely recognized symbol of the
Southern United States associated with racism,
slavery and Southern Pride . Its became a hot
topic after the Charleston Church hate crime
massacre, especially the BLM movement.

It is also known as the "rebel flag", "Dixieflag", and "Southern

cross. It is protected in 5 States the same as the US national flag.
(Videos 1, 2, 3)

Institutional Racism Reading 2: US Racism

and Unemployment
Vocabulary

unemployment rate
wallpaper effect
Status quo
Ethnicity
explicit
implicit Implicit Ass Test
disparity

US Racism and Unemployment

INTRO: The US unemployment rate isexpected to hold
steady at 5.3%the lowest unemployment rate in seven
years. Yet there is one group whose unemployment rate is
still close to 10%: African Americans.
The unemployment rate for black Americans has
remained almost twice that of the general population for
so long that experts believe its suffering from the
wallpaper effect no one notices anymore. That may
be about to change.

Wallpaper Effect

The wallpaper effect is to blame for the lack of attention

to African American unemployment, (Valerie Rawlston Wilson, director
of the race, ethnicity and economy program at the Economic Policy Institute.)

I think that until we own up to the fact that racism and

racial bias explicit or implicit, directly or indirectly
are a major part of this ongoing disparity and do
something to directly address these issues that little or
nothing will change.

Wallpaper Effect

SUMMARY: No one notices Black

unemployment because its invisible
and normalized.

Black Unemployment

Black unemployment has been about twice as

high as that of white Americans since 1954,
the earliest that the Department of Labor has
unemployment rate by race. In June,the
unemployment rate for black Americans was
9.5%. Thats more than twice the
unemployment rate of white Americans, which
was 4.6%.

Black Unemployment

SUMMARY: Black
unemployment has been
twice (2x) the average
since 1954.

2016 Presidential Election

Until recently, politicians have felt content to

nod and say its always been this way. But as
2016 presidential campaigns get under way,
Americans and specifically black Americans
are letting their elected officials know
that this answer is no longer good
enough. Black lives matter and so should the
black unemployment rate.

Racial Inequality in the Workforce

One of the main reasons why racial
inequality persists in the workforce,
according to experts, is because of the way
employees recommend others for jobs in
their workplace.
There is almost no attention to the biasfor
people, specifically that whites are biased in
preference for other whites and provide
information, opportunity and influence on
behalf of people that they think of as like

Segregation still exists

Americans still live a very segregated life

with whites disproportionately in the
positions with higher income, more
influence, more skills and training.

As such companies need to pay attention to

their entire hiring process as well as what
kind of candidates are coming down the
pipeline thanks to current employees
references. For example, the lack of
diversity in the middle management was
because they were hiring the friends of their

Segregation still exists

SUMMARY: Business practices of
hiring friends, keeps Blacks from
entering managerial positions. So
Blacks stay separated in unskilled,
low paying job and Whites keep
their advantaged positions.

Racism in the Justice System

After analyzing records of 7,335 randomly selected people
in their 20s, researchers at the University of South Carolina
found that49% of black people had been arrested by the
age of 23, compared to 38% of white people.

Oftentimes minor infractions like being arrested at a

protest can become part a permanent criminal record and
adversely affect future job prospects.

Racism in the Justice System

SUMMARY:

Solutions
1. Put employment programs in areas with high
unemployment and poverty. Many of these areas have
huge black populations.
2. Local, state and federal governments could invest in
infrastructure in ways that will create jobs while providing
job training, job placements and childcare services.
3. Re-entry services for ex-offenders and removal of
criminal record questions from job applications
4. Enforce anti-discrimination laws, transparency
around hiring

Roadblock: Those other people, not me

We focus so much on racism and discrimination as the

source of the problem that that allows most whites to
believe that race has nothing to do with them, that its
somehow about those racists Those other people, not
me. That legitimates the ongoing racial inequality, because
whites dont believe that they are part of the problem. They
think they are part of the solution because they all say: I
believe in civil rights, I believe in equal opportunity and that
nobody should discriminate. And yet, they dont recognize
in their own lives the way they reproduce racial inequality.

Roadblock: Those other people, not me

White people are in denial
about their own racism.
Could blacks be in denial too?
(Asian Backlash of Oscars)

Am I in denial about my own

unconscious biases ?

US Racism and Unemployment

How does employment affect Black Americans? Why is that so?

What current events recently happened that ignited attention to Americas race problem?

What organizations, political parties and politicians are supportive of racial justice in the U.S.?

Why does racial inequality persist in the workplace?

What is unconscious bias and how does it work?

How does the higher incarceration rate of Blacks affect their employment?

Why are there more blacks incarcerated than white?

Could you have unconscious bias? Explain.

Racism in Taiwan?

Survey: write a number between 1-5 (1- strongly

disagree, 3 neutral, 5 strongly agree)

1. It is a good thing for a society to be made

up of people from different cultures.
2. You feel secure when you are with people of
different ethnic backgrounds.
3. It is NOT a good idea for people of different
races to marry one another.
4. Taiwan is weakened by people of different
ethnic living here.

Star War Awakens Poster

Choose an Article and Present to Class

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Local community petitions foreign workers

The Health Hazards of Whiteness
Aboriginals Decry Mass Marketing of Festivals
Taiwan is Reinventing Its Relationship with Indigenous
Reactions to the Debate on Taiwans Hidden Racism
Are Migrant Workers in Taiwan Treated Fairly?