{"id":306636,"date":"2020-06-05T16:30:07","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T20:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=306636"},"modified":"2024-01-11T13:10:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T18:10:00","slug":"facing-the-denial-of-american-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2020\/06\/facing-the-denial-of-american-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"Facing the denial of American racism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\n
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A roadside sign seeks justice for George Floyd, whose killing by Minneapolis police set off protests worldwide.<\/p>

Photos by Jon Chase\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tCampus & Community\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tFacing the denial of American racism\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t
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\n\t\tClea Simon\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Correspondent\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tRadcliffe Institute panel explores its social roots and explores ways to raise awareness\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
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As ongoing nationwide protests illustrate, a majority of Americans<\/a> view the recent police killing of George Floyd as a reflection of the virulent and systemic racism in the nation. However, recent polling suggests that denial of the underlying issues still exists, complicating the search for solutions. To tackle this problem, the Radcliffe Institute on Thursday hosted \u201cNaming Racism,\u201d an online discussion focused on identifying the historic and ongoing social roots of this denial and discussing strategies for raising awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radcliffe Institute Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin<\/a> introduced the discussion between Camara Phyllis Jones, the 2019\u20132020 Evelyn Green Davis Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute, and David R. Williams, Frances Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health and chair of the department of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Brown-Nagin said that the talk originally was envisioned as an examination of the racial disparities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a>. But given recent events, the institute decided to pivot to a broader discussion of how deeply embedded racism is in American life. \u201cWe must reckon with this reality before we begin to move ahead,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tomiko Brown-Nagin, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, introduced the virtual seminar. \u201cWe must reckon with this reality [of racism] before we begin to move ahead,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Tomiko<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Opening the discussion, Jones used an anecdote from her years in medical school. Going out to eat after a long night studying with friends, she noticed a sign on the door that had been flipped so that, sitting inside, she faced the side that said \u201copen.\u201d Seated inside, she and her friends could eat. But the people outside the door \u2014 who would see the sign as \u201cclosed\u201d \u2014 could not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI recognized that other hungry people, just a few feet away but on the other side of that sign, would not be able to come in and order their food and eat,\u201d she said. That dual reality epitomized racism. It also clarified the choice. If you are eating, she said, you might not be aware at first of those who are locked out. That, she explained, is a state of privilege, an insular view that does not look beyond itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awareness, she stressed, is only the first step. Once aware, she asked, how will you react? You might talk to the restaurant owner, asking for those people to be let in. You might pass food out the window or even tear down the sign. \u201cBut at least you won\u2019t be saying \u2026 I wonder why those people don\u2019t just come in and eat,\u201d she said. \u201cRacism is a system \u2026 of structuring opportunity and assigning value on a social interpretation of how one looks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWhen you lack empathy for a population, you don\u2019t feel their suffering, and you do not support policies to \u2026 address the challenges the population faces.”<\/p>\nDavid R. Williams<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Simply getting people to recognize that others are excluded is difficult, said Williams, who is also a professor of African and African American studies and of sociology. He said many Americans underestimate racial inequities, and some among those who are aware of inequality blame minorities themselves. Citing national data from 2015, he said that 50 percent of white Americans believe that discrimination is as bad against whites as it is against people of color. In addition, while a majority of Americans seem to understand that hard work does not guarantee success, a full 50 percent of whites believe that people of color would be more successful \u201cif they only tried harder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such beliefs are taught early. Williams said studies show that at the age of 5, children express the same degree of empathy when they are shown pictures of people both white and black being pricked by a pin. However, by the age of 7, they begin to believe that the white person feels more pain, and by the age of 10 the bias is \u201cpronounced and stable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you lack empathy for a population, you don\u2019t feel their suffering, and you do not support policies to \u2026 address the challenges the population faces,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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