Committing to Creating Positive Racial Change
My interest in racial dynamics and inequitable/abusive distribution and application of power along racial lines is about a decade old. At the same time, I’ve sadly done very little to effect change on the scale of my own priorities and personal interactions. I would call myself during this time ‘racist by complicity’. Have I gone out of my way to be cruel to POC? No. Have I gone out of my way to help POC? Until the last few months, really, no. I have done year-long stints in NYC and Providence, RI as a teacher in schools with many students of colour, but these were not sustained, long-term efforts to change underlying structures. I was acting as a band-aid.
I’ve dedicated a lot of careful attention in the intervening years to power dynamics along the lines of gender, since there are statistical asymmetries along these lines in my professional life. In particular, women and people of non-male genders still face challenges in STEM that don’t apply to their male counterparts, though the local terrain can vary quite dramatically. My experiences in this journey seem to have deepened at least a basic-level sense of empathy for folks who are disadvantaged because of their race, even though I emphasize that our problems are often very different, as are their solutions. Now that I’ve worked hard and been lucky in my early career, I’m in an excellent position to deepen and harness that empathic connection to POC.
The recent upwelling of public demonstrations and protest activity in light of (long-existing) police violence against POC is important. I hope that it leads to lasting and beneficial changes in policing, legislation, and public policy. At the same time, I urgently hope that the white public transitions to a paradigm of ongoing “micro-support” of POC once the hype dies down. I see the pandemic lockdowns as being potentially very helpful toward this vision. Peaceful public protests are valuable. But how many POC have had to endure protestations from whites that they can’t be racist because they
“marched in the ’60s”? Marching is a powerful, salient experience that can lull white folks into thinking that they’ve “arrived” as non-racist and that their work is done. White people, by all means, still go to these things and participate constructively! Just don’t ask for a gold star afterward…and then try to wear it for fifty years while expending little to no effort at breaking down racism and creating something better in its place.
The pandemic has taught me just how much I can do on an ongoing basis with my allocations of resources. To be clear, the online world is not an adequate substitute for in-person protest, dialogue, or mentoring. But, wonderfully, I can still do the following:
read/listen to lots of books, lessons, and stories about the experiences of POC and the structures that create systemic racism
donate on a subscription basis to organizations acting to reverse harmful power gradients and improve life outcomes for POC (Subscription donations have the added benefit of income stability for these groups over the long-term.)
improve my relationships with POC on an individual level by deepening friendships and acting as a supportive listener
mentor students of colour remotely
make jobs in STEM more accessible by posting openings on job forums aimed at POC and contacting students and young professionals I know about opportunities
reflect on my own negative assumptions about POC and challenge myself to reverse them by seeking counterexamples
PLAN what anti-racist habits I will cultivate once the lockdown in Toronto ends
Breaking down racist attitudes and systems means creating a new normal. For us as individuals, this means changing our daily habits. Compare the effectiveness and levels of difficulty between dieting for a day or a week and losing weight and keeping it off over years. Metaphorically, the latter is what we need to be aiming for in the racial sphere. But it requires reprogramming our days to be more focused on making our patterns of behaviour better serve POC.
For me, here is one version of what this could look like in the next couple of years:
attending engineering and applied math conferences focused on the interests and concerns of POC
speaking at high schools and universities about opportunities in engineering and maintaining ongoing contact
serving as a mentor at hackathons focused on POC engagement in STEM
attending and financially supporting more artistic events representing the work and perspectives of POC
socializing with POC and building more cross-racial friendships