A fter all the evidence is given that refutes the claims we’ve heard and discussed throughout this book, what pundits will say is that focusing on racism instills a victim mentality. This has been stated by a number of talking heads and self-proclaimed experts on race. This viewpoint has had both white and Black mouthpieces.
One of the most remarkable things is that, despite all of the undeniable racial barriers, Black Americans are not defeatists. There has never been a generation of Black Americans that has not tried to improve their material condition or advocate for their political interests, even during slavery. In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, African Americans still believe and actively strive to become successful and make a better life for themselves and their families in the very country that has so vehemently opposed them. So, the argument that learning about racism will instill in Blacks a victim mentality is patently false. Historically, the opposite is true.
Those who assert this myth know that it is a myth. Here is a list of the proof that they are lying about the victim mentality being a consequence of learning about racism:
They cannot show a correlation between the acknowledgment and understanding of structural racism and a “woe is me” mindset. Those who make this claim do so without any evidence whatsoever. They just say things. This is one of their many baseless claims, but perhaps this is the least throughout! All of the other lies were based on a kernel of truth, but this one is just pure chicanery. Unlike gun violence, the social capital of Black celebrities, internecine wars in Africa, economic blight in the inner city, and so on, the assertion that studying the effects of racism will make Blacks not want to achieve in life is flat-out false. And it comes as no surprise that there is no data to support this claim!
Black America always became politically, socially, and economically active the more they learned about racism and its impact. Was the Civil Rights Movement a victimhood movement? Was United Negro Improvement Association a victimhood movement? Was the Nation of Islam a victimhood movement? Did Malcolm X exhibit victimhood? Was the Black Panther Party a victimhood movement? Black political struggle reveals that learning about the extent of structural racism actually has led to people wanting to do something about it. This something has taken the form of entering the legal profession, running for office, or grassroots activism. In any case, these are not examples of a debilitating mentality.
White critics who state that learning about racism will foster a victim mentality that will vitiate self-help initiatives were the very ones who publicly condemned and aggressively opposed Black people’s self-help initiatives. It is not the people who studied racism and talked about it who did not try to change their condition; it was the people who said “don’t study it” and “don’t talk about it” who opposed Black people who were trying to change their condition.
Many of the Blacks who are the most astute and learned about racism tend to be of the professional class. Professors, intellectuals, college graduates, lawyers, business owners, clergy, and religious figures. So, to say that becoming versed in the scholarship and data on institutional racism will cause the student to become professionally unsuccessful is absurd.
The irony in this is that the more ambitious an African American is and the higher they climb the socio-economic ladder, the more acute their experiences with racism. African Americans become more aware of the racial stereotypes that plague their people. The delicate nature of their position is constantly felt. Those who, in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, are surrounded by other Blacks experience racism when they encounter police, store owners, or the criminal legal system. While those who find themselves in predominantly white spaces because of their high achievements are constantly subjected to the “white gaze” which refers to the need Black people feel to always take into account white people’s assumptions and perspectives of them.
How stupid do you have to be to think that the only reason Black people know racism exists is because of people talking about it? Black people know about racism because they experience racism. Regardless of class, education, whether wearing a suit and tie, or jeans and hoodie, racism is a shared experience for Black Americans.
Those who make this claim are hypocrites because they acknowledge, speak about, and bemoan the historical injustices to other groups and even go so far as to demand that Blacks put others ahead of themselves. White conservatives have a long track record of portraying themselves as victims. In fact, the more right-wing they are, the more you hear whites complaining about how hard it is to be white in America!
Conservatives know that what they’re saying has not a shred of proof. Yet, they say it with earnest. These conservative pseudo-intellectuals propose that Black people see themselves as individuals and not as a racial group. If Blacks stop seeing everything in terms of race and just work hard, they will get further ahead. First off, why do they presume that Blacks have not tried this? Second, it was the racism that smacked them in the face that they came back to reality! The suggestion is condescending. Blacks are like everyone else in that they see themselves as individuals and as a collective. To demand that Blacks shed themselves of race consciousness would lead to delusion that is ultimately dangerous, and they would be no further ahead in America.
Those who say that acknowledging systemic racism fosters a victim mentality are pushing for a color-blind society that in truth, is just blind. Again, this is a suggestion only made to African Americans by those who do not have to consider how their race adversely impacts them in society.
Blacks do not have the luxury of ignoring systemic racism. They do not benefit in any shape or form from it. Whether it’s the conservative myth that race-consciousness leads to a victim mentality or the liberal claim that race is just a construct, both are dangerous and pose harm to Blacks in a way that requires African Americans to be socially unaware. The person who was lynched could not have saved himself by believing that he was only an individual or that race was a construct. The victim of racial profiling could not have avoided being racially profiled by believing that he was not a race, but an individual only and that race was a social construct. Racial disparities in every metric of American life, from mass incarceration to police brutality to the wealth gap, would still exist even if Black people somehow deluded themselves into thinking that race was not a factor in any of these.
All of the arguments presented in this book by conservatives are about one thing and one thing only, and that is limiting discussions and the critique on white society.
Black people need to think through oppression, racism, and violence. They need to come to terms with being racial subjects in a country that they built, continue to make contributions to, and—yet—still endure disrespect, marginalization, and limited access to the full benefits that they see their white counterparts enjoy. This is necessary for the sake of sanity, but it is always pragmatic. Culture, gender, and class wars are not all indulgences of the white right wing, but they expect Blacks to not see themselves as a group and identify their social, economic, and political interests vis-a-vis their history as racial subjects in America. In other words, imploring Black people to not see themselves in terms of race is a cynical act indicating that they see Black people in terms of race. Black people have religion, gender, and class, but the conservatives are asking Black Americans to identify only with these and not to identify with the history and politics of their race!
It is natural for any people who’ve been through what Blacks have been through to want to understand what happened and why it is still happening. Not only is this to be expected, it is a fundamental right of blacks as a community! Wanting to understand their condition is step one, which is devising strategies to overcome it. Thus, understanding racism is necessary for prudent action! This is a practical motive for being race-conscious. The individual does not exist in a vacuum: in order for the Black individual to have full agency and maximize his potential, they must remove the debilitating barriers that inhibit their advancement.