America, particularly after the George Floyd murder, seems to be looking for a recipe that could immediately end America’s racism; a magic pill or sorts that all can take would instantly remove bias, bigotry, and deeply embedded prejudice with a tall glass of cold water.
And while everyone can wish for such a convenient solution, the reality is that overcoming racism, or more precisely, becoming antiracist, will be a complicated process for most white Americans to achieve.
Someone that knows about that challenging process first hand is Dr. Ben Kohl. Beginning with his pioneering work in New York City during the 1990s as a founding member of the Antiracist Alliance and the psychological nature of racism as well as being the Director of Multicultural Practice and Research for Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, antiracism has a core discipline for many years.
After returning to the Eastern Shore, he continued his work as Director of Programs for Eastern Shore Psychological Services. And he now serves on the board of Mid-Shore Behavioral Health, Hedgelawn Foundation, Bridges of Worthmore. and, more recently, the Social Action Committee for Racial Justice.
In April, the Spy talked to Ben before the death of George Floyd and the onset of COVID, about the realities and opportunities that come with antiracist training and its possible impact of American culture now eager to rid it’s dark past of prejudice and injustice.
This video is approximately six minutes in length. For more information about antiracism training please go here.
Keith Watts says
Dr. Kohl,
Thank you for your visionary work. For those who watched — and those who have not — challenge yourself and your thinking.
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
You may be surprised in ways you’ve never imagined . . . .
Alan Wald says
The amount of effort it is going to take to achieve your goals where a state of non-offense to any particular person of color (POC) at any particular time is, I would think, impossible. An interesting concept to sure but the amount of zeal, money, mind-control and violence this project would entail cannot be over-estimated. I get exhausted just thinking about it. There’s literally no limit to the potential to offend. For instance, what if, one day, blue eyes offend a particular protected, vulnerable or at-risk person? Or blond hair? Do we kill all blue-eyed children at birth? Or do we not allow blonde-haired women to have children unless they are impregnated with non-blonde genes? You’d have to re-program white people to accept this type of circumstance eventually because this prospect of offense is open-ended, unlike, say, offense to the prophet in Islam (fitna), which is delineated by various texts that can be interpreted by mullahs. You’d also have to impose a kind of Sharia law on whites for them to submit to the multitude of unending offense against the four billion blacks projected in Africa alone by the end of this century (according to the UN).
I think a prophet is going to have to draw up a kind of Koran or Hadith in order to circumscribe the multitude of things that offend POC in order to establish clear violations white helots must not commit. Otherwise, I don’t think they’re gonna buy it. And even if they do, wouldn’t they have a collective nervous breakdown attempting to constantly check their many vague and shifting privileges?
Or is that the point? Maybe we don’t want clarity. Just an endless stream of jargon waved about by shamans in order to conjure and then banish the spirits of dread.
Peace.
Barbara Denton says
Amen.
David Ihrig says
Antiracism is a perfect goal and ambition. I believe it is a nurture rather than a nature thing, but I often wonder if personal superiority is ‘genetic’. Probably since mankind became bipedal and left the cave one group or another has been subverting other less developed or inferior groups. Does mankind have an inherent need to feel superior over other ethnicities or species – i.e. how quickly did bigotry against Asians (Chinese) develop when Covid-19 was labeled Chinavirus, etc. A question for someone very much more deep thinking than me.