The Taboo of Discussing Race with the Other

Taboos shelter and comfort those threatened by perspectives different than their own. Sadly, to counter taboos with silence is to avoid an opportunity for dialogue that may bear fruit. While differences may not be resolved, dialogue provides for the planting of seeds that may, in time, foster internal growth and a greater depth of understanding.

In 2020, I can think of no larger taboo than conversations on the construct of race in racially diverse settings. After centuries of not being free to speak our truth publicly, or of others not being free to have intellectual curiosity about the racial divide, there is much to gain by taking the risk. However, attention must be given first to provide a safe and sacred environment for words of lived experience to flow.

As a Black woman, I know the risk is great. I understand not wanting to experience one more microagression or an even greater wounding. For people of the dominant group, there is the risk of changing a commonly held opinion or perspective. It is important to understand that feeling discomfort does not equate to being personally attacked. 

While Alabama and the south receive a great deal of attention because of their resistance to ending chattel slavery, the narrative of white supremacy is not confined to this region. Racism is operationalized in different ways across the country. Those African-Americans who left the south as part of the Great Migration found other forms of Jim Crow in their new locations. Many remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. commenting on how the hatred he encountered in Chicago was more intense than that in the south.

In the place I call home, the schools were integrated in the early 1970s. Unfortunately, no one facilitated  deep and truthful conversations in the schools or the community in an effort to reconcile our nation's complex and racialized history. There was no teaching or dialogue of why the schools had ever been racially segregated, and how Brown vs. the Board of Education was impacting us. Critical thinking and intellectual curiosity were not encouraged. 

In my blog I wrote what was basically a letter to my classmates speaking to the context of our young lives when we graduated from Dothan High School in 1976. Three weeks later, I shared it via our class social media page. Acknowledging that our lives do not exist in a vacuum, I referenced a few of the significant events in our nation's history that preceded our births. Then, I journeyed through our school years as we witnessed major national events. 

Of course, I knew that addressing race was not the norm within the racially diverse class, but thought it intriguing to view the events as part of a collective instead of isolated events.While some classmates appreciated it, others identified it as hate speech. Inevitably 50 years after the integration of our schools, the hearts and minds of some remain segregated in significant ways.