In this piece “The Racism We All Carry” by Roxanne Gray, the author addresses how everyone is inherently racist. She also delves into the issue of being a non-racist as opposed to an anti-racist and the way that American history should be looked at. Her essay includes a humorous tone and much like her last essay, “The price of black ambition”, she combines her experiences with a critical analysis of relevant events.
Gray uses her experiences and couples them with current events to forward her message about everyone’s innate racial tendencies. Gray starts her essay by alluding to the popular broadway musical “Avenue Q”, where they say in one of their songs that “Everyone’s a little bit racist”. She validates this statement and points out how as humans we are all flawed in some way and have our biases. She references the controversy surrounding popular cooking show host Paula Deen to underscore how big of an issue racism can be. Paula’s reaction to being called out for her actions seemed as if she was trying to play it down and paint herself as the victim, Gray correctly calls this out by stating that ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’. Such a response by celebrity underscores how big of an issue racism is: if a celebrity looks upon her insensitive actions with this level of normality imagine what the average individual would think. A humorous take is put forth when Gray writes “I have southern friends”, she uses this to take a stand against those who underplay their own acts of racism by saying that they have friends or family who are of that race, therefore they cannot possibly be a bigot. Gray also questions the extent to which we should view and appreciate the history of controversial periods, “carries the effects of the South’s complex and fraught racial history. On one hand, societies like that from the South introduced an array of important culinary developments, but also was one of the most oppressive societies in world history. Towards the end of the piece Gray’s experience with witnessing a person’s implicit bias shakes her. As an African-american, blacks are often the main victims of racism, but this experience ironically unites her, as a black woman, against another group. Her inability to stand up against this act stuns her and she begins to draw a distinction between actions of a non-racist against an anti-racist. She wishes that she would have taken the opportunity to educate that women and be an anti-racist, instead of being a bystander. This example allows the reader to better understand that simply not doing anything does not help to solve the problem; it takes initiative on your side.
The piece itself encourages the audience to look more into their own identities and understand the multiple perspectives on issues she talks about. Her reference to southern culture encourages people from other cultures to look more into their own histories. This idea itself brought me to question if people held prejudice because of their upbrining/culture or did their beliefs develop from life experience? Additionally, this idea linked with how African-american artists approach American history when referencing it, do they see it as more positive or negative for blacks? Gray brought up a fascinating point when expressing how everyone is a bit racist, but it is when one ‘breaks the unwritten rules about how to be racist’ that there is a uproar. But how can we coherently call out racism? Where do we make that distinction between bias and racism?
Ideas such as the ones expressed by Gray led me to several other trains of thought. Many artists during the Harlem Renassiance also grappled with the issues of racism and social cultures. In its entirety, the piece compells the audience to be more conscious about their decisions and more aware about racism that exists in their lives.