@Crazy Boris @BrobDingnag @Comte de Dordogne @Help
One of the many ugly things about systemic racism is that people can perpetuate it without necessarily having any sort of hateful agenda. Bias can be reinforced through absent-mindedness. That's why we need to think critically about the tools and structures we create, and listen to the people who are most affected by it.
Imagine that you are a teacher, with a map displayed on your classroom wall. A group of students come to you after class and express that they find the map insulting, since it marginalizes their homelands and emphasizes the homelands of people who have been pillaging their homelands for centuries and telling their people that they are inferior. Without the historical context, it might seem like they are making a mountain out of molehill, but when the map comes as part of a package of hundreds of years of dehumanization and exploitation, it re-opens those wounds. So, what would you do as the teacher. Would you tell them that they are wrong to be offended, since the map was build for navigation, even though it's sitting on the wall of a classroom, not in front of the steering wheel of a ship? Are you saying that having a navigational map on the wall is more important than challenging structural racism and creating an inclusive learning environment?
And if you're worried that the group of students who approached you are not representative of the diversity of students, then invite more students and teachers to the discussion. Have a conversation about maps and other displays on the walls, and what their effect is, regardless of intentions. And in this discussion, it is absolutely essential to remember that the classroom doesn't exist in a vacuum, it is embedded in a society that is saturated with racism at so many levels. We can change that, and we have to. And we aren't going to get there by dismissing criticism with "it wasn't intentional" or "it's good for navigation".
When someone points out a mistake that you made without meaning to, and you agree that the it was a mistake and you shouldn't have done it, does it make sense to keep on doing this thing because, well, the first time you did it, it was an accident? No. It makes sense to stop doing the problematic behavior now that you've been made aware of it. An unintentional wrongdoing becomes deliberate when you keep doing despite being alerted to its wrongfulness. As for adding fuel to the fire, that brings to mind a certain quote:
“Sometimes, when a person’s house is on fire and someone comes in yelling fire, instead of the person who is awakened by the yell being thankful, he makes the mistake of charging the one who awakened him with having set the fire.”
- Malcolm X [1]
So, I leave you with this question, am I adding fuel to the fire, or am I drawing your attention to a fire that is already raging, so that together we can put it out and rebuild the house so that it will no longer incinerate its own residents?
[1] Source: "Judas and the Black Messiah", quoted in The Michigan Daily.
https://www.michigandaily.com/film/judas-and-the-black-messiah-says-screw-the-neoliberals/ February 10, 2021.