Racial Literacy 101
Racial literacy starts with understanding differences amongst humans' lived experiences based on the creation of the concept of race. The term means the ability to recognize, respond to, resist and counter the role of racism in society.
The concept of "race" was created through pseudo-science to justify the displacement and exploitation of peoples globally. Today, we know race isn't real in biological terms, but it is very real in terms of cultural and social terms.
Racially literate people understand how race impacts our positionality (position in society); our opportunities, relationships, education, wealth, social status, cultural development, and personal identity.
Racial literacy requires doing deep self-reflection, unpacking uncomfortable topics in community, and being critical of existing narratives, systems, policies, beliefs, values, and more.
Racial literacy allows us to recognize racist systems, policies, assumptions, or behaviors, respond to them, and minimize or eliminate them from our communities – even when we are not the group being discriminated against.
In late educator Lani Guinier's words, racial literacy, “is about learning rather than knowing.” You'll never know everything, but you can always be learning something to continue moving along the racial literacy spectrum.
3 Actions to Develop Racial Literacy:
Learn history from sources beyond textbooks and the mainstream media. Personal accounts and narratives, independent documentaries, and other indie resources can help unveil parts of history often whitewashed or omitted by mainstream sources.
Learn from people who look and think differently than you. Ideally, you are learning from leaders who hold the identities you want to learn about. i.e. Learn from Black educators about the history of Black people in the US, learn from Indigenous people about Indigenous issues.
Participate with educators and organizations facilitating access to education that supports Racial Literacy. Here at The Oath, we're always striving to create these opportunities for you!
Here some folks who are doing this work and we continuously learn from are: @IntersectionalEnvironmentalist @BlackGirlEnvironmentalist @WorkingClassHistory @NalgonaPositivityPride @NewAmatua @DecolonizeThisPlace @DecolonizeMyself @Doctora_Nature @BlackHistory @StopAAPIHate @CAIRGLA (Just to name a few)
