With the tragic killing of Daunte Wright this week, I’ve been seeing the words “white supremacy” come up in media coverage more often. Ben & Jerry’s tweeted it on Apr. 12, and there was a thoughtful article in Cosmopolitan on Apr. 14. At first, this was deeply unsettling to me. As a white man, my main association with “white supremacy” was pointy hats and cross burnings -- not me. But when you start looking at the bigger picture -- restrictive voting laws in Georgia reminiscent of Jim Crow, anti-Asian violence, the killing of Adam Toledo in Chicago, and the trial of Derek Chauvin -- you start to see systemic racism playing out in big block letters all over this country.
There are, according to Janice Asare in an excellent article in Forbes magazine, certain myths about white supremacy. The first is that it’s always intentional. This is what the term “implicit bias” gets at: we have ways of seeing the world -- judging the world -- that are automatic and subconscious. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re trying to hurt someone. But it does mean that we make associations based on years and years of experience and media coverage. If we tend to see Black men portrayed in violent situations (hello, Hollywood), we form an implicit bias that Black men are violent. We all have implicit biases. The trick is trying to recognize them so we can interrupt the automatic thought patterns that lead to false judgments and unfounded fears.
Which leads to another myth: white supremacy only happens in white people. We’re ALL exposed to systemic racism, and so we’re all hurt by it. Jennifer Eberhardt, a Black professor at Stanford who wrote the book Biased, talks about taking her five-year-old son on a plane. When he saw the only other black man on the plane, he pointed and said he “looked like daddy.” Then he said, “I hope he doesn’t rob the plane.” At 5 years old.
If white supremacy is the belief that white people are superior (this is part of the definition offered by the Anti-Defamation League), and if we all participate in a system where racism is part of our daily experience -- our daily education -- then white supremacy takes on a far more potent meaning than its conveniently historicized KKK association.
If I’m a police officer holding a gun and a taser at the same time, and my fear is in overdrive because of years of exposure to systemic racism, it makes it that much harder for me to stay calm and make the right decision. While these problems are so deeply embedded that mindfulness training alone can’t fix them, it can help. There are studies showing that mindfulness practice mitigates implicit bias. Or that loving-kindess practice reduces inter-group bias.
By allowing you to see events and people as they are, and not rely on the mental shortcuts or laziness that lead to dangerous judgments, a consistent mindfulness practice can allow you to see people in their wonderfully complex wholeness, not as some stereotype.
There’s a reason that John Kabat-Zinn describes mindfulness as non-judgmental awareness of the present moment. When we really take the time to see things as they are, we’re unburdened by associations that may limit our perception.
Here’s a short practice to get you on your way.
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