“Are those dolls still $16?” an older Black woman asks my boyfriend Jim in the line at the Disney Store. We are doing some last-minute Christmas shopping at the mall before the snowstorm hits. She sniffs, “I think they made her [the Princess Tiana doll] too dark. They should have made a lighter version to choose from.” I was so shocked, I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to slap her. Instead, I just turned away and said nothing.
Although I didn’t know what to say to the woman, I did know what had just happened. This is what internalized racism sounds like. Donna Bivens writes an enlightening chapter called “What is Internalized Racism?” in the 2005 monograph Flipping the Script: White Privilege and Community Building. Donna offers this explanation:
As people of color are victimized by racism, we internalize it. That is, we develop ideas, beliefs, actions and behaviors that support or collude with racism. This internalized racism has its own systemic reality and its own negative consequences in the lives and communities of people of color. More than just a consequence of racism, then, internalized racism is a systemic oppression in reaction to racism that has a life of its own. In other words, just as there is a system in place that reinforces the power and expands the privilege of white people, there is a system in place that actively discourages and undermines the power of people and communities of color and mires us in our own oppression.
I have written about how structural racism works, as well as some possible approaches and solutions. But I’m just beginning to unpack and understand how and why people of color would support racism among ourselves. These kinds of things are said every day by people of color to other people of color. And it’s not OK. If we’re going to speak out and against racism from the outside, we also have to keep it real and own up to the racism we perpetuate on the inside. But how? How do we do that?
The other complicating factor in addressing internalized racism comes into play in the nonprofit workplace. It does not solely reside in the home lives of people of color. Donna Bivens asserts that these issues manifest themselves in four dimensions: inner, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural. In short, people of color are bringing internalized racism to work. Maybe you see it showing up in your organization. Maybe you don’t. In either case, I think Donna offers several useful reflection questions to dig deeper into how we all can address internalized racism in our lives and work:
- How do you see internalized racism impacting you personally or the communities or groups that you work with?
- What challenges are you facing in dealing with or addressing internalized racism in your current work? What are the opportunities for addressing it in your current work situation?
- In what ways do people of color, as individuals and as a collective, perpetuate racism in your institution?
- In what ways does internalized racism interfere with the functioning of teams?
- How does your institution keep people of color divided and competing with one another for access and resources? How can people of color collectively resist these dynamics?
- When you consider the four levels on which internalized racism operates (inner, interpersonal, institutional and cultural) where do you imagine the most possibilities for change?
How do you answer these questions about internalized racism in your life and work? What would progress look like to you?
Photo credit: Mom in the City
