Why I Am Atoning For Racism [View all]
The following post is a shortened version of a Yom Kippur talk given at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood, OH.
Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, is a challenging holiday. Jews are commanded to fast and to own their sins so they can atone for them.
On this day of introspection and deliberate discomfort, I, a white American, am asking myself the following uncomfortable question: Should I include racism in my confessions?
It pains me to say so, but I believe the answer is yes.
I am confessing racism because I benefit from it.
The old me thought of racism only as an individual’s intentional hatred and bigotry towards people of color. Today, I understand racism also to be a deeply-rooted system in our country that disadvantages and devalues people of color as a group and advantages and empowers white people as a group, regardless of whether white individuals wish to be advantaged or empowered in this way.
One key benefit of understanding racism from this perspective is that I can hate racism and own my role in it without necessarily hating myself.
In order to grasp that racism is ingrained in our country’s DNA, I have had to better understand our country’s past and present. Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a succinct historical description:
This piece as a black man made me smile. It was so refreshing to see someone white confess to this. A reminder this is for the African American group
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-i-am-atoning-for-racism_us_57fd1273e4b090dec0e71dc2?
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