News & Articles

After an otherwise lovely night in Duluth, seeing an all-ages punk show and tying on a few at a bar, I had a conversation with a couple of nice gentlemen. After a rather lengthy discussion about how much either of us knew about cult bands, the discussion turned over to race. Race discussions are, at their core, fundamentally uncomfortable. It’s hard to stare at someone else and say that your skin color is the reason that I can’t accomplish what I want or get to the highest levels of the world.
Although this discussion started off with a rather civil tone, there came a moment in the middle where one of the white men in the conversation started to push back at the idea that racism was the fault of white people. His rationale was that he is not racist; therefore, why should he care about racism? He does not judge people on the color of their skin, so why should he have to worry about this issue?
On one level, he is not wrong. Racism is a topic that does not affect him because he is not racist. After all, he was having a mostly civil conversation (it was late at night after all) with a black man, making eye contact and refraining from calling me any names or attempting to insult my intelligence. He didn’t make any assumptions about who I was based on my size and skin tone (I have plenty of stories to this end), so I found there was some truth in his statement.
On the other hand, he is the person who is most responsible for why racism persists. I, like many other black people, do my due diligence to make sure that if someone says something racist, I make a comment about it and let that person know that what they said was not particularly cool. That being said, the burden of acknowledging and solving the problem of racism does not sit solely on my shoulders. It’s everyone’s responsibility.
I think that many people are of the position of the guy in the discussion. They do not see themselves as being racist, so they do not understand why this is still a problem that has to be addressed. Can’t racism just be put in the past like Zubaz pants, petticoats, and zoot suits? The short answer is no. In fact, the antiracist white person is one of the most important people in the effort to eliminate racism. They are an essential ally in the fight. By calling out people in their own lives that are saying racist things, they can help to make the movement more successful.
When people are in the company of others that are exactly like them, they do not necessarily think about what they say and the effect that it can have on other people. So it doesn’t seem like I am laying this all at the feet of white people, this happens in minority communities as well. The most important thing for anyone to do whether they are in mixed ethnic company or among their own, it’s important to remember what the Department of Homeland Security told us to do when we saw something suspicious in the world: If you see something, say something.
The same principle works with regards to racism. If you see someone being discriminatory or saying something questionable, call them out on it. It will be uncomfortable at first. You’ll be “that person,” the one who takes offense with everything. Do not let this faze you. You are doing the right thing. More importantly, your reminders will correct the behavior, helping people to change their language and realize that what they say is offensive.
This change can only come with everyone taking up this responsibility, calling out injustices and educating one another about why things can be seen as offensive to some people. Seeing as there are a lot of antiracist white people in the world (and I know quite a few), this folks can help the movement move faster and be more successful. If you haven’t already, please take this call seriously and start to call out discrimination when you see it.  
Since this column is about calling out discrimination in the Duluth area and among ourselves, I need to call myself out. When I formed the idea of this column, I was thinking about it in terms of only race and racism. That is the position that I immediately relate to as a straight black male. It was not until I had gotten an email from a couragous reader who took up the call that I made in the past column. He started to tell me about the experiences that he has had as a gay minority. When I read his email, I may have slapped my own forehead like in the old V8 juice commercials. I’m not joking. I think I actually hit myself. I know that I certainly swore at myself.
I asked myself how I could have forgotten to talk about the gay and lesbian community, a community that has suffered as much discrimination as the black community. If I am supposed to be writing a column about discrimination, the experiences of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people throughout the Northland should be discussed here as well. Also, since I am talking about discrimination, gender discrimination is also an issue that affects many people across the Northland and should be discussed within these columns.
To repeat the call that I had from my last column, if you have stories of discrimination, I want you to reach out to me at achawley@gmail.com. That discrimination can be related to race, gender, and/or sexual orientation. They could have happened to you or someone that you know personally. This column is intended to talk about discrimination in all of its forms, something that, until this column, it did not.
Much like before, I hope to use this column to spark a larger discussion in the Duluth community about how discrimination plays a role in all of our lives. This is in the effort to eliminate it all together. I hope that you will join me in this effort.