Following my cautionary blog entry to avoid calling out “racist” to the President of the United States (“The Folly of Name-Calling” https://wtucker.edublogs.org/), I noted that a middle school teacher in Boston copped to a racist challenge from some of his students:

[“Mr. Turner, Are  You a Racist?”; https://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2019/09/17/mr-turner-are-you-racist-a-white.html?cmp=eml-enl-tu-news1-rm&M=58936338&U=198363&UUID=c0905f751b354fe438caeb62c91726b3].

Without getting into details, Mr. Turner was caught explaining generalizations that white people make about children from their neighborhood and inadvertently made his students suppose he agreed with those generalizations.  Since his students felt genuinely betrayed by their teacher, Mr. Turner showed sensitivity by trying to win back their trust, but the question remained, “Are you a racist?”

First, white people should cop to the “racism” allegation when they have been caught treating a member of a minority race disparagingly because of their race. This could be a deliberate action or inadvertent; the outcome is the same. White folks know that racism is in the air we breathe, so we should not be surprised if we breathe it out now and then.

Sometimes, however, we are misunderstood because we are white. In Mr Turner’s case, he asked his class to be on their best behavior on a field trip, because kids from their part of town are often judged by the prejudiced views of white people.  He did not say he judged his own students, but that other white people might judge them. His students jumped to the conclusion that Mr. Turner shared the opinion of the other white people. These conclusions are sometimes reached by the mere inflection of voice, but they are no more true of white people than if the situation were reversed.

Suppose the students’ suspicion was based on the mere fact that Mr. Turner is white, so he must be accepting the position of the judgmental white folks. Then they would be the racist ones. O.K. they are only eighth graders, so Mr, Turner should not be turning the racist label back on them. However, students should learn that racism goes both ways, that all white people are not the same, holding them in contempt because they are from a certain neighborhood.

And the larger lesson is that “racist” is a loaded term and should be used with discretion. The Merriam Webster definition is: “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race”.  How do we determine what people believe about race? By their color? By their spontaneous remarks? By their actions?  These are important lessons, not only for middle school students, but for adults who use the term recklessly. Even Presidential candidates.

White folks should be a lot less defensive owning the charge racism, because we are breathing a racist atmosphere.  It is no surprise when we occasionally breathe out a racist opinion. We are sometimes resentful because we get “caught” saying things we don’t really believe. We should own even our inadvertent racism, because it has the same effect as any intentional racist remarks.

However, white people are also misunderstood, because they are white.  They are assumed to invoke their privileges, merely because they are white . That is not fair and could be construed as racism against white people. We may invoke our so-called racist privileges, but not all the time.

Our answer, of course, is not to shout back, “No, you’re a racist!” but to try to understand how language can entangle us into mistrust.  There is no need for a “gotcha” contest about race. The web of accusation is too fine and too pervasive to allow for reckless claims. We need to give everyone a chance to slip out of the web and to re-build trust. This is what Mr. Turner, the middle school teacher, eventually did.

In the end, it turns out my students didn’t need me to say anything to convince them that I wasn’t racist. They needed me to listen with empathy, ask questions, and help them develop and practice the language to analyze issues of race on their own. (“Mr. Turner, Are you Racist?”)

Mr. Turner’s conclusions are exactly the point. Who is the real racist is far from the point. Listening without a barricade of defenses can ease mistrust and create racial healing. It is not important who is at fault in a moment of racial tension, but who is willing to step back and say, “What am I missing here? Why are we in conflict?” The last word we need to hear is “racist,” even in cases when it might be warranted.

“Racist” is not a word to choose among friends or allies. It is a term for those who  actually believe “that race is the primary determinant of human traits . . .”