LET’S TALK
How to confront racism in your own circle BY ASHLEY OBULJEN
A mural by artist Shiloah Symone (@blckslimshady) covers the side of the Overture Center for the Arts in downtown Madison. Many shops around State Street were boarded up during the summer protests and have become canvases for a variety of art.
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e’ve all heard the news stories about racist acts: Black Lives Matter counter-protesters using the N-word, a white woman calling the police on a bird-watching Black man and even a woman at a gas station telling a Latina girl to, “Go back to Mexico.” But racism doesn’t always announce itself with bigoted, public rants. What happens when you encounter it in your own circle? Racism has always existed, but amid a social justice movement following violence against Black people at the hands of Kenosha and Minneapolis police this year, it has pushed itself to the forefront of Wisconsinites’ minds. UW–Madison sociology professor Pamela Oliver, whose research focuses on social movements and racial disparities in criminal justice, has confronted her family about their racist commentary. “The usual thing, if you’re trying to confront somebody else for what you consider to be racist attitudes, is
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to try to bring the issue up in a way that doesn’t attack them,” Oliver says. “You’re supposed to talk about actions, not personality.” It’s important to take into account the type of relationship you have with the person you’re confronting, Oliver explains. Whether the person is willing to listen to you at all is one factor, but if you’re trying to correct misinformation, another issue is raised: Will you agree on what the standards of evidence are? One debate about gun control with her brother-in-law showcased how honest conversations with people who are open to digesting new information can be promising. Oliver claimed most gun-related deaths were accidental, while her brother-in-law claimed they were mostly murder. But upon collective research, the two found out suicide represented a major chunk of gun-related deaths. “We were both shocked,” Oliver says. “You can disagree, but you can have a decent relationship and have a conversation in which you both
learned something.” Language also can be pivotal in these situations, Oliver says. “A term like white supremacy, which I use a lot, some people completely freak out about,” Oliver says. “So I think part of the problem is that in this area, all vocabulary has become really emotional.” Those who are committed to defending racist attitudes are not worth having these conversations with, Oliver says. “I have some relatives who are just straight-up white supremacists,” Oliver says. “There’s no point at all in engaging them, because engaging them just makes for wars.” Paige Anderson, a field organizer for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin who grew up in a politically divided household in Stillwater, Minnesota, tries to avoid one-sided conversations. “Some people listen to conversations to actually hear what you have to say. Some people listen until you stop talking so they could tell you what they
