We know that we're not supposed to be racially biased, and we don't want to think of ourselves as racially biased, so we tell ourselves a different story.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the internal conflict between societal beliefs regarding racial bias and an individual's self-perception.
Randall Kennedy's quote emphasizes the cognitive dissonance experienced by individuals when confronting their own racial biases. Despite knowing that societal norms require them to be unbiased, people often create narratives to distance themselves from the uncomfortable truths of their prejudices, signaling the complexity of human beliefs and the challenge of self-awareness in combating racial discrimination.
In practice
During a workshop on diversity and inclusion, this quote can be used to illustrate the complexities of acknowledging one's own biases.
All white people in the United States have benefited from a white supremacy. But does that mean that a white person should be viewed badly because they turn against a white supremacist policy? Just because you've benefited from something shouldn't disable you from repudiating it.
In elite, primarily white institutions, there are many blacks who have white wives. So much so that sometimes there is almost the assumption that I would be married to a white woman.
I've had many uncanny experiences. I think it's hard to be alive and not have them. But I don't know if I can decide what that means or what they are.
America is a fundamentally good country. We have good people with good values who want to do the right thing. But the structures of power that exist are working to their own ends to extend their capability at the expense of the freedom of all publics.
For then only will you be strong, when you cherish the laws, and when the revolutionary attempts of lawless men shall have ceased.
I have with me two gods, Persuasion and Compulsion.
When the last living thing Has died on account of us, How poetical it would be If Earth could say, In a voice floating up Perhaps From the floor Of the Grand Canyon, "It is done." People did not like it here.
For the butterfly, mating and propagation involve the sacrifice of life, for the human being, the sacrifice of beauty.
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