Page 12 - RACE HEALER Mag Volume 1

Why Focus on Racism?

By: Rita Starr

Of all the institutionalized prejudices, racism, though complex, is Exploring why we do what we do is part of rendering justice. In my
relatively simple to take apart in and easy to assist individuals in forty years of educating others to overcome racism, helping people
recognizing its institutional nature. Once understood, people are understand why they participate in racism, either as a member of the
empowered to strategically work for personal and institutional dominate group or its target, opens a lot of doors for change.
change.

Examining the racism aimed at darker skin people, such as those The Impact of Triggers

of African heritage, is an excellent template for understanding
other forms of oppression not only in the United States but other One of the fascinating things about taking a stand for justice is that
nations as well. And as an individual gains understanding of the it helps people identify blocks to their own personal liberation.
institutional nature of racism, they are prepared to generalize their When people explore what interferes with their ability to stand for
new knowledge and actions to other forms of oppression. justice, they often identify specific fears.

On further exploration, they discover that what they fear most has
al- ready happened in actuality or symbolically. Such fears are
embedded in the individual’s emotional triggers. Educating people
to address such triggers is helpful in creating allies who become
more effective in working for long-term change.

A trigger describes the process in which an individual finds the
current situation similar enough to a past distressing situation that it
brings back the feelings, the thought patterns, and sometimes the
actions connected to a painful incident. These triggers can interfere
with how we respond to situations that arise in our lives.

When we have triggers around authority figures, we may re-
experience strong feelings of powerlessness as we try to stand for
justice, especially when the trigger is connected to real or perceived
injustices experienced as a child. A trigger can block flexible
My name is Rita Starr. I’m a founder of Healing Our Nation, which
is dedicated to creating a national network for overcoming racism. thinking and impede objectivity when addressing racism and other
The past four decades of my life have been devoted to discovering forms of discrimination. Triggers impact people from all walks of
what it will take to help others understand racism and to motivated life, including members of a dominant group that promote
them to strategically work for change. As a result, I have oppression toward the targeted group.
developed educational pro- grams that can transform the office
bigot into a proponent of diversity in the work place. They provide
the training and leadership needed to reach across our nation and
move people from describing racism to strategical- ly working for
change.

Discovering how prejudices are acquired, how some prejudices
become institutionalized to foster societal and economic
oppression, and how targeted groups can internalize their group’s
oppression are major steps to empowering others. Placing
emphasis on how people are conditioned to participate in racism
was crucial to creating allies for lasting change. And as Mahatma
Gandhi said so well:

“My experience has shown me that we win justice quickest
by rendering justice to the other party.”