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The Consequences of Being Openly Anti-racist?

If you can control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature [as a result of conditioning] will demand one.”

Carter G. Woodson, The MisEducation of the Negro

 

Woodson made this quote in his courageous text The MisEducation of the Negro.  With this sentiment he articulated how what you learn affects behavior.  The sentiment also highlights how racism and its educational institutions demanded and taught that Black people not self-advocate and instead submit to  inferior status and discrimination.   It demanded that they relegate self-advocacy to private spaces, like kitchen table conversations where it was safe and where power was unlikely to be seated.  The system of racism also demands that those who can classify as white remain silent about human rights violations and, in effect, the system deputized whites as enforcers of the practices that propagate racism and anti-black discrimination.   Woodson's sentiment is applicable today. 

My question is, what motivates one toward or steers one away from being openly anti-racist?   Is fear of consequence a significant factor?  How so?  What consequences or (internal/external) rewards have you or those in your circle of concern experienced for their anti-racist identity? 

Last edited by Pamela Denise Long
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