Internalized racism - a term that may seem unfamiliar, and yet it’s so prevalent in today’s society. Millions of people have experienced this phenomenon in their everyday lives - perhaps even people you know and love - the effects of which still stay with them to this day. But what exactly is internalized racism? Suzanne Lipsky defines internalized racism as “the personal conscious or subconscious acceptance of the dominant society’s racist views, stereotypes and biases of one’s ethnic group. It gives rise to patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that result in discriminating, minimizing, criticizing, finding fault, invalidating, and hating oneself while simultaneously valuing the dominant culture.” Some may not even be able to realize the internalized racism they face!
Even aspects of our childhood can have a part in internalized racism. In the Milwaukee Independent, Reggie Jackson writes of his experience as a child, “There was this song I heard people singing when I was a child. This is what it said: ‘If you white, you alright, if you brown, stick around, but if you black, step back.’ I never thought about the meaning of that little song as a child, when I heard it. I have no idea where the song came from. What I do know is that it was something that planted a seed in my mind. It taught me that to be black was somehow a problem.” Reggie Jackson discusses how he took a song, a societal bias, and internally applied it to himself. The song is not right, it is blatantly racist. But Jackson is an example of the impacts of internalized racism many children face. “It taught [him] that to be black was somehow a problem.” From Jackson’s experience, we can see how people of color internalize things, and may even punish themselves for not being white. They may see their race as a problem, or something that makes them innately bad as a person. This is not true, of course, but we can begin to see how internalized racism negatively impacts people of color. If one looks further, they can see how bias influences internalized racism. Isn’t it crazy how something as simple as a song has a huge impact on people and the way they think of and view themselves?
The impacts of internalized racism are significant. One may live their entire life thinking themselves inferior due to internalized racism. Internalized racism is, in most cases, caused by cultural, societal, and media bias. The media often portrays people of color in a negative or inferior light, which causes them to start hating themselves over something that should be celebrated, not insulted. For example, in many TV shows we can see a person of color being a side character. Their culture is used as comedic relief and not taken seriously. They are made fun of for their accent, if they have one, or mocked because of it. In the television show, The Big Bang Theory, one of the characters, Raj, is Indian. His friends make fun of his culture, intending it to be a comedic aspect of the show. Even though this isn’t intended to be offensive, making fun of one’s culture is not funny, and should not be taken lightly. It is a highly inappropriate behavior that causes people of color who absorb this media internally to negatively view themselves. We can see a societal and cultural bias in how one may simply live among society and internally develop standards because of their race. Many people of color are not directly told that they are inferior. They pick up on certain behaviors society displays. When society influences these racist behaviors, it in turn influences internalized racism.
In 1903, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois wrote “They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at Mechanicsville; or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.” He shows how society indirectly influences internalized racism. He shows how he feels forced to “reduce the boiling to a simmer”, or calm down the situation for his own safety. Du Bois understands what these people are really saying to him. They indirectly consider him “a problem.” And when the same behavior, indirectly seeing people as “a problem” because of their skin color, from 1903 is shown today, in 2020, it shows an issue. It shows that things need to change. People of color should not feel inferior because of their race. They should not feel as if they have to do things in a certain way because of their race. Internalized racism has lasted for years, and its effects are vast. When change is made, people thrive, knowing that they are accepted. They know that their differences are seen, and celebrated, not shunned. We as a society must rise to make this world a realistic possibility.