Box 6.1 Lead-in: Understanding racism

Excerpt 1: In the Turkish version of the TV show Survivor, one of the Turkish contestants used the N-word to refer to a Black contestant, a former football player in Turkey. When the recipient of this racial slur got angry, the producer of the TV show tried to make peace by saying “It was not meant to be offensive, since there is no racism in Turkey.”

Excerpt 2: The documentary Farmingville presents the story of a hate-based attempted murder of two Mexican day laborers in the town of Farmingville, New York. For the directors, the strength of the documentary lies in how it reflects both sides of the story, that of the town's anti-immigration residents and that of the day laborers, and leaves viewers to construct their own interpretations of the unfolding events. In one scene, one of the residents leading the fight against ‘illegal immigrants’ states: “I was at first shocked when people started calling me a racist. It felt like a slap in the face.” Then she adds, “I got used to being called a racist and it was almost a reassurance that I was doing something good.”

Excerpt 3: My Catalan neighbors were called in to school by the teacher of their 4-year old daughter who, with a group of friends, was not accepting another classmate in their games “because of her black curly hair.” My neighbor, knowing the work I was doing, asked me, “We are not racist: how is she picking up these forms of behavior?”

Excerpt 4: Reflecting on her experiences as a member of a racial minority in an American higher education institution, Kubota states, “Once, I gave a presentation to my colleagues about my thoughts on the need to include issues of politics and ideologies in second and foreign language teaching and teacher education. I mentioned something to the effect that we should address issues of race and ethnicity more. A couple of years later, in a reappointment review, I was criticized as being racist in my presentation” (Kubota and Lin, 2006, p. 472).

Considering the excepts above, what do you think racism is? How can language educators talk about racism with their students, colleagues, families, and friends when it is such an elusive concept?