The idea that racism is grounded in ignorance has caused so much damage. It creates a total misperception of what we're up against.
Back in the days of chattel slavery abolition work, some folks thought uplifting Black ppl w exceptional skills would change racist minds. What they found was that racist ppl wrote off or attempted to discredit those being uplifted. Those racists weren't acting out of ignorance.
Racist ideas were generated to justify atrocity. They were not the product of people having no sense that their behavior was wrong. They were a license to do unthinkable shit that was already happening.
Ibram X. Kendi refers to the idea that Black dehumanization could be challenged by exposing racist white ppl to exceptionally skilled Black ppl as “uplift suasion.” It was a doomed tactic based on a false premise -- that the root problem was ignorance. truthout.org/articles/ibram…
