Janese Johnson

If you ask people of color how much they have personally experienced racism, many will state that they have experienced quite a bit of it throughout their lifves.

But if you ask the same question of a Caucasian person, they will likely answer that they have not experienced any racism, or maybe a little of it from other races.

Since Barack Obama has been running for president, the undercurrent of racism is no longer an undercurrent. Racism is rearing its ugly head, especially quite blatantly in the media. People of all races are starting to notice what people of color have had to live with. The sad news is that racism is still very alive out there in the world, but perhaps with it “coming out of the closet” the way it has been lately, we can directly confront it, and end it for good, so that we can all live as equals with respect for all.

There has been some effort in North Carolina to decrease racism by showing the community how much racial disparity we really have here in our state. The Department of Health and Human Services of North Carolina created the office of Minority Health and Health Disparities to work with the Center for Health Statistics in gathering clear data to show the reality of racial disparity in North Carolina.

They broke down various areas into categories and created a report card with the information. The first report card was in 2003, followed by the last one in 2006.

The one area that was graded an F was economics. In the 2003 report card, 8.4 percent of white families were living below the federal poverty level, compared to 22.9 percent of African American and 25.2 percent of Latino families. (The 2008 poverty guideline for a family of four is $22,200 a year.)

What is really sad and quite upsetting in comparing the 2003 report card with the 2006 report card is the increase of poverty for African Americans. Poverty for Caucasians decreased from 8.4 percent to 7.5 percent while poverty rates for African Americans increased from 22.9 to 25.2 percent. The poverty levels for Latinos have stayed around 25 percent, which is quite high compared to those of the white families.

Since these report cards have come out, DHHS has been able to work with clear indicators of the economic racial disparity that is currently a very real and tragic situation. There have been small efforts with these reports to create change, and legislation to help bring greater equality.

But we should not leave it up to a report card or organizations such as Building Bridges and NAACP to be the few that are working hard to decrease the serious disparity. It is up to all of us as individuals to make a difference. We are all responsible for racial disparity in many ways without realizing it. Racism doesn’t show itself just in acts of cruelty and meanness towards minority groups — it continues because of the white privilege that remains in our culture.

Diane Sawyer and ABC News did a documentary called “True Colors.” The show followed two men for two and a half weeks. Both men grew up in the same area, went to similar colleges, and were good friends. The only difference between them was the color of their skin. Glen is black and John is white.

By following and recording each of the men in various situations, from shopping to renting a room, they found that consistently Glen was ignored or treated with contempt, while John was offered help right away and treated with respect. When Diane Sawyer confronted those who were treating Glen differently, they often denied having any prejudice at all.

White privilege is getting to go through life without the suspicion or contempt that a person of color would experience on a day-to-day basis. If we are Caucasian, we cannot really know how it must feel to live in a world where we are not treated with respect or where we are often in a situation or room in which we are the minority.

As long as we do not recognize how it is the attitude of white privilege that keeps racism alive, we will never really change. We must first see how we as a culture have supported the oppression of persons of color by denying that white-privilege thinking and behavior is what is maintaining the large gap in racial disparity.

It is up to us to have very little tolerance for the existence of racism in our world, and to stop denying that whites have benefited in many ways by keeping minorities oppressed. It is time to end that thinking, so that our real peace and unity can begin.
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Janese Johnson has been doing intuitive counseling nationally for more than 20 years. She may be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .