{"id":20314,"date":"2020-12-13T11:12:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T15:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=20314"},"modified":"2020-12-16T18:18:53","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T22:18:53","slug":"the-myth-of-neutrality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-neutrality\/","title":{"rendered":"The Myth of Neutrality: With Racism, You&#8217;re on a Side"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the myth of neutrality? Why are the only two choices racism and antiracism?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The myth of neutrality is the theory that you cannot <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/remaining-neutral\/\">be neutral<\/a> on the issue of racism. Either you are racist or you&#8217;re antiracist; being &#8220;not racist&#8221; is insufficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to understand how Ibram X. Kendi explains the myth of neutrality in <em>How to Be an Antiracist<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Eradicating Race Is Insufficient<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Many people think that colorblindness, not \u201cseeing\u201d race, is a solution to racism. However, this idea is misguided. If the concept of race had <em>produced <\/em>racist policies, eradicating race as a means of eradicating racism might make sense. But, just as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-invention-of-race\/\">the invention of race<\/a> came <em>after<\/em> the implementation of racist policies, we can only dispense with the idea of race <em>after <\/em>we\u2019ve gotten rid of racist policies\u2014if we start at the wrong end and get rid of race first, we\u2019ll fail to see that some policies negatively impact certain racial groups. Eradicating race may be one of the last steps of creating an equitable society, but it\u2019s certainly not the first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Myth of Neutrality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s not possible to be neutral when it comes to racism\u2014<strong>anything that\u2019s not antiracist is racist. <\/strong>This is because all policies and ideas either advance or hamper equality. That&#8217;s the myth of neutrality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform example: Racist policies have created funding imbalances between Black and White schools. Therefore, a scholarship program open only to Black people is antiracist because it strives for educational equality between racial groups. Axing this scholarship program because White people aren\u2019t allowed to apply may seem \u201cneutral,\u201d but, in fact, canceling the program would be racist because it would mean canceling a policy that\u2019s aimed at remedying the current funding imbalance and thereby promoting racial equity.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Segregation vs. Assimilation vs. Antiracism<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Since true neutrality is impossible, we\u2019ve all consciously or unconsciously adopted at least one of three perspectives regarding how to handle racial inequities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Segregation. <\/strong>Segrationalists believe that some racial groups are inherently inferior and can\u2019t rise to the level of other groups. They support programs that keep members of the inferior groups away from their own groups by segregating, deporting, imprisoning, enslaving, or killing those in \u201cinferior\u201d groups. Segregationist ideas are racist.<\/li><li><strong>Assimilation.<\/strong> Assimilationists believe that certain racial groups are inferior to others, but with work, the inferior group can reach the same level as the superior group. They support programs that will develop or civilize the inferior group. Assimilationist ideas are also racist\u2014they set one race as the standard everyone else has to match.<\/li><li><strong>Antiracism.<\/strong> Antiracists believe that no racial group is superior to another. They support programs that aim to create racial equity.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the myth of neutrality? Why are the only two choices racism and antiracism? The myth of neutrality is the theory that you cannot be neutral on the issue of racism. Either you are racist or you&#8217;re antiracist; being &#8220;not racist&#8221; is insufficient. Keep reading to understand how Ibram X. Kendi explains the myth of neutrality in How to Be an Antiracist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,20,24],"tags":[165],"class_list":["post-20314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-ethics","category-society","tag-how-to-be-an-antiracist","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Myth of Neutrality: With Racism, You&#039;re on a Side - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is the myth of neutrality? It is the idea that you can&#039;t truly be neutral about race. Either you&#039;re antiracist or you&#039;re racist.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-neutrality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Myth of Neutrality: With Racism, You&#039;re on a Side\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is the myth of neutrality? It is the idea that you can&#039;t truly be neutral about race. Either you&#039;re antiracist or you&#039;re racist.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-neutrality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-13T15:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-16T22:18:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/strangers-miscarriage-of-justice.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"943\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"548\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-neutrality\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-neutrality\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"The Myth of Neutrality: With Racism, You&#8217;re on a Side\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-13T15:12:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-16T22:18:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-neutrality\/\"},\"wordCount\":467,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-neutrality\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/strangers-miscarriage-of-justice.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"How to Be an Antiracist\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\",\"Ethics\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-neutrality\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-neutrality\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-neutrality\/\",\"name\":\"The Myth of Neutrality: With Racism, You're on a Side - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-neutrality\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-myth-of-neutrality\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/strangers-miscarriage-of-justice.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-13T15:12:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-16T22:18:53+00:00\",\"description\":\"What is the myth of neutrality? 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