{"id":20418,"date":"2020-12-14T23:34:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T03:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=20418"},"modified":"2020-12-16T18:26:02","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T22:26:02","slug":"suasion-how-to-be-an-antiracist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/suasion-how-to-be-an-antiracist\/","title":{"rendered":"Suasion: You Can&#8217;t Convince People to Not Be Racist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is suasion? Can it actually help address the problem of racism?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suasion is the process of trying to use persuasion to convince a person to not be racist. Ibram X. Kendi discusses it in <em>How to Be an Antiracist<\/em> and explains why it doesn&#8217;t fix the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to understand suasion, why people think it&#8217;s the solution, and why it doesn&#8217;t fix racist policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Identification of the Problem<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To work towards ending racism, you have to treat the cause, not the symptoms. Many people think that racism is caused by ignorance and hate, but as we\u2019ve learned in previous chapters, in fact, it\u2019s actually caused by self-interest and policy. The ignorance and hate come later.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, <strong>any attempt to end racism that starts by addressing ignorance and hate instead of the root cause is never going to be successful.<\/strong> For example, mentoring programs might help individuals, but no behavioral program will have an effect on policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While racist power is very flexible\u2014it will use whatever strategy is most effective\u2014<strong>historically, antiracists have tried the same strategies over and over again, even though they\u2019ve never worked and will never work<\/strong> because they focus in the wrong place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Ibram, <strong>activism seeks power and creates policy change.<\/strong> Changing minds and critiquing doesn\u2019t count as activism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Using <strong>Suasion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The suasion definition is the process of trying to persuade people not to be racist. It was and still is a popular method for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-fight-racism\/\">fighting racism<\/a>, even though it\u2019s doomed to fail because it doesn\u2019t address policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Uplift Suasion<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/uplift-suasion\/\">Uplift suasion<\/a> definition: the idea that Black people can teach White people not to be racist by behaving exceptionally. <\/strong>For example, free Black people thought that if they set a good example, White people would free other enslaved Black people.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Uplift suasion, in addition to being an ineffective method for fighting racism, comes with some problematic ideas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>It suggests that White criticisms of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/black-behavior\/\">Black behavior<\/a> are valid.<\/li><li>It puts the responsibility on everyone except White people to change their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racist-ideas\/\">racist ideas<\/a>.<\/li><li>It excuses Black people in positions of power from trying to change policy. According to uplift suasion, just having reached a position of power is exceptional.<\/li><li>It\u2019s doomed to fail because no one is perfect all the time.<\/li><li>It gives weight to the idea that any Black person who behaves well is unusual because regular Black people all behave badly.<\/li><li>It doesn\u2019t allow Black people to be themselves.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Early White abolitionists gave free Black people this idea, and it resurfaced in Ibram\u2019s generation.<\/strong> For example, when Ibram was on a date with Sadiqa at a restaurant that had a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/buddha-journey\/\">Buddha<\/a> statue, a drunk White man fondled the statue. Sadiqa said that she was glad the man wasn\u2019t Black. Ibram had had this kind of thought before and they talked about it. If the man had been Black, Sadiqa would have been embarrassed because he made the whole race look bad in front of White people. As a result, White people would become more racist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>But uplift suasion didn\u2019t work pre-Civil War and it doesn\u2019t work now either.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Moral\/Educational Suasion<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Moral\/education suasion is the idea that White people are only racist because they don\u2019t know any better.<\/strong> Like uplift suasion, the responsibility falls on Black people to change White people\u2019s ideas. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/moral-suasion\/\">Moral suasion<\/a> is supposed to appeal to White people\u2019s consciences and educational suasion is supposed to appeal to their intellect.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moral\/educational suasion, in addition to being an ineffective method for fighting racism, comes with some problems:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Racist policymakers, not the average White person, are the problem. There\u2019s a good chance they\u2019re already aware of the racism their policies cause\u2014the policies might even be designed to create racism, if that racism furthers self-interest.<\/li><li>Not everyone has a conscience or morals.<\/li><li>Racist ideas are illogical, so appealing to conscience or intellect is ineffective.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>There are instances in history in which moral\/educational suasion appeared to be effective. However, in most cases, changes in policy weren\u2019t created by suasion\u2014they were a result of self-interest.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, some people consider that educational suasion was effective because it resulted in the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and desegregation rulings. However, these changes weren\u2019t caused by educational suasion. They were created by self-interest\u2014US foreign relations were suffering because visiting African diplomats experienced racist abuse. The civil rights legislation mentioned above was created to soothe foreign relations, and once enough nations were soothed, progress stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Incorrect Order of Operations<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Uplift, moral, and education suasion all suggest that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/protest-vs-demonstration\/\">racist policy<\/a> can only be changed <\/strong><strong><em>after <\/em><\/strong><strong>racist ideas have changed. However, this order of operations is ineffective<\/strong> because antiracist policies benefit everyone, and it\u2019s easier to get people to change their ideas once they\u2019ve seen the benefits of policy change. (And they\u2019ve seen that none of the negative consequences racist policymakers warn about have come to pass.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are several examples of policy changing first and ideas changing in response, once people see that the policy change was beneficial for everyone:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Policies around desegregated schools changed in the 1950s and 1960s, and only later did White people support the change.<\/li><li>Policy around interracial marriage changed in 1967, but most White people didn\u2019t support it until later.<\/li><li>Obamacare was implemented in 2010 and is far more supported now.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is suasion? Can it actually help address the problem of racism? Suasion is the process of trying to use persuasion to convince a person to not be racist. Ibram X. Kendi discusses it in How to Be an Antiracist and explains why it doesn&#8217;t fix the problem. Keep reading to understand suasion, why people think it&#8217;s the solution, and why it doesn&#8217;t fix racist policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,15,24],"tags":[165],"class_list":["post-20418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-education","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>Suasion: You Can&#039;t Convince People to Not Be Racist - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is suasion? 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You have to focus on racist policies.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/suasion-how-to-be-an-antiracist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-15T03:34:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-16T22:26:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/how-to-win-every-argument-influence-scaled-e1674753948716.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1395\" \/>\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=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/suasion-how-to-be-an-antiracist\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/suasion-how-to-be-an-antiracist\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"Suasion: You Can&#8217;t Convince People to Not Be Racist\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-15T03:34:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-16T22:26:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/suasion-how-to-be-an-antiracist\/\"},\"wordCount\":922,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/suasion-how-to-be-an-antiracist\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/how-to-win-every-argument-influence-scaled-e1674753948716.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"How to Be an Antiracist\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\",\"Education\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/suasion-how-to-be-an-antiracist\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/suasion-how-to-be-an-antiracist\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/suasion-how-to-be-an-antiracist\/\",\"name\":\"Suasion: You Can't Convince People to Not Be Racist - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/suasion-how-to-be-an-antiracist\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/suasion-how-to-be-an-antiracist\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/how-to-win-every-argument-influence-scaled-e1674753948716.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-15T03:34:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-16T22:26:02+00:00\",\"description\":\"What is suasion? 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