On May 19, Dr. Tema Okun spoke at LWVNC’s first webinar on DEI, beginning a series that will continue in the fall with programs sponsored by individual leagues. If you missed the program, you can view on YouTube. Dr. Okun’s message is important and timely for the work of our leagues.

Here is a summary of her main points: 
White supremacy and its political philosophy ­– white nationalism – have become a dangerous mainstream ideology that threatens our democracy. Its platform – voter suppression, the outlawing of teaching critical race theory, propaganda masquerading as news – is based on racism. One political party is consumed with white nationalism, and the other is not standing up forcefully enough.  

In order to “stand up” to white nationalism, we must understand some fundamentals about racism.  Race is not biologically real – people of all “races” are genetically the same; “race” is a social and political construct. It was created by white people in power to categorize and value people coming to America from Europe. White people were clearly outnumbered in early America by indigenous and African people. So they found a way to categorize people in order to secure power and resources for a few people. The result was a hierarchy based on the idea of race, where whites are always at the top and Black people are always at the bottom. Besides power and resources, the racial hierarchy confers a psychic benefit. Those who are white feel themselves more qualified, more valuable, more normal, more deserving.  

A historical example explains: In the 1640s, in the colony of Virginia, a landowner Hugh McGuin had three indentured servants – a Scotsman, a Dutchman, and John Punch, a Black man of African descent.  They escaped together but were caught. As punishment, the Scotsman and the Dutchman were assigned short periods of extended servitude before they could become free. However, John Punch was sentenced to two lifetimes of enslavement. This began the practice in the law of embedding the notion of white privilege. And we are still managing ourselves, our institutions, our government on the basis of white supremacy. 

In fact, our democracy has become more imperiled as white nationalism has become a huge force. Our stake is literally whether we win or lose in confronting this huge overt force of white nationalism. It begins with understanding how white supremacy affects the smallest to the largest relationships, and especially the way it affects our relationship with ourselves.  

The goal of “diversity, equity, inclusion” may not be the best way to frame our effort to reach this understanding. When we say “diversity,” we must ask: Who decides what is “diverse”? Does it mean keeping everything the same with some different skin tones? When we use the term “inclusion,” shouldn’t we ask “who is including whom in what?” Does inclusion mean “no rocking the boat, but we want to include you”?