Can we teach race and equity?

Abstract

This paper highlights the question, often asked, why does racism persist despite the many attempts to eradicate it? The paper provides some answers, first for social relations generally and second for systemic psychotherapy. Central to the answers is an acknowledgement of the obstacles in both spheres to address the structures, systems, organisation and processes which lie behind conceptualisations of race, racism, identity and relationships. It is in these structures and systems that the suffocating and inevitable effects of racism originate. The paper suggests that, if we want to begin to eradicate racism, we need to look in those places (mostly White) where we least suspect it, the places which seem ‘natural’ and therefore foundational. It concludes that we cannot teach race and equity, because by singling out this topic without looking behind it, we perpetuate a violence through which the very relations we want to eradicate are produced. This does not mean, however, that we should ignore the topic.

Practitioner points

1. Racism is deeply rooted in action and ideas.
2. The recent murders of Black persons demonstrate the slow, suffocating and strangling aspects of racist systems and structures in our society.
3. Ideas and concepts are difficult to address because they tend to be buttressed by basic assumptions about life and relationships.
4. Race, ethnicity and culture are processes rather than a list of items/things.
5. Tools such as the Social GRRRAAACCEEESSS and the cultural genogram are inadequate for training because the assumptions they are based on are rarely made transparent.