You constantly have to reflect the meanings of your whiteness

E-mail interview with Anna Rastas

Anna Rastas has a PhD in sociology and is an assistant professor at the Department of social research, University of Tampere in Finland. In her research she specializes in racism and multiculturalism. She is also an adoptive mother of two children.

What is the role of racism in the everyday lives of the children you have interviewed?
“Children I have interviewed in my research have experienced bullying at school, and have been harassed in public places. Some have also been subject to racist violence. Stories about the experience of being stared at in public places are also common. While from an adult perspective being stared at may not be considered such a traumatic experience, for children, growing up knowing and feeling other peoples’ racializing and often even hostile gazes creates a particular kind of environment for them.

Even in the everyday lives of those who said that they had not experienced much racism, “race” matters. They all knew, including those who had avoided racist violence, that for them Finland is not such a safe society as it is for their white Finnish-born peers. They told me how they avoid particular places in the evenings and at night and how they try to avoid meeting skinheads. They had learned that even when people look friendly, something may happen. They have to be prepared to deal with questions, which may be well-meaning or seemingly innocent, but which nevertheless let them know that they are seen as being different, and through racist stereotypes.

The idea of the innocence of children is very strong, not just at home but also among professionals who work with these young children at day care centers and at schools, but there is a lot of racism even in very young children’s reality. We do not necessarily see it, partly because we, adults, do not want to admit it. Children learn, even before they start attending school, that “race” can be turned against some people. At day care centers and children’s playgrounds there is a lot of name-calling, and in children’s in-fighting racial slurs are also used. School can be a living hell for some children, solely because of racism. Most stories about school were stories about how disappointed my informants were with their teachers, who did not see racism at school, or did not want to do anything about it. There were also racist teachers.

Gender has a lot to do both with individuals’ experiences of racism and with their means to negotiate their experiences. And it is not only gender, but the way gender and ideas of different nationalities and ethnicities are intertwined. A boy who “looks Asian” may be spared from sexual harassment, while a boy who “looks African” is often seen through those sexist stereotypes which can make some children look frightening in the eyes of some people. Even very young girls (11-12 years old) whose other roots are Asian or African are often seen as adult women and are subjected to sexual harassment.

Particular discourses (of race, of family, of different nationalities and cultures and so on) also force some people to negotiate their relations to particular places and cultures. Various representations of “the other country” in the media, in school books and in jokes force these young people to think about and negotiate the different meanings of their roots. Very negative representations of a young person’s birth country may result in her hiding her (other) roots in some situations, where possible.

Racism is about unequal power relations, discrimination, oppression…facing racism (being a target) means that you (just because of your colour, ethnic background…) occupy lower positions in social power relations.

My study shows that racism is not only about experiences of open, intentional racism. It is also about being aware of the many meanings of racism: how other people see you and treat you (differently than your peers), how you always have to be prepared because you are a potential victim of racism. The role of racism (or different manifestations of racism) vary according to many things: your age, gender, the support you may or may not get from your family & community etc. Also, individuals’ means to negotiate their experiences vary according to these things (and even your personality has a lot to do with this!), so… What is traumatic for some people may not be such a big thing for others… or… it may become “a big thing” later, even if as a child you may say that “it does not matter”.”

Why do you think it is hard for children to talk about their experiences of racism?
“Children I have interviewed have told me that they were afraid that things would get even worse if their parents interfered. The children seemed to be sure about this. However, young and grown-up persons, who said that they also used to think that way, also added that parents should, in fact, do something. Sometimes parents´ and other adults´ behavior prevent children from talking about their experiences. Parents and teachers often say “Just join the others” or “The other kids’ don´t mean any harm”. If the child knows that the others do not want her/his company, and that they do, in fact, mean harm, s/he finds it useless to report matters to adults who refuse to listen or to understand. A child may also think that she has to accept the situation. Another example is well-meaning parents who, in trying to help their own child, may themselves lean on racist strategies by saying things like “Just tell them that you are not a refugee!”. By reinforcing differences between different racialized and oppressed groups they make it more difficult for their children to forge alliances that could be important in their everyday struggles against racism.”

What awareness do adoptive parents need to have to help their children deal with everyday racism?
“Already before the adoption they should be forced to think about the questions of racism, its different manifestations, its different meanings for different people… the fact that RACE MATTERS!

In my opinion, adoptive parents (and “wanna be parents”) should also have contacts and spend time with different kinds of “minority people” in their own communities.”

Would you like to describe how being a “white” woman with “non-white” children in a society where the majority culture is “white” can be difficult?
“To speak about my whiteness is, above all, to speak about the place assigned to me in the relations of racism. I hold a position as one of the dominant white population while my children have an African background. This means that racism is an everyday issue in my personal life. I share with “non-white” mothers the fact that our attempts to talk about racism are often not understood and that our worries are underestimated and sometimes dismissed by people, even by professionals working with our children. Where my position differs from some of the immigrant mothers is how our talk is received: sometimes even their right to talk is questioned. They are patronized instead of heard. One mother with a foreign background once said to me after seeing me on TV talking about racism: “It is good that you talk about these things, because people will listen to you, they don´t listen to us if we talk about these things.” The fact that I do not belong to “us” here is an example of my whiteness. The flip side of the coin is that my whiteness excludes me from arenas where some collective racialised identities are negotiated and practiced as a source of resistance to racism. This means that some strategies available to “non-white” parents are not available for me.

Another factor that makes my whiteness an ambiguous privilege is my gender. Colour is a gendered category, but again in a contradictory way. Within the racialized ideal, “white” women have been assigned specific attributes – chastity and purity – as biological producers, as “guardians of the race´. A “white” mother with a “coloured” child is an easy target for remarks such as “Is s/he really your child?” or “You´ve been with a black man!”. There are many stories, for example among the parents I have interviewed. “We” have learned to know all the “she must have had sex with a black man” gazes, as well as, in the case of adoptive mothers, the obvious relief when we turn out to be “especially good and respectable people” instead of “loose and immoral women”.

What will probably never stop hurting me is how, because of my skin colour, my parenthood, my relationship with and my love of my children is questioned and not always accepted, as if I have been denied basic rights such as to fall in love, to have children and a family, with people positioned differently in racialised hierarchies. It is a painful way to experience and to be touched by racism.”

Why do you think it is important to explore whiteness?
“To know / have an idea/ understand your own (privileged, if you are “white”) position is the only way to understand the possible limits of your knowledge/understanding…. the only way for a dialogue (between yourself and your children), the only way to have an idea of the many meanings of racism to “non-white” people.

I think that the most difficult thing in being a “white” mother of “non-white” children is the fact, that you constantly have to  reflect the meanings of your whiteness in/for your parental competence, your relation(s) to your children, and especially their (your children’s ) ideas of these questions.”

The speaking of race is important to raise awareness but at the same time there is a risk that the discussion is reproducing the racist ideas? Do you have an idea of how this can be avoided?
“We always have to deal with the questions and dangers of essentialism in our efforts to talk about and fight against racism. Sure, even using these color terms like “white” and “non-white” is reproducing some ideas… But the idea/questions of the changing AND political nature of these categorizations can be included in these discussions.

I´ve also found Gayatry Spivak’s idea of “strategic essentialism” very useful. Communities just cannot speak for their rights if they cannot say that “we” exist. This “we” can be a changing, negotiatable category (which it is in this “era of identity politics”).”

Do you think society on the structural and institutional level should stimulate change? Do you have suggestions?
“I think racism is such a big, multidimensional problem in most societies that we have to contest and fight against it on every possible level: on the individual level (every one of us has a lot to learn!), in everyday encounters with other people, on the level of culture (e.g. paying attention to racist representations and discourses around us), on the institutional level…. However, individuals in their attempts to contest racism, to make interventions to racist encounters/discourses need support from important social institutions like school, police, politicians and other policymakers.”