I am a person of colour. I'm not a victim.

In the past few decades attitudes towards racism have changed significantly, we’ve gone from a society that accepts casual racism and blackface on television to a society that will boycott a makeup brand for not having a wide enough shade range in their foundation line in a matter of years. Now this has been incredible for people of colour worldwide, they now feel accepted in society now more than ever before, but that’s of course not to say that racism has gone, it’s just much more frowned upon in society to be a racist. You’re pretty much asking to be completely shut out of society. But it’s also easy to forget in times of great change that anything in extreme is also bad. As great as it is that we’re no longer being discriminated against, that doesn’t mean we want to be constantly virtue signalled for and victimised simply for being people of colour. Martin Luther King Jr. himself said he wanted his children to be seen not by the colour of their skin but by the contents of their hearts. So why are we still treating people of colour differently? Whether that being in a good or bad way.

Let's talk about systemic racism. Systemic racism is defined as ‘policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization, and that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race’ (Cambridge Dictionary); and over the past year or so, the idea of systemic racism being ingrained into our society has become a lot more accepted now, which means many people now believe that the wide society has racist undertones thus leading to people of colour being given less opportunities that white people. This idea has been further pushed by the protests of the killing of George Floyd in 2020, with many believing that he was killed due to systemic racism and an unfair bias against people of colour by white police officers. Whilst pretty much everyone believes that Floyd’s death was a tragedy, opinions are split over whether this was down to systemic racism or just an excessive use of power by a bad cop.

Another issue where this issue is raised is the issue of employment, with a lot of people have claimed that an individual is less likely to be chosen for a job if they are a person of colour; and whilst this was in part true, it may not be for the reason we expect. A study done in 2016 found that in workplaces with all white men, white men were more likely to be hired; and environments with only women/people of colour, women and people of colour were more likely to be hired₁, stating ‘when the status quo of the candidates was white and male, a white male candidate won out, but when the status quote was non-white-male, a non-white-male candidate won,’ (Slate). This shows that this isn’t due to the hatred of a certain race/gender, it is simply a personal preference to people similar to oneself, which is completely natural. We have an affinity with people who are similar to us; not because we are racist, but because they are ‘like us’. This was even proven in a 2017 study by the Institute of Child Study, stating that even babies show a preference to those of their own race, in part due to their familiarity. This does not mean we naturally hate other races, but we are naturally more trusting to those of our own race.

The victimisation of people of colour is another issue we find ourselves facing. This has mostly come about due to the fact that we have been discriminated against, and we have been treated like second class citizens, but maybe now we’ve moved past the need to victimise people of colour simply for being of a different race. All this talk of being ‘anti-racist’ rather than ‘not racist’ and challenging racist behaviour when it’s witnessed is great, but it simply does not need to extend to the level of making all people of colour feel like victims of a racist system. Of course that’s not to say that society does not still sometimes carry systemically racist tropes in areas, but victimising all people of colour and discussing race at every opportunity is not not to combat it. Instead of teaching fellow members of minority ethnicities that they are poor victims of an inherently racist society, why don’t we teach each other that hard work and good opportunities are what gets you far in society, not having a victim mentality, not blaming other people for your misfortune, and not feeling sorry for ourselves. Anyone can make it in 21st century society, but you need both skills and luck on your side. There are many extremely intelligent white people who have failed, and some extremely intelligent people of colour who have. Now there is a lot of racism still in society, but coming from a person of colour i can tell you now that this is best combated with intelligence, skills, and hard work, not victimhood.

So continue to call out racism when you see it, but don’t get offended ‘on our behalf’. Challenge racist tropes, and work hard. We currently live in one of the best periods in history for people of colour to make their dream come true. Work hard and keep your heads up. Make your life goal your dream and treat people of colour like ordinary people - that is all we want!

Sources:

1. https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/04/if-you-re-the-only-woman-or-person-of-color-being-considered-for-a-job-you-almost-certainly-won-t-be-hired.html

2. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170411130810.htm