Let鈥檚 be honest, talking about race can be tough 鈥� even nerve-racking for some.
Often the conversation comes with trap doors leading to potentially awkward moments. It鈥檚 that fear of a misstep, perhaps, that nudges people into sidestepping clear language about race.
There are the boilerplate words like 鈥渢hey,鈥� 鈥渢hem鈥� and 鈥渢hose people.鈥� But there are also more localized varieties like "Hoosier," 鈥渘orth county鈥� and even historical oddities such as 鈥渟crubby Dutch.鈥� In St. Louis, coded conversations about race and class often start with a single question that permeates a divided region: "Where did you go to school?"
This episode of We Live Here is all about talking about race without actually talking about race.
鈥淚n St. Louis there鈥檚 a dynamic of place. Meaning that people try to understand your race and your social class background according to where you grew up or where you went to school,鈥� said Odis Johnson, an associate professor of education and sociology at Washington University.
Code on the street
So, what does it sound like when people try to decode the shrouded language used to describe race and class? We Live Here asked a couple of our friends in the newsroom, afternoon newscaster Joseph Leahy and intern Katelyn Petrin, to help us find out.
Hoosier, and we鈥檙e not talking about the residents of Indiana, is a word that prompted a pretty open dialog. Take a listen below.
But once Joseph and Katelyn got into exploring the codes behind geographic phrases like 鈥渘orth county,鈥� people got a little uncomfortable. That's because those codes often come with thinly veiled racial connotations. And many of the folks interviewed said it was what they saw on the evening news that informed how they thought about different parts of town.
Code Warrior
Amy Hunter, director of racial justice at the YWCA of St. Louis, has been breaking down code words for race and class throughout her career. Before her current job she worked in the corporate world, helping big companies hire and retain more minority employees.
She said even when people think they鈥檙e talking about the same thing, they're often not. Take something as simple as the concept for what time means. Listen below to the story she told us about an African American employee who was about to be fired for being seven minutes late to work on a regular basis.
Hunter went on to say that even words and ideas that seem to have commonly understood meanings, like "good," "safe" and "community" can in reality mean something very different between white people and minorities.
鈥淲e often talk about the black community as if it鈥檚 a neighborhood,鈥� Hunter said. 鈥淪ometimes when we say community people are really talking about their neighborhood or the city that they live in. But I鈥檇 offer that in black space it has a broader concept. So, I belong to the black community whether I live in black space or not.鈥�
Classes for decoding race
These days, Hunter teaches a class at the YWCA called 鈥淲itnessing Whiteness.鈥� We figured these these classes were racially mixed. Turns out we were wrong. Hunter said she made the classes either all white or all persons of color on purpose.
鈥淩ace scholars would say when we have cross racial dialog, people of color are doing a lot of the work and educating,鈥� Hunter said. 鈥淲hite people can learn about racism without people of color being in the room.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 a very loving environment, there鈥檚 no shaming or blaming. It鈥檚 education and practice. And they can go out in the world and be facilitators for the next set of groups.鈥�
Codes in the real world
A class at the YWCA about racial understanding is one thing, but obviously coded conversations are happening all the time and in all kinds of places: schools, the break room at work, in the playground with your kids on the weekend. So, how does Hunter handle it when someone uses a racially charged code word in everyday conversation?
鈥淢y first thinking is 'I鈥檓 sorry that happened to you,'鈥� Hunter said. 鈥淏ecause we鈥檙e all born wonderful and something happens ... Then, in a loving way, I reach for them.鈥�
鈥淭he other day I got a really good question: 鈥楾he Japanese were interned in this country and they got over it, why can鈥檛 black people get over it?鈥� I gently said, 鈥楽o, I鈥檓 not sure that 300 years of slavery, then 80 more years of Jim Crow, it鈥檚 only been about 50 years since the Civil Rights Movement, is the same as three years of internment. Although that was horrific and they did receive reparations, I don鈥檛 think those are maybe the same kind of comparison.鈥� And then he said OK.鈥�
鈥淚 get that people really don鈥檛 want to fail at race and race dialog, but a lot of time people just don鈥檛 know what to say or where to go. Quite honestly, what keeps people from having race dialog freely is the fear that they鈥檙e going to say something wrong or be labeled a racist.鈥�
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