White Perspectives on Racism in FIRST

FIRST General Forum
1

First off, I’m sorry. The title is somewhat deliberately inflammatory. That is, however, intentional. Second, thank you for clicking through. I don’t post threads here very often for as much as I like to read other peoples’.

I’m making this thread because it seems like a lot of people who don’t necessarily identify as a person of color want to contribute to the recently posted thread on FIRST Experiences as a Person of Color.

I get it, this is a particularly touchy subject for a lot of people, and it’s certainly an important discussion to have, and I’m personally of the opinion that, while all sorts of voices should be heard on this subject, it’s also important to respect peoples’ boundaries. I’ll add to this thread more of my opinions on the subject if it takes off, but I’d also like to say that, despite the title, anyone is invited to participate in this discussion, whatever the color of your skin, whatever your ethnic or cultural background, whatever your context is. The thread title is intended as an attention-getter and (to a lesser extent), a discussion point, not as a rule.

Particularly there were a few posts about trying to be an ally to people of color, and some posts on the white perception of racism in different areas of the US that I think would be better suited to this thread than the other one. The intent of that thread is pretty clear, and should be respected.

Please try to be conscious of the diverse perspectives that might manifest in this thread-- we all have our different contexts, and though those might differ significantly, it doesn’t benefit anyone to shout down others for being too, for lack of a better descriptor, liberal or conservative when it comes to this discussion. Losing our civility doesn’t do anyone good.

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These threads will be particularly scary to people, because they combine nervousness about posting to CD with nervousness about talking the wrong way about racial issues. Many people think it’s better to keep their mouth shut than be criticized for using the wrong term or framing an issue the wrong way. If you’re tempted to react negatively to subtleties of terminology, please try to look past it and focus on the poster’s intent.

One thing I like about FIRST is that youth participants seem to be more reflective of society as a whole than other, older programs for youth in the US. Part of that, I’m sure, comes from the technology industry’s strong orientation toward merit in hiring, compensation, and promotion. Not saying tech is perfect in that regard, just better.

At the same time, the mentor base I see at events is largely white. That’s probably because mentors of a certain age come from a time* when Minnesota’s racial composition was very white.

That said, our team isn’t reflective of our school’s racial diversity. Most kids on our FRC teams in Bloomington are guided to the team by involved parents who see that their child has an aptitude for what we do. In our school that means mostly white kids on the team.

Our near-term plan to help that is to build out a FLL/FTC infrastructure at Bloomington elementary/middle schools, so that we can develop a pipeline of inspired kids who want to be part of the FRC high school program.

  • there was roughly one black student, and a handful of Asian students, in my graduating class of 600. Pretty reflective of Minnesota outside of the inner city around 1980.
3

As I stated in the other thread, I can’t for sure say that I’ve seen it in FIRST, much the same as I can’t for sure say I’ve seen it much outside FIRST in my area.

That being said, I’m not going to deny that racism exists. I’ve seen some of the lingering effects of two different “big” episodes from the past (and neither of those were against African-Americans, but denying that those two episodes are racism is rather foolish). As a matter of fact, some of those affected by the more recent one have been working to defend other minorities against going through the same thing.

4

Limiting to three years of mentoring one team and a bit over a dozen inter-team events, mostly FLL and FRC:

Institutional racism in FIRST, including events, teams, and sponsors: nothing to report.

Individual (face-to-face) racism in FIRST: very few incidents, none violent, none initially involving more than four individuals, and other participants in the event/team quickly made it clear that the behavior was unacceptable; I can’t think of any that had to be brought to the attention of event organizers. One offender quit the team, though I don’t know if this was the reason. The others corrected their behavior, at least as long as I was witness. One was between two minorities, the others were split as to whether the majority or minority race was the offender.

5

Race is a very touchy subject.

I am going to be brave enough to open up. I have faced too much retaliation in the past to not expect some knocks and repercussions. However, I apologize ahead of time if what I am trying to convey comes across wrong. I am trying to bring forth a positive path out of the mess we are all in. Please try to not be too harsh and keep in mind that I am trying to make things better.

Some things in my life that have happened that show how complicated the whole subject is:

I have both been helped along in life because of my skin color and hurt because of it.

I know for a fact that I was passed over for three public positions and wait listed for 2 ½ years to get into a police force (which I declined at that point as I had another career going by then) because I did not fulfill the court ordered racial hiring needs the public agencies were working under at the time. This is not guess work, I knew folks who were responsible for the hiring. It was not a personal attack; I just did not match the profile they had to have.

Flip side: I know also for a fact that I have been promoted over another individual based on my skin; More than once.

I have been both harassed by the police for coming out of a neighborhood that was of a different color
(I was dressed like a snotty little punk and the majority of those who were white in the neighborhood were there to buy drugs), and I have also seen black friends harassed in a different area when I was left alone.

Our differences should be celebrated. That means that ALL of us should not be prejudged on our skin tones, gender identity, biological sex, educational levels, economic status or even our zip codes.

Racism is ugly. It is real. We all have a problem.

People can be ugly. Sometimes it has nothing to do with race or gender, they are just plain mean. How does one know when it is race/gender/sexuality etc. driving the cruelty? Is there racist attitudes? Yes. Is it always about race? No. We don’t and this makes the situation even worse. It grates on me when one side says it is always racial and the other says it is never racial. Usually the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Regardless of how right a person is to be angry about what has happened I am always leery of angry people. It does not matter if you are in the right, if I see you as a threat to those I hold dear, my family, my friends, my children, or as it pertains to FIRST, the teens that I have been entrusted with I will be more reserved. I have to be. Acting different around someone sensitive to how you are acting does not help. This is yet another vicious circle we are trapped in. This is a huge stumbling block in communication and coming to any kind of understanding.

All I can do is my best.

If the automatic response is to tell me that I am too stupid to understand, or that there is no way that can ever “get it” then the conversation that is so very badly needed shuts down. Pre-judging someone on their skin color is the essence of racism.

This is a direct quote from someone close to the family: “We did not put our boot on their neck, but it is already there and they are trying to hurt us… so why would I let them up?”

Even though I disagree with this thought process on all levels, it is a common way to look at race relations from the “White” perspective. There is the ugly truth. What little I can do is what I do.

In my opinion our biggest challenge from any perspective is going to be looking for the positives in each other and letting go of the things that make us hold each other apart. I’m not perfect, far from it. At least I am coming to the table and willing to both share and listen to what is being said in return.

Finger pointing, victim blaming, divisive language and assumptions, and the incredibly destructive polarization that we are dealing with now needs to stop.

I wish I had the answers.

There is one thing that I can do. I can support anyone who wants to learn STEM. FIRST is not perfect, but from what I have seen so far it is by far better than anything else I have been involved in. Education and a route out of poverty is something that anyone who has done without should receive. Teaching is the most important thing I have done in my life.

Promote the youth. Give them the chance to live in a better world than we had. Give them every opportunity to excel. If someone tells you to re-examine your beliefs or methods then it is time to do just that. The most important messages I have received in life were not comfortable.

My pledge:
I will do the best that I can to be fair to all who I deal with. I will do my best to be non-judgmental, and the times when it is pointed out to me that I may have fallen short, I will do my best consider all that I am told and change as I can.

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The fact that a thread created for people of color to share their perspectives on participating in FIRST became a shouting match between differing white voices says volumes more about race relations in FIRST/STEM than any post in this thread can.

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At first blush, this makes sense. Looked at a bit harder - are you intentionally implying that because someone has an firmly held opinion worthy of defending, [s]he is guilty of something, or did that sneak in without you realizing it?

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I’ve lived in 3 regions now while being involved with FIRST - Indianapolis / Purdue, Philadelphia and St. Louis now. I can honestly say I’ve never witnessed anything that I would consider to be blatant racism in FIRST. I’m not naive to say it doesn’t happen - there are literally racists everywhere unfortunately. But I’d like to think the overwhelming majority of FIRSTers are just really awesome people that have a common thread of geeking out over sweet robots. I don’t care about your race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. I think we can all bond over our love of STEM and really cool robots.

I also realize that being an uber white middle-class person gives me a different perspective than others and I think the previously mentioned thread serves a purpose to give people a chance to just say whatever they want to say. I think we could all learn a little bit by just listening to what people have experienced - both inside and outside of FIRST.

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No, I’m pretty confident his entire point was about how white people felt entitled to speak their mind about racism in a thread that specifically asked just people of color to do so. The way I read the post, the entitlement to express that strongly held opinion in any venue they can speak, even if they have been asked not to, is itself problematic. It’s emblematic of a way racial issues are treated by people in FIRST - as an issue that people feel they have an iron-clad, rigid, inflexible understanding of and thus no need to listen to the actual people affected by it.

I’ve been avoiding commenting on this thread because I think in general we should defer to people of color when discussing racism in the US, but I just wanted to add that racism isn’t limited to overt and conscious discriminatory actions done by one person to another. Racism isn’t just a person using racial slurs, explicitly excluding people on the basis of their race, etc. People can perpetuate racism without malicious intent or conscious awareness. Racism is a societal level problem that people perpetuate, in small ways, every day, not a problem of just picking out a few bad (racist) apples from the bunch.

So while it’s great that none of you have seen any overt racism in FIRST on your teams (I mean, I certainly haven’t seen overt, explicit discrimination either), I would encourage everyone to look deeper than that, and try to find subtle ways in which you may be perpetuating racist ideas without even realizing it, or making an unwelcoming environment for PoC, or allowing problematic behavior from students, etc. This isn’t an easy problem to solve.

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For all of the white people commenting that you haven’t observed racism in FIRST, I invite you to question why that is. Is it because it doesn’t exist widely, or at all? Or could it be that we have an observer bias as white people, because whatever racism that does exist isn’t directed toward us?

The analogy for me is how I hear repeatedly again from men that while they may agree that sexism in STEM still exists on a greater scale, it doesn’t exist “here” (wherever here may be). Sure, they might not see it because it isn’t happening directly to them, but I see it because it happens to me.

White people can’t be an authority on whether/how much racism there is in FIRST. We can educate ourselves to become more aware of the existing problem, and we can serve as partners in overcoming the problem.

11

Or …
Our experiences and conclusions might match those of “PoC” Koko Ed (found here).

Would you write your message in reply to his post?

Is it OK to read what Koko Ed wrote, and then be annoyed by admonitions about assumed insensitivity, or other assumed failings?

Blake

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I’m glad to hear that Ed has had such good experiences in FIRST. I don’t think his post changes my point - I can’t accurately say whether or not racism in FIRST is widespread, or exists at all. I am not in a position to judge that.

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It doesn’t matter what your experience or opinions on this matter are. The thread EXPLICITLY asks for the experiences of people of color.

The test for whether or not you should post in the thread is very straightforward. It goes like this – “Am I a person of color?”

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Our team is centered in a diverse, urban school, and as a result, the representation on our team has been consistently diverse since it’s origin. We aim to promote inclusivity to people of any kind for our team, and look to do the same with the teams we mentor at other high schools in Minneapolis.

I personally feel that the whole idea of “Changing the face of STEM” should not only focus on gaining female involvement, but also focus on people of differing cultural backgrounds, economic classes, sexual orientation, etc.

FIRST is a life-changing program, and trying to do what we can to include anyone and everyone is a step in the right direction.

However, it is just as important to welcome diverse groups as well. I recall some pretty nasty comments said to one of the teams we mentor at a regional last year, and it’s that kind of stuff that turns people away from involvement in FIRST and STEM.

Diversity in FIRST is a mission we must all step up to the plate and take initiative on. Welcoming and encouraging diversity on the regional, national and international level is a step in the right direction. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Chief Delphi has a long history of people proclaiming expertise in areas in which they have little to no experience. Why should this be any different? :rolleyes:

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I accept your self-assessment; but… What you wrote was more about “white people” than it was about yourself.

My point is that no one is in a position to to pre-judge what any other individual knows or doesn’t know about racism within FIRST, simply because you know the color of their skin. Skin color is neither a necessary nor sufficient criterion.

Madison - See my reply to Smurfgirl - I wasn’t focusing on whether a person should or shouldn’t put a message into the other thread, I was attempting to disagree with her about a different subject.

Blake

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I haven’t seen outright racism, but I have seen socioeconomic disparities cause bias in how teams approach match discussions. Over the years I’ve learned to consciously be more inclusive, treating the underestimated teams like how I’ve learned to interact with introverts - sometimes with amazing results.

To be fair, somewhat, the OP says “POC” - which in many worlds means Point of Contact. I had to double-read it to interpret and understand what specifically was being asked.