On my agenda for several months with my supervisor from a previous employer were my issues about race and ethnicity in our health care practices. I confronted issues such as “white” being the first category on all the forms when asking patients questions about race. White people were never identified as the priority or target patient population for our clinic to serve.  “W” is not the first letter in the order of the alphabets so “white” should not be the first category on any forms. Even if we used the word “Caucasian” on the form it would not be the first ethnicity on the form as defined by alphabetical order. My point to administration was that being “white” is indoctrinated as superior in our health care practices at the onset of caring for our patients. We are sending messages in our documentation that being “white” is more important and preferred over any other race. Of course, I won this argument and forms were changed immediately. I continued to challenge administration about issues of race and ethnicity in our heath care practices.

One day, my supervisor was sitting at her desk slumped over her computer wiping away tears when I entered her office. She immediately raised her head and allowed me to see her weary grimaced face, blood shot crystal blue eyes and reddish flushed cheeks.  My instant discomfort was an unintended consequence of her open door policy, and I was now trapped in her emotional reservoir. To overcome the discomfort, I allowed social norms to compel me to inquire about the reason for her tears even though everything in me strongly desired to retreat from the situation unsuspectingly to dodge this emotional encounter all together. I recall her telling me her gut wrenching story about personal issues occurring in her family life. I tried to console her by making empathetic comments about roles and values she and I shared such as being mothers, upwardly mobile career women, etc. I am glad I surrendered to engage with my supervisor in her moment of sorrow because the discussion sparked a curiosity in me that changed my world view.

After realizing that this emotional encounter with my supervisor was going to last longer than I bargained for, I put all the things I had on my agenda to talk with her about aside and simply surrendered to the moment. I attempted to be a friend and upgraded my efforts to help my supervisor by tapping into cultural messages of strengths that have worked for me and others I knew in similar situations. The messages of empowerment were based in the value of being “a strong woman”, “a queen of royal descent”, “a matriarch and backbone of the family,” “a survivor of slavery and oppression”, “a liberator of the people”, etc. These were empowering messages that I had in my treasure chest and have used on countless occasions to inspire friends and family. Even when I lose sight of these treasures and my chest seems empty, I have girlfriends, church, other ethnic minorities, and even strangers to talk to and restore my cultural credit line of empowerment.

These cultural messages were all ineffective with my supervisor so I boldly asked her if as a white woman she had inspiring cultural messages to help her overcome hard times. She said white people don’t have a sense of ‘community’ to get empowering cultural messages and expressions. She told me that there is no acceptable place where she can go as a white woman and be inspired based on simply being white. I am familiar with her Jewish and Irish background and the struggle and plight of these ethnically enriched immigrants in America.  I asked her if the Jewish community had cultural messages of empowerment to strengthen her.  She informed me that she has been unsuccessful in her efforts to maintain traditions and practices of her Jewish roots within her immediate family. She said it was a personal effort to maintain these traditions but not a ‘community’ empowerment effort. I inquired about her Irish background and received a similar hopeless response as well. I vividly remember leaving the conversation feeling sympathy and sorrowful for the absences of empowerment in her life.

While perplexed after the conversation I had with my supervisor, I took another look at those forms. I asked myself many questions. Why is “Caucasian” used as the single word to describe the ethnic identity of white people?  Caucasian is based in race science. Are we in essence bundling the ethnic identity of white people under race to undercut white ethnic liberation? Are white people being forced to subscribe to race as their only form of identity?  Why don’t we have Australian Americans, Antarctican Americans, South Americans, European Americans, etc. as ethnic categories for selection on forms? Isn’t the United States of America a land of immigrants? I had never felt sympathy for white people on racial/ethnic terms until after the discussion with my supervisor. I am unsure if white people have an ethnic identity and culturally empowering messages, but it was in that sorrowful moment after the discussion with my supervisor that I considered the possibility that white people may unknowingly have sacrificed ethnic liberation at the expense of the privileges they receive for being white in America.

In order for racial power endorsed through race indoctrination to work, a race perceiving themselves or being perceived by others as more supreme has to have an inferior race.  “White” at minimum has to have “black”. I inquired about why “white” and “black” are the only two “colors” on our forms in the category of race. Why are the other groups not color coded? They used to be color coded. I remember hearing about yellow, red and brown people. Where did it all go?

Ethnic liberation is based on the concept of freely embracing and honoring cultural differences of others through social learning.  It promotes appreciation and expression of one’s ethnic traditions, practices, and beliefs. Race indoctrination is the covert and overt codification that promotes racial elitism, power, control and oppression. The ideology of racial supremacy is kept alive because of it. It is my belief that race indoctrination cultivates a society of white privilege and superiority.

Imagine if white supremacist all sat down at the dinner table to discuss their families’ humble immigrant beginnings from various parts of the world such as Germany, Italy, Ireland, Russia, etc. I just can’t imagine that the fervent passion of being white and superior would withstand the enriching settlement stories of survival and sacrifice to achieve the American dream.

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