What You Can Do To Combat Racism
Learn about your family's ethnic background.
Find out if your family name was ever changed.
Notice what ethnic groups are missing from your workplace, your neighborhood, church, and social groups.
Become aware of what assumptions you may have about other ethnic groups. Make a list of them and commit yourself to counteract or unlearn them.
Speak up when you hear someone making a racist remark.
Read books written about race and ethnicity in our country to broaden your understanding.
Get to know co-workers of different ethnic groups.
Form a lunch group at work that meets on a regular schedule to talk about racism.
Learn about the histories of other ethnic groups in the United States. Take a course at your local community college or university.
Become aware of how different groups have different holidays or even celebrate familiar ones differently.
Take an active role in refuting the denial of racism.
Think about why people find it difficult to talk about racism in an ethnically mixed group. Discuss this with others of your own ethnicity and those who are ethnically different.
Notice how people avoid talking about differences. Think about what this avoidance creates.
What does it mean to be different in your community. Talk to others about this.
Read magazines that are directed at ethnic groups other than your own.
Contribute time and/or funds to an agency, fund or program that actively confronts the problem of racism.
Learn how our economy's need for labor has affected our immigration policies.
Find others that are taking active steps to combat racism and become their ally.
