50 STEPS TO END

RACISM

Bellingham doctor hopes his book will empower people to make a stand against discrimination

By Aly Colon

Seattle Times staff reporter

On the day after the first trial involving the Rodney King beating, Clyde Ford became acutely aware of a stark contrast.

He stood on a quiet streets of Bellingham, gazing at the calm waters of Puget Sound and the serenity of Mount Baker. But just before that moment, he had been watching television, seeing people die in Los Angeles as riots ripped the city and its residents apart.

“I had to ask myself,” said Ford, an African-American, ‘What am I doing here?’”

Then he turned to some white friends who were walking with him. He asked them a question: If there were five things they could do to make a difference in ending racism, what would they be? He received no response. Later he also asked the same of his African-American friends. Again, no answers.

“There was a sense of powerlessness,” Ford said.

That feeling fueled his desire to do something that would help others feel empowered when they dealt with racism. He wrote a book. It’s entitled “We Can All Get Along” with the subtitle: “50 Steps You Can Take to Help End Racism At Home – At Work – In Your Community” (DTP, Dell Publishing, $9.95).

“The idea of the book is a call to personal action …. (It) was written to empower people in how they can make a difference regardless of where they are in life,” Ford said.

The 195-page book is not a panacea, he added. But it does serve as a beginning step.

Its 50 chapters tackle different issues. The sections of the book move from the individual to the family to the community to the nation to the world.

Each chapter includes a short essay on an issue, such as “The Problem of Racism,” or “Raising Children with Nonracist Beliefs.” They’re written in an action-oriented format that offers steps to take and resources to use.

“The book moves the discourse off focusing on the problem only and on to dealing with action we can take to solve the problem,” he said.

In order to write the book, Ford said he drew upon personal experiences growing up as an African-American, working for IBM, and becoming a doctor of chiropractic medicine and a psychotherapist. He’s also the founder and current executive director of the Northern Puget Sound branch of the NAACP.

Some early experiences in his life served as catalysts for his lifelong battle against racism. When he was 11 in 1963, he recalls that his family drove south from New York for a visit with family in Virginia. They stopped somewhere just south of the Mason-Dixon line in Maryland. They were refused service.

“My mother turned to my father and said: This is the place to take a stand,” he said remembering the seriousness of his parents’ voices.

The next year they were down there his parents told him: “We’re boarding a bus and going to D.C. to march for your future.”

In 1968, he had another experience that left an impact. Having just graduated from high school, he went to West Africa. He visited CapeCoast in Ghana.

“I could walk on the rustic remains of the slave chains. It was almost as if I heard voices. They were saying: ‘Whatever you do in life, make it count for us.’ It was an experience I drew upon to help write this book.”

Personal, individual action becomes paramount if we want to make a difference, Ford noted.

“As a country, we look for answers from on high. By looking outside, we wait for solutions that never arrive. When people lead, leaders follow,” he said.

INDIVIDUAL ACTION YOU CAN TAKE

Here are some excerpts from Clyde Ford’s book:

“The problem of racism:”

  • Learn more about racism and how it affects people.
  • Commit yourself to taking steps to eliminate racist language or assumptions in yourself, your family, your community, the nation and the world.

“Get to know the changing face of racism:”

  • End any denial you have about the existence of racism. Racism is alive.
  • Support the efforts of organizations monitoring the activities of racists groups.

“Avoid using the word race:”

  • Replace the word race in your vocabulary with another term like ethnic group, ethnicity, cultural background, nationality, or human variation when speaking about differences among human beings. The term race is loaded with a history of fiction, conflict, violence, and racism. Defuse this racism by discarding this outmoded term.

“Reclaim your personal history:”

  • Learn as much as you can about functional and dysfunctional human relationships (read, rent a video, attend a workshop).
  • Get professional therapeutic help to work with unresolved personal issues.

“Release the stereotypes you have of others:”

  • Acknowledge your stereotypical views. Verbalize your stereotypes to yourself. Own your projection so you can realize how the stereotype you hold may stem from your own view of yourself.

“Use humor that helps, not human that hurts:”

  • Determine not to tell ethnic jokes in which a minority is demeaned.
  • Let people know you’re not interested in hearing demeaning ethnic jokes.
  • Create jokes that counter racism.
  • Find the nonracist humor in ethnic differences: For example, its ironic that many people with light skin and straight hair discriminate against people with dark skin and curly hair, then turn around to spend great sums of money darkening their skin in a tanning parlor an curling their hair at the hairdresser.
  • Listen to the humor of other ethnic groups with care and sensitivity.
  • Use the proverbs and witticisms of other ethnic groups. Learning and using a wisdom tradition different from our own can help penetrate the barriers of racism.
  • Examples of anti-racist humor:

What’s the difference between a racist and a fish. One is wet and slimy, the other is a fish.

Why are most racially prejudiced jokes one-liners? So racists can understand them.

“Use your personal computer:”

  • Join a computer network where people strive to eliminate racism.
  • Join an issues forum and discuss eliminating racism with people throughout the world.

ACTION YOUR FAMILY CAN TAKE

“Raising children with nonracist beliefs:”
  • Demonstrate acceptance for your child’s need to be separate and unique.
  • Discuss ethnic differences.
  • Celebrate diversity instead of color-blindness.
  • If your child comes home expressing prejudicial feelings, don’t panic. He or she may be trying to cope with a new and unexpected situation… Gently and consistently reinforce tolerant attitudes over racist attitudes.
  • Help your child learn how to handle prejudice.
  • Expose your child to positive images of all ethnic groups at a very early age.

“Find unity in spiritual diversity:”

  • Visit the worship service of different ethnic groups with your family.
  • Involve children in more than just the spiritual beliefs of other ethnic groups. One church in New York City had its Sunday school classes take a month to study each of the world’s great religions.

The Seattle Times, March 14, 1994