conveyor
Please answer all components in order to earn full points:
A) What does the conveyor belt metaphor in your textbook tell us about the difference between active and passive racism?
B)
B) Where do you feel you are on the conveyor belt? C)
C) Which direction are you traveling?
D)
D) What changes would need to occur for you at an individual level to be “walking actively in the opposite direction at a speed faster than the conveyer belt”?
E)
E) What changes would need to happen at an institutional and societal level for this to happen?
The conveyor belt metaphor tells us that active racism is like walking fast with the conveyor belt and passive racism is like the people that just stand still and let the conveyor belt continue unencumbered (SUE et al., 2019)
. Essentially being passive is not taking any action to prevent racism and not actively walking faster in the opposite direction they are conceding to the white supremacist way (SUE et al., 2019)
. I feel that I am walking as fast as I can on the conveyor belt in the opposite direction, but I do not seem to be traveling in either direction. I will also admit that walking against a conveyor can get difficult and tiring at times and it feels with every step forward there are a couple steps backwards however perseverance will eventually win out. Changes that need to occur for me to individually to continue to walk actively in the opposite direction faster that the conveyer belt would be greater and quicker recognition of the institutional and societal racism. For changes to occur at the institutional and societal level would
also be recognition of racism inherent in the system from the community. Many times people feel they are one person and nothing they do will make a difference in such an overwhelming system but conceding to this is how it has always been and ignoring the consequences of not walking against the conveyor belt keeps the belt rolling. Reference:
SUE, D. W., Sue, D., Neville, H. A., & Smith, L. (2019). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice, Eighth Edition
(8th ed.). JOHN WILEY & Sons.
