Overcoming racism – Author says nation remains ‘hard wired by race’

By Elise Zwicky for Chronicle Media

David Billings, author of “Deep Denial: The Persistence of White Supremacy in United States History and Life,” speaks about the need to overcome denial of racism and white supremacy recently to large crowd at the Peoria Public Library’s North Branch. (Photo by Elise Zwicky)

Author and historian David Billings challenged an overflow crowd in Peoria recently to overcome their deep denial of racism and white superiority in America.

A diverse group packed the McKenzie room at the Peoria Public Library’s North Branch, but Billings, a white southerner and ordained minister, issued his challenge to the white people in the crowd.

“I wanted to talk to to other white people and urge us to push ourselves to get out of denial,” Billings said. “If you ask most folks what do you think about racism, they would say, ‘I’m against it.’ But that’s where it would end. They wouldn’t organize. They wouldn’t speak out. I realized white supremacy has become a psychological thing for white people, and there’s deep denial about that.”

Billings tackles that topic in his first book published last year, “Deep Denial: The Persistence of White Supremacy in United States History and Life.” He’s fought against racial injustice for 50 years, teaching workshops around the country called “Undoing Racism” as a core trainer with the New Orleans-based People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond.

Billings, 71, said he was told frequently that he should write a book, but the process was difficult until his brother-in-law, an Episcopal priest, told him to “tell the stories, but tell the truth. Make yourself vulnerable. And that is what I needed to start writing.”

Part history and part personal memoir, the book documents the 400-year racialization of the United States and explains why “we remain a nation hard-wired by race.”

“The book is my progression as an activist. This country changes when the people organize. You can’t educate racism away. You can’t legislate it away. You’ve got to organize,” Billings said.

Noting that the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups are extreme examples, Billings said  white superiority also exists in ordinary citizens who sometimes don’t even realize it and in the U.S. historical systems that gave white people social and economic power.

“Deep Denial: The Persistence of White Supremacy in United States History and Life” by David Billings was the topic of recent talks given by the author at the Peoria Public Library’s North Branch and Bradley University. Billings teaches workshops around the country called “Undoing Racism” as a core trainer with the New Orleans-based People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. (Photo by Elise Zwicky)

“Even as I’ve been motivated and obsessed, as some would say, with the race dynamic and questions, I still am in denial myself about all the things that I’ve internalized over all this time,” Billings said.

“Deep Denial” dissects history through Billings’ own experiences growing up in McComb, Miss., and what he’s learned as an activist against racial injustice.

“Everything in Mississippi at that time was about race: where you ate, where you shopped, where you went to church, where you went to school. Nothing was race neutral, so I grew up internalizing those things,” he said.

“I don’t know what people of color live with and struggle with in this country. Unfortunately, even when we don’t know, we’ll have an opinion about it,” Billings added. “We had 300-plus years of affirmative action for white people, yet we’re not told that. We grow up and grow old and say, “No one ever gave us nothing.’ Watch yourself now. Study history in order to understand just how much white people were given.”

Billings talked about how his grandfather was able to buy a home in Mississippi during the homesteading act that was part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency during the 1930s.

“If you were black or brown or red or anything other than white, you didn’t qualify. You could not purchase that land. It built our wealth and it kept black people still in poverty,” he said.

Billings believes it’s possible to end racism if the nation comes together against it, similar to how the country “set its mind to the eradication of polio when it was ravaging this nation in the early ’50s. We need to do the same thing with racism, but the nation has never committed to doing that.”

Asked during a question-and-answer period what kind of impact President Donald Trump has had on race relations, Billings said, “It hasn’t been good. (Trump) has said some things that have set us back many many years, and this country is in a dangerous place right now.”

At the same time, Billings said, it’s important to remember that most Americans are good people who care about each other, a notion that resonated with Carol Bennett-Barker, who works for the Center for Youth and Family Solutions.

“There’s so much work to do, but it’s always good to remember that there are a lot of good people out there and there’s a lot we can draw from each other,” she said after buying Billings’ book at the conclusion of his talk.

Sam Polk, 83, who’s active with the Peoria chapter of the NAACP, also bought a book, noting, “Denial is a big thing. Nobody wants to admit they’re racist. We have to wake up and come together. We all want the same things: food, shelter, clothing, healthy children who do well. We’ve been having these same meetings for many years. We’ve made some gains, but then we lose them. White folks have had affirmative action for years, but people don’t want to talk about that.”

Carol Bennett-Barker hands a check to author David Billings to purchase his book about the persistence of white supremacy in the United States after he gave a talk at the Peoria Public Library’s North Branch. Looking on with a smile is Portia Adams, director and associate professor of social work at Bradley University, which co-sponsored Billings’ talk. (Photo by Elise Zwicky)

Billings is hoping his book will help start those conversations.

“I just want to underline the importance of looking at personal denial. We have to start with ourselves,” he said. “There are people in your circles of influence that you could have a book reading with or begin a discussion group. You have to set some parameters because people go crazy over this race issue, but it is possible for us to put ourselves in a position of learning, and that begins to open up the world.”

Billings’ talk was co-sponsored by Bradley University, where the author gave a second lecture to a crowd of more than 220 students and adults.

“Deep Denial” can be purchased at the website www.deepdenialbook.com. For more information about the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, visit www.pisab.org. The organization will be holding its Undoing Racism workshop in Chicago in May.

 

Overcoming racism – Author said nation remains ‘hard wired by race’–