a survey on anti-Black sentiments
Black lives matter.
To preface, the intention of this post is not to amplify my voice over Black voices. I originally posted this on my instagram, but have avoided re-posting frankly because there are many more important things to be read right now. However if you feel this is detracting, please contact me. One blog post, one “project”, one conversation will never be enough. As a Filipino-American, I have a certain set of privileges. For a while, and still now sometimes I feel guilty about that - but that should not lead me to inaction. I am still learning and will mess up, but that too cannot be an excuse for inaction. If you are reading this, please never think that the work you have done to be more anti-racist is enough. To treat all people with dignity, even in the smallest ways, must become an everyday part of our lives.
To keep this brief - after the death of Breonna Taylor and then the death of George Floyd, I listened. And I recognized a need for me to be more self critical, to understand the ways throughout my life I have, and continue to be racist and hold anti-Black sentiments. Only through knowledge of my flaws can I work to change them. So I talked with some friends and came up with an anonymous submission form, challenging people to reflect on their own anti-Black sentiments. My hope is that people can gain more knowledge on what to work on through self-evaluation, as well as through reading the responses of others and recognizing habits they have, reflected in those submissions.
For the rest of this blog post, I’ll be going more in depth into the survey. But please feel free to ignore my subjective opinion, and just read the results yourself by clicking here. If you’d like to take the survey yourself, go ahead. Again, as a reminder, being anti-racist is continuous work. There are much more important things to be read to educate yourself, so please consider this post just one very very small activity. This resource compilation is a reference for ways to be actively anti-racist, but I urge you to do more. I am currently (very slowly :/ )reading “Are Prisons Obsolete” by Angela Davis as my main focus outside Instagram and documentaries/movies. Any other suggestions? Let me know.
results of survey of anti-Black sentiments
Notes on the Data
I originally publicized this survey on my Instagram, and a few of my friends shared it around. The majority of respondents to this were Filipino and/or Catholic, as that is the majority of my social media network and I originally targeted this to Asian-Americans during APIDA Heritage Month. The majority of people were also mainly on the East Coast - this may impact results. ALL data, formatting, and aggregation are found on the same document as the dashboard below.
Summary of Findings
The most reported themes of anti-Black racism involved fear of those of a darker complexion and buying into negative stereotypes of Black people, apathy (choosing not to care about racism in the US previously, not worrying about things that didn’t personally affect me), and the use of racial slurs.
Some of the most common privileges identified were benefitting from the “Model Minority” myth, feeling safe when around law enforcement or just doing daily activities, and financial class.
Most respondents have posted on social media, taken steps to educate themselves, and have had conversations with others about racism/being anti-racist. Donating is not as prevalent, this may be due to the fact that a majority of respondents fall into the 18-24 age group, and many not have the financial means to donate now.
Results Dashboard
The dashboard can be found here is updated manually when I see new submissions.
Credibility
Survey maker: Frankly, this is not a research project by any means. I made this survey in a few days, and the questions are relatively simple. However, some data structuring and subjective, manual sentiment analysis was done to create the summary dashboard. With this I do think it’s relevant to note that I have a master’s in analytics and this did come in handy for the data structuring, light analysis, and visualization for the dashboard.
Survey responders: Everyone’s responses are their own opinion. I do not claim that everyone is on the same page in terms of recognizing their own biases, and that is evident through responses. It is important to take everyone’s answers with a grain of salt, but also understand that if they have taken the time to reply, likely they are at least trying to be more self-aware and work on themselves.
Conclusion
I can’t say this enough - being actively anti-racist is constant work. We must recognize the distinct privileges we have and use them to create change, within ourselves, our families, communities, etc. Please register to vote and educate yourselves on local government!! Seek out Black voices, listen to them, pay them for their work if you can, and support those in your community. We all have a part to play. I am still learning, and will continue to learn and act accordingly.
Recognizing our own flaws can be uncomfortable, that is necessary. We have to be okay with getting it wrong and open to people telling us so, and then allow that to push us to be better.
For all my Catholics out there, faith has played a large role in my understanding of the Black lives matter movement, both with the Church’s action and inaction. I will be putting out a more detailed post regarding that in my faith thoughts section, eventually.