Thanks so much for putting this question out there ('is Ithaca racist?', a poll on ICN web site) and for all that you do to get real and move towards race liberation/ending racism.

I feel compelled to give more than a yes or no answer to your question. Rather than say 'Ithaca is racist,' I would say "Ithaca is indisputably suffering from racism," and here is why I would say it that way:

'Racist' is a loaded, complex and confusing word. If asked "is Ithaca racist?" I would have to say absolutely, since it is plain as day that people considered 'white' have dramatically more control over and access to resources like good jobs, housing and healthcare, just to name a few biggies. There are only two explanations for this reality: a) 'white' people are superior and more deserving (white supremacy), or b) racism.

Now when most people say 'racist', as in 'is Ithaca racist?' they are talking about individual racism: bigotry against people of color, and racial prejudice/racial discrimination that favors white people, i.e. the tendency to consciously or unconsciously make positive judgments and discrimination that favors 'white' people (and thus disfavors people of color).

If people are thinking about individual racist attitudes and actions, it's a little harder to say "Ithaca" is or is not racist, since Ithaca is not one person or some monolithic entity. Ithaca is lots and lots of people, of whatever skin color or identity, who may practice a whole lot, some, or no individual bigotry or racial prejudice/discrimination that advantages whites and disadvantages people of color.

It would make more sense to me to separate individual from institutional racism. Are there individual acts of bigotry, prejudice or discrimination that happen in Ithaca? Of course, just like every city and it would be impossible to 'prove' that there aren't any. Where people could argue is who, where, how often, and what the impact is.

However, to me, the way to see racism clearly when looking at a whole city is not to ask about individual attitudes and actions (though obviously they have a real impact), but to look at 1) CONTROL: who runs the institutions that affect peoples lives, i.e. schools, businesses, social services, government, health care, police, courts, etc. and 2) RESULTS: is there an equitable distribution of resources like good jobs, quality of housing, infrastructure and services, positive media coverage, effective health care, etc.

It is very easy to see (and to document) that the people running the major institutions of the city, (with churches being a possible exception), from the top leaders and in many cases all the way down the line, are disproportionately 'white' people. It is equally easy to notice (and measure) that 'white' people have, on the whole, dramatically better housing, higher-paying jobs, more resources and success in the schools, better quality health care, etc..

If 'white' people are running, leading and owning almost everything in town, and also have vastly more and better access to most resources—both of which can be shown by objective measure to be true—then this is a crystal clear picture of racism—regardless of people's personal attitudes.

So Ithaca, and by that I truly mean the entire community, is indisputably suffering from racism. The only way for Ithaca to be free of racism, is for both of these things to change, i.e. all people have CONTROL over the institutions and decisions that affect their lives, and that we can clearly see by the RESULTS that resources are equitably distributed among people of all 'colors,' identities and culture.

What's more, many institutions and decisions that affect our lives here are controlled from outside the Ithaca community. Therefore, we need to either regain local control and independence and/or go beyond Ithaca to ensure that those institutions are not causing racist results, in order to truly eliminate racism in Ithaca.

What could be a more important or exciting project? Let's do it!

-Chris Somerfeldt