- Camara Phyllis Jones describes an allegory involving flowers in two planters. The allegory illustrates how hidden institutionalized racism can lead to apparent health and well-being differences on the surface. To address racism, Jones jokingly suggests that we could hold workshops for the gardener to try to persuade her to treat red and pink flowers the same (which would be like “cultural competence” training for the gardener). Following her joke, Jones writes that, “What we really have to do to set things right in this garden is address the institutionalized racism. We have to break down the boxes and mix up the soil….” (p.1214).
a. Identify a current problem resulting from institutionalized racism. Explain why the problem results from institutionalized racism rather than from “personally-mediated” or interpersonal racism.
b. Apply Jones’ gardening suggestion to an actual challenge created by institutionalized racism. That is, to address the problem you described in part a., what step would be equivalent to breaking down the boxes and mixing up the soil? - Affirmative Action is a social policy that asks employers and universities to take extra steps to recruit workers or students from under-represented, historically marginalized groups. Hence, Affirmative Action is a social policy that could be equivalent to giving extra fertilizer to the pink flowers in Jones’ story. Why do people object to Affirmative Action? Do people who oppose Affirmative Action want to maintain the disparity between pink and red flowers? Why or why not?
- Toward the end of the article Jones asks metaphorically, “How can we get the gardener to own the whole garden and not be satisfied when only the red flowers thrive?” What ideas do you have?
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