By Caitlin Froom
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
The rise of social media has made racism worse in America because it polarizes people and pushes them to the extreme, an award-winning journalist and best-selling author said during a virtual speech Tuesday.
Celeste Headlee, the co-host of the new weekly series Retro Report on PBS, said social media is not the place to discuss race because, scientifically, humans have not evolved enough to effectively communicate through the written word over the spoken word.
“Social media absolutely has its uses and is valuable in a number of ways,” Headlee said. “For human interactions, it is not.”
Headlee also encouraged people to have healthy, productive conversations without attacking the other party.
“Your goal is not to change anybody’s minds, and I say that because you won’t change anybody’s mind,” Headlee said.
People with such deeply rooted beliefs, especially regarding race, do not change overnight, she stated, adding that it takes self-persuasion to want to change behavior.
Headlee made her comments in a live online speech through Enoch Pratt Free Library to discuss society’s issues surrounding racism and the tactics to appropriately approach it.
Her speech was based on her book, Speaking of Race, where she combines research with her own personal experiences.
“We should never allow a racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic statement or action stand,” she said. “There should always be pushback.”
Each person’s predispositions are the result of unconscious biases, she said. Unconscious biases are judgments made without conscious awareness.
According to Headlee, it is human nature to have these implicit beliefs regardless of how fair-minded and inclusive people may view themselves.
“We all make assumptions about other people based on their perceived race,” Headlee said. “That’s the pernicious nature of this bias.”
She used an analogy by Beverly Daniel Tatum, an expert in the psychology of racism, to describe biases as the smog we all breathe in.
As a result, she said, minority groups experience microaggressions, or subtle forms of communication that reflect internal biases against minority groups.
It is important to address these instances, she said, but it is unlikely that one will have a productive conversation when people’s emotions are high. In that case, Headlee said she uses a system of interruption to halt the microaggression.
“You do stop, tell, assist, restore,” Headlee said. “You stop that microaggression, tell them that you disagree, you assist them and then you restore their humanity.”
According to her website, Headlee has worked in public radio for 20 years, serving as the executive producer of On Second Thought at Georgia Public Radio. She has also anchored several other PBS programs, such as Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition.
Headlee is also the author of the best-selling book We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations that Matter.
Being a light-skinned Black, Jewish woman, Headlee said she is no stranger to prejudice.
She recalled one experience when she was in church and someone asked her about her race. When she responded that she was part Black, the person replied, “Don’t ever say, ‘You’re part Black. What part?’”
“Why do people feel like that’s okay?” Headlee asked. “Why is it okay to meet someone for the very first time, a stranger, and then ask them what race their family is but then argue with them over what you think they should say?”
Putting it into perspective makes the whole situation regarding race ridiculous, she said, because race doesn’t exist, scientifically or biologically.
Despite the facts, biases still remain.
“It has been difficult to find a community of my own,” Headlee said.
Because of her skin tone, she said she has often not been recognized as Black. Nor did she try to pass as white, she said.
“Not only white people, but mostly, say things to me that they would not say if they knew what my background was,” she said.
As a result, she’s had to challenge and confront people on their biases.