Racism and Nonprofit Work

This morning I got up before sunrise to scrape the frost off my car (really?!) and take photos of the opening ceremonies for two Habitat for Humanity homes. As always, it was a fun experience, and after a quick nap when I got back, I went right to editing my photos. Then I noticed that my camera is racist! I'm teasing, of course, because it's not a conscious entity, but darker-skinned people are never exposed properly in Automatic mode. My camera sets the light meter for the fair-skinned people in the photo, leaving the darker-skinned almost completely shadowed. When I switch to manual and expose properly for dark skin, the fair-skinned people still show up fine, so it's not as if the exposures are mutually exclusive. I honestly think the camera does not recognize dark skin as being an important part of the photo.

For once, this isn't the result of European-American racism. Presumably, since my Nikon was designed in Asia, the developers created light metering that would properly expose the faces of those around them. Asians have fairer skin, so it makes sense that the designers just didn't think about the possibility of other races being present in the photos. I'm not saying it was conscious racism on the part of Nikon, but it's just another example of people forgetting about the diversity of the world. That's why I love what I do - it reminds me that everybody is different!

I really think that the lack of interaction between people from different cultures is the main reason that racism still exists. I listen to 107.5 in Columbus a lot because I enjoy the music, and apparently it is a radio station marketed toward African-Americans. When my roommate first asked why I was listening to "black radio," I argued that it's just an R&B and hip-hop station, but after sitting through a few of the talk radio segments, I've admitted that they definitely have a targeted audience.

Anyway, I was listening to the hosts discuss crime problems in the African-American community, and someone called in to comment on the motivations of the state to maintain its criminal justice system. She had a lot of really good points, but she happened to yell all of them. It made me realize that one of the (many) disconnects between cultures is this method of speech. Most European-Americans listening to her would dismiss the monologue as a crazy rant, because that is the tone they would use to rant crazily. But for many African-Americans, that is just a normal intense or excited tone of voice. This makes it hard for the two groups to listen to each other without bias. Perhaps because I come from a culture of "outside voices" also, that is why I feel more comfortable with diverse groups of people. On the other hand, I tend to frighten recent immigrants because of the loud voice! You win some, you lose some.

I hope this post wasn't too dry for you. I was actually thinking of posting next about budgeting, since someone was asking how I am able to live on less than $10,000 a year, but please comment if that would just be too much boring for one weekend.