light as a feather...

I never realized until recently just how deeply a current of internalized institutional racism runs through some liberal organizations.

The analogy which makes the most sense to me is to the party game of "light as a feather, stiff as a board". I've never actually played the game, but from what I've heard, what happens is that in a group of about 20 people or so, the lightest person in the room would lie on the floor, flat on their back, "stiff as a board". Everyone else would kneel down around this person and each would place a single finger underneath the person's body and as a group chant "light as a feather, stiff as a board" over and over again, while gently lifting the person. And if there are enough people then the work can be divided by so many people that it almost feels like they are levitating the person with little or no strain.

If you have a large enough community or organization where many of the members are unconsciously a "little bit" racist, the effects can still add up. You can have a system where each individual is unaware of the ways in which they contribute to the problem, but still, everyone does their part to make the system hard to change.