Times-Herald (Vallejo)

Professor pens book about racism

Boise State’s Anderson also cuts new song

- By Richard Freedman rfreedman@timesheral­donline.com

It was three, perhaps four years ago. Dr. Keith Anderson saw the writing on the wall. And it wasn’t good.

“We were headed for trouble,” said Anderson, a 1974 Vallejo

High School graduate in his 25th year teaching at Boise State University.

“And two years ago, it started to elevate, this race situation in this country,” he said.

Because of the recent civil unrest, Anderson expedited his new book, “From Racist to Non-Racist to Anti-Racist: Becoming Part of the Solution”, releasing it last week via Amazon.com.

“I want people to be aware of all the things surroundin­g this problem,” Anderson said by phone. “It could have been twice as long, but I wanted it to be an easy ready. Someone can read it in a day.”

The problem, Anderson said, “is that we can’t get people off the melancholy. The people who are not racists, but are not doing anything to rid this country of racism. Maybe they don’t know if

just ‘not being racist’ isn’t healthy. It’s like watching someone get beat up and say ‘I’m not violent.’ I want to show them the difference between the three — racist, non-racist, anti-racist.”

The paperback includes exercises so “people can look at themselves” and, hopes Anderson, “inspires people to want to learn more.”

Racism, as defined by the People’s Institutio­nal Organizati­on in New Orleans, is “race prejudice plus power,” Anderson said.

“You have to have power to perpetuate racism,” the professor said. “If you have no power, all you have is a jerk. Right now in America, if you are a white person and say ‘I’m being accosted by these people of color,’ you can call the police. That’s power.”

Anderson was one of the few Blacks in Boise when he arrived as a student/athlete with a football scholarshi­p. Football, he said, “was mostly my sanctuary. When it came to football, it was all about what you can do from playing Pop Warner in Vallejo or Vallejo High School to Boise.”

Any racism Anderson experience­d at Boise, he said, was off the football field.

“I remember jogging from my friend’s house to the football stadium a couple of miles. The next thing I knew, I was surrounded by policemen with guns drawn. They said I looked like someone they were looking for,” Anderson said.

As it turned out, “they were looking for a friend of mine,” Anderson said. “They said I looked like the guy. I’m 6-foot and was 210 pounds and my friend’s 6-4.”

Back then, Boise’s football team was maybe 20 percent Black. Now it’s 70 percent Black, said Anderson. In the 2010 census, Boise was 89 percent white and 1.5 percent Black.

“Boise’s racism is more covert than overt,” Anderson. “It used to be big-time.”

Part of it is “thinking that stereotype­s are true,” said Anderson, a Boise resident since 1977. “People are not educated properly.”

Racism isn’t just about the Blacks, Anderson notes in his book. There were the Japanese internment camps. And Chinese-built railroads. And the taking of Native American’s land.

“We need people to understand there’s a pattern,” Anderson said.

“Racism never gets fixed because whites in power have been able to convince poor whites that people of color are the reason they are in the financial and so

“You have to have power to perpetuate racism. If you have no power, all you have is a jerk. Right now in America, if you are a white person and say ‘I’m being accosted,’ you can call the police. That’s power.”

— Dr. Keith Anderson, Boise State professor

cial predicamen­t they’re in,” he said. “Racism never gets fixed because White America doesn’t invest in ridding America of racism. The bottom line is racism never gets fixed because people do not understand that racism was perpetrate­d on purpose, therefore it must be un-done on purpose. Racism isn’t just going to go away because of a moving speech. It will take love, desire, money and white people willing to take a backseat (until they acquire real knowledge) to people of color, in regards to moving people from racist to non-racist to anti-racist.”

Anderson, 64, said the Black Lives Matter movement “is overdue,” after he witnessed numerous protests in the 1960s living in Vallejo.

“I’m all for protesting in a non-violent way,” he said. “Either you put a Band-Aid on a bullet wound or you start doing some surgery. The surgery’s going to hurt, but we’ll be better for the surgery then just putting on a Band-Aid.”

It’s not just racism happening, says Anderson.

“We have many important social situations going on in America,” he said. “People are dealing with health care issues. People are becoming aware that the top 1 percent of Americans own 90 percent of America’s wealth. Americans are realizing that the American Dream has all but disappeare­d.”

Complement­ing “From Racist to Non-Racist to Anti-Racist,” Anderson also unveiled a new recording with the title track, “Never Left to See.”

“It talks about that if we keep going the way we’re going, everything is going to be messed up,” Anderson said.

Though it’s a tough time right now in America with civil unrest and a pandemic, the professor sees a light.

“America seems to roll up its sleeves during catastroph­es,” he said. “Maybe we need this. Seems like nothing gets done unless there’s turmoil.”

 ?? COURTESY PHOTO ?? Boise State University professor Dr. Keith Anderson, a Vallejo native, delivers numerous speeches on social subjects.
COURTESY PHOTO Boise State University professor Dr. Keith Anderson, a Vallejo native, delivers numerous speeches on social subjects.
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