Katie's Story

My name is Katie Laux. I joined the City's Racial Equity Advancement Team last month.

George Floyd was murdered a mile from my house, on a block I go by every day, a block from my toddler’s daycare. It was a wake-up call. One consequence of white privilege is that I don’t have to think about race. I have believed that I am exempt from white supremacy in a way; that I am an ally to BIPOC. I think this belief has prevented me from learning more and committing to lifelong work. I am honored to be a part of the REAT team and continue learning.

My grandparents were proud of their Scandinavian heritage and passed on many wonderful traditions to me and my family. They also benefitted from a system of white affirmative action for many generations. Though my grandma’s family was very poor and did not own land, my grandpa’s family came over from Norway earlier, and homesteaded in North Dakota. The Homestead Act that helped my family also gave 85 million acres of (Indian) land to other European homesteaders in the first 10 years.

My grandpa’s parents lost the farm in the Great Depression. My grandparents talk a lot about the hardships and hidden blessings of that time (like playing in the deserted town). Later, he (and many other members of my family) went to college for free on the GI Bill. I learned in a YMCA Racial Equity Workshop this year that the GI Bill is now considered the biggest transfer of economic advantage to white people in the history of this nation. Black GIs qualified for the scholarships, but almost no colleges would accept them as students, essentially making it a gift for only whites.

My family moved to Madison, Wisconsin when I was a young child. I grew up in a mostly white neighborhood, church & schools.

When I was a teenager, my mom’s elementary school (she was a librarian) shifted from being mostly white middle class students to poor Black students. Her new students often received their only food at school. She went through race & equity training in the Madison Metropolitan School District, and we had a lot of conversations about what she learned. Slowly, many of my mom’s teacher friends moved to other schools.

One of the biggest acts of racism I grew up with was a heartbreaking love story. My best friend was in love with one of our Black classmates all through high school, but her parents forbade her from dating him because of his skin color.

This story was hard to write because I thought about my family’s story in a way I hadn’t before. As a white woman, race shaped every aspect of my life from the moment I was born, but I don’t think about my own story about race – one of the benefits of a system that oppresses people of color.

I feel like I’m in a mistake-making period of this journey. And maybe will be for a long time or forever?! Making mistakes is hard. But the more I learn, the more I know. And the less unintentional harm I will cause with the goal of antiracism.

What has helped me learn the most so far has been reading books, learning the real history of the U.S., going to protests, and living in different cities and making friends with people from around the world and listening to their stories.

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