Tackling Racism in Hartford

by Steve Nelson | November 2017
Are you saying that all white people are racist?” After a short pause … “Yes.” This exchange was between a white New York teenager and a workshop leader on racism. It is among scores of powerful moments in a film called I’m Not Racist . . . Am I?I’m proud that the Calhoun School, which I headed until last June, produced the film in partnership with Point Made Films, a leading documentary film company.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [White Culture]

We Can’t Train Our Way to Racial Equity

by Heidi Schillinger |November 2016
Change, reflection, and applied learning are values I strive to model in my own journey towards racial justice. This is one of my “show what you’re learning, not what you already know” moments of living the Color Brave Space norms. I now realize many mainstream organizations are approaching “training” as the destination for their racial equity work. This realization and discomfort are affirmed through employee surveys, where overwhelmingly the most common response to what their organization is doing to advance racial equity is training. Believing we can train our way to racial equity is fakequity.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [Teachers] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts]

Lifesaving Advice From a Black Woman Held at Gunpoint by Police

by Tonya Jameson | July 2017
As I stared at the officer nervously pointing his gun at me, I realized immediately what he saw: a black person who had no business being in his neighbor’s driveway. Former Charlotte Observer writer Tonya Jameson shows how she was screwing her new license plate into her new Isuzu SUV … before having a gun pulled on her by a Knoxville Police Department Officer.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [-ing While Black] [2010’s] [Policing] [Tips Dos/Don’ts] [Systemic Racism]

Attacks like Portland’s Will Keep Happening Unless We All Fight White Supremacy

by Arjun Singh Sethi | May 2017
Two men were stabbed to death in Portland, Ore., on Friday when they tried to stop their attacker from harassing two women because they appeared to be Muslim. Communities of color experience hate in every aspect of our lives. It braids through our daily existence, just like friendship, work and family. We encounter it in schools, workplaces and public life. And what we fear most is hate violence, the kind that was on full display in Portland this weekend.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [Collective Action]

Ohio Cop Who Fatally Shot Walmart Shopper John Crawford III Won’t be Charged

by Sebastian Murdock | July 2017
The Justice Department said it can’t prove the officer violated the slain man’s civil rights. Crawford, 22 picked up a pellet gun while shopping in the Walmart toy section, prompting a 911 call from a customer who wrongly reported he was loading a rifle and pointing it at children.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [White Privilege] [-ing While Black] [Police Shootings] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism]

When Black Conductors Aren’t Comfortable at Concerts, Classical Music Has a Real Problem: There’s a Reason So Few Black People Go to the Symphony

by Brandon Keith Brown (a black conductor) | February 2020
“Stepping out into society as a Black person is going to a party where you know you’re not wanted. Whether at work, school, orchestra concerts or the opera, we’re unwelcome, my darkness breaches its whiteness.”
TAGS: [Assumptions]  [White Privilege] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism] [2020’s] [White Culture]