Do not merely quote words that make you feel good and do not challenge your thinking and actions. Do not tweet quotes that are nothing more than a Twitter performance when in actuality you have done nothing to support the causes that impact Black America. Do not use Dr. King’s quotes as a way to “check” Black America. Do not ask Black America, “What would Martin Luther King Jr. do?”… be reminded that Dr. King said: “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”… When you tell Black America, “Well, it’s the law,” be reminded that Dr. King said, “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was legal.”
My friends, what the Black Lives Matter movement is saying is that black lives are just as important as white lives, just as important — not more important, just as important. Why, why my white friends is it so very hard for so many of you to love us as humans with something of God in us? Why, why my white friends, is it so easy for so many of you to hate and want to do us harm because of the color of our skin? Why is it so hard for you, my white brothers and sisters, to get beyond just words and act in love for us blacks the same as each other? The Black Lives Matter movement is saying all human life should be treated with love and respect; after all, whether we like it or not, we are all God’s children and part of the human race.
Litany for Moral Monday National Day of Fasting and Focus
From the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
We see the violence of injustice.
We see the violence of racism against black people, Latinos, First Nations, and people of color.
We know this violence is a threat to all humanity and this yet-to-be perfect union.
We hear the cries of the poor and low wealth in a land of abundance.
Hear the call of God:
Examples of Microaggressions in the Classroom: Continuing to mispronounce the names of students after they have corrected you time and time again. Setting low expectations for students from particular groups or [geographic area]. Expressing racially charged political opinions in class assuming that the targets of those opinions do not exist in class.
Racism: -Racism is prejudice with the power to enforce it.
-Racism is prejudice backed up by institutional power, based on the belief that race is the primary factor determining positive human traits and abilities.
-Racism holds that genetic or inherited differences produce inherited superiority or inferiority…
Cultural appropriation also refers to a particular power dynamic in which members of a dominant culture take elements from a culture of people who have been systematically oppressed by that dominant group. That’s why it is not the same as cultural exchange, when people share mutually with each other.
