by Laura Frizzell, Sadé L. Lindsay, and Scott Duxbury | July 2018
If a news report mentions a shooter’s tough childhood, chances are he’s white. On Jan. 24, 2014, police found Josh Boren, a 34-year-old man and former police officer, dead in his home next to the bodies of his wife and their three children. The shots were fired execution-style on Boren’s kneeling victims, before he turned the gun on himself. On Aug. 8, 2015, 48-year-old David Ray Conley shot and killed his son, former girlfriend and six other children and adults at his former girlfriend’s home. Like Boren, Conley executed the victims at point-blank range. Both men had histories of domestic violence and criminal behavior. Yet despite the obvious similarities in these two cases and perpetrators, the media, in each case, took a different approach.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Myths] [Individual Change] [History] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism] [Policing] [Colorblindness] [Prison System] [-ing While Black]
by Michaela Winberg | August 2020
Penn, though a pacifist Quaker, kept several Black enslaved people during his time overseeing his colony — even as the practice grew increasingly unpopular among Pennsylvanians. The records that exist aren’t totally clear, but it seems as if Penn enslaved roughly 12 people at his Pennsbury Manor estate, which was located in what is now the Philly suburbs. These people were purchased off the first slave ship known to have arrived in Philadelphia, and were of African and Carribean descent.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [History] [Slavery] [Indigenous] [Quaker] [Systemic Racism] [Economics] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [Denial] [Accountability]
by Marguerite Ward | August 2020
Far more white people have benefited from US welfare programs over the years — reflecting their greater share of the population — while Black people and other people of color have been denied them in various ways, multiple historians and researchers tell Business Insider. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the underbelly of American inequality in many ways, with people of color disproportionately likely to be laid off, to be on the financial brink, and to die from the virus. That has helped prompt a growing chorus of financiers, business leaders, and regular folks to call for a reimagining of American capitalism and for moves to end racial inequality. Some top economists are calling for a “New New Deal” specifically targeting inequality, a platform to which the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden seems open.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [Accountability] [Economics] [History] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Denial] [Employment] [Politics]
by Emma Gray and Jessica Samakow | July 2015
#BlackLIvesMatter doesn’t suggest the other lives don’t – it’s about making sure black lives do. The same way men need to be forced to confront, interrogate and reckon with masculinity in order to address sexism, white people need to face their whiteness. And it is not the responsibility of people of color to educate white people about race. People of color don’t need to be taught that racism exists — they live it every day. It shouldn’t (and can’t) be on their shoulders to enlighten the rest of us. We have to do that for ourselves. Here are 11 things every white person who doesn’t want to be Part Of The Problem should know.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [White Blindness] [White Privilege] [Accountability] [“Reverse Racism”]
by Bridie Pearson-Jones | June 2020
THIS is what white privilege looks like. This is me, only one year ago on this very campus, running around the academic quad with a fucking sharp metal sword. People thought it was funny. People laughed- oh look at that harmless, ~ silly white girl ~ with a giant sword!! Today, a black man carrying a f**king glue gun shut down my ~prestigious liberal arts college~ for 4 hours. The limited information that was released put all black men on this campus in danger and at risk of being killed. That is the reality of institutionalized racism in the United States. If you think for even a second this wasn’t profiling, ask yourself why this sword is still in my room and has not ONCE made anyone uncomfortable. No one has EVER called the police on me. Understand that there are larger forces at play than this one night and this one instance of racism. This is ingrained in our university and our larger society. White Colgate students, we need to do better. #blacklivesmatter [sic]
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [Systemic Racism] [-ing While Black] [White Privilege] [Implicit Bias]
by Michael Harriot | October 2017
This is not about racists. This is about not-racists. You’ve seen them before: the special class of white people who say racist shit and do racist things but declare themselves the “least racist person you know.”
TAGS: [2010’s] [Assumptions] [Systemic Racism] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [White Privilege] [White Supremacy] [“Reverse Racism”] [Denial]
