By Zeba Blay | November 2017
A person doesn’t have to be hateful in order to be racist. The new Netflix movie “Mudbound,” directed by Dee Rees, is an epic about race in the Deep South in the aftermath of World War II. It is also, in a way, about something that happened a few weeks ago. “The other day,” Rees told me recently, “I was in my pajamas getting ready to walk my dog in the building where I live.” A white guy, “trying to be friendly,” struck up a conversation. “Oh,” he asked, “are you with the dog walking service? Can I get your card?”
TAGS: [White Blindness] [Systemic Racism] [Assumptions] [2010’s] [White Culture] [-ing While Black] [Art & Culture]
by Adia Harvey Wingfield | September 2015
Many sociologists argue that ideologies claiming not to see race risk ignoring discrimination. How many times have you heard someone say that they “don’t see color,” “are colorblind,” or “don’t have a racist bone in their body?” Maybe you’ve even said this yourself. After all, the dominant language around racial issues today is typically one of colorblindness, as it’s often meant to convey distaste for racial practices and attitudes common in an earlier era. TAGS: [White Blindness] [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Politics] [History] [Systemic Racism]
by Lois Beckett | August 2018
An interview with Nikuyah Walker, an independent who ran under the campaign slogan “Unmasking the illusion”. She argued that Charlottesville’s Democratic politicians had failed to do enough to tackle systemic racism and economic inequality, and that it was time for a deeper change. Walker speaks to the Guardian about her policy agenda, what it was like growing up black in Charlottesville, and why she believes Democratic politicians “don’t know how to reform systems”.
TAGS: [History] [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Politics] [Economics] [Collective Action]
by Travis Gettys | April 2016
White supremacists have been promoting the myth that the first slaves brought to the Americas were Irish, not African — but a historian says there’s simply no evidence to back their racist claims.
Liam Hogan, a research librarian at the Limerick City Library, set about debunking the myth after spotting a widely shared Global Research article in 2013 and realized its potential for misinformation, reported Hatewatch.
TAGS: [Myths] [Assumptions] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [Slavery] [History]
by Greg Boyd | February 2016
Most white people I know sincerely believe they live in a country that is, for the most part, a land of equal opportunity that is mostly free of racism. Yes, we all see the occasional overt racism that erupts now and then in America, and most of us are genuinely revolted by this. But we tend to see these events, and the attitudes behind them, as rather atypical of America as a whole. And, yes, most of us white folks know at least a little bit of the shocking statistics of disparity in America (e.g. young black males are statistically more likely to end up in prison than to go to college). But given our operative assumptions about America, we whites often either refuse to believe these statistics or, more commonly, we find ways to explain them away.
TAGS: [White Blindness] [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts]
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by Jennifer Harvey | October 2018
Here we sit, with ever more evidence that massive racial failure on the part of white women is at the center of this political crisis. At the root of it all is our collective choice to not learn, prioritize, or consistently live in public antiracist solidarity with communities of color, and especially with women of color.
TAGS: [White Supremacy] [2010’s] [Assumptions] [White Blindness] [Accountability] [Implicit Racism]
