by Brando Simeo Starkey | May 2017
A few years ago, I read slave narratives to explore the lives of black agricultural workers after the end of the Civil War. The narratives came from the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration, a program that employed researchers from 1936 to 1938 to interview former enslaved people, producing more than 2,300 narratives that, thankfully, reside online and are fully searchable.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [Slavery] [Civil War] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [Definitions]
(posted) by Paula M. Fitzgibbons | Date Unknown
Black history month is about so much more than slavery, but in the U.S., Black history and slavery are inseparable. And sadly, many of us still don’t have an adequate education on the topic. I’m always flabbergasted when I hear people say that Black Americans need to “get past” slavery. “It wasn’t us,” they say. “That happened hundreds of years ago. Get over it already.” It’s clear to me that these people don’t fully grasp the horror of American slavery, how long it lasted, and what happened after it. They also don’t seem to understand how severe trauma works.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [Slavery] [Black Lives Matter] [Systemic Racism] [White Fragility/Tears] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [White Defensiveness] [White Blindness] [Social Justice] [Racial Terrorism] [Silencing POC] [History] [Denial]
by Sue Gleiter | January 2021
Among the issues touched upon during the more than 2 1/2-hour meeting were affordable housing, the criminal justice system and schools, as well as the possibility of creating a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. “This is a first step. This is just opening the door to the conversation and it needs to be more than conversation and we need to actually do something,” said Deb Fulham-Winston, council member. “We need to understand it and we need to give people the time and the space to be able to bring their concerns to light,” she said.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2020’s] [Social Justice] [Housing] [Justice System] [Teachers] [Anti-Racism] [Economics] [Advocacy] [Implicit Racism] [Policing]
by Coshandra Dillard | Fall 2020
Typically, the weaponization of whiteness happens this way: There is a demonstrated sense of entitlement, anger and a need for retaliation, feigned fear and, finally, white fragility. It’s easy to recognize this pattern when it’s caught on video. We can observe for ourselves racial slurs, exaggerated fear and the privilege of whiteness forcefully taking up space. But when we publicly shame white people caught on video or demand severe penalties for their transgressions, we are individualizing racism rather than seeing how it can easily manifest in any white person because of how whiteness works in our society.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2020’s] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [White Fragility/Tears] [Systemic Racism] [Teachers] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Black Lives Matter] [-ing While Black] [White Defensiveness] [Calling Police] [Economics] [Assumptions] [Individual Change] [Latino/a] [Accountability] [Policing]
by Angie Franklin | February 2021
We all knew it was coming. I’d venture to say every single Black person in America not only knew it was coming but was actively waiting for it to happen. After the black square badge of anti-racism, the allyship die-off was not surprising, nor was it a new experience for us. What was new was Black Lives Matter and social justice going viral. All of a sudden people gave a fuck about us — or acted like they did — because it was trending and the perception of white people teetered on whether they showed public support for Black lives. … Few people are willing to consistently rub against the grain, bring up conversations about race with family, speak up for co-workers, step back or resign when a BIPOC person is more qualified, or question the status quo. Maybe they could do it for a week, or a few weeks, but six months later? Apparently not. The ghosted allies are those who spoke out against police brutality and murder, posted videos protesting in the streets, shed tears in their stories, followed as many Black accounts as they could find. This group was, for a moment, utterly shook by the reality of racism. But what they didn’t realize was their bewilderment — their shock — in waking up to what Black people go through every day in this country and have for hundreds of years was what added a real insult to injury.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2020’s] [Social Justice] [Black Lives Matter] [White Fragility/Tears] [White Defensiveness] [White Privilege] [Advocacy] [White Supremacy] [Anti-Racism] [Policing] [Microaggressions] [Denial] [White Blindness] [Accountability]
by Jeffrey R. Young | February 2021
Dena Simmons, a prominent researcher of social-emotional learning, resigned from Yale University’s Center for Emotional Intelligence last month due to what she calls a pattern of behavior by some colleagues that left her feeling “tokenized, undermined and bullied.” The final straw for Simmons happened in June, during an antiracism town hall sponsored by Yale’s Child Study Center. Several people Zoombombed the event, yelling and typing racial slurs into the chat directed at Simmons. She quickly logged out of the forum, but colleagues encouraged her to return, and after she did, more unidentified participants attacked her with further racist comments.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2020’s] [Silencing POC] [Systemic Racism] [-ing While Black] [Black Lives Matter] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Social Justice] [Advocacy] [Teachers] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Indigenous]
