Assumptions
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It’s Not the White Working Class That is Hurting the Most
by Ana Swanson | January 2017
President-elect Donald Trump was lifted into office by white adults over 25 without a four-year degree, who favored him by a margin of 39 percentage points. Their economic frustration and suffering are real, and white working-class America is a large group – 42 percent of the country. Yet month after month, economic data show that African Americans and Hispanics in the United States are, on average, in a worse position. Jobs data released last week put the white unemployment rate in December at 4.3 percent, compared with 7.8 percent for African Americans and 5.9 percent for Hispanics. “Even just looking at one month, we can say that the economy disproportionately has worse outcomes for workers of color,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Economics] [Systemic Racism] [Employment]
Turning the Lens- Seeing White
by John Biewen, with special guest Chenjerai Kumanyika | February 2017
Part 1 of a 14-part documentary series exploring whiteness in America—where it came from, what it means, and how it works. Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels new, but in truth it’s an old story. Why? Where did the notion of “whiteness” come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for? Listen to the Podcast or download the transcript.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [Podcast] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [2010’s]
Beware of Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: The Tale of A Progressive Professor Who Forgot To Hide Her Racism And Got Her Ass Fired
by Kayla Renee Parker | June 2017
She wears a safety pin so everyone knows she’s an ally for minorities. Her cover photo has a Black power fist. She regularly discusses her love for the Obamas, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and her admonishment for this current administration. However, I would soon realize that nothing would shake her more than a confident, Black woman contradicting her in front of a classroom of her own students.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Accountability] [Denial] [Systemic Racism] [White Defensiveness] [Black Lives Matter] [Silencing POC]
‘Black lives don’t mean sh*t’: Mississippi Valedictorian Denied Solo Honor Deluged with Racist Attacks
by Noon Al-Sibai | July 2017
Jasmine Shepard should have become the first Black valedictorian in 110 years at Cleveland High School in Mississippi. An amazing achievement considering that Cleveland, MS still has not fully complied with federal desegregation orders from Brown v. Topeka Board of Education. But Jasmine was denied this honor when she was forced to share it with a white student who did not qualify for it.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [Accountability] [Silencing POC] [White Supremacy]
White Supremacy Is Not an Illness
by Guest Poster, *Co-Authored by Christopher Petrella and Justin Gomer | December 2016
Those who continue to explain racial injustice through appeals to disease or illness implicitly reinforce a discourse that misdiagnoses the machinations of white supremacy. If we are truly to craft an antiracist politics capable of threatening the endurance of white supremacy, we must reject analyses and interventions that individualize social injustice by relying on notions of disease, mental illness, or deviance.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [History]
My White Friend Asked Me on Facebook to Explain White Privilege. I Decided to Be Honest
by Lori Lakin Hutcherson | September 2017
Yesterday I was tagged in a post by an old high school friend asking me and a few others a very public, direct question about white privilege and racism. I feel compelled not only to publish his query, but also my response to it, as it may be a helpful discourse for more than just a few folks on Facebook.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [Implicit Racism]
Let’s Stop Pretending White People Can Be Objective On Racial Issues
by Shae Collins | October 2016
Instantly, I thought, Was this a terrorist organization? Was this flight going to make it to its destination safely? Then I thought, Oh my God, I’m a racist! Shame on me. I’m a black, self-proclaimed feminist who writes about injustice, and here I am wondering if this man is a terrorist simply because he is brown, wearing a turban, and video chatting with folks that look like him.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [Individual Change] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts]
Boston. Racism. Image. Reality.
by Akilah Johnson | December 2017
Google the phrase “Most racist city,” and Boston pops up more than any other place, time and time again.
It may be easy to write that off as a meaningless digital snapshot of what people say about us, and what we say about ourselves — proof of little beyond the dated (or, hopefully, outdated) memories of Boston’s public and fierce school desegregation battles of the 1970s. You’d be wrong. More than half of people of color interviewed “rated Boston as unwelcoming.” The Spotlight team takes on our hardest question.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [Economics] [White Blindness] [White Culture] [Myths] [History]
‘Mudbound’ Has More To Say About Whiteness In America Than Any Other Trump-Era Movie
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]
Color-Blindness is Counterproductive
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]
Charlottesville’s First Black Female Mayor: ‘We’re Not a Post-Racial Nation’
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]
‘Irish slaves’: Historian destroys racist myth conservatives love to share on Facebook
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]
Racism: Why Whites Have Trouble “Getting It”
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]
For White Women Learning Calculus in a School Building on Fire
*Paywall Alert-2 free stories per month
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]
The Heresy of White Christianity
by Chris Hedges | December 2018
“When it became clear to me that Jesus was not biologically white and that white scholars actually lied by not telling people who he really was, I stopped trusting anything they said…” White supremacy “is the Antichrist in America because it has killed and crippled tens of millions of black bodies and minds in the modern world,” he writes. “It has also committed genocide against the indigenous people of this land. If that isn’t demonic, I don’t know what is … [and] it is found in every aspect of American life, especially churches, seminaries, and theology.”
TAGS: [History] [Assumptions] [Myths] [2010’s] [White Culture]
John Leguizamo Just Nailed the Hypocrisy of People of Color Having to Learn White Culture
by Matthew Rodriguez | July 2016
In a video interview with Big Think posted July 16, 2016, the 51-year-old award-winning actor and playwright spoke about the inequities of forcing people of color to learn white culture without white culture reciprocating.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [White Culture] [2010’s] [White Blindness]
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Introduction
Definitions
Facts
Maps
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History
Appropriation / Aggression
White Privilege / Supremacy
Public Displays
Performance Art
Workshops
Activist Resources
Dear White People
Being Allies
Reparations
Spiritual Foundations
Dear White People
Being Allies
Reparations
Spiritual Foundations
Public Displays
Performance Art
Workshops
Activist Resources
Assessment Tools
History
Appropriation / Aggression
White Privilege / Supremacy
Introduction
Definitions
Facts
Maps
Dear White People
Being Allies
Reparations
Spiritual Foundations
Public Displays
Performance Art
Workshops
Activist Resources
Assessment Tools
History
Appropriation / Aggression
White Privilege / Supremacy
Introduction
Definitions
Facts