Individual Change

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The war on ‘microaggressions:’ Has it created a ‘victimhood culture’ on campuses?

by Fred Barbash | October 2015
Larry Mantle, a radio host in California was moderating a discussion last month at UC-Irvine on the fraught subject of “microaggressions,” words, though uttered innocently by white people, are said to deeply offend those who are less privileged when he made a big mistake: As he called on the first questioner, he asked “Where are you from?” That’s a standard question for talk show hosts. But the audience froze in silence, briefly and uncomfortably, before breaking into a nervous laughter. Katrina, the questioner, explained: “People are laughing because of the question,” she said. But she forgave Mantle. “I don’t need to take offense at that,” she said, “because I’m part of the privileged majority who don’t constantly have to put up with questions of where I am from.” Asking someone of color or any minority “Where are you from or where were you born?,” the guidelines suggested, could send the message that “you are not a true American. You are a perpetual foreigner in your own country.” The same for comments like “you speak English very well” and “What are you? You’re so interesting looking!” Saying to an African American, “When I look at you, I don’t see color” is a kind of “color blindness” that denies “the individual as a racial/cultural being.”
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [Colorblindness] [Microaggressions]

Making Sure That #BlackLivesMatter is Not about Your Need to #DoSomething!

by Brian Corr | June 2020
A few people have written me to say they struggled with one particular part of what I wrote in my last piece, …But does my Black Life Matter? Here’s what I wrote: “But always beware the temptation to choose which Black people to follow and then using your privilege to promote them.” …I am asking you to examine your own need for agency, to examine your desire to take action, to examine the entitlement and privilege that allows you to decide what you want to do and to examine all the life experience that tells you that you should be in charge — even as you “follow Black leadership.”
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2020’s] [Black Lives Matter] [White Privilege] [Accountability]

It isn’t Enough Not to be a Racist; Be an Anti-Racist

by Kelly Kirschner | June 2020
Similar to recorded killings of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, the only reason that this came to the public’s attention and outrage was due to the Herald-Tribune’s publication of a video recording of a SPD officer allowing an inebriated immigrant, Juan Perez, to climb out of a squad car and fall six feet onto his head, his hands handcuffed behind his back The officer then proceeded to kick the man and stand on him. It ultimately led to the firing of the officer, the resignation of the chief of police, the creation of a city police complaint committee and an independent police advisory panel. In spite of a history of other complaints of excessive use of force against the offending officer, he remained and advanced within the force prior to the Perez incident, which ultimately cost the City hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawsuit settlements and legal fees. Perhaps most disturbing, three years after the incident, a panel of Sarasota residents that included a former and current city commissioner board voted unanimously to reinstate the fired officer, giving him three years of back pay, in spite of the African American chief of police advocating that they ratify the officer’s termination, due to his dangerous disregard of protocol in caring for a handcuffed individual.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2020’s] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Slavery] [History] [Politics] [Anti-Racism]

How to be a Good White Ally, According to Activists; Three Experts on What it Does and Doesn’t Mean to be an Ally, Now and Always

by Emily Stewart | June 2020
There are good ways — and there are less good ways — to be a white ally right now. Do take cues from black leaders and create space for their voices to be heard. Don’t think a performative emotional post on Instagram about your knowledge of racism does the trick. Do not center your feelings during this time of social unrest — an uprising that’s about racist violence against black Americans. … “Allyship is language, and being a co-conspirator is about doing the work,” said Ben O’Keefe, an activist and former senior aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren. “It’s taking on the issue of racism and oppression as your own issue, even though you’ll never truly understand the damage that it does.”
TAGS: [Individual Change] [Black Lives Matter] [Anti-Racism] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [White Fragility/Tears] [Economics] [Policing] [Assumptions] [Advocacy] [White Supremacy] [White Blindness] [White Culture] [2020’s]

The White Privilege of Ignoring the News

by John Pavlovitz | June 2020
If there is evidence of privilege, that’s it: to feel so insulated from adversity, so inoculated from suffering, so immune from struggle, so unaffected by reality—that you could simply turn off the news, because the act feels inconsequential to your existence. It reveals that not only do you feel the events of the day have no tangible or lasting effect on you, but you’re blissfully ignorant to the way those events are painful, invasive, and even deadly to less fortunate people who lack the luxury of being oblivious; that soft, warm, intoxicating place you’ve chose to nestle down into while the world is burning.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2020’s] [White Privilege] [White Blindness] [Denial] [Accountability]

6 Things White People Say That Highlight Their Privilege If You Want to be an Ally in the Fight against Racism, Start by Acknowledging Your White Privilege. Then Take Action that Supports the Black Community.

by Kelsey Borresen | June 2020
…white people typically move through life unaware of all the head starts, resources and access the color of their skin affords them. They dog’t recognize these unearned advantages until they’re pointed out – and even then, some white people will try to deny the existence of their privilege. It should be noted that merely acknowledging your white privilege isn’t enough – but it is one small and necessary step toward taking action and wielding that privilege to help dismantle the systems that oppress the Black Community and other people of color in this country. We talked to educators, activists, therapists and professors about the things white people often say that highlight their privilege without them realizing it.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2020’s] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [White Fragility/Tears] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Colorblindness] [Policing] [White Culture] [White Defensiveness] [White Blindness] [Accountability]

The Truth about How Microaggressions Work; Microaggression as Social Control

*Paywall Alert
by Max Smith | June 2020
What is a microaggression really? I looked up the definition because I wanted to be sure I was clear. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it is: a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group (such as a racial minority).
In thinking about it, I couldn’t come up with any extraordinary examples. And maybe that’s the point: the everyday nature of microaggressions. How they seep into conversation and under skin…My advisor, who happened to be white and middle-aged, advised that I not get my hopes up about getting a white collar job, predicting that quite likely I would have to settle for a job as a waitress or secretary, and that I should take it as it would be my first post-college job, and might pay better than low-level white collar work.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2020’s] [Microaggressions] [Definitions] [White Privilege] [White Supremacy] [White Blindness] [White Culture] [Black Lives Matter] [Systemic Racism]

Here Are Concrete Actions White People Can Take to Fight Racial Injustice

“My call to action challenges white professionals to lean into discomfort and bring about change.”
by TaLona Holbert | July 2020
Every day of my life, I have experiences that infer Black inferiority and anti-Blackness. It is exhausting to wake up each day and convince myself and others that I belong, that my life matters and that I am capable, despite being surrounded by social, cultural and professional cues that suggest otherwise. No matter how subtle or seemingly innocuous signals of Black exclusion and inferiority are, they diminish Black people’s dignity and humanity, erode our identity as Americans, and reinforce decades of stereotypes and discrimination intended to cement our status as second-class citizens.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2020’s] [Black Lives Matter] [Policing] [Systemic Racism] [Confederate Monuments] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege] [White Fragility/Tears] [White Blindness] [Assumptions]

Teaching First-Graders about Microaggressions: The Small Moments Add Up

by Bret Turner | March 2019
For young children, learning the power of words, personal boundaries and social dynamics is a crucial part of their development. In my first-grade classroom, students are in the thick of learning to read and write. And just as actively, they’re learning how to communicate with others. They experiment with tone, diction, intent and body language with one another and with the adults around them. It’s an expected, developmentally appropriate part of learning how to coexist with others. Sometimes, as in the common cases of name-calling, teasing and excluding, that experimentation can be painful. Addressing unkindness is part and parcel of working with young students. But not all unkindness is the same. It can be particularly detrimental when the hurtful language relates to race, gender, religion or other aspects of a child’s identity. These are microaggressions: small, subtle, sometimes-unintended acts of discrimination.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [Microaggressions] [Teachers] [Implicit Bias] [Implicit Racism] [White Privilege] [Anti-Racism]

The False Promise of Anti-Racism Books

*Paywall Alert

by Saida Grundy | July 2020
Texts that seek to raise the collective American Consciousness are rendered futile without concrete systemic changes. …When offered in lieu of actionable policies regarding equity, consciousness raising can actually undermine Black progress by presenting increased knowledge as the balm for centuries of abuse. Executives at major corporations such as Amazon, for instance, have invited race scholars and writers to “help [them] unpack” such topics as the American justice system and how to be an anti-racist ally. Yet Black employees at many of these companies have pointed to the hypocrisy of in-house dialogues about race while practices like labor exploitation continue. In the form of hollow public statements and company-sponsored conversations, consciousness raising is often toothless.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [Collective Action] [2020’s] [Anti-Racism] [Confederate Monuments] [White Blindness] [Denial] [Accountability] [Implicit Racism] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [History]