Strategies

Click here to read these selected posts first

Accounting for Race; A New Way to Compare the Financial Health of Households in States

by Prosperity Now | January 2019
Headlines of national economic strength belie the reality that millions in the US are living in financial precarity. Even worse, families that are still recovering from the last recession will be the first to suffer from the next recession, which many analysts warn is around the corner. Because people of color, particularly Black, Latino, Native American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander people, live in a different economic reality than what oft-cited national data shows, we need to be honest about the impacts race and ethnicity have on economic outcomes. The exploration and acknowledgement of racial and ethnic disparities and their origins make our data clearer and our local, state and federal policies stronger. Solutions to our collective economic peril will remain elusive if we do not center the impact of race and racism.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [Economics] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Indigenous] [Asian] [Latino/a] [History] [Housing] [Denial] [Politics] [Employment]

New HUD Report Shows Continued Discrimination Against People of Color

by Mijin Cha | June 2013
People of color looking for homes are told about and shown fewer homes and apartments than their white counterparts. Earlier this year, we highlighted how the racial wealth gap tripled from 1984-2009, mainly due to structural barriers to wealth accumulation for households of color, including rampant housing discrimination that constrained where African-American families could live and restricted access to affordable home loans. A new report from HUD shows the extent of housing discrimination against people of color. The report found that people of color looking for homes are told about and shown fewer homes and apartments than their white counterparts. This type of discrimination raises the costs of the housing search for people of color and restricts their housing options.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [Housing] [Economics] [History] [Systemic Racism] [Denial] [Accountability] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [White Supremacy]

Black Kids Are Way More Likely to be Punished in Schools than White Kids, Study Finds

by German Lopez | April 2018
Whether and how a child is punished for acting up in school could depend on his race, a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found. The report found that black students in K-12 schools are far more likely to be disciplined — whether through suspension or referral to law enforcement — than their counterparts of other races. Charts show the topline finding, demonstrating that black children are overrepresented based on their actual population in the student body.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [White Privilege] [History] [White Culture] [Accountability]

US Police Killings: What the Data Tells Us; Exploratory Data Analysis on Police Killings from 2015-20

by Nadar Nibris | December 2018
In this article, we will analyze one of America’s hottest political topics, which encompasses issues ranging from institutional racism to the role of Law Enforcement personnel in society. But first, I have a favor to ask. For the next 10 minutes, let’s leave our preconceived notions of what’s true at the door. Prior domain knowledge is vital for making inferences from data. But if we build our statistical models based on preexisting beliefs, we are less likely to get to the right answers and more likely to ask the wrong questions. That was my schpeal on the Philosophy of Statistics. Let’s get started.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [Police Shootings] [Policing] [White Culture] [History] [Black Lives Matter]

The A-Z List of Black Inventors; This list of Black and African-American Inventors Have Certainly Earned Their Place in History. Let’s Take a Look at the Legacy of These Inventors.

by Christopher McFadden | July 2018
The following join the ranks of many great African-American inventors who have contributed greatly to society throughout the years. Many black inventors have struggled with hardship, poverty and, in some circumstances, slavery, to prove their genius to the world. The following are but a few of the many inventive and talented members of the black community in the United States. Many of the entries on this list are derived from the dutiful work of one Mr. Henry Baker who worked for the U.S. Patent Office between the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. At this time, the African-Americans had few rights so Henry wanted to make sure that some, at least, received some form of unofficial recognition for their contributions to society. This list is not exhaustive but is comprehensive and is in alphabetical order.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [Art & Culture] [History]

Racism Is Killing the Planet; The Ideology of White Supremacy Leads the Way Toward Disposable People and a Disposable Natural World

by Hop Hopkins | June 2020
…As I struggled to maintain my posture and keep up the rhythm, I thought about the level of commitment it takes to hold someone down for nine minutes straight. The realization horrified me. The cop who has been charged with murdering George Floyd had to have been deeply committed to taking his life. The police officer had so many chances to let up the pressure, to let George live. Yet the officer made the choice not to. To spend nine minutes taking the life-breath from another person: That is what white supremacy does to white people. That is what white supremacy does to the rest of us too. White supremacy robs each of us of our humanity. It causes white people to view Black people as less than human. Every one of those cops watching George die was convinced that the man pinned to the ground was less than human, was in some way disposable. During the street protests and marches of the past two weeks, many people carried signs that read “Racism Is Killing Us.” It’s no exaggeration to say that racism and white supremacy harm all of us, because in addition to robbing us of our humanity, racism is also killing the planet we all share.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Racial Terrorism] [Policing] [Systemic Racism] [Black Lives Matter] [POC Climate Action] [Advocacy] [Indigenous] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege] [Collective Action]

White Silence on Social Media: Why Not Saying Anything is Actually Saying a Lot

by Christina Capatides | June 2020
…”It’s a very painful kind of silence because it removes our voice,” she said. “It doesn’t allow us to express our very specific pain… No one would ever go to a breast cancer walk and criticize them for talking about breast cancer. You wouldn’t walk up to someone who has experience as a breast cancer survivor or someone who’s lost someone from breast cancer, and say, ‘How dare you talk about breast cancer? Why not talk about colon cancer? How dare you exclude other cancers?'” Rachel Lindsay, who famously broke barriers as the first black Bachelorette, said she is taking note of which white friends and public figures have gone silent. And she believes that, in the digital age, it is the duty of public figures to speak out.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Black Lives Matter] [“All Lives Matter”] [White Privilege] [White Supremacy] [White Blindness] [White Defensiveness] [White Fragility/Tears] [Systemic Racism] [Anti-Racism] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts]

How Racist Policing Took Over American Cities, Explained by a Historian; “The Problem is the Way Policing Was Built,” Historian Khalil Muhammad Says.

by Anna North | June 2020
Eugene Williams, a 17-year-old black boy, was stoned to death by white people in 1919 after he swam into what they deemed the wrong part of Lake Michigan. In response, black people in Chicago rose up in protest, and white people attacked them. More than 500 people were injured and 38 were killed. Afterward, the city convened a commission to study the causes of the violence. The commission found “systemic participation in mob violence by the police,” Khalil Muhammad, a professor of history, race, and public policy at Harvard Kennedy School and author of the book The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America, told Vox. “When police officers had the choice to protect black people from white mob violence, they chose to either aid and abet white mobs or to disarm black people or to arrest them.”
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [History] [Systemic Racism] [Policing] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism]

Huxley’s Adoption Story is Part of a Much Larger Narrative about Race, Disability and Abuse

by Lydia X. Z. Brown | May 2020
By now, you’ve probably heard about the YouTube influencers who made international news for abandoning their autistic child after adopting him from China almost three years ago. Huxley, originally adopted by the Stauffers, is one of thousands of children, many children of colour in the Global South who are adopted each year by predominantly white families in the Global North. Since his adoption – which was documented for YouTube in meticulous detail, including the fact that Huxley was disabled, the Stauffers have filmed numerous videos of him for their YouTube channel that they monetised and gained major corporate sponsors for producing. They filmed and posted videos that showed Huxley having meltdowns, which are terrifying, vulnerable moments. They are extremely emotionally, cognitively and physically draining for autistic people. They filmed and posted videos that showed Huxley with duct tape on his hands because his mother wanted to stop him from sucking his thumb. All of this is painfully familiar for autistic people, who routinely see nonautistic parents of autistic children exploiting and monetising their children for internet fame with no regard for their children’s autonomy, dignity, or privacy.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [Asian] [White Privilege] [White Defensiveness] [White Blindness] [Accountability]

CVS, Walgreens, Walmart Stop Locking Up Black Beauty, Hair Care Products

by Anne D’Innocenzio | June 2020
Drugstore chains Walgreens and CVS Health say they will stop locking up beauty and hair care products aimed at black women and other women of color, joining Walmart in ending a practice at some stores that has drawn the ire of customers. “We are currently ensuring multicultural hair care and beauty products are not stored behind locked cases at any of our stores,” Walgreens said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press late Thursday.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism]