by Ashleigh Shackelford | November 2015
This Black Girl Attitude phenomenon lies within the idea that Black girls, women, and femmes are inherently angry, bitter, unrelenting, and a threat to functioning institutions and spaces. In understanding that this is how I’m seen, I do not intentionally align my presentation, navigation, or performance as a Black girl in a way that embodies the opposite of the stereotypes codified upon my existence within white supremacist patriarchy. Black girls are scripted as angry, bitter, ungrateful, savage beings that are denied the ability to be seen as dimensional or nuanced. So when a Black girl like me is walking around, existing, not forcing myself to assimilate to this politicized idea of ‘approachability,’ I am in direct affirmation of society’s idea of black femininity’s abrasive nature.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [Microaggressions] [White Culture] [Systemic Racism] [Implicit Racism] [Implicit Bias] [Accountability] [White Supremacy]
Resource Links Tagged with "2010’s"
White Niceness as the Enemy of Black Liberation
by Elle Dowd | January 2018
“White people love niceness, but we fail to see that our ideas about polite society are not very nice at all. They serve instead to preserve a system that is criminalizing people of color and dehumanizing white people with our callous indifference. They act to protect institutions built on killing the bodies of people of color to the detriment of our own souls. We say we value niceness, but what we really value is being in charge of what that looks like and when it’s appropriate, by our own standards. We value control.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [“All Lives Matter”] [Systemic Racism] [Black Lives Matter] [Accountability]
White People: Which Side Are You On?
by Karen Fleshman | June 2017
White People: Which Side Are You On?
I realized just recently that my original stomping ground was a “sundown town,” a place where people of color could not rent nor own a home, much less stay in a hotel. Sundown towns were as American as apple pie, omnipresent in this country until the 1960s, when federal law made their ordinances and practices illegal.
The law changed. Residential patterns, and mindsets, did not. De Facto. Instead, the problem — the phenomenon — shifted, took on a different shape to accommodate present conditions.
TAGS: [History] [Collective Action] [Assumptions] [2010’s] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism]
A Brief History of Slavery and the Origins of American Policing
by Victor E. Kappeler, Ph.D. | January 2014
The institution of slavery and the control of minorities, however, were two of the more formidable historic features of American society shaping early policing. Slave patrols and Night Watches, which later became modern police departments, were both designed to control the behaviors of minorities. For example, New England settlers appointed Indian Constables to police Native Americans (National Constable Association, 1995), the St. Louis police were founded to protect residents from Native Americans in that frontier city, and many southern police departments began as slave patrols. In 1704, the colony of Carolina developed the nation’s first slave patrol. Slave patrols helped to maintain the economic order and to assist the wealthy landowners in recovering and punishing slaves who essentially were considered property.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Slavery] [History] [Policing] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism]
The Death of Natasha McKenna in the Fairfax Jail: The Rest of the Story
by Tom Jackman | April 2015
The Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team regularly records their operations, and the Fairfax County police have said there is video of the “extraction” of McKenna. This presumably would include her being hit with four Taser shocks after she was handcuffed behind her back, shackled around the legs, a hobble strap connected to both restraints, and a spit mask placed over her face. The police, who are investigating the case for any possible criminal violation, have declined to release the video while the case is still under investigation. When it does come out, it may well join the growing canon of video of fatal law enforcement actions which has shocked the country.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Policing] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [Accountability] [White Privilege]
Minneapolis Police Leader Defending George Floyd’s Killers Tried to ‘White Power’- Linked Biker Gang
by Sarah Lazare | June 2016
– Lt. Bob Kroll stands accused of wearing “white power” badge and brutally beating people of color. The head of the Minneapolis Police Officer’s Federation has claimed that activists from the city’s Black Lives Matter movement comprises a “terrorist organization.” But a closer look at Lieutenant Bob Kroll’s record indicates that he is the one who poses a danger to the public, with a past marred in accusations of racist violence and attitudes, including charges from fellow police officers that he once wore a “white power” badge on his motorcycle jacket.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Black Lives Matter] [Policing] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism] [Accountability] [White Privilege]
Body-Cam Footage Shows Georgia Cops Tased the Wrong Man within 38 Seconds of Meeting Him
by Bonnie Kristian | July 2016
When several Savannah, Georgia, cops approached 24-year-old Patrick Mumford, they were looking for another African-American man named Michael Clay. And though Mumford identified himself as “Patrick” when asked for his name, body camera footage from the officers involved shows just 38 seconds elapsed from the beginning of the encounter to when one officer says to another, “All right, tase him!”
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Policing] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege]
Racist Police in Alabama Planted Drugs and Guns on Over 1,000 Innocent Black Men
by A.R. Shaw | December 2015
Black men in Alabama were racially profiled and made criminals by a group of racist police. According to the Henry County Report, the incidents occurred in Dothan, Alabama where at least 12 White police officers involved. The officers were a part of a narcotics team and were supervised by Lt. Steve Parrish, who is now Dothan’s Police Chief, and Andy Hughes, Asst. Director of Homeland Security for Alabama. The officers would target innocent Black men and plant drugs and weapons on them. Black men would be arrested and charged by District Attorney Doug Valeska. Valeska knew that the drugs were being planted and continued to prosecute while protecting the officers. Nearly 1,000 innocent Black men were arrested and falsely prosecuted and many of the Black men who were falsely arrested are still in jail serving time.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism] [Policing] [History] [Prison System] [Black Lives Matter] [White Privilege]
Man Who Uploaded #AltonSterling Video Still Paying a Price, Has Not Been Allowed Back to Work
by Ricky Riley | July 2016
After uploading the video of Baton Rouge, Louisiana police killing Alton Sterling on July 5, Christoper LeDay has been arrested and not allowed back to work. According to Fox 5 Atlanta, LeDay revealed in a Thursday news conference that he has not been allowed back to work at Dobbins Air Reserve Base due to security-clearance issues. He was working security for only a month when the chaos surrounding the video occurred.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism] [Policing] [Police Shootings] [White Privilege]
No Charges for Cops Who ‘Accidentally’ Fired 107 Bullets at an Innocent Mom and Daughter
by Andrew Emett | January 2016
Los Angeles, CA – Exposing the double standard between police and civilians, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday that no criminal charges will be filed against the eight LAPD officers responsible for nearly killing an innocent woman and her daughter. Although the cops ambushed the unarmed women without warning and fired over 100 bullets without provocation, the district attorney justified the case of mistaken identity due to the fact that the officers involved were afraid and incompetent. At 5 a.m. on February 7, 2013, Margie Carranza and her mother, Emma Hernandez, were delivering newspapers throughout a residential neighborhood in Torrance when eight LAPD cops suddenly opened fire. As Carranza suffered cuts from the flying glass, Hernandez was shot twice in the back while trying to protect her daughter. One bullet exited just above Hernandez’s collarbone, while the other bullet struck her lower back, near her spine. A fragment of shattered glass also flew into her eye.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Policing] [Police Shootings] [Systemic Racism] [-ing While Black] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege] [White Culture]
How Racism Has Shaped Welfare Policy in America Since 1935
by Alma Carten | September 2016
It is true that the data show the number of families receiving cash assistance fell from 12.3 million in 1996 to current levels of 4.1 million as reported by The New York Times. But it is also true that child poverty rates for black children remain stubbornly high in the U.S. My research indicates that this didn’t happen by chance. Findings reveal that U.S. welfare policies have, from their very inception, been discriminatory.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [History] [Economics] [White Privilege] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism] [Employment] [Denial]
The Asset Value of Whiteness: Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap
by Amy Traub, Laura Sullivan, Tatjana Meschede, Thomas Shapiro | February 2017
Issues of racial inequity are increasingly at the forefront of America’s public debate. In addition to urgent concerns about racial bias in law enforcement and the criminal justice system, activists highlight deeply connected issues of economic exclusion and inequality. No metric more powerfully captures the persistence and growth of economic inequality along racial and ethnic lines than the racial wealth gap. According to data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, the median white household possessed $13 in net wealth for every dollar held by the median black household in 2013. That same year, median white households possessed $10 for each dollar held by the median Latino/a household.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Colorblindness] [Economics] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [Myths] [Racial Covenants]
28 Common Racist Attitudes and Behaviors
by Joan Olsson | Date Unknown
Below is a list of 28 common racist attitudes and behaviors that indicate a detour or wrong turn into white guilt, denial or defensiveness. Each is followed by a statement that is a reality check and consequence for harboring such attitudes.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Colorblindness] [“Reverse Racism”] [White Privilege] [White Fragility/Tears] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts]
11 Common Ways White Folks Avoid Taking Responsibility for Racism in the US
by Robin DiAngelo | August 2015
I am white. I write and teach about what it means to be white in a society that proclaims race meaningless, yet remains deeply divided by race. A fundamental, but very challenging part of my work is moving white people from an individual understanding of racism — i.e. only some people are racist and those people are bad — to a structural understanding.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [White Fragility/Tears] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Accountability]
The Day I Discovered I Was A Racist
by Eloise Farthwargle | July 2016
I can only remember feeling loved by my nanny, Thelma. At 3 years of age you don’t question the sociopolitical implications of a black woman leaving her own child alone and crossing town by bus in order to come to your home and nurture you. My mother, however, did. When she left my father, that same year, and went to live with my nana – she took Thelma too. Thelma brought Gregory to work with her at my Nana’s house.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [Individual Change] [Accountability] [Colorblindness]
How I Explained Microaggressions to My Non-Black Partner With 4 Simple Truths
by Danni Roseman | July 2016
I’m a black American from the South Side of Chicago, and as traveled as I am, I will always view the world through this cultural lens to some extent. On the other hand, my partner is not black, nor is he American. And, naturally, he lacks the context and certain vocabulary to talk about issues that affect me and other minorities on a daily basis.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Implicit Bias] [Individual Change] [Microaggressions]
White People: Stop Microvalidating Each Other
by Stephanie Jo Kent | July 2016
Most American whites are unaware of white supremacy in everyday life because the system invented by the founding fathers is effective at hiding the ways white privilege works. This means most white people are raised unconscious of the role whiteness plays in overall society. Waking up to this reality is typically painful, which is what leads to the observable patterns of white fragility.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [White Fragility/Tears] [Collective Action] [Individual Change] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Systemic Racism] [White Privilege] [White Supremacy] [White Blindness] [Implicit Racism]
Are All White People Racist? (No. Well, kind of. Let us explain.) PODCAST
by Brandy Liebscher and Danielle Beck | January 2017
In order to try and answer that question you need to understand the difference between prejudice and racism, know what systemic racism is, and be aware of implicit racial bias. All of which, Drs. Brandy Liebscher and Danielle Beck talk about in episode 7.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [“Reverse Racism”]
Why ‘I Have Black Friends’ Is a Terrible Excuse for Your Racism
by Shae Collins | March 2017
If you’ve ever used your black friends to try and pardon your racism, you need to understand these three reasons why “I have black friends” is not a legitimate argument. For all we know, your black friend could be like Steve Harvey, Ben Carson, or Kanye West, who overlook Trump’s racism. Your black friend may allow you to be racist. There are many reasons a black friend would do this. Saying “I have black friends” is kind of like a misogynist saying, “I don’t hate women. My mom is a woman, and I love her.” This isn’t a logical argument.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [White Blindness] [White Privilege] [Individual Change] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [White Defensiveness] [Accountability]
Three Things White People’s Love for “Get Out” Says About the White (Sub)Conscious
by Jamie Utt | April 2017
White people tend not to be supportive of anything that challenges Whiteness unless we have a clear interest in doing so. So what is our interest in the film? Well, I see the film as serving three of the functions that are necessary to the continued functioning of the modern White racial (sub)conscious: a signal that we are, in fact, the “good’ White people, an opportunity to enjoy and consume Black suffering and death (while also lauding a Black hero), and an opportunity to emotionally distance ourselves from the truths of the brutality of Whiteness.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege]
To The Racist Guy Who Picked Up My Pencil During Class
by Valeria Alvarado | March 2017
We are friends on Facebook. I have seen all your statuses about “building the wall.” You share #AllLivesMatter posts. You start off your comments with “I am not racist, but…” Every once in a while, you pick Facebook fights with other students about how undocumented immigrants “should just become legal,” black men “should have listened to the police officer’s orders,” and about how “we cannot tell which refugees are terrorists.” … So thank you for being polite enough to do small favors for me, but I cannot make this clear enough: We are not friends. This is not enough.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [White Blindness] [White Supremacy]
I Don’t Discuss Racism With White People
By John Metta | July 2015
Despite what the Charleston Massacre makes things look like, people are dying not because individuals are racist, but because individuals are helping support a racist system by wanting to protect their own non-racist self beliefs. Here’s what I want to say to you: Racism is so deeply embedded in this country not because of the racist right-wing radicals who practice it openly, it exists because of the silence and hurt feelings of liberal America.” Racism is the fact that “White” means “normal” and that anything else is different.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Faith-Based/Spiritual] [Systemic Racism] [History] [Collective Action]
Beyond the KKK: Getting at White Supremacy in the Church
by Rebecca Florence Miller | May 2017
White supremacy is a loaded term, conjuring up hooded robes, burning crosses, and Heil, Hitlers. But there is another way to understand it, and the phrase is increasingly becoming a helpful conceptual marker, helping us to understand the core of racial problems in society. The term white supremacy gets at the heart of what some would call colonialism or giving precedence to white culture. Ultimately, what is comes down to is believing or living as if whites are superiors to blacks or people of other races. As if Whites are “supreme.”
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [Faith-Based/Spiritual] [White Culture] [Colorblindness]
Adoption Is A Feminist Issue, But Not For The Reasons You Think
by Liz Latty | April 2017
Mainstream feminism — feminism by and for middle and upper-middle-class white women — has historically gotten behind adoption. Feminists have supported the rights of single people and same-gendered families to adopt, the rights of adoptive families in contested adoptions, and policies intended to get children into adoptive homes faster. What’s missing from mainstream feminism is any explicit support for families of origin: the parents who have to lose their children, the families that must be dismantled in order for adoptive families to be built. The adoption industry is a business. It generates billions of dollars each year and requires other people’s children in order to stay profitable. Here’s the toughest truth yet: Those children are almost always the children of poor and working class people.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [White Privilege] [Economics] [Accountability] [Systemic Racism] [Myths] [White Supremacy]
Audre Lorde, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism”
by BLACKPAST | August 2012
…But anger expressed and translated into action in the service of our vision af!d our future is a liberating and strengthening act of clarification, for it is in the painful process of this translation that we identify who are our allies with whom we have grave differences, and who are our genuine enemies. Anger is loaded with information and energy. When I speak of women of Color, I do not only mean Black women. The woman of Color who is not Black and who charges me with rendering her invisible by assuming that her struggles with racism are identical with my own has something to tell me that I had better learn from, lest we both waste ourselves fighting the truths between us. If I participate, knowingly or otherwise, in my sister’s oppression and she calls me on it, to answer her anger with my own only blankets the substance of our exchange with reaction. It wastes energy. And yes, it is very difficult to stand still and to listen to another woman’s voice delineate an agony I do not share, or one to which I myself have contributed.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [White Privilege] [White Defensiveness] [Individual Change] [White Blindness] [Accountability]
BLM Uses Facebook’s ‘Safety Check’ To Declare That We’re In A State Of Crisis
by Zahara Hill | January 2017
“Being black in America is a national emergency,” BLM said. “Black people are being attacked and murdered while doing day-to-day activities. Black Lives Matter launched a website that allows social media users to mark themselves unsafe for being black in America. Referred to as the “Unsafety Check,” Tuesday’s initiative is part of #Reclaim&Resist, the movement’s week of action which spans from Martin Luther King Jr. Day to Inauguration Day. Facebook safety checks are typically used to ensure friends that you’re alive and well after a potentially dangerous nearby incident has occurred. But BLM created its own take on the check to symbolize the general sense of fear plaguing black Americans in the present political atmosphere.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [Black Lives Matter] [Accountability] [-ing While Black] [Advocacy] [Strategies]
KING: Micah Johnson is the Making of America’s Own Racist Creation
by Shaun King | July 2016
Somehow, the United States of America wants to have all of the ingredients for murder and mayhem, cook it at 500 degrees for a few years, and be shocked when what comes out on the other end isn’t sweet peace and colorful rainbows. That’s not how recipes work. Building a harmonious society is no different.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [Slavery] [History] [Policing] [Denial] [Accountability] [Police Shootings] [Black Lives Matter]
8 Times the U.S. Government Gave White People Handouts to Get Ahead
by Tanasia Kenney | June 2016
The G.I. Education Bill, Veteran Administration Housing Authority, and Health Care System, The Wagner Act of 1935, Federal Housing Administration, 1960s Jim Crow Laws, The 1790 Naturalization Act, The Social Security Act of 1935, and The 1830 Indian Removal Act. Read how these bills were for white people, and excluded all others (with a few minute exceptions).
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [History] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism]
White Teachers, Here’s How to Handle Being Called Racist
by Tad Rademacher | July 2017
So, you may get called racist. In a way, I get it. It hurts to be called racist, especially when you feel like you’re trying super hard not to be racist. Get over it. Being called racist is not the worst thing that can happen to someone. Being the constant victim of systemic and personal racism is way, way worse than being called racist, so get over it.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [Teachers] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Individual Change]
No, I Won’t Stop Saying “White Supremacy”
by Robin Diangelo | June 2017
White people like me should use the term because it shifts the race problem to us, where it belongs. Many people, especially older white people, associate the term white supremacy with extreme and explicit hate groups. However, for sociologists, white supremacy is a highly descriptive term for the culture we live in; a culture which positions white people and all that is associated with them (whiteness) as ideal.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [Definitions] [Individual Change]