*Read First – Individual Change Archives

When Compliments Are Racist 

by James Mulholland | December 2018
“Note to my white self…I did it again. I offered one of those back handed, racist compliments that expose how much work I still have to do as a recovering racist.” Models a “woke” person’s ongoing need for self-reflection and openness to being “called out” (held accountable) for one’s own unconscious bias. Author details 4 circumstances under which a a white person’s qualifiers and compliments about a black person are likely to be racist.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [Accountability] [Implicit Bias] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [2010’s]

14 Words That Carry a Coded Meaning for Black People

by Tamerra Griffin | February 2015
The article, written by a Black woman begins: “You don’t hear overtly racist language very often these days. Here are some words with a subtler implication. She then provides 28 examples of sentences and how they are perceived in some contexts by some Black people, in a “what you say” “what we hear” format.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Implicit Racism] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [2010’s]

11 Ways White America Avoids Taking Responsibility for Its Racism

by Dr. Robin DiAngelo | June 2015
“White people are all too quick to cite their good intentions. Unconsciously, they aim to preserve white supremacy…. Racism as a default system that institutionalizes an unequal distribution of resources and power between white people and people of color….[and] works to the benefit of whites.”
TAGS: [Individual Change] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Implicit Bias] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism] [2010’s]