Resource Links Tagged with "Strategies"

If You Really Want to Make a Difference in Black Lives, Change How You Teach White Kids

by Nahliah Webber | June 2020
There’s a George Floyd in every school where Black children learn. Black children are screamed at, berated, surveilled and searched in schools. Black children are slammed and dragged, kicked and prodded in classrooms. Black children are denied an education and disrespected because of their culture. Black children are groomed for containment. We’ve got children walking on tape with hands over their mouths like prisoners in training. Black children are suspended, detained, “demerited” and isolated in schools for trivial things every day. And there’s a killer cop sitting in every school where White children learn. They hear the litany of bad statistics and stereotypes about “scary” Black people in their classes and on the news. They gleefully soak in their White-washed history that downplays the holocaust of Indigenous, Native peoples and Africans in the Americas. They happily believe their all-White spaces exist as a matter of personal effort and willingly use violence against Black bodies to keep those spaces white.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Teachers] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [White Defensiveness] [Black Lives Matter] [Policing]

In Our Resistance against the State, Black and Indigenous Peoples are Collectively Powerful

by Red Dawn Foster and Miski Noor | July 2020
Though the history books written by enslavers and colonizers would have us unaware, our stories as Black and Indigenous Peoples are threaded together through past and present, and surely, through the future as well. Settler-colonialism is a continuous project that relies on sustained socio-economic policies that perpetuate white supremacy and maintain violence against Black and Indigenous peoples. Both genocide and enslavement built the settler-colonial nation as we know it today. Black and Indigenous history is tied to the colonization of this land and our liberation is inherently tied together, that is why Black and Indigenous solidarity is essential.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [Black Lives Matter] [Systemic Racism] [History] [Politics] [Reparations] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Myths] [Confederate Monuments]

A Conversation about Truth and Reconciliation in the US

by Ezra Klein | July 2020
What would it take for America to heal? To be the country it claims to be? This is the question that animates Bryan Stevenson’s career. Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a clinical professor at the New York University School of Law, a MacArthur “genius,” and the author of the remarkable book Just Mercy — which was recently turned into a feature film where Stevenson was played by Michael B. Jordan.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Confederate Monuments] [Role Model] [Advocacy] [Prison System] [History] [Denial] [White Blindness] [Slavery] [Civil War] [Economics] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism]

A Medical Student Couldn’t Find How Symptoms Look on Darker Skin. He Decided to Publish a Book about it.

by Sydney Page | July 2020
*Paywall Alert
Malone Mukwende, a 20-year-old medical student, found himself repeatedly asking the same question: “But what will it look like on darker skin?”
He’s publishing a book to answer that question.
Since his first class at St George’s, University of London, “I noticed a lack of teaching about darker skin tones, and how certain symptoms appear differently in those who aren’t white,” said Mukwende, who recently completed his second year of study in the medical program. Whether a rash, a bruise, blue lips or other common physical reactions, “it was clear to me that certain symptoms would not present the same on my own skin,” said Mukwende, who was born in Zimbabwe and now lives in London. “I knew that this would be a problem for patients of a similar skin tone to mine, or of a darker skin tone in general.” Not only was there an absence of imagery to highlight the difference, but students were not instructed on the correct terminology to describe conditions that appear on darker skin, Mukwende said.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Role Model] [Advocacy] [Colorblindness] [Denial] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege]

Liberal, Progressive — and Racist? The Sierra Club Faces its White-Supremacist History

by Darryl Fears and Steven Mufson | July 2020
As Confederate statues fall across the country, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in an early morning post on the group’s website, “it’s time to take down some of our own monuments, starting with some truth-telling about the Sierra Club’s early history.” Muir, who fought to preserve Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Forest, once referred to African Americans as lazy “Sambos,” a racist pejorative that many black people consider to be as offensive as the n-word.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Confederate Monuments] [POC Climate Action] [Indigenous] [Black Lives Matter] [Accountability] [History] [White Supremacy] [White Blindness] [Economics] [Employment] [Anti-Racism] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [Systemic Racism] [Strategies]

How ‘Good White People’ Derail Racial Progress

by John Blake | August 2020
Angry White parents gripping picket signs. People making death threats and a piece of hate mail reading “Blacks destroy school systems.” Community panic about school desegregation orders. But this wasn’t archival footage of White Southerners from the 1960s. This took place last year in Howard County, Maryland, a suburban community that prides itself on racial integration. It was there that progressive White parents mobilized with other groups to try to stop a school integration plan that would bus poor students, who were mostly Black and brown, to more affluent, whiter schools.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [White Supremacy] [Silencing POC] [Systemic Racism] [White Privilege] [Black Lives Matter] [White Culture] [Economics] [Accountability] [White Defensiveness] [White Blindness]

7 Ways We Know Systemic Racism Is Real

by Ben & Jerry’s | Month Unknown 2020
While Barack Obama’s presidency was indeed a profound and meaningful mark of true progress, racism, of course, never really went away. The presence of a black president, hockey starOpens a new window, or movie-franchise superheroOpens a new window, however welcome and exciting, cannot reverse centuries of racial injustice. In fact, racism is built right into every level of our society in ways that might surprise you. Includes a video from Demos “We Must Talk about Race to Fix Economic Inequality.”
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Systemic Racism] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Employment] [Economics] [Prison System] [Housing] [Policing] [Advocacy] [White Privilege] [White Supremacy] [Accountability] [Politics]

Why the Media Loves the White Racist Story

by Martin LaMonica | January 2019
Why are so many people interested in pointing out and shaming individual white racists? There have been dozens of these events highlighted on social and mainstream media this year. Here are a few of the incidents that went viral and sparked outrage: a video of Fort McMurray teens mocking Indigenous dance, another of a North Carolina woman’s racist rant and the racist tirade against a Muslim family at the Toronto Ferry Terminal. Why are people less interested in calling out the systems that prime them to act in racist ways and foster lifelong inequities.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [Indigenous] [Assumptions] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [White Defensiveness] [Politics]

Five White Louisiana Judges Uphold Life Sentence of Black Man Jailed for Stealing Hedge Clippers 23 Years Ago

by Namrata Tripathi | August 2020
A man from Louisiana, who was sentenced to life in prison for stealing a pair of hedge clippers over 20 years ago, will continue to remain in prison after the state Supreme Court denied a request to review his case. Fair Wayne Bryant, a 62-year-old Black man, was convicted for stealing garden equipment in 1997, which landed him in prison for the rest of his life. Bryant, in 2000, had appealed his life sentence to be unconstitutionally excessive and his case had made its way up to the high court of the state. However, his hopes were dashed after a Louisiana Supreme Court panel, consisting of five White men and one Black woman, upheld his life sentence 5-1 last week. The only person to dissent was the Black judge on the panel, Supreme Court Justice Bernette Johnson.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Prison System] [Systemic Racism] [Silencing POC] [Accountability] [Policing] [Economics] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Blindness]

There Is No Such Thing as a ‘White Ally’ — “TNSWA” Part II

by Catherine Pugh, Esq. | July 2020
Part II of TNSWA series. Racism is not mine, it’s yours, and it’s not called “help” when it’s your mess we’re cleaning. Part I is available here. I get stuck when I try to see the “White Ally” label as something bigger than a White woobie. Normally, that’s no problem, but this woobie comes at the expense of Black living. “White Ally” remains a term I neither use nor care for. Originally, I kept my own counsel here because my objections felt cranky. “White Ally” was a deft marketing plan recasting potential “haters” as heroes, but hardly a reason to engage. As it happens, I have no love for “White Privilege” either and shrugged it off from within the same genre of indifference. “White Privilege” was our ironic tongue-click when you acted like the child who commits patricide and then begs an orphan’s mercy. As with the other, it merited little attention. Then Travis and George McMichael executed Ahmaud Arbery, and everything changed. It is from this place that There Is No Such Thing as a White Ally was born. So many questions to ask ourselves.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Individual Change] [Accountability] [Definitions] [Systemic Racism] [White Blindness] [White Privilege] [Anti-Racism] [-ing While Black] [Police Shootings] [Policing] [White Fragility/Tears] [“All Lives Matter”] [Advocacy]

*These Profound Photos Masterfully Turn Racial Stereotypes On Their Head

by Lilly Workneh | May 2017
A powerful new photo essay reexamines our relationship with race.Oe image shows several East Asian women at a nail salon being pampered by white female beauticians. Another shows a young white girl at a toy store standing before a row of shelves stocked only with black dolls, and the last image shows a posh Hispanic woman on the phone as her white maid tends to her.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [Accountability] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [Assumptions] [White Privilege] [Art & Culture]

Do’s and Don’ts for Bystander Intervention

by American Friends Service Committee Staff | Date Unknown
If you witness public instances of racist, anti-Black, anti-Muslim, anti-Trans, or any other form of oppressive interpersonal violence and harassment, use these tips on how to intervene while considering the safety of everyone involved. Available to download as a PDF.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [Bystander Intervention] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Role Model] [Individual Change] [Strategies] [Advocacy] [Quaker] [Faith-Based/Spiritual]

RACIAL EQUITY: How to Value Black Lives

by Enola G. Aird | June 2016
The Black Lives Matter movement has correctly pointed to this dehumanization as the driving force behind the police killings of black people. But it’s crucial to recognize that the dehumanization of black people is rooted in the lies, and that black lives will never truly matter until these lies are extinguished. It’s been 150 years since the end of enslavement, and nearly 50 years since the official end of Jim Crow, but the lies are still warping the world’s perceptions of Black people, and our perceptions of ourselves. These lies are the reasons why, in spite of all the constitutional amendments, legislation, and litigation, the black community in the United States and around the world seems to be standing still — and, in some cases, moving backwards.
TAGS: [White Supremacy] [Black Lives Matter] [Strategies] [2010’s] [History] [Collective Action]

A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement

by Alicia Garza | October 2014
Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folks’ contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression. ‘“When we say Black Lives Matter, we are talking about the ways in which Black people are deprived of our basic human rights and dignity.”
TAGS: [History] [Black Lives Matter] [Strategies] [2010’s] [Collective Action] [Accountability]

Should the Church Take Sides or Stay Neutral with the #BlackLivesMatter Movement?

by Drew G.I. Hart | November 2015
When is it the right time to take sides, standing with those that live with the daily threat of violence, suffering, and death? Who decides? In the midst of 400 years of white supremacist terrorism many Christian communities still do not want to take sides.
TAGS: [Faith-Based/Spiritual] [Black Lives Matter] [Strategies] [2010’s] [History] [White Supremacy]

The Role Of Spirit In The #BLACKLIVESMATTER Movement: A Conversation With Activist And Artist Patrisse Cullors

by Hebah H. Farrag | June 2015
While the involvement of church groups and traditional religious leaders in various aspects of Black Lives Matter has been noted by news outlets, there is another spirit that animates the Black Lives Matter movement, one that has received little attention but is essential to a new generation of civil rights activists….Images of a white-clad black woman burning sage across a militarized police line. Altars using sacred images and symbols from multiple faiths placed to hold space for those murdered. Events ending with prayers for the oppressed. Protests called ‘ceremonies’ in front of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s house, with attendees asked to wear all white.”
TAGS: [Faith-Based/Spiritual] [Strategies] [2010’s] [Black Lives Matter] [Collective Action]

Should the U.S. Provide Reparations for Slavery and Jim Crow?

by Carlton Mark Waterhouse | May 2016
The overwhelming majority of academics studying the issue have supported the calls for compensating black Americans for the centuries of chattel slavery and the 100 years of lynching, mob violence and open exclusion from public and private benefits like housing, health care, voting, political office and education that occurred during the Jim Crow era.
TAGS: [2010’s] [History] [Reparations] [Individual Change] [Strategies] [Slavery]

Addressing Racist Rhetoric in the U.S. Elections- Updated

by John Michael | December 2015
“The language of hate is often coded, but was understood by two Boston adults, who beat a homeless Hispanic man. They pointed to Donald Trump as their inspiration. The use of hate speech threatens all people of color. Citizens of this nation need to promote the “Beloved Community,” not walk down a road of racism.”
TAGS: [2010’s] [Faith-Based/Spiritual] [Advocacy] [Strategies] [Collective Action]

On Black Mama’s Bail Out Day, “Goal is to Free Our People from These Cages” Before Mother’s Day

by Democracy Now! | May2017
On Thursday, racial justice groups began bailing women out of jail as part of a nationwide “Black Mama’s Bail Out Day.” The effort, taking place in nearly 20 cities, raises money to free as many black women from jail as possible in time for a Mother’s Day celebration with their families. Organizers for Black Mama’s Bail Out Day are calling for an end to the cash bail system, which keeps hundreds of thousands of people who have not been convicted of any crime imprisoned in jails every day nationwide while they await trial. For more, we speak with Mary Hooks, co-director of Southerners On New Ground, or SONG, an Atlanta-based regional LGBTQ nonprofit and one of the organizers of Black Mama’s Bail Out Day.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [Prison System] [Collective Action]

New Monument To The People Of Malaga Island Offers ‘Healing And Closure’

*Paywall Alert
by Dennis Hoey |July 2017
More than a century ago, the state wiped out the coastal community, institutionalizing its mixed-race population. The monument at Pineland Farms promises we’ll always remember.
TAGS: [History] [Strategies] [2010’s] [Art & Culture] [Collective Action]

The Story on Reparations I’m Not Qualified to Write

by William Spivey | June 2019
The primary argument against Reparations is that individuals today shouldn’t bear the brunt of what happened long ago and that enough time has passed since (choose one); the end of the Civil War, the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the end of Jim Crow, the end of school segregation… that equality should have been achieved. The case for Reparations has never been to exact retribution from generic white people for the harm done to slaves in time past. The case is best made against the United States Government, which has been part of every effort to suppress black people since they came to this country until the present day.
TAGS: [Reparations] [Strategies] [2010’s] [Assumptions] [Collective Action] [Silencing POC] [Politics]

Note to My White Self: The reflections of a White Man Confronting His Personal Privilege and Racism – Six Racist Facebook Posts You Should Never Share

by James Mulholland | August 2019
Unfortunately, many white people, who until recently thought they didn’t have a racist bone in their body, aren’t very good at recognizing a racist Facebook post. Torn between what they’ve always assumed and what they are beginning to learn, they are still prone to falling for the arguments of white supremacy. An informative list of “racist Facebook posts you should never share.”
TAGS: [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [White Supremacy] [Strategies] [2010’s] [Anti-Racism] [Implicit Racism]

Meet the Young Activists of Color Who Are Leading the Charge Against Climate Disaster

by Nylah Burton | October 2019
These US-based activists know firsthand the impact racism, poverty, and colonialism have had on the planet. Not listening to “youth activists of color” we are only viewing it through “white eyes” and “we miss so much.” Vox speaks to a few of these teens to give us “a glimpse into some of the youth of color who are leading the climate movement in their communities – and who are motivated by the fierce need to protect the most vulnerable.”
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [POC Climate Action] [Role Model] [Advocacy] [Accountability] [Silencing POC]

For Lasting Climate Change Solutions, It’s Time to Listen to Young People of Color | Opinion

by Nyiesha Mallet and Asli Mwaafrika | September 2019
With much attention turning this week to the upcoming U.N. Climate Action Summit and Greta Thunberg’s involvement as a youth leader, the time is long overdue to listen to young voices from these disproportionately impacted communities of color. The time has come for us to be recognized as leaders in climate advocacy and solutions.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [POC Climate Action] [Role Model] [Collective Action]

Stop Asking People of Color to Get Arrested to Protest Climate Change

by Tatiana Garavito and Nathan Thanki | September 2019
Stop Asking People of Color to Get Arrested to Protest Climate Change Extinction Rebellion is overwhelmingly shaped by the concerns, priorities, and ideas of middle-class white people. If it doesn’t tackle white supremacy, it doesn’t serve us.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [POC Climate Action] [Advocacy] [White Supremacy]

An Escape Room Where You Can’t Escape Your Privilege

by Jillian Steinhauer | July 2019
The artist Risa Puno, designer of “The Privilege of Escape,” an art installation and escape room at Onassis USA in Midtown Manhattan where the escape room turns from a high-stakes thriller into a disarming demonstration of Social inequality.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [White Privilege] [Art & Culture]

Ibram Kendi, One of the Nation’s Leading Scholars of Racism, Says Education and Love Are Not the Answer

by Lonnae O’Neal | September 2017
Professor Ibram Kendi, founder of the new Anti-Racism Center at American University and author of Stamped from the Beginning, The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, talks about the “ideas that grow out of discriminatory policies.” and breaks down the “layers of racist ideas that account for why we think like we do. Just so you know, black people are not inherently better athletes than white people, Kendi says. We only think so because “black people have not only been rendered inferior to white people, they’ve been rendered like animals,” and thus physically superior creatures. It’s an old racist idea that helped justify African-Americans’ suitability for backbreaking labor and medical experiments and the theft of their children.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [Implicit Racism] [Systemic Racism] [White Culture] [Assumptions] [Collective Action] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts]

How the Daughters and Granddaughters of Former Slaves Secured Voting Rights for All

by Martha S. Jones | March 2019 Historian Martha S. Jones takes a look at the question of race versus gender in the quest for universal suffrage. The history of black women and the vote is one about figures who, though subjected to nearly crushing political disabilities, emerged as unparalleled advocates of universal suffrage in its truest sense.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [History] [Politics] [Collective Action]

What Do 2020 Candidates Mean When They Say ‘Reparations’?

*Paywall Alert

by Conor Friedersdorf | June 2019
Even highly informed commentators lack a shared understanding of what the word means.  But among some influential Democratic constituencies—educated, left-of-center Brooklyn, for example—reparations is understood differently, as illustrated by a roundtable on the subject broadcast last month by a Brooklyn TV station…it clarifies the degree to which Americans discussing the subject can talk past one another or mistake how much disagreement actually exists, fueling everything from mild confusion to needless polarization.
TAGS: [Reparations] [Strategies] [2010’s] [Advocacy] [Politics]

The Story of Phillis Wheatley

by Elizabeth Warren | December 2019
Born in West Africa, Phillis Wheatley was kidnapped by slave traders and brought to New England in 1761. She mastered English, Latin, Greek and English literature at a time when enslaved people could be condemned to death for learning. By imagining she could, she became the first black woman poet to publish a book before the Revolutionary War. Using her example, we too can see a future where collectively our imaginations can be challenged to change the world for the better.
TAGS: [2010’s] [Strategies] [History] [Role Model]