Resource Links Tagged with "Systemic Racism"

7 Invasive Things People Tell Afro-Latinxs (And Why You Must Stop Saying Them)

by Alan Pelaez Lopez | September 2016
Which one of your parents is the Black one? You never told me you were Black – you speak Spanish! I didn’t know [insert country] had Black people! Being both identities does not mean that I only live my life as Black 50% and Latinx 50%. Instead it means that I live my life as Black 100% of the time, and my life as Latinx 100%. The math doesn’t need to make sense! Below is a list of invasive comments, phrases, and questions that I, and many in my community, have received – and they must stop in order for us to work together, and really be a community.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [Systemic Racism] [Implicit Bias] [Implicit Racism]

Black Attitudes Matter: Why I Don’t Care If You Think I Look Mean

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]

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]

A Long History of Racial Preferences – for Whites

by Larry Adelman, California Newsreel | Month Unknown 2003
Many middle-class white people, especially those of us who grew up in the suburbs, like to think that we got to where we are today by virtue of our merit – hard work, intelligence, pluck, and maybe a little luck. And while we may be sympathetic to the plight of others, we close down when we hear the words “affirmative action” or “racial preferences.” We worked hard, we made it on our own, the thinking goes, why don’t ‘they’? After all, it’s been almost 40 years now since the Civil Rights Act was passed. What we don’t readily acknowledge is that racial preferences have a long, institutional history in this country – a white history. Here are a few ways in which government programs and practices have channeled wealth and opportunities to white people at the expense of others.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2000’s] [Slavery] [White Privilege] [History] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [Colorblindness] [Racial Covenants]

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]

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]

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”]

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]

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]

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]

11-Step Guide to Understanding Race, Racism, and White Privilege

by Jon Greenberg | October 2017
In the wake of terrorism against Black Americans in Charleston, beyond outraged and fed up, I compiled a list of race-related resources for fellow White Americans, who too often have the privilege to remain ignorant of the realities and toll of racism.This Curriculum for White Americans to Educate Themselves on Race and Racism – from Ferguson to Charleston clearly struck a chord. The piece has been read and shared hundreds of thousands of times and been linked to by NPR, The Huffington Post and Teaching Tolerance.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [History] [Policing] [Definitions]

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race

by Reni Eddo-Lodge | May 2017
For years, racism has been defined by the violence of far-right extremists, but a more insidious kind of prejudice can be found where many least expect it – at the heart of respectable society. We tell ourselves that good people can’t be racist. We seem to think that true racism only exists in the hearts of evil people. We tell ourselves that racism is about moral values, when instead it is about the survival strategy of systemic power. When a large proportion of the population votes for politicians and political efforts that explicitly use racism as a campaigning tool, we tell ourselves that such huge sections of the electorate simply cannot be racist, as that would render them heartless monsters.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [White Blindness] [White Privilege] [Black Lives Matter] [Policing] [History] [Systemic Racism] [Colorblindness]

I Need to Talk to Spiritual White Women about White Supremacy, Part I

by Layla F. Saad | August 2017
Part I: So today I want to share my thoughts on racism, sacred activism and the responsibilities of those who choose to walk the priestess path. I’m also going to talk about white privilege and the role that white women must play in combating white supremacy. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few days, you’ll know that a white nationalist rally took place in Charlottesville in the US over the weekend. Many were injured. A woman, Heather Heyer… was killed. A young black man… beaten with poles.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [White Fragility/Tears] [White Privilege] [Accountability] [Anti-Racism] [Systemic Racism] [Individual Change]

Why All White People Are Racist, but Can’t Handle Being Called Racist: The Theory of White Fragility

by Dustin Dwyer | March 2015
“The number one most effective adaptation of racism over time,” DiAngelo says, “is the good/bad binary, this idea that a racist is a bad person and a good person is not racist. And so it’s about individuals who are either good or bad or who either do or don’t engage.” One of the side effects is that many white people come to believe that if they just don’t talk about or think about race, then they are not racist.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [White Fragility/Tears] [Systemic Racism] [Accountability]

Why Should I Be Civil to White People Who Don’t Care about People of Color?

by WOC & Allies | November 2018
We’ve all been there. You get on Facebook or Twitter and see an article, think piece, or status. You read it, enjoy it, or maybe find it informative. But then the big question rears its ugly head: Is the “comments” section safe? Twice this week, I’ve read something that I felt I needed to address and gotten into altercations with other people on the thread. That doesn’t bother me. What does bother me is when I see that I’m supposed to be civil in conversations about race.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [White Privilege]

White People Are Cowards

by Michael Harriot | June 2018
…And most white people don’t actively fight to eradicate inequality and injustice because they usually benefit in some small way. The Southern economy was built on evil slavery. Jim Crow laws maintained a national order with white people firmly planted atop the social hierarchy. Systematic injustice keeps black people in their place, but it also comforts white people to know that the big black bogeymen are being kept behind bars. Inequality and racism exist not because of evil but because the unaffected majority put their interests above all others, and their inaction allows inequality to flourish. That is why I believe that silence in the presence of injustice is as bad as injustice itself. White people who are quiet about racism might not plant the seed, but their silence is sunlight.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [White Culture] [Systemic Racism]

It’s Not the White Working Class That is Hurting the Most

by Ana Swanson | January 2017
President-elect Donald Trump was lifted into office by white adults over 25 without a four-year degree, who favored him by a margin of 39 percentage points. Their economic frustration and suffering are real, and white working-class America is a large group – 42 percent of the country. Yet month after month, economic data show that African Americans and Hispanics in the United States are, on average, in a worse position. Jobs data released last week put the white unemployment rate in December at 4.3 percent, compared with 7.8 percent for African Americans and 5.9 percent for Hispanics. “Even just looking at one month, we can say that the economy disproportionately has worse outcomes for workers of color,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Economics] [Systemic Racism] [Employment]

Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome and Intergenerational Trauma: Slavery is like a Curse Passing through the DNA of Black People

by David Lowe | June 2016
In a society in denial, racism is proclaimed dead and an historical phenomenon. Yet it is very much alive, as manifested in the behavior of Black folk. In her book, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing, Dr. Joy DeGruy discusses the condition that serves as the title of her book in a video.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Slavery] [White Supremacy] [History] [Systemic Racism] [Black Lives Matter]

Racial Trauma is Real: The Impact of Police Shootings on African Americans

by Administrator | July 2016
The violence witnessed towards people of color from police continues to damage perceptions of law enforcement and further stereotype people of color negatively. Decades of research have noted the impact of discrimination and racism on the psychological health of communities of color (e.g., Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2006; Carter & Forsyth, 2009; Comas-Díaz, 2016).
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [Police Shootings] [2010’s] [Policing] [Assumptions] [Systemic Racism] [History]

Black Farmer Gets Real in Viral Post About the Type of Subtle Racism He Fears Most

by Kyle Jaeger | May 2017
Chris Newman’s Facebook post called out the counter-protests that were organized after Spencer led a march of torch-bearing white nationalists on May 14. Spencer’s group was protesting the planned removal of a Confederate monument.
While the optics and sentiment of the demonstration were disturbing, Newman said he felt “far less bothered by the flag wavers in this picture than this town’s progressives assuming its race problem has nothing to do with them.” “The former is a visual inconvenience. The latter could leave my daughters without a father.”
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [-ing While Black] [Systemic Racism] [2010’s]