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]
Resource Links Tagged with "White Culture"
Turning the Lens- Seeing White
by John Biewen, with special guest Chenjerai Kumanyika | February 2017
Part 1 of a 14-part documentary series exploring whiteness in America—where it came from, what it means, and how it works. Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels new, but in truth it’s an old story. Why? Where did the notion of “whiteness” come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for? Listen to the Podcast or download the transcript.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [Podcast] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [2010’s]
Boston. Racism. Image. Reality.
by Akilah Johnson | December 2017
Google the phrase “Most racist city,” and Boston pops up more than any other place, time and time again.
It may be easy to write that off as a meaningless digital snapshot of what people say about us, and what we say about ourselves — proof of little beyond the dated (or, hopefully, outdated) memories of Boston’s public and fierce school desegregation battles of the 1970s. You’d be wrong. More than half of people of color interviewed “rated Boston as unwelcoming.” The Spotlight team takes on our hardest question.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [Economics] [White Blindness] [White Culture] [Myths] [History]
‘Mudbound’ Has More To Say About Whiteness In America Than Any Other Trump-Era Movie
By Zeba Blay | November 2017
A person doesn’t have to be hateful in order to be racist. The new Netflix movie “Mudbound,” directed by Dee Rees, is an epic about race in the Deep South in the aftermath of World War II. It is also, in a way, about something that happened a few weeks ago. “The other day,” Rees told me recently, “I was in my pajamas getting ready to walk my dog in the building where I live.” A white guy, “trying to be friendly,” struck up a conversation. “Oh,” he asked, “are you with the dog walking service? Can I get your card?”
TAGS: [White Blindness] [Systemic Racism] [Assumptions] [2010’s] [White Culture] [-ing While Black] [Art & Culture]
The Heresy of White Christianity
by Chris Hedges | December 2018
“When it became clear to me that Jesus was not biologically white and that white scholars actually lied by not telling people who he really was, I stopped trusting anything they said…” White supremacy “is the Antichrist in America because it has killed and crippled tens of millions of black bodies and minds in the modern world,” he writes. “It has also committed genocide against the indigenous people of this land. If that isn’t demonic, I don’t know what is … [and] it is found in every aspect of American life, especially churches, seminaries, and theology.”
TAGS: [History] [Assumptions] [Myths] [2010’s] [White Culture]
John Leguizamo Just Nailed the Hypocrisy of People of Color Having to Learn White Culture
by Matthew Rodriguez | July 2016
In a video interview with Big Think posted July 16, 2016, the 51-year-old award-winning actor and playwright spoke about the inequities of forcing people of color to learn white culture without white culture reciprocating.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [White Culture] [2010’s] [White Blindness]
Curriculum for White Americans to Educate Themselves on Race and Racism-from Ferguson to Charleston
by Jon Greenberg | July 2015
When Teaching about Race and Racism, I Invite Participants to Consider the Following Analogy: Think of racism as a gigantic societal-sized boot. “Which groups do you think are fighting the hardest against this boot of racism?” I ask them. Invariably, participants of diverse races answer that those fighting hardest to avoid getting squashed by the boot are people of Color. Includes a list of articles from Ferguson to Charleston, articles specifically written for white americans, understanding whiteness, white privilege, microaggressions, and a history of racial discrimination, joining groups, and parenting racially-conscious children. A helpful collection of resources.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [History] [Accountability] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Individual Change] [White Supremacy] [Implicit Bias] [Microaggressions]
NYPD Officers Accessed Black Lives Matter Activists’ Texts, Documents Show
by George Joseph | April 2017
Emails show that undercover officers were able to pose as protesters even within small groups, giving them extensive access to details about protesters’ whereabouts and plans. In one email, an official notes that an undercover officer is embedded within a group of seven protesters on their way to Grand Central Station. This intimate access appears to have helped police pass as trusted organizers and extract information about demonstrations. In other emails, officers share the locations of individual protesters at particular times. The NYPD emails also include pictures of organizers’ group text exchanges with information about protests, suggesting that undercover officials were either trusted enough to be allowed to take photos of activists’ phones or were themselves members of a private planning group text.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Policing] [Black Lives Matter] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [Systemic Racism]
Native Lives Matter: Police Killing Native Americans at Astounding Rate
by Ruth McCambridge | July 2016
A recent report by the Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice reports that Native Americans are killed by police at a higher rate than any other ethnic group. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that Native Americans make up almost two percent of those killed by police though they are only 0.8 percent of the population. While police kill young black men more than any other group, they kill Native Americans at a higher rate.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Policing] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [White Supremacy]
The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture
by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun | (Month Unknown) 2001
From Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups
Below is a list of characteristics of white supremacy culture which show up in our organizations. Culture is powerful precisely because it is so present and at the same time so very difficult to name or identify. The characteristics listed below are damaging because they are used as norms and standards without being pro-actively named or chosen by the group. They are damaging because they promote white supremacy thinking. They are damaging to both people of color and to white people. Organizations that are people of color-led or a majority people of color can also demonstrate many damaging characteristics of white supremacy culture.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2000’s] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts]