by Sam Sanders | January 2021
There is a lie some Americans tell themselves when America is on its worst behavior: “This isn’t America!” or “This isn’t who we are!” or “We’re better than this!” You heard versions of this lie again this past week after armed insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol on urging from President Trump, attempting to undo the results of last November’s election. Even in the halls of Congress, after the broken glass was cleared and U.S. senators and representatives were allowed back into their chambers from undisclosed locations, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska came back to this refrain: “Our kids need to know that this isn’t what America is.” We are a country built on fabrication, nostalgia and euphemism. And every time America shows the worst of itself, all the contradictions collapse into the lie I’ve heard nonstop for the last several years: “This isn’t who we are.”
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Systemic Racism] [Accountability] [Civil War] [White Blindness] [White Defensiveness] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [White Fragility/Tears] [Economics] [Politics] [Cognitive Dissonance] [Myths]
Resource Links Tagged with "White Defensiveness"
From Most Hated to American Hero: The Whitewashing of Martin Luther King Jr.
by Michael Harriot | April 2018
This week, America will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the most famous and beloved civil rights leader in the nation’s history. Lost in the remembrance of the death of our nation’s most heralded warrior for social justice is the fact that—at the time of his death—King was a man in exile. Contrary to popular belief, when King died, he was not an icon of freedom and equality. In fact, most of the country disliked him. Sadly, on April 4, 1968, a bullet splattered bits of Martin Luther King Jr.’s brains and blood across the balcony of Memphis, Tenn.’s Lorraine Motel. Then, and only then, was white America ready to make him a hero.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [Myths] [History] [White Culture] [White Defensiveness] [Collective Action] [Role Model] [Social Justice] [Assumptions] [White Blindness] [Silencing POC] [Systemic Racism]
Fatal Police Shootings of Unarmed Black People Reveal Troubling Patterns
by Cheryl W. Thompson | January 2021
Ronell Foster was riding his bicycle through the hushed streets of Vallejo, Calif., one evening when a police officer noticed that the bike had no lights and that he was weaving in and out of traffic. The officer, Ryan McMahon, went after Foster with lights flashing, siren blaring and the car’s spotlight pointed directly at him. Foster stopped. The pair exchanged words before Foster, who was on community supervision for a car theft conviction a month earlier, fled, eventually ditching the bicycle. McMahon caught up with Foster and jumped on top of him. The two struggled. McMahon, a rookie on the force, used a Taser on the father of two and struck him several times with his department-issued flashlight. Gunfire erupted — seven shots total. When it was over, Foster, 33, lay dying in the bushes in a darkened courtyard near an apartment complex.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [-ing While Black] [Police Shootings] [Policing] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [Justice System] [Black Lives Matter] [White Defensiveness] [White Privilege] [Accountability] [Denial] [History]
Confronting Racism Is Not About the Needs and Feelings of White People Too Often Whites at Discussions on Race Decide for Themselves What Will be Discussed, What They Will Hear, What They Will learn. And it is Their Space. All Spaces Are.
*Paywall Alert
by The Guardian | March 2019
I was leaving a corporate office building after a full day of leading workshops on how to talk about race thoughtfully and deliberately. The audience for each session had been similar to the dozens I had faced before. There was an overrepresentation of employees of color, an underrepresentation of white employees. The participants of color tended to make eye contact with me and nod – I even heard a few “Amens” – but were never the first to raise their hands with questions or comments. Meanwhile, there was always a white man eager to share his thoughts on race. In these sessions I typically rely on silent feedback from participants of color to make sure I am on the right track, while trying to moderate the loud centering of whiteness.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [White Fragility/Tears] [White Defensiveness] [White Blindness] [-ing While Black] [Economics] [Employment] [Anti-Racism] [Denial] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Microaggressions]
Recovering Racist Tell Why, It Is So Hard to Remove Racism from Our Souls
by Jonathan Odell | July 2015
I m a recovering racist: I was somehow taught hate as a gift of love …
But the hardest thing to admit was that my racism and its inherent privileges were gifted to me by devoted parents, dedicated teachers, righteous preachers—an entire Caucasian community conspired to make me feel special. These were good people. How could I turn on them? What a conundrum! That would make racism a gift of love! As toxic as those gifts were, they were presented to me out of love, by someone I loved. These were good people. How could I turn on them? What adult, much less child, doesn’t want to feel special? What child is going to say, “No, I don’t want your gift because it takes away from others!” We hunger for the experience of feeling special and are grateful to those who see that specialness within us. No wonder it’s so hard to uproot racism from our souls. If we had acquired our racism from folks we detested, the monsters of the world, the lynchers and the church-bombers, the murderous, tobacco-spitting sheriff or the buffoonish sheet-shrouded Klan member, or our race-baiting governor standing in the schoolhouse door, how easy it would be to denounce our racism and to leave that kind of destructive thinking behind.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [White Privilege] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Defensiveness] [History] [Collective Action] [Teachers] [Social Justice] [Systemic Racism] [Accountability] [White Blindness] [Denial]
The Violent Defense of White Male Supremacy; Trump and His Supporters Are Defending an America Where White Men Can Rule and Brutalize Without Consequence.
*Paywall Alert
by Ibram X. Kendi | September 2020
The violence of Chauvin and Rittenhouse bookended the summer of Trumpism. The three long, hot months from May 25 to August 25 compressed 413 years of American history into a cellphone video in which anyone could easily see the history for what it has always been: the violent “self-defense” of white male supremacy. Colonialism, capitalism, slavery and slave trading, Indian removal, manifest destiny, colonization, the Ku Klux Klan, Chinese exclusion, disenfranchisement, Jim Crow, eugenics, massive resistance, “law and order,” Islamophobia, family separation—all were done in the name of defending life or civilization or freedom.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Politics] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [History] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [Policing] [Police Shootings] [White Defensiveness] [White Blindness] [Health Disparities] [Justice System] [Black Lives Matter] [-ing While Black] [Accountability] [Indigenous] [Intersectionality]
About the Weary Weaponizing of White Women Tears
by Awesomely Luvvie | April 2018
White women tears are especially potent and extra salty because they are attached to the symbol of femininity. These tears are pouring out from the eyes of the one chosen to be the prototype of womanhood; the woman who has been painted as helpless against the whims of the world. The one who gets the most protection in a world that does a shitty job overall of cherishing women. The mothers, sisters, daughters and aunties of the world’s biggest bullies (white men). But the truth is, white women have been bullies themselves because they’ve been the shadows behind the white men who get all the blame. They have been doing much of the subjugation in white supremacy without any of the accountability, because: innocent white woman is a caricature many have chosen to embrace, even subconsciously. Why? Because it shields them from consequences. We talk about toxic masculinity but there is toxicity in wielding femininity in this way.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [White Fragility/Tears] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Defensiveness] [White Blindness] [White Privilege] [Accountability]
12 Facts about Japanese Internment in the United States
by Scott Beggs | February 2019
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which sanctioned the removal of Japanese immigrants and Americans of Japanese heritage from their homes to be imprisoned in internment camps throughout the country. At the time, the move was sold to the public as a strategic military necessity. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the government argued that it was impossible to know where the loyalties of Japanese-Americans rested. Between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were relocated to internment camps along the West Coast and as far east as Louisiana. Here are 12 facts about what former first lady Laura Bush has described as “one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history.”
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [Asian] [History] [Accountability] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [White Defensiveness] [Economics]
The Perils of ‘Helpful’ White People Shaken by Police Violence; The Police Shooting of Jacob Blake is the Latest to Inspire White Americans to Protest and Demand Change. Here’s My Advice.
by Lola E. Peters | August 2020
Often, white people arrive on the scene of Black trauma and immediately move into action mode. Instead of asking, “How can I help?” and following through, these white people declare, “Here’s what I’m going to do,” and become offended when told that’s not what’s needed. More often than not, be it the local mom’s group, microlocal protest groups, even in the protest zone formerly known as CHOP, Black organizers end up being distracted in the midst of furthering their own work to clean up the mess these self-proclaimed allies create. …
Racist systems have a history of picking and choosing who they will anoint as leaders of oppressed communities, funneling resources to those individuals or organizations, then declaring disappointment when the programs are ineffective or corrupted. For example, funding organizations insisting that potential recipients have 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, a board of directors and a formal structure, often don’t consider Indigenous, African or other POC communities, where decisions are made in community or by a circle of elders. They often end up funding groups or projects that have the savvy or experience to properly fill out their paperwork, but have no deep ties to community.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2020’s] [Police Shootings] [Policing] [Anti-Racism] [Black Lives Matter] [White Privilege] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [White Blindness] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Defensiveness] [Assumptions] [Systemic Racism] [Accountability] [White Fragility/Tears]
White Silence on Social Media: Why Not Saying Anything is Actually Saying a Lot
by Christina Capatides | June 2020
…”It’s a very painful kind of silence because it removes our voice,” she said. “It doesn’t allow us to express our very specific pain… No one would ever go to a breast cancer walk and criticize them for talking about breast cancer. You wouldn’t walk up to someone who has experience as a breast cancer survivor or someone who’s lost someone from breast cancer, and say, ‘How dare you talk about breast cancer? Why not talk about colon cancer? How dare you exclude other cancers?'” Rachel Lindsay, who famously broke barriers as the first black Bachelorette, said she is taking note of which white friends and public figures have gone silent. And she believes that, in the digital age, it is the duty of public figures to speak out.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Black Lives Matter] [“All Lives Matter”] [White Privilege] [White Supremacy] [White Blindness] [White Defensiveness] [White Fragility/Tears] [Systemic Racism] [Anti-Racism] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts]
Huxley’s Adoption Story is Part of a Much Larger Narrative about Race, Disability and Abuse
by Lydia X. Z. Brown | May 2020
By now, you’ve probably heard about the YouTube influencers who made international news for abandoning their autistic child after adopting him from China almost three years ago. Huxley, originally adopted by the Stauffers, is one of thousands of children, many children of colour in the Global South who are adopted each year by predominantly white families in the Global North. Since his adoption – which was documented for YouTube in meticulous detail, including the fact that Huxley was disabled, the Stauffers have filmed numerous videos of him for their YouTube channel that they monetised and gained major corporate sponsors for producing. They filmed and posted videos that showed Huxley having meltdowns, which are terrifying, vulnerable moments. They are extremely emotionally, cognitively and physically draining for autistic people. They filmed and posted videos that showed Huxley with duct tape on his hands because his mother wanted to stop him from sucking his thumb. All of this is painfully familiar for autistic people, who routinely see nonautistic parents of autistic children exploiting and monetising their children for internet fame with no regard for their children’s autonomy, dignity, or privacy.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [Asian] [White Privilege] [White Defensiveness] [White Blindness] [Accountability]
6 Things White People Say That Highlight Their Privilege If You Want to be an Ally in the Fight against Racism, Start by Acknowledging Your White Privilege. Then Take Action that Supports the Black Community.
by Kelsey Borresen | June 2020
…white people typically move through life unaware of all the head starts, resources and access the color of their skin affords them. They dog’t recognize these unearned advantages until they’re pointed out – and even then, some white people will try to deny the existence of their privilege. It should be noted that merely acknowledging your white privilege isn’t enough – but it is one small and necessary step toward taking action and wielding that privilege to help dismantle the systems that oppress the Black Community and other people of color in this country. We talked to educators, activists, therapists and professors about the things white people often say that highlight their privilege without them realizing it.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2020’s] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [White Fragility/Tears] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Colorblindness] [Policing] [White Culture] [White Defensiveness] [White Blindness] [Accountability]
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]
The Dehumanizing Condescension of White Fragility; The Popular Book Aims to Combat Racism but Talks Down to Black People.
by John McWhorter| July 2020
“ … herein is the real problem with White Fragility. DiAngelo does not see fit to address why all of this agonizing soul-searching is necessary to forging change in society. One might ask just how a people can be poised for making change when they have been taught that pretty much anything they say or think is racist and thus antithetical to the good. What end does all this self-mortification serve? Impatient with such questions, DiAngelo insists that “wanting to jump over the hard, personal work and get to ‘solutions’” is a “foundation of white fragility.” In other words, for DiAngelo, the whole point is the suffering. And note the scare quotes around solutions, as if wanting such a thing were somehow ridiculous. A corollary question is why Black people need to be treated the way DiAngelo assumes we do. The very assumption is deeply condescending to all proud Black people. In my life, racism has affected me now and then at the margins, in very occasional social ways, but has had no effect on my access to societal resources; if anything, it has made them more available to me than they would have been otherwise. Nor should anyone dismiss me as a rara avis. Being middle class, upwardly mobile, and Black has been quite common during my existence since the mid-1960s, and to deny this is to assert that affirmative action for Black people did not work.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [Individual Change] [2020’s] [White Fragility/Tears] [White Defensiveness] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [Anti-Racism] [Myths] [“All Lives Matter”] [Denial]
What We Get Wrong about ‘People of Color’
by Jason Parham | November 2019
The phrase turns a plural into a singular, an action that betrays all the ways we have come to understand contemporary identity.
This past summer, in one of the most bizarre applications, Representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, who is white and Republican, described himself as a “person of color” when discussing Trump’s comments about four Democratic congresswomen. “It’s time to stop fixating on our differences—particularly our superficial ones,” he said.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [Prison System] [Politics] [Racial Covenants] [White Privilege] [White Supremacy]
[White Defensiveness] [White Blindness] [Denial] [“All Lives Matter”] [White Fragility/Tears] [White Culture]
In 1912, This Georgia County Drove Out Every Black Resident Between the 1860s and the 1920s, White Americans Pushed out Thousands of Black Residents from Their Communities.
by Becky Little | August 2019
To understand what Abrams is up against in November, when she’ll compete against two Republican men in a red state that has only elected white men, it’s useful to look at the state’s history of white supremacy and how that legacy affects Georgians today. One county in particular shoulders an especially egregious past. The northern county of Forsyth, one of Georgia’s 10 most populous, leans heavily white and conservative. Its demographics are shaped by an event that happened in 1912, when white people forced out all 1,098 of Forsyth’s black residents, who comprised about 10 percent of the population at the time.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [History] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Defensiveness] [Racial Covenants] [Denial] [Housing] [Accountability] [Policing]
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]
American White People Really Hate Being Called “White People”
by David Roberts | July 2018
It occurred to me that white people rarely if ever experience questions like this, about their very legitimacy. Do they belong? Is having more of them around good for America? One thing white people have never experienced is a poll on whether their presence in their own country is intrinsically detrimental. In fact, I thought, I bet asking the question at all — not answering it either way, just asking it — would make a lot of white people flip out. Imagine if they saw that on a poll! So, as a bit of goofy provocation, I made just such a poll:
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [White Fragility/Tears] [White Supremacy] [White Defensiveness] [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]
10 things every white teacher should know when talking about race
by Angela Watson | Janurary 2017
Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room–why I am talking only to white people? Isn’t that racist? (Hold that question in your mind, because I want you to ask yourself that same question again after you’ve read my words here, and see if your thought process has changed.) I’m specifically addressing white people in this episode because around 83% of teachers in the U.S. are white. Most of you reading my blog are in fact, white. Conversations about race are super prevalent right now and for many white people, it feels like stepping into a minefield. They have literally no idea what to say, or feel like they don’t understand the history of people of color enough to contribute much to the conversation. Or, they say something they think is totally valid but inadvertently offend people of color in the discussion. Or get their own feelings hurt because they feel “attacked,” vowing to never, ever enter another conversation about race again. This can’t happen, teacher friends. It really hurts my heart to see so many misunderstandings in our country around race right now, particular when it’s among white teachers who are shaping the next generation of minds. Teachers are smart, thoughtful people tasked with raising up young people to be leaders. We cannot be ignorant about race or avoid talking about it. Includes PODCAST.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [Teachers] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Accountability] [Podcast] [Anti-Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [“Reverse Racism”] [White Privilege] [White Defensiveness]
Anything but Racism
by James Mulholland | April 2019
“Note to my white self…You did it again. You made a racist assumption and then tried to
justify it. You assumed the black man who came to your hotel room was a member of the cleaning crew and not the manager.”
TAGS: [Assumptions] [Implicit Bias] [Individual Change] [Accountability] [Denial] [White Defensiveness] [White Fragility/Tears] [2010’s]
America’s Forgotten Mass Lynching: When 237 People Were Murdered in Arkansas
*Paywall Alert
by David Krugler| Feb 2015
In 1919, after the end of World War I, Black sharecroppers in Arkansas began to unionize. This attempt to form unions, triggered white vigilantism and mass killings, that left 237 Blacks dead.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [White Defensiveness] [White Supremacy] [History]
Confronting White Supremacy in the Work Place
by Caroline Taiwo | Date 2010’s
Two years ago, I started work as a recruitment and retention specialist for a small Minnesota nonprofit. The organization’s mission was to serve youth in crisis and their matriculation rate was 90 percent poor Black kids. I was hired on to replace a woman they fired a month prior, a Black woman, for reasons unresolved. She had been telling people that she was pushed out for challenging racist policy. Our department had tripled the number of volunteers coming in for weekly shift rotations but incredibly, the entire pool was white. When I brought it up, and offered to lead an effort to all in more volunteers of color, the more outspoken of the bosses interjected with, “Well we could look for more Black volunteers but I don’t think they would pass our background check.”
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism] [Silencing POC] [Accountability] [Employment] [Denial] [White Culture] [White Blindness] [Economics] [White Privilege] [White Defensiveness] [White Culture] [Assumptions] [Myths]
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]
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]
Beware of Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: The Tale of A Progressive Professor Who Forgot To Hide Her Racism And Got Her Ass Fired
by Kayla Renee Parker | June 2017
She wears a safety pin so everyone knows she’s an ally for minorities. Her cover photo has a Black power fist. She regularly discusses her love for the Obamas, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and her admonishment for this current administration. However, I would soon realize that nothing would shake her more than a confident, Black woman contradicting her in front of a classroom of her own students.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Accountability] [Denial] [Systemic Racism] [White Defensiveness] [Black Lives Matter] [Silencing POC]