Resource Links Tagged with "White Privilege"

Alexander Hamilton, Enslaver? New Research Says Yes; A Paper by a Researcher at the Schuyler Mansion Finds Overlooked Evidence in Letters and Hamilton’s Own Account Books Indicating That He Bought, Sold and Personally Owned Slaves.

by Jennifer Schuessler | November 2020
“Not only did Alexander Hamilton enslave people, but his involvement in the institution of slavery was essential to his identity, both personally and professionally,” she writes. “It is vital,” she adds, “that the myth of Hamilton as ‘the Abolitionist Founding Father’ end.” The evidence cited in the paper, which was quietly published online last month, is not entirely new. But Ms. Serfilippi’s forceful case has caught the eye of historians, particularly those who have questioned what they see as his inflated antislavery credentials.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [Slavery] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Art & Culture] [Denial] [Myths]

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]

George Floyd’s Autopsy and the Structural Gaslighting of America; The Weaponization of Medical Language Emboldened White Supremacy with the Authority of the White Coat. How Will We Stop It from Happening Again?

by Ann Crawford-Roberts, Sonya Shadravan, Jennifer Tsai, Nicolás E. Barceló, Allie Gips, Michael Mensah, Nichole Roxas, Alina Kung, Anna Darby, Naya Misa, Isabella Morton, Alice Shen | June 2020
The world was gaslit by misreporting about George Floyd’s initial autopsy report. As concerned physicians, we write to deconstruct the misinformation and condemn the ways this weaponization of medical language reinforced white supremacy at the torment of Black Americans. Gaslighting is a method of psychological manipulation employed to make a victim question their own sanity, particularly in scenarios where they are mistreated.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Black Lives Matter] [Systemic Racism] [Silencing POC] [Racial Covenants] [Policing] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [History] [Collective Action] [Police Shootings] [Denial] [Accountability] [Health Disparities] [Definitions]

For White Men Who Have Considered Genocide When Patriarchy and Privilege Are Not Enuf

by Mikol L. Clarke | November 2020
The cacophony of celebratory sounds that rang out last week in reaction to Joe Biden’s win was based on a sundry of emotions—ranging from relief at ending a racist regime dominated by white men who were fanatical about protecting their own wealth and privilege to jubilance over a historic win for Kamala Harris, the first woman and African American to be elected vice president. We were all celebrating our new white savior with a side of sister and new hopes that a brighter day was on the horizon. That day has not come just yet. The celebration only fueled the anger and resentment of a cadre of white men who’ve made it their dual mission in life to be both sycophants to a man in orange and to hinder any semblance of progress in this country. The days that followed Biden’s victory speech were riddled with egregious examples of toxic white masculinity.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Politics] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [History] [Silencing POC] [Justice System] [Health Disparities]

Supreme Court Upholds Law Banning Chinese Americans from White Schools

by Equal Justice Initative | Date Unknown
On November 21, 1927, in Gong Lum v. Rice, the United States Supreme Court ruled against the Chinese-American Lum family and upheld Mississippi’s power to force nine-year old Martha Lum to attend a “colored school: outside the district where she lived. …When the Mississippi Supreme Court held that Martha Lum could not insist on being educated with white students because she was of the “Mongolian or yellow race,” her father appealed to the United States Supreme Court. In its decision siding with the state of Mississippi, the U.S. Supreme Court reasoned that Mississippi’s decision to bar Martha from attending the local white high school did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment because she was entitled to attend a colored school. This decision extended the reach of segregation laws and policies in Mississippi and throughout the nation by classifying all non-white individuals as “colored.”
TAGS: [Collective Action] [Asian] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Justice System] [White Blindness]

The Hurdles Ahead in 2021 for Maine’s Stalled Tribal Sovereignty Bid

by Caitlin Andrews | November 2020
Tribes are reviving a push to overhaul their relationships with the state, but they lost champions in the election and the complicated effort may face obstacles in a skeptical Gov. Janet Mills and special-interest opponents. … The complex issue of sovereignty would be revived in what promises to be one of the more high-stakes legislative sessions in state history in early 2021. Lawmakers will be facing an estimated $1.4 billion shortfall over the next three years. Racial disparities around the coronavirus, health and incarceration are also likely to drive policy conversations.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [Politics] [Justice System] [Systemic Racism] [Health Disparities] [Prison System] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Economics] [Denial]

“This is Where Our People Are”: Reflections on Plymouth 400

by Charles Thomas Lai FitzGibbon | November 2020
This month, in addition to being National Native American Heritage Month, marks 400 years since the Mayflower landed in Plymouth. Here in Massachusetts—a state named after the indigenous people of the “Great Blue Hill”—many of us are settlers on stolen land. I spoke with Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, Chairwoman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah based on Martha’s Vineyard, to hear her perspective on this moment, and what we can learn from reflecting on the anniversary. CF: This year marks 400 years since European settlers landed in Plymouth. How are your communities reflecting on and/or acting around this moment? …CAM: We wanted to really have our truth be told, not the whitewashed, watered down version [from] the history books that our children have to endure around fifth grade. Not the version to make the story sound good. As we say in Indian Country which is where we live and work: the truth is the truth is the truth.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [History] [White Supremacy] [Racial Covenants] [White Culture] [White Blindness] [Systemic Racism] [Advocacy] [Justice System] [Politics] [White Privilege]

Honestie Hodges, Handcuffed by the Police at 11, Is Dead at 14

by Glenn Rifkin | November 2020
The incident occurred on Dec. 6, 2017. Honestie had stepped out the back door of her home with her mother and another family member to go to the store when they were confronted by police officers with their guns drawn. “Put your hands on top of your—,” an officer ordered them before he was interrupted by Honestie’s mother screaming, “She is 11 years old, sir!” “Stop yelling!” the officer responded, as recorded by an officer’s body camera. He ordered Honestie to walk backward toward him with her hands up. A second officer grabbed her arms, pulled them behind her back and handcuffed her. Honestie shouted, “No, No, No!” pleading with the officers not to place the cuffs on her. The police, who said they had been searching for a 40-year-old woman in connection with a stabbing, removed the handcuffs after several minutes.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Policing] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [White Blindness] [-ing While Black] [Black Lives Matter] [Assumptions] [Health Disparities]

Elites Use Race to Divide Us; The War on Police Brutality Hides a Much Bigger Threat to All Americans

by Monica Harris | June 2020
Let’s get something straight: white privilege is real. I know because I’ve lived in its shadow my entire life. I’ve felt it even when I’ve tried to forget or pretend it wasn’t there. White privilege wasn’t earned; it was gifted to people who brought others, shackled in the bowels of ships, to serve them. Living in a country where your ancestors were once stuff that other people “owned” leaves wounds so deep they can’t be erased from the collective memory. And when your ancestors were the ones allowed to “own” other people, it creates something equally indelible: an advantage that’s hard-wired into all levels of society. It’s like getting a head start in every race that always puts you a few yards from the finish line. It’s an entitlement that lingers, unspoken, in the back of all minds, silently playing out in everything we say, think, or do.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [Systemic Racism] [History] [Policing] [Slavery] [Implicit Racism] [Economics] [Black Lives Matter] [Police Shootings] [Denial] [Civil War]

Can Anybody Hear Me? How White Nonprofit Writing Standards Erase BIPOC Voices — and Why That is Definitely Not OK

by Yolanda Contreras | November 2020
So many times, we see the creation of BIPOC-serving organizations by all white people — organizations devoid of voices exemplifying the very communities that these white people are trying to help. This kind of white saviorism is commonplace because we live within white supremacy — it often exhibits as the erasure of diverse voices in favor of the white dominant voice. Which is tragic, because oftentimes, our personal voice is one of the only things that we have. I’ve orbited around nonprofits and volunteering for almost as long as I can remember, at least ever since I took on my first volunteer gig while in elementary school, assisting the school librarian. I’ve held various volunteer positions throughout the years, which have also included an internship at an esteemed nonprofit. But it took me almost four years after college graduation for someone to actually hire me — to pay for my labor — and for me to finally jumpstart my official nonprofit career. Time after time, I found myself in front of an all-white hiring committee, defending and selling myself. Time after time, I would receive a rejection letter from a white leader figure who deemed me not good enough. Maybe these nonprofits wanted to hire me — but didn’t — for reasons they couldn’t quite put their fingers on. I think it’s the fact that I am a woman of color. And maybe I should have taken those instances as a warning of things to come.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Silencing POC] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege] [White Culture]

White America’s Age-Old, Misguided Obsession With Civility

by Thomas J. Sugrue | June 2018
But in fact, civil rights leaders, while they did believe in the power of nonviolence, knew that their success depended on disruption and coercion as much — sometimes more — than on dialogue and persuasion. They knew that the vast majority of whites who were indifferent or openly hostile to the demands of civil rights would not be moved by appeals to the American creed or to bromides about liberty and justice for all. Polite words would not change their behavior. … That history is a reminder that civility is in the eye of the beholder. And when the beholder wants to maintain an unequal status quo, it’s easy to accuse picketers, protesters, and preachers alike of incivility, as much because of their message as their methods. For those upset by disruptive protests, the history of civil rights offers an unsettling reminder that the path to change is seldom polite.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [History] [Systemic Racism] [Police Shootings] [Policing] [Politics] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Social Justice] [Justice System]

White Violence, Church Silence; Many white churches have been guilty of not only espousing racist rhetoric, but also of preaching a theology that urges Christian silence when it comes to standing up for justice.

by L.A. Justice | November 2020
While Black people are being relentlessly pursued because our lives have been determined to be expendable, numerous churches across this country have not only been silent, but too many have been complacent and complicit with these atrocities. Myriad white churches have been guilty of not only espousing racist rhetoric, but also of preaching a theology that urges Christian silence when it comes to standing up for justice, especially when it means standing against the racially motivated brutalization of Black bodies. This encourages the perpetrators of such inhumane violence to continue to act with impunity, no matter how abhorrent the violence committed against us may be.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Systemic Racism] [Policing] [Denial] [History] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [White Blindness] [Accountability] [Faith-Based/Spiritual] [Black Lives Matter] [Collective Action] [Cognitive Dissonance]

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]

‘White Saviorism Is a Very Huge Issue’: White Spelman Student Offers Apology after Onslaught of Criticism for Her Tone In Celebrating Acceptance Letter

by Matt Bruce | December 2020
“As someone who has now attended two HBCUs (originally I went to Howard University then I transferred to Clark Atlanta), those places are a haven of Black thought,” Louis began.” There is nothing wrong with being not Black in these spaces but to do so vocally is something that doesn’t sit right with me. Spelman particularly, is as an institution that was created with Black Women in mind; sure there have been white Spelmanites before, yet the common comment that most Spelmanites seem to have is that to take up space in a Black space is something that is already not taken positively, yet to do so vocally and to compare a mental disability to the plight of Black women when discussing your ‘qualifications’ to attend Spelman College is not a good look.”
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2020’s] [White Blindness] [White Privilege] [History] [Assumptions] [White Culture]

Black Mom Swarmed & Beaten by Philly Riot Police with Toddler in Car Demands Officers Be Fired

by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez | December 2020
A Black mother who was attacked by a horde of Philadelphia police officers is speaking out about the harrowing experience. Rickia Young was driving an SUV with her 2-year-old son and teenage nephew on October 27 as the city was engulfed in protest over the police killing of Walter Wallace Jr. earlier that day. Officers descended on the vehicle, broke its windows, assaulted and arrested her and separated her from her child. Young’s arrest went viral due to a shocking video of the police swarming her vehicle, and after the National Fraternal Order of Police — the country’s largest police union — posted a photo of her 2-year-old on social media, falsely claiming he “was lost during the violent riots in Philadelphia, wandering around barefoot in an area that was experiencing complete lawlessness.”
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Policing] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [Black Lives Matter] [-ing While Black] [Assumptions] [Accountability]

Why Did Racial Progress Stall in America? The Answer May Show Us the Path out of Our Fractured and Polarized Present

by Shaylyn Romney Garrett and Robert D. Putnam | December 2020
In measure after measure, positive change for Black Americans was actually faster in the decades before the civil rights revolution than in the decades after. For example, —- The life expectancy gap between Black and white Americans narrowed most rapidly between about 1905 and 1947, after which the rate of improvement was much more modest. And by 1995 the life expectancy ratio was the same as it had been in 1961. There has been some progress in the ensuing two decades, but this is due in part to an increase in premature deaths among working-class whites.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [Collective Action] [Assumptions] [2020’s] [History] [Black Lives Matter] [Policing] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [Civil War] [Economics] [Politics] [Myths]

White Clicktivism: Why Are Some Americans Woke Online but Not in Real Life?

by Brianna Holt | December 2020
“I’m a Democrat. I’ll be friends with anyone, like anyone from different sides of the political spectrum. I guess that makes me liberal,” she said. “Liberals are more open to experiences.”
Maybe they are. But a woman of color would be physically threatened if their date exposed their Proud Boy membership over a few drinks. Kansen, a white woman, did not feel at risk and so it was partly her privilege – not her tolerance – that gave her a hall pass to entertain a member of a white supremacist group. … Despite racism being a structural problem, individual actions still matter. But, Cavanagh warns, people may believe in equality while opting out of decisions that are hard for them personally. “Voting can be thought of as a relatively low-cost act of solidarity and commitment to justice, unlike cutting off ties to your racist mother,” she says.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2020’s] [White Privilege] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism] [White Blindness] [Accountability] [Cognitive Dissonance] [Collective Action] [Colorblindness]

Shinnecock Nation Asserts Sovereignty at Sunrise Highway Encampment

by Julia Press | December 2020
For 26 days, Shinnecock residents camped out along the Sunrise Highway — the only road in and out of the Hamptons. “We’ve had snow, we’ve had rain, we’ve had sleet, we’ve been under tornado watch,” said Tela Troge. She’s a member of Warriors of the Sunrise, the group of Shinnecock women who organized the occupation. Troge said that this “Sovereignty Camp” was spurred by a recent dispute with state and local government over a 61-foot tall electronic billboard. The Shinnecock Nation built this monument along the highway to generate advertising revenue. Troge, who’s a lawyer, spent years on the legal research to prove that it was on Shinnecock land.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [Justice System] [Accountability] [White Privilege]

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: [Collective Action] [Individual Change] [2020’s] [Systemic Racism] [Black Lives Matter] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [White Blindness] [History] [Economics] [Housing] [Cognitive Dissonance]

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]

Just How White Is the Book Industry?

by Richard Jean So and Gus Wezerek | December 2020
During last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, books written by people of color climbed the best-sellers lists. Was last summer a vision of equality to come for the publishing industry? Or a flash in the pan? Nana Kwame-Adjei-Brenyah had just turned 26 when he got the call in 2017 that Mariner Books wanted to publish his short-story collection, “Friday Black.” Mr. Adjei-Brenyah suspected that the contract he signed — a $10,000 advance for “Friday Black” and $40,000 for an unfinished second book — wasn’t ideal. But his father had cancer and the money provided a modicum of security. Mr. Adjei-Brenyah’s uneasiness over his book deal became more acute last summer. Using the hashtag #PublishingPaidMe, writers had begun to share their advances on Twitter with the goal of exposing racial pay disparities in publishing. Some white authors disclosed that they had been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for their debut books.
TAGS: [Strategies] [Individual Change] [2020’s] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [White Blindness] [Art & Culture] [History] [Accountability] [Economics]

Fact Check: Quotes from Prominent American Statesmen on Race are Accurate

by Reuters Staff | July 2020
An old image that is recirculating on social media purportedly shows quotes on race by the Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and member of the Virginia House of Delegates Henry Berry. The quotes, contextualized below, are accurate.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [Systemic Racism] [History] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Slavery]

Black Girls in Mass. Nearly 4 Times More Likely to Face School Discipline than White Girls, Report Finds

by Naomi Martin | September 2020
The authors of the report, “Protecting Girls of Color from the School-to-Prison Pipeline,” said stark racial disparities in school discipline is a nationwide problem. But they chose to focus on girls, who they said should be included more in the national conversation on racial justice, and picked the three states to compare as case studies. … The report found that in all three states, Black female students were far more likely than white ones to be suspended in school, suspended out of school, expelled, referred to law enforcement, and arrested. Out-of-school suspensions affected the largest share of Black girls. Though Massachusetts’ racial disparities were generally comparable to the two other states, Kansas and Alabama both suspended a far larger portion of their Black female students from school.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [Systemic Racism] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [White Blindness] [Prison System] [Policing] [Black Lives Matter] [-ing While Black]

When White Women Practice the Politics of Polite, the Violence of Nice We Must Admit That, When We’re Moderate, We’re Complicit.

by Real Talk: WOC & Allies | August 2019
It turns out, not so much. Our extreme discomfort with discord and our inability to sustain even the mildest of stress fractures when our tools fail us, is why we are not moving the needle on the meaningful dismantling of systems and institutions that intentionally uphold white supremacy. We recoil from the concepts of subversion and disruption like vampires from the hot sun. Because subversion is not polite and disruption is not nice. We need to embrace the discomfort, the edges and the messiness of overturning that which has kept us in the number two slot of the power and privilege pyramid for over 500 years.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [Politics] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [White Fragility/Tears] [White Supremacy] [Bystander Intervention] [Policing] [Anti-Racism] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Microaggressions] [Assumptions]

10 Myths about the Racial Wealth Gap

by Dion Rabouin | July 2020
1. The myth of closing the racial wealth gap through education
2. The myth of closing the racial wealth gap through personal responsibility
3. The myth of closing the racial wealth gap through home ownership
4. The myth of closing the racial wealth gap with individual accomplishment
5. The myth of closing the racial wealth gap through increased savings
6. The myth of closing the racial wealth gap by investing in Black-owned banks
7. The myth of closing the racial wealth gap through entrepreneurship
8. The myth of closing the racial wealth gap through financial literacy
9. The myth of closing the racial wealth gap by emulating “model minorities”
10. The myth of closing the racial wealth gap through “stronger families”
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [Myths] [Economics] [History] [Denial] [Racial Covenants] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [Housing] [Systemic Racism] [White Privilege]

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]

A Judge Asked Harvard to Find Out Why So Many Black People Were In Prison. They Could Only Find 1 Answer: Systemic Racism

by Michael Harriot | September 2020
When a judge tasked researchers with explaining why Massachusetts’ Black and Latinx incarceration was so high, a four-year study came up with one conclusion. Racism. It was always racism. “White people make up roughly 74% of the Massachusetts population while accounting for 58.7% of cases in our data,” the study explained. “Meanwhile, Black people make up just 6.5% of the Massachusetts population and account for 17.1% of cases.” Of course, that could only mean that Black people commit much more crime, right? Nope. OK, then maybe Black people commit worse crimes. That wasn’t it. What they found is the criminal justice system is unequal on every level. Cops in the state are more likely to stop Black drivers.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [Policing] [Systemic Racism] [Prison System] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege] [Latino/a] [Myths] [Black Lives Matter] [-ing While Black]

How the Long Fight for Slavery Reparations is Slowly Being Won

by Kris Manjapra | April 2020
In a suburb of Chicago, the world’s first government-funded slavery reparations programme is beginning. Robin Rue Simmons helped make it happen – but her victory has been more than 200 years in the making. It began with an email. On an especially cold day in Evanston, Illinois, in February 2019, Robin Rue Simmons, 43 years old and two years into her first term as alderman for the city’s historically Black 5th ward, sent an email whose effects would eventually make US history. The message to the nine-member equity and empowerment commission of the Evanston city council started with a disarmingly matter-of-fact heading: “Because ‘reparations’ makes people uncomfortable.”
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2020’s] [Slavery] [Reparations] [Advocacy] [History] [Racial Covenants] [Systemic Racism] [Politics] [Denial] [Accountability] [Economics] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege]

The Mental Health Impact of ‘Blame a Black Man Syndrome’ The Frequent Wrongful Accusation of Black Men Ruins Lives and Communities.

by Rob Whitley, Ph.D. | November 2017
Blame a Black Man Syndrome describes a common tendency to falsely accuse a black man of a crime or misconduct. It can take two forms.Firstly, it can refer to generic racial hoaxes, where an accuser blames an imaginary black man for a non-existent crime. Famous examples include Susan Smith, who alleged that a black man carjacked her vehicle and kidnapped her sons, when in fact she had murdered her children herself. Another is Bonnie Sweeten, who claimed that she and her daughter were kidnapped by two black men when she was actually vacationing in Florida. Secondly, it can involve accusations against a named but innocent black man. Famous examples include football player Brian Banks, who spent five years in prison for a rape he did not commit. Another is Patrick Lumumba, whose life was ruined when Amanda Knox falsely accused him of murder.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [Prison System] [Calling Police] [White Privilege] [White Supremacy] [-ing While Black] [Definitions] [Prison System] [Policing] [Assumptions]

American Violence in the Time of Coronavirus

by Graham Lee Brewer | May 2020
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz digs into the roots of violence buried deep within the country’s history. From the election of Donald Trump to the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, American violence has been on unprecedented display. The pandemic has likewise exposed some of the nation’s starkest disparities, not only in justice and health-related issues, but also along racial and class divides.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [Economics] [Systemic Racism] [History] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Blindness] [White Privilege] [Employment] [Immigration]