Resource Links Tagged with "White Privilege"

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]

28 Common Racist Attitudes and Behaviors

by Joan Olsson | Date Unknown
Below is a list of 28 common racist attitudes and behaviors that indicate a detour or wrong turn into white guilt, denial or defensiveness. Each is followed by a statement that is a reality check and consequence for harboring such attitudes.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Colorblindness] [“Reverse Racism”] [White Privilege] [White Fragility/Tears] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts]

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]

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]

Three Things White People’s Love for “Get Out” Says About the White (Sub)Conscious

by Jamie Utt | April 2017
White people tend not to be supportive of anything that challenges Whiteness unless we have a clear interest in doing so. So what is our interest in the film? Well, I see the film as serving three of the functions that are necessary to the continued functioning of the modern White racial (sub)conscious: a signal that we are, in fact, the “good’ White people, an opportunity to enjoy and consume Black suffering and death (while also lauding a Black hero), and an opportunity to emotionally distance ourselves from the truths of the brutality of Whiteness.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege]

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]

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]

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]

8 Ways People of Color are Tokenized in Nonprofits

by Helen Kim Ho | September 2017
There’s a type of racism in the workplace many of us have personally witnessed, perpetrated or experienced: tokenism. Nowhere have I seen this play out more than in the nonprofit space. But how can a sector dedicated to the common good fail at being the most diverse, safe and woke-est place imaginable? Because the vast majority of charitable dollars are generated from rich white men, which ultimately influences the direction of funding. So what does tokenism look and feel like?
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [White Culture] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [White Privilege]

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]

My White Friend Asked Me on Facebook to Explain White Privilege. I Decided to Be Honest

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson | September 2017
Yesterday I was tagged in a post by an old high school friend asking me and a few others a very public, direct question about white privilege and racism. I feel compelled not only to publish his query, but also my response to it, as it may be a helpful discourse for more than just a few folks on Facebook.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2010’s] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [Implicit Racism]

Two White Women Launch ‘White Nonsense Roundup’ to Unburden People of Color (VIDEO)

by Egberto Willies | July 2016
Racial strife has exploded in America once again. Two Washington state women believe ‘White Nonsense Roundup’ could play a part in educating and healing and “to unburden people of color from social media ‘race-splainig.’” I titled my Sunday DailyKOS front page article with the provocative headline “Black Lives Matter needs white bodies” for a very particular reason. I figured using the ambiguous term would get more eyeballs to a story that needed more visibility. The feedback from the article was much more than I expected, good, bad, and indifferent. One particular email piqued my interest. The email suggested that I get in touch with Terri Kempton and Layla Tromble in Washington state. These two women launched the Facebook page ‘White Nonsense Roundup‘ hoping to be a part of the solution……
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [Black Lives Matter] [Accountability] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [Individual Change] [“All Lives Matter”] [White Fragility/Tears] [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]

This is What White People Can Do to Support #BlackLivesMatter

by Sally Kohn | August 2015
Educate yourselves, put your bodies in the streets and help dismantle white supremacy …In his searing new book, “Between the World and Me,” Ta-Nehisi Coates implies that it’s not his job — or, by extension the job of other black voices or leaders — to coach white folks, let alone worry about their feelings. Which it’s not. The whole point is that we white people should be the ones thinking more about black people — their feelings, their experience and their reality, which can be dramatically different than our own. But at the same time, Coates concludes his text noting that structural racism won’t change until white people change.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [Accountability] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Black Lives Matter] [“All Lives Matter”] [Individual Change]

Jesse Williams Discusses Biracial Privileges and Social Justice: ‘Black Americans Are Not Angry. They Are Hurting’

by Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele | October 2015
He’s not running away from, or ashamed of, the insight he’s gained as a black activist who is half-white. It has always been a pet peeve of mine when biracial people seem to ignore their white side and act as if the world perceives them as black through and through. I always felt that in their determination to identify solely and sternly as black, they were missing out on an opportunity to share some of the insight they may have about how white people feel and think about race relations. That they might be missing out on an opportunity to act as a conduit between both racial groups. He recalled how he cringed when an older white woman basically told him that his brand of blackness was better that that of people who are fully black.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [White Privilege] [Accountability] [Role Model] [Individual Change]

Can I Speak Up if I’m White?

by Naomi Ranz-Schleifer | May 2016
Yes. Not only can you speak up about race and racial inequality but as Macklemore and Ryan Lewis illustrate in their song featuring Jamila Woods, “your silence is a luxury.” A luxury and a privilege — more specifically, white privilege. Now is not the time to be a passive viewer, to be offended by every little thing, to play it safe for fear of making a mistake, or to be silent. Includes Videos “White Privilege II”, Deconstructing “White Privilege II”, and Whitney Dow on “Whiteness Project”.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2010’s] [Black Lives Matter] [White Fragility/Tears] [Art & Culture] [Accountability] [White Privilege] [White Supremacy]