Why white Americans feel oppressed ....great read in illuminating why this false narrative persists. Plus good info in how to shut that BS down. http://
Anti-racism activist and no that =/= some code word. Drew has worked directly with BLUU to present content for white people at GA 2016 as well as in St Louis & at GA2017. Drew believes that UU’s shared faith, principles and commitment to a responsible journey for truth provide an ideal framework for making significant advances in dismantling systems of supremacy.
Drew is the co-host of the White Privilege Podcast
Why white Americans feel oppressed by @toure
1 min read
My website on white privilege!
1 min read
Hey everyone!!
I'm a professor and my dissertation is on white privilege. I'm passionate about helping whites (like me) come to a better understanding of privilege so that we can work together to dismantle systemic racism and systems of privilege.
Please take a moment to check out my website when you have a chance, where I post articles to read and maintain my blog on all things white privilege. Thanks so much!
www.whiteprivdoc.com
For white people wanting to do something about their own racist feelings and reactions see Kinship Training: Unseating Unconscious Racist Views With Feelings Of Kinship at www.kinshiptraining.com This is a work in progress and I'd greatly appreciate hearing your experience with and thoughts about the visualization exercises. These are non-secular adaptations of Buddhist compassion practices.
hey all ! I just learned about this site through @VeryWhiteGuy's Twitter account. Looking forward to learning & growing here ! ^_^ _/|\_
I love your mission statement. I sometimes don't know what "race" I should claim. But I know when I walk into the room I am considered a white lady by most people, even though my single mother was a first generation Mexican American and didn't speak English til she was 7 years old. My adult daughters are much darker than me and are considered black by most people. I've seen the difference in the way they are treated and heard by society. I am deeply committed to changing the way we heal racism. Thanks for creating this website.
#SandraBland was lynched & why white people will (but should not) entertain possibility of suicide
3 min read
We as white people are fed a constant stream of anti-black conditioning & white normative centering. An artifact of this conditioning is a sort of reflexive knee jerk equivocation surrounding racial incidents. Understand this is not our fault white people....this has been done TO US...but we need to understand it.
As an example in my own life - just last year my church let me & my wife down in terrible fashion. There was an incident where a white man made some horrible comments about race/racism in a room full of 50 church members....and no one said anything.
I was the only one that spoke up....but here's the thing. My initial...immediate nano second of a thought was one to equivocate this mans comments. My brain in rapid fire succession thought - he didn't mean it that way....he doesn't know my wife is black....my brain ran through these possible equivocations without any sort of control on my part....it happened subconsciously.
Now, if my brain does that in an instant where I heard, without question, racist comments...what do we think our white brains do subconsciously when we're faced with evidence (with deliberately conflicting stories) of an unbelievably racist act?
Our conditioned white brains are left with two equally implausible possibilities.....that Sandra committed suicide despite all the evidence to the contrary....or that police officers lynched Sandra.
I'm not personally mad with anyone that thought....what if...did she really commit suicide...but I want to shed some light on how/why that thought process takes place and that it does so unconsciously despite our best efforts as white people to the contrary.
For me, knowing & understanding this conditioned response doesn't "stop" that response...my brain still attempts to equivocate white racism....but I've learned to recognize this conditioned equivocation response...and recognize it faster so that I don't let that initial knee jerk reaction cause me to fail to speak up, or to speak up inappropriately.
In particular in the immediate aftermath of something like Sandra's lynching those conditioned equivocation thoughts can & will be triggering for people of color. As white people working for black liberation it is our duty to understand, recognize and actively counteract years & years of white supremacist conditioning. Language matters & we as white anti-racists need to be vigilant & constantly seeking to improve ourselves while holding up an example for other white anti-racists and other white people. Discussing any possibility that this was a suicide can & does give other white people the tacit approval to also think perhaps this was a suicide.
Don't let that conditioned equivocation response cloud our judgement. Don't for a second think that Sandra's death was anything other than a lynching.
Don't let that conditioned equivocation response cloud our judgement. Don't for a second think that Sandra's death was anything other than a lynching.
The power of whiteness
1 min read
So, I'm sitting and reading my favorite comedy page, Cracked.com, and I come across a conspiracy theory article. Number 5 on their list: MLK'S Family Sued The Federal Government For Conspiracy To Commit Murder (And Won)
Say what?
Now, I just posted on twitter how I felt ashamed for not know certain facets of black history. Thanks to @VeryWhiteGuy for reminding me that it's not completly my fault. Also, this was in 1999 when the internet was called the net, before being called the internet again. Remember, this is a conspiracy theory article, so take it with a grain of salt, BUT it does, at least, show the power of white privilege, because you've probably never heard of this story, right? I didn't. I won't spoil the article because it, and many others on Cracked.com are worth reading. You may also enjoy their suble jabs at whiteness.
That's all I have.
Racism is a business
1 min read
Racism is a business. Its marketing is so successful that even Akala looks sideways at a young black man holding a lot of cash. These racial assumptions lead to 'everyday' racism - daily encounters and micro-agressions. It's time to recognise the relationship between top-down propaganda and the bias that we all carry.
Watch the full video at http://
White Supremacy is Not a Black Problem by @AndrayDomise
1 min read
....We’re still living in societies that rationalize why black people occupy a lower caste status, are still being disenfranchised, still struggle to receive justice. To be black in North America is to know that our skin negates our expectation of safety, and that any manner of white violence against our bodies will be isolated, explained, and often excused. To be black in North America is to speak out against that white violence done to our bodies, and brace for the retort that “black on black violence” is a more important conversation to have. It is to know that our identities—our art, music, food, and colourful vernacular, and even our skin and hair—only exist as unique until white folks come to snatch them from us, too.
Read the full article at http://
FOR THE WHITE PERSON WHO WANTS TO KNOW HOW TO BE MY FRIEND - Pat Parker
2 min read
The first thing you do is to forget that I'm black.
Second, you must never forget that I'm black.
You should be able to dig Aretha,
but don't play her every time I come over.
And if you decide to play Beethoven -- don't tell me
his life story. They make us take music appreciation, too.
Eat soul food if you like it, but don't expect me
to locate your restaurants
or cook it for you.
And if some Black person insults you,
mugs you, rapes your sister, rapes you,
rips your house or is just being an ass --
please, do not apologize to me
for wanting to do them bodily harm.
It makes me wonder if you're foolish.
And even if you really believe Blacks are better lovers than
whites -- don't tell me. I start thinking of charging stud fees.
In other words -- if you really want to be my friend -- don't
make a labor of it. I'm lazy. Remember.
From Movement in Black by Pat Parker. Copyright(c) 1978 by Pat Parker.
Start a "showing up for racial justice" @Showup4rj group in your town
1 min read
http://
CHAPTER AND AFFILIATE GROUP BUILDING TOOLKIT
START A SURJ AFFILIATE IN YOUR TOWN!
SURJ is a national network of affiliated groups working together to expand our collective capacity to organize White people for racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ affiliates aim to move White people in motion to take action as part of a multi-racial majority for racial justice. What the on the ground work looks like for each of SURJ’s Chapter affiliates varies from place to place, but each affiliate is committed to SURJ’s core values and mission.
Anti racist whites - it's not about getting it "right" but about never giving up...
3 min read
Whites fighting racism: what it’s about
BY ON
Note: I was asked by SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice – a group which organizes white folks against racism) to write a few paragraphs offering a perspective on white solidarity. It was to open a national organizing conference call. What I wrote follows:
White people are taught that racism is a personal attribute, an attitude, maybe a set of habits. Anti-racist whites invest too much energy worrying about getting it right; about not slipping up and revealing their racial socialization; about saying the right things and knowing when to say nothing. It’s not about that. It’s about putting your shoulder to the wheel of history; about undermining the structural supports of a system of control that grinds us under, that keeps us divided even against ourselves and that extracts wealth, power and life from our communities like an oil company sucks it from the earth.
The names of the euro-descended anti-racist warriors we remember – John Brown, Anne Braden, Myles Horton – are not those of people who did it right. They are of people who never gave up. They kept their eyes on the prize – not on their anti-racism grade point average.
This will also be the measure of your work. Be there. No one knows how to raise a child but we do it anyway. We don’t get it right. The essential thing is that we don’t give up and walk away. Don’t get me wrong. It is important to learn and improve and become wise in the ways of struggle – or of parenting. But that comes with time. It comes after the idea of not being in the struggle no longer seems like an option.
One more thing. You may not get the validation you hunger for. Stepping outside of the smoke and mirrors of racial privilege is hard, but so is living within the electrified fences of racial oppression – and no one gets cookies for that. The thing is that when you help put out a fire, the people whose home was in flames may be too upset to thank and praise you – especially when you look a lot like the folks who set the fire. That’s OK. This is about something so much bigger than that.
There are things in life we don’t get to do right. But we do get to do them.
We Must Awaken the Souls of White People To Resist White Supremacy
1 min read
We need to support other white people to tap into their grief, pain, and sadness about Charleston and turn it into a commitment to the destruction and abolition of institutional racism.
http://
Whiteness as property
1 min read
http://
"Understand that whiteness is an asset, something owned and embodied. The best explanation of this idea can be found in law professor Cheryl Harris’ 1993 essay “Whiteness As Property,” in which she lays out how the law has treated and protected whiteness as a right, for example, with redlining in housing, or racial disparities in education. Like a luxury car or an expensive suit, whiteness facilitates entry into elite or exclusive spaces. White people should acknowledge that while whiteness does not necessarily grant access to such spaces, it allows them far more mobility, comfort and safety than those without it." Sylvia Chan Malik
In the Spirit of John Brown: a Letter to White People After Charleston
1 min read
In the Spirit of John Brown: a Letter to White People After Charleston
If Black Lives truly Matter to us, then we need to confront every person who wants to rationalize, or make apologies, or minimalize this as an isolated incident.
Explaining White Privilege To Broke White Person
1 min read
http://
Includes a link to White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack".
Unity from Below: White Racial Justice Organizing in the Time of #BlackLivesMatter
1 min read
http://
...But there are also costs that white people pay for participating in a system of white supremacy. Some of these are hard to quantify, such as the loss of true friendships across racial lines. But others can be counted in dollars and cents. By keeping Black and white apart, the power structure effectively prevents them from coming together to win issues they have in common. Most Black and white people in Kentucky are working class, and could be uniting for fair wages, a fair tax code, and a healthy environment. Instead they blame each other, to the satisfaction of the capitalist forces that have a real stake in maintaining white supremacy.
