By Andre Henry, May, 28, 2020 - medium.com
Why the violent protests in response to the murder of George Floyd could be productive.
By Corinne Shutack, August 13, 2017 – medium.com
Achieving racial justice is a marathon, not a sprint. Our work to fix what we broke and left broken isn't done until Black folks tell us it's done.
By Danielle Cadet, May 28, 2020 – money.yahoo.com
“Let's cut to the chase. It's been a tough few days…weeks…months. But there's a tale of two quarantines. Because while some Americans have been consumed by banana bread, others have had to navigate surviving a pandemic in a country they were never actually meant to live in.”
By Cory J. Anderson – sparkvisionnow.com
Anderson writes about practical ways to think about and implement equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace. He has always lived in a multicultural environment which he credits as his inspiration to bring diverse groups of people together.
By Hop Hopkins, May 25, 2020 – sierraclub.org
A public health debacle that can only be cured by addressing racism.
By Code Switch, May 31, 2020 – npr.org
“The last few weeks have been filled with devastating news — stories about the police killing black people. At this point, these calamities feel familiar — so familiar, in fact, that their details have begun to echo each other.”
By Lori Lakin Hutcherson, September 8, 2017 – yesmagazine.org
“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.”
By Catherine Halley, May 31, 2020 – daily.jstor.org
“The United States has seen escalating protests over the past week, following the death of George Floyd while in custody of the Minneapolis police. Educators everywhere are asking how can we help students understand that this was not an isolated, tragic incident perpetrated by a few bad individuals, but part of a broader pattern of institutionalized racism.”
By German Lopez, July 11, 2016 – vox.com
“It's a common conversation these days: One person says, “Black lives matter.” Then another responds, “No, all lives matter.” It's also a complete misunderstanding of what the phrase “black lives matter” means. The person on the receiving end interprets the phrase as “black lives matter more than any other lives.”
Toolkit Resources: Campus Models and Case Studies – aacu.org
Association of American Colleges and Universities
Introducing the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Campus Centers.
On January 19–23, 2018, more than one hundred faculty, staff, and students from the first ten Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers and nineteen visiting institutions attended the inaugural TRHT Institute, a five-day professional development program focused on preparing TRHT Campus Center action plans.
Association of American Colleges and Universities – portal.criticalimpact.com
A Statement from David Everett, Tia Brown McNair, Lynn Pasquerella, and Jane Turk
“As protests erupt across the country and around the world demanding justice for George Floyd, a black man who was killed while in Minneapolis police custody, higher education must play a leadership role in addressing the issues at their center—racism and white supremacy.”
By Carolyn Carney – mem.intervarsity.org
What does it look like to be a White person on the journey of racial reconciliation? In a world of individualized thinking, it can be hard to see how white responsibility could be any different from anyone else's.
By Tammy E. Smithers and Doug Franklin, June 1, 2020 – diverseeducation.com
“No matter the pedigree, socioeconomic status, or political prowess, the curse of Blackness is inescapable. Today, in 2020, African-Americans are sick and tired of not being able to live. African-Americans are weary of not being able to breathe, walk, or run. Black men in this country are brutalized, criminalized, demonized, and disproportionately penalized. Black women in this country are stigmatized, sexualized, and labeled as problematic, loud, angry, and unruly.”
By Peggy McIntosh, 1988 – nationalseedproject.org
White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies. “Through work to bring materials and perspectives from Women's Studies into the rest of the curriculum, I have often noticed men's unwillingness to gram that they are overprivileged in the curriculum, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged. Denials that amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages that men gain from women's disadvantages. These denials protect male privilege from being fully recognized, acknowledged, lessened, or ended.”
By Peggy McIntosh, 1989 – nationalseedproject.org
“As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage. Describing white privilege makes one newly accountable.”
By Peggy McIntosh, 1998 – nationalseedproject.org
“I had come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I could count on cashing in each day but about which I was meant to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible, weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks. Seeing this, which I was taught not to see, made me revise my view of myself, and also of the United States' claim to be a democracy in which merit is rewarded and life outcomes are directly related deservedness.”
By Peggy McIntosh, 2009 – nationalseedproject.org
“I feel that seeing privilege is the missing link between understanding discrimination of any kind and understanding how to end it. I now believe that white privilege, rather than discrimination, is the central actor in racism—the central force that creates racism and keep it in place. To lessen racism we need to lessen white privilege…Privilege gives me power that I can use for social change.”
By Peggy McIntosh, 2009 – nationalseedproject.org
“I see the desire to keep our image of ourselves “clean” as part of white privilege. Those of us who are white people in the United States feel entitled to feel good about ourselves because we have been shielded from the negative aspects of white history.”
By Peggy McIntosh, 2010 – nationalseedproject.org
“My work is not about blame, shame, guilt, or whether one is a “nice person.” It's about
observing, realizing, thinking systemically and personally. It is about seeing privilege, the “upside” of oppression and discrimination. It is unearned advantage, which can also be described
as exemption from discrimination.”
By Rafi D'Angelo, May 28, 2020 – soletstalkabout.com
“This country was founded on rioting (and looting). The colonists didn't politely ask to be independent — they started a war. Gays threw a brick. Black people rioted all over this country. Please let go of that falsehood and pick up a history book.”
By Laura Morgan Roberts and Ella F. Washington
“No matter your racial, political, or other identity, these events are almost impossible to escape. In particular, millions of Black people and their allies are hurting. And these issues are not ones that organizations or their leaders — from CEOs at the top of the hierarchy to team managers on the frontline — can ignore.”
By Chris Tognotti, March 4, 2015 – bustle.com
“So you're at a party, and someone says something ignorant . And while you know that they're in the wrong, and that you could totally engage them and win if you were a bit more prepared, your words escape you. To make sure that doesn't happen, we've compiled a series of handy reference guides with the most common arguments — and your counter-arguments — for all of the hot-button issues of the day. This week's topic: How to argue that white privilege exists.”
By Kevin Van Valkenburg, August 23, 2016 – theundefeated.com
White privilege is a thing and the Rio Olympics was the perfect example. “The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games have brought to my attention that some of us still don't quite grasp what white privilege is. Or, even if we do feel like we get the concept, it's still difficult to fully comprehend the way that privilege has set up a double standard that is so infuriating — and disheartening — to people of color.”
By Paul Gorski, March 30, 2004 – racism.org
“Any person who has grown up in the American public school system has been educated to hold racial prejudices. To illustrate this point, ask any child to tell you about the first date in history he or she remembers learning: “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” What happened in 1492?” Christopher Columbus discovered America.” Did he? The history books I prefer to read have informed me that people were actually already here.”
By Robin DiAngelo, December 6, 2017 – huffpost.com
“I am white. I have spent years studying what it means to be white in a society that proclaims race meaningless, yet is deeply divided by race. This is what I have learned: Any white person living in the United States will develop opinions about race simply by swimming in the water of our culture. But mainstream sources — schools, textbooks, media — don't provide us with the multiple perspectives we need.”
By Sarah Watts, July 19, 2018 – salon.com
Are you a "fragile” white person? Here's how to tell—and what to do about it. Four questions to ask yourself: 1) Am I trying to change the subject? 2) Am I using inappropriate humor to deflect? 3) Am I getting defensive or angry? 4) Am I going out of my way not to focus on “the negative?”
By Anna Kegler, December 6, 2017 – huffpost.com
“For a while now, I've been thinking about how terms like “white privilege,” “inclusion” and “unconscious bias” all sound just ... too nice. Don't they seem a little on the pleasant side for words used to address a system of racist oppression?”
By Amelia Shroyer, January 4, 2016 – everydayfeminism.com
“So let me state this plainly: White people, we are massively failing with our white fragility. When we are asked to do the very least in empathetic listening, we center entire conversations around our own feelings.”
By Dina Gilio-Whitaker, November 14, 2018 – beaconbroadside.com
“Settler fragility stems from settler privilege, which is similar to white privilege in that it is systemic, structural, and based on white supremacy, making it difficult to identify. Only in some ways, settler privilege is far more covert and cunning… Like white fragility, settler fragility is the inability to talk about unearned privilege—in this case, the privilege of living on lands that were taken in the name of democracy through profound violence and injustice.”
By UNICEF, June 9, 2020 – unicef.org
“It can be hard to talk to your children about racism. Some parents worry about exposing their children to issues like racism and discrimination at an early age. Others shy away from talking about something they themselves might not fully understand or don't feel comfortable discussing. Yet others, especially those who have experienced racism, simply do not have such choices.”
By J. Drew Lanham, September 22, 2016 – lithub.com
“The job I volunteered for was to record every bird I could see or hear in a three-minute interval. I am supposed to do that fifty times… Up until now the going has been fun and easy, more leisurely than almost any “work” anyone could imagine. But here I am, on stop number thirty-two of the Laurel Falls Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) route: a large black man in one of the whitest places in the state, sitting on the side of the road with binoculars pointed toward a house with the Confederate flag proudly displayed.”
By James Baldwin, November 10, 1962 – newyorker.com
From 1962: “Whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves.”
By Kenneth M. Chapman Jr., April 24, 2020 – insidehighered.com
“Colleges should be mindful of how cultural competence plays a role in every area of their business operations, from student development to even pandemic preparation ... Institutions should continue to be mindful of how cultural competence plays a role in every area of their business operations, ranging from student development to even pandemic preparation. Colleges and universities should not only focus on academic success for students but also ensure those students have a cultural competence skill set.”
By Krystina Martinez and Rick Holter, April 10, 2015 – keranews.org
“In 1908, a ceremonial arch lit up downtown Dallas at the corner of Main and Akard streets. It was built by the Elks Club, with a gaudy sign that proclaimed “Welcome Visitors.” It became an iconic symbol of an ambitious city. By 1910, it became a different kind of symbol when a mob hung the body of a black man named Allen Brooks from the arch. By 1911, the arch was moved to Fair Park.”
By Jesse Washington – theundefeated.com
“What does it mean to share a name with the victim of one of the most infamous lynchings in American history? Thousands of people massed here to partake in the killing of the 17-year-old farmhand. As Jesse was pulled down the wide street that cruelly shares his last name, they attacked him with knives, bricks, shovels and clubs. Blood covered Jesse's dark skin. It was almost noon on May 15, 1916. With the Texas heat climbing into the 80s, the Waco Horror had begun.”
Speech by Wells, contributed by BLACKPAST, Sept. 22, 2008 – blackpast.org
“By 1909 Ida B. Wells was the most prominent anti-lynching campaigner in the United States. From the early 1890s she labored mostly alone in her effort to raise the nation's awareness and indignation about these usually unpunished murders. In 1909, however, she gained a powerful ally in the newly formed National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The following speech was delivered by Wells at the National Negro Conference, the forerunner to the NAACP, in New York City on May 31-June 1, 1909.”
By Ta-Nehisi Coates, June 2014 – theatlantic.com
“Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.”
By James McWilliams, Feb. 18, 2019 – psmag.com
An interview with Harvard University-trained public defense lawyer Bryan Stevenson on racial trauma, segregation, and listening to marginalized voices.
By Essence Gant, Oct. 8, 2017 – buzzfeed.com
“We recently asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about their experiences with racial microaggressions on the job, and YIKES!”
Multiple contributors, The Opportunity Agenda – opportunityagenda.org
“From the perspective of most scholars who focus on the topic, there is a clear causal story that links media representations of black men and boys to real-world outcomes. The story can be summarized as follows: 1) For various reasons, media of all types collectively offer a distorted representation of the lives and reality of black males. 2) In turn, media consumption negatively affects the public's understandings and attitudes related to black males (sometimes including the understandings and attitudes of black males themselves) 3) Finally, these distorted understandings and attitudes towards black males lead to negative real-world consequences for them.”
By Craig Elliott, 2016 – convention.myacpa.org
“White Caucuses are an important mechanism for people who identify as white and/or have white skin privilege to do our own work. It provides us an environment and intention to authentically and critically engage in whiteness, white privilege, and hold each other accountable for change.”
By Rebecca Epstein, Jamilia J. Blake and Thalia Gonzalez – law.georgetown.edu
The Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, which published this report, works with
policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and advocates to develop effective policies and practices that
alleviate poverty and inequality in the United States. This groundbreaking study by the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality provides—for the first time—data showing that adults view Black girls as less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers, especially in the age range of 5–14.
By Adrienne Green, June 29, 2017 – theatlantic.com
“A new study finds that adults view them as less child-like and less in need of protection than their white peers. A growing body of evidence has shown that the American education and criminal-justice systems dole out harsher and more frequent discipline to black youth compared with their non-black peers. But while most of that research has focused on black boys, a new study from the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality specifically turned its attention to society's perception of black girls.”
By Cheryl I. Harris, June 1993 – Harvard Law Review, Volume 106, Number 8 – sph.umd.edu
“Issues regarding race and racial identity as well as questions pertaining to property rights and ownership have been prominent in much public discourse in the United States. In this article, Professor Harris contributes to this discussion by positing that racial identity and property are deeply interrelated concepts. Professor Harris examines how whiteness, initially constructed as a form of racial identity, evolved into a form of property, historically and presently acknowledged and protected in American law.”
By Natasha S. Alford, Feb. 11, 2020 – nytimes.com
The island has a long history of encouraging residents to identify as white, but there are growing efforts to raise awareness about racism.
By Rick Tanksley, Aug. 4, 2017 – hillardheintze.com
“The importance of implicit bias training in law enforcement agencies cannot be understated. Implicit bias is an automatic association. These unconscious thoughts are not unique to police officers—all humans experience these natural mental associations without even realizing it.”
By Felicity Menzies, Include-Empower.com – cultureplusconsulting.com
“Unconscious or implicit bias refers to beliefs or attitudes that are activated automatically and without an individual's awareness. These hidden biases are different from beliefs and attitudes that individuals are aware they hold but choose to conceal for the purposes of complying with social or legal norms.”
By Felicity Menzies, Include-Empower.com – cultureplusconsulting.com
“Stereotypes refer to beliefs that certain attributes, characteristics, and behaviors are typical of members of a particular group of people. The way we categorize social groups is often based on visible features that provide the largest between-group differentiation and least within-group variation (for example, skin color, gender, or age).”