Links: Anti-racism how-tos

[sonia]

Dear White Allies: Don’t Appropriate Our Anger by Anoosh Jorjorian.

Note to white allies: When you beat up on your fellow white people for being ignorant about racism, you are NOT HELPING. Those naïve white people just waking up to racial justice? That want to do the right thing but are saying the wrong thing because they were just born to the struggle yesterday?

They are YOUR JOB #1. YOU are supposed to empathize with their white fragility, get them past their self-centering feels, and bring them over to the right side of history.

I want to get better at this. I do not have the skills (yet). Or maybe I do have them, but I haven't lined them up in the right way. Or maybe, my instinct of stepping back and letting people think it through is a skill too.

Stop Comparing Anti-Semitism and Racism in America by Hana LaRock.

White Jews can use our Jewish history to listen and empathize with Black Americans without bringing ourselves into it.

I am paying attention to how I walk this line. I know to shut up and listen when Black folks are talking about their experiences and I'm not starting in the same place with anti-racism as someone who grew up in the cozy center of whiteness.

A Bittersweet Moment For Black Bookstore Owners by Natalie Escobar.

But the attention, while appreciated, feels strange. Calhoun notes that a lot of titles that have been selling out — The Warmth of Other Suns, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and books by James Baldwin and Assata Shakur — have been out for years, even decades.

When They All Look the Same to You by Eli Heina, via hitchhiker.

If you find yourself mistaking one member of a certain ethnic group for another, you can improve by rethinking how you tell people apart.

The Slow Road to Sudden Change by Rebecca Solnit.

The death of George Floyd was a match that lit a bonfire, and how the fuel for the bonfire piled up is worth studying. That is, for a national and international uprising against anti-Black racism and police violence to achieve such scale and power, many must have been ready for it, whether they knew it or not. Not in the sense of planning it or expecting these events, but by having changed their minds and committed their hearts beforehand.

The Meltdown Crisis by Tressie McMillan Cottom, via cynthia1960.

Right now millions of white people are feeling their class position. Without consumption to perform their class aspirations, those white people are spinning out.

Comments

[runpunkrun]

Psst: Your link for "When They All Look the Same to You" is not a real link.

[sonia]

Fixed, thanks!

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks for these. I’m joining a white women’s anti-racism study group and all the study guides I can find online are faith traditions, which makes sense since moral education is not part of our public school curriculum and ....

[sonia]

Huh, that's surprising to me, especially now. I would think that if you asked around your Wiscon contacts, someone would have access to a college course syllabus.

ETA: My library has some suggestions. Maybe yours does too. https://multcolib.org/blog/20200610/me-and-white-supremacy-further-reading-and-resources

Two excellent suggestions, thank you very much!

[jesse_the_k]

My library does have a resources page as well

https://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/new/racial-equity-resources-madison-public-library

Re: Two excellent suggestions, thank you very much!

[sonia]

Yay! I hope your group finds/creates a study guide that works well. Now I'm thinking that the first step is agreeing on requirements for a guide.

Re: Two excellent suggestions, thank you very much!

[jesse_the_k]

Really, which is a lot to ask for a new group.

/o\ yikes -- this is why people pay consultants to organize this stuff. The good news is I think we'll muddle through.

[silveradept]

Useful things, all of these.

[sonia]

Yes, lots of treasures out there! Thanks for letting me know you find these useful.