“It is a kind of racial Rorschach (is it not?) into which each of these cases—not just Brown but all the others, from Trayvon Martin to Sean Bell to Patrick Dorismond to Aswan Watson and beyond—inevitably and without fail morph. That we see such different things when we look upon them must mean something. That so much of white America cannot see the shapes made out so clearly by most of black America cannot be a mere coincidence, nor is it likely an inherent defect in our vision. Rather, it is a socially constructed astigmatism that blinds so many to the way in which black folks often experience law enforcement.
Not to overdo the medical metaphors, but as with those other cases noted above, so too in this one did a disturbing number of whites manifest something of a repetitive motion disorder—a reflex nearly as automatic as the one that leads so many police (or wanna-be police) to fire their weapons at black men in the first place. It is a reflex to rationalize the event, defend the shooter, trash the dead with blatantly racist rhetoric and imagery,
and then deny that the incident or one’s own response to it had
anything to do with race.”
by Isabel Wilkerson in the New York Times
“The flag was lowered and placed in storage on July 10 after the South Carolina Legislature voted to take it down in response to the massacre of nine black parishioners at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston. The following Tuesday, as if receiving a message from the gods of history, the world was introduced to a new Atticus Finch with the publication of “Go Set a Watchman,” a young Harper Lee’s earlier manuscript, set 20 years after the fictional events in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” making it as much artifact as literature. Rather than the Atticus who urges his daughter, Scout, to climb into someone’s skin to understand him, this Atticus is now an old-line segregationist, a principled bigot who has been to a Klan meeting and asks his now-grown daughter visiting from New York City: “Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theaters? Do you want them in our world? …
… The importance of this new Atticus is that he is layered and complex in his prejudices; he might even be described as a gentleman bigot, well meaning in his supremacy. In other words, he is human, and in line with emerging research into how racial bias has evolved in our society. He is a character study in the seeming contradiction that compassion and bigotry can not only reside in the same person but often do, which is what makes racial bias, as it has mutated through the generations, so hard to address.”
by Jamilah Lemieux Senior Editor of Ebony Magazine
“Black people cannot change the hearts and minds of White racists, and we have exhausted ourselves beyond measure trying. We have spent years praying, marching, fighting, running, hiding, crying, attempting to prove that we were good enough, Christian enough, human enough to exist in a country to which we were forced to come as chattel—really, to exist anywhere in this world that has been touched by the rule of Westerners and Arabs who often share little but the conviction that the children of Africa are inferior.
(Read more here.)
by Danny LeDuc on Medium
“White people, where you at?
I’m not kidding, white people. We have work to do. People of Color have been telling us what the problem is for decades. Their voices are not new, but it seems we are finally hearing them talk.
So we have two options: we can buckle down and start fixing what is wrong with our nation from within, like we should…or we can continue to let black folks do all the heavy lifting while we sit in the cool comfort and sip iced tea. But you know…that’s what got us into this shit in the first place.”
(Read more here.)
by Kali Holloway, ALTERNET
“[People of color] are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. —Audre Lorde
… When POC refuse to take on this dual role of spokesperson and resource library, they’re often accused of having shirked an assumed responsibility. The idea seems to be that we’ve missed an opportunity, that it’s our duty to hold white people’s hands and educate them, that we’re condemning some poor white person to a continued life of ignorance.”
(Read more here.)
by Amani Ariel on Blavity
“I believe that families are the people you choose to surround yourself with. I was born Jewish, but I have moreover chosen the Jewish people as a group I first and foremost see as family. Which is why, when I am treated as an outsider in predominantly white Jewish settings — at various temples I’ve attended, at my university Hillel, with my own blood relatives — I feel challenged, uncomfortable, sometimes even defeated that I must defend my identity to my own family. As a Jew of color, I often feel alienated within mainstream Jewish institutions in North America.
It is in these moments that I remind myself to not remain quiet. It is a reminder that these narratives of the existence, importance and struggles of my people are the key to understanding. That it is these connections, the makings of noise, the understanding of how this country’s anti-Black institutions have failed my people, that will lead to the creation of a more diverse, inclusive Jewish community, one that will actively support Black lives. I remind myself that when I enter these dialogues, I can inspire others to make noise too.”
(Read more here.)
by Tyra Fennell on her blog
“I came across a letter my friend, from my New York record industry days, Chris Sealey wrote to his fellow white brothers and sisters. I found it both refreshing and sad. Refreshing cause the chillest white dude I knew is still chill as ever but sad because I often feel he is an anomaly in his honest assessment of white privilege. I want to share what he wrote so my Black friends know there are conscious white people out there and so my white friends know that the first step to racial equality is acknowledgement that there really is a problem.”
(Read more here.)
by Rose Hackman in The Guardian
“People who are not black can no longer sit on the margins. They can no longer just express their sympathy: those are shallow words,” Arielle Newton, a 23-year-old black blogger said at a rally in Harlem in New York City on Monday.
“They have to act intentionally, from a point of pro-blackness. To work to make sure that black people are given the equity that we deserve.”
About 100 mourners and #BlackLivesMatter protesters attended the rally.
Despite the protest area explicitly being defined as a “black-centered space” by organizers , much of the dialogue that ensued was focused on white people, white ideologies and conversations white people may – or may not – be having at their dinner tables.
Standing towards the back of the gathering, carrying a poster that stated “Black Lives Matter” on one side and the names of black women and girls killed by police on the other, Babbie Dunnington, a 29-year-old white teacher, was one of just a few white faces in Tuesday’s majority black crowd. She said that the change had to come from white people.
“Black people didn’t enslave themselves. It shouldn’t be on them to correct that. White people have the responsibility to understand that they live in a racist society, a racist society they have created.”
(Read more here.)
by Kali Holloway / AlterNet
“What can white people who really want to confront and eradicate white supremacy do—on their own, every day—to fight racism? What steps can they take to push back on a system of racial inequality so deeply embedded in our culture that it takes a pile of black bodies and video footage of the murders to force a national conversation about race? Because it can feel overwhelming.
I reached out to a diverse cross-section of POC—smart, thoughtful, incisive public figures who often speak and write smartly, thoughtfully and incisively on race—to gather their thoughts. This is the resulting roundup of their suggestions. Consider it a sort of open letter to white allies who want to do the hard work of truly working to fight racism.”
(Read more here.)
by The Boiled Down Juice
“I live about three hours away from the klan camp, and this same klan came even closer to home when they recently put up a billboard on I 40 in Russellville, the town where I was born, and less than five miles from where I was raised and where my parents and grandparents were raised and where the McElroy House sits. “It’s Not Racist to Love Your People,” the billboard read, with a link to something called “White Pride Radio.” [Read our previous piece on the billboard here ]
To coincide with the klan training, the Boiled Down Juice and the McElroy House—along with a coalition of organizations and people across the region—are coming together to say that we refuse to accept the culture of silence under which so many of these white supremacist groups find protection. Moreover, we are asking people to take a stand in their own small towns and rural areas across the south (and beyond) and break through this silence, recognizing that white supremacy seldom shows up in klan robes.”
(Read more here.)
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