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Thoughts on this moment:
1st: hugs to my black brothers and sisters. I love you.
2nd: this moment in time is horrific, and it is also very American.
Racism is in the DNA of our country, ingrained in our founding story, and manifesting itself into every realm of of lives.
1st: hugs to my black brothers and sisters. I love you.
2nd: this moment in time is horrific, and it is also very American.
Racism is in the DNA of our country, ingrained in our founding story, and manifesting itself into every realm of of lives.
If we want change to come to America, Twitter rage, while cathartic and affirming, will not get it done. Reading lists and instructions for white people will not get it done. Shaming white people will not get it done.
We have to be in it for more than the current news cycle. Think this time is different? Remember the furor and protests following the Rodney King beating? The Central Park 5? The summer of Ferguson and Baltimore? It will only be different if we make it so.
Remember Baldwin saying, “no one is white before they came to America...” the social construction of race is not an accident. Creating categories like race, and then making those categories mean something — is the lifeblood of white supremacy.
Why is that important? If we are truly going to make change around racism, we have to help people understand that these structures exist, and that they have cruelly damaging effect on anyone who is not white. These are not benign categories.
As a social justice educator, it always amazes my colleagues and me how little most people understand about how we are socialized into all of the isms belief systems. Most of us white people are unaware of our privilege in this culture. We can teach them.
As a white man with multiple layers of privilege, I know shaming fellow white people around what they don’t know only pushes them away from essential conversations about power and privilege. We can invite them in and as a white educator, I am responsible to help them unlearn.
Important because we need white people to lean in and be a part of the solution. Not to retreat because they don’t feel equipped, or because they’ve been shamed. People who have privilege are the last people to know they have it. Not an excuse, but a reality.
And reality is what we have to deal with. Hand to hand education is one thing.
We also have to understand the structures that have been created to maintain white supremacy in the first place. Why do we think McConnell change Senate rules to fast track conservative judges?
We also have to understand the structures that have been created to maintain white supremacy in the first place. Why do we think McConnell change Senate rules to fast track conservative judges?
How many states are responding to lawsuits currently due to jerrymandered congressional districts.
The list is very long, and it is also where the change will happen.
Not sexy, not immediately gratifying. But we have the stamina and focus to use these structures of power and
The list is very long, and it is also where the change will happen.
Not sexy, not immediately gratifying. But we have the stamina and focus to use these structures of power and
of education to change the way our system works and change the way our peopl think.
Just World hypothesis shows that for many white people, who feel the world is just and fair, will find a way that whatever is being perpetrated upon black people, they did something to deserve it.
Just World hypothesis shows that for many white people, who feel the world is just and fair, will find a way that whatever is being perpetrated upon black people, they did something to deserve it.
We have a lot of work to do, and I realize this may just be another twitter rant. But wanted to share my perspective. Forever hopeful that we can have a better future. I will continue to work everyday to educate my white brothers and sisters. With love—
