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Caste (Oprah's Book Club): The Origins of Our Discontents

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Caste (Oprah's Book Club): The Origins of Our Discontents [Wilkerson, Isabel] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Caste (Oprah's Book Club): The Origins of Our Discontents

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Co-Director

Move to End Violence

Monica Dennis and I are coming upon our two-year anniversary as Co-Directors of Move to End Violence. In addition to our shared commitment to the work of MEV and our ability to envision how we could work well together, one of most compelling reasons behind our partnership was the opportunity to build a cross-race Black-Asian co-directorship.

Situated within decades of tensions between Black and Asian communities in this country and abroad, we saw the possibility of having our experience contribute to a larger body of cross-race solidarity work. In these times of active movements for Black lives, it's paramount that Asians show up strong and visible in the push for racial justice.
1. Resist getting pulled into a Black-White paradigm.
There are many great resources out there with clear directives for how Asians can be in solidarity (here are some: #ASIANS4BLACKLIVES , 20+ Allyship Actions for Asians to Show Up for the Black Community , and Solidarity Not Allyship ). As part of our contribution, here are some of the lessons that have been pivotal to me, and that I am still learning, in order to show up for my Black Co-Director.

This country is built on false binaries and the story we learn about race is often framed as Black versus White. One of the many consequences of this binary is that it forces people to choose, which especially harms people who are mixed race, those who don't identify as either, and people with complex identities such as trans-racial adoptees. As an Asian American, choosing Black erases differential impact and hides the persistence of anti-Blackness in Asian communities. Choosing White allows Asian people to be co-opted and manipulated in support of white supremacy.

When I have not felt grounded as a non-Black woman of color, it's had negative impacts on our co-directorship. At times, I somewhat unconsciously would play the role of a "good white person" where I would keep quiet in group conversations to not take up space or where I would take accountability and apologize for the harms of white supremacy, which would put Monica in an awkward position and would leave her feeling unpartnered.

I know that Monica does not need me to play the role of a white person to serve as her foil and she is not looking to me to play the role of a Black partner either. But that doesn't mean I don't sometimes get sucked into the false binary, especially during times I feel anxious, confused, or overwhelmed.

The best solution I've found is to get clearer about my identity as an Asian American woman and to be proud of who I am. As someone born in the United States who did not grow up in a Chinese community and who learned to equate whiteness with desirability and belonging, this grounding in my identity outside of the binary has taken work and intention. The support and guidance of many other non-Black women of color mentors, coaches, and colleagues has been critical.
2. Take into account the extra work Black folks are always doing.
I have gotten clearer that one of my responsibilities in multi-racial women of color spaces is to explore what Asian American feminisms can look like. This includes naming and interrupting the ways I benefit from white supremacy but also naming and lifting up the ways Asian communities have suffered from white supremacy and its relationship to imperialism and colonialism. It includes understanding the difference between being Pro-Black and trying to Black.

As co-directors, we believe in equal pay, equal workload, and equal responsibility between the two of us. But part of this calculation must encompass the relentless micro-aggressions and macro-aggressions that Monica is having to constantly navigate as a Black woman in this country and the vast amounts of emotional labor being asked of her. This includes things she experiences at work, such as the questioning and undermining of her leadership and authority, having to monitor how she is showing up, serving as an informal coach and mentor for other Black folks on our team and in our program, and pointing out anti-Blackness that I may miss. This also includes things she is experiencing outside of work, such as the grief and trauma of Black folks being harmed by police, hospitals, schools, and many other institutions I may take for granted, and being a source of care, stability, and advocacy for her family and community.
3. Pay attention to anti-Blackness in yourself.
As her co-director, part of my responsibility is to help make the full breadth of her work visible and valued, to help create an environment where her sustainability and capacity are centered, and to skill up in areas related to racial equity so she is not holding these things alone.

The baseline for me to be in this co-directorship is to acknowledge that I, as we all are, am anti-Black and I can behave in anti-Black ways, no matter how good of a person I think I am. This means that when I or someone else notices that I have done something anti-Black, we do not get stuck in unproductive and hurtful conversations about whether it was my intention or whether the other person is imagining things. We can instead move forward on how I can account for it and do better next time.
4. Learn about the diversity in Black identity.
One example is when we were navigating complicated tech requirements for a multi-country multi-lingual video call. I felt like it was my responsibility to manage it and we were running into snags and I was getting flustered. Monica said she had a suggestion to offer and I didn't listen to her. When she pointed this out later, there are many responses I could imagine having - getting defensive, deflecting, quickly apologizing and moving on, going into a shame spiral - but I had to sit with it because she was right: I had made assumptions about her technical expertise and language access experience and that was anti-Black. Realizing this and acknowledging it helped us repair more quickly and has helped me from repeating the same mistake.
5. Feedback practices are essential - but must be done with care.
In the same way that histories, experiences, and perspectives within and between Asian American communities vary widely, we must understand that Black identity is not a monolith. There is a level of nuance about the Asian diaspora connected to country of origin, immigration history and status, imperialism, war, language, class, and more that I hold with more care than I do the African diaspora - and that has to change. Collapsing Black Americans into a single identity and not learning about their histories is anti-Black. It's my responsibility to pay attention to how chattel slavery, the prison industrial complex, resistance movements, religion, colonization, immigration, colorism, and more shape the diversity of Black experience and perspectives in this country, and it's my responsibility to help make space for that diversity.

Black folks are constantly policed, hyper-criticized, and overly-accused for things they have not done, for things that are somehow acceptable for other people to do, and for things that folks are forced to do to survive under systemic oppression - and these accusations have had deadly consequences for Black people. In this context, offering critical feedback to Black folks on our team as a non-Black person has to be done with clarity and care.
6. Comparison is the thief of joy.
In my first director position 15 years ago, I unconsciously went all tiger mom in my feedback practices and I would have people crying in my office during annual reviews. In my current role, out of fear of doing something racist, I'm more likely to not say anything at all. But on any team, especially in a co-directorship, offering and receiving feedback is critical for building trust and supporting growth. What I have found to be helpful is not to assert that someone was doing a particular thing or to assume their motivation behind it, but to be honest about my feelings. Some phrases that help me ground my feedback are "I have a story that....", "I am feeling....", and "I'm worried that....". And when I offer feedback, I have to be prepared to receive feedback in return.

A friend shared this quote with me several years ago and I keep coming back to it whenever I feel like Monica is a better co-director than I am, or that there's a right way to be a good partner and I'm not living up to it, or when I get overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy and imposter syndrome. When I brought up these feelings with my coach, she said it stems from the white supremacy habit of scarcity - the idea that there's only one way to be a leader or that there's only one correct approach. Learning this made me realize that I'm caught in a perfect storm and that I need to be extra mindful to not get sucked in.

On one side, I'm a fan of lifting up the beauty, power, and brilliance of Black women in a world that is constantly trying to tear them down, and Monica is indeed all of these things. On the other side, I grew up in an Asian immigrant family steeped in scarcity, where we were never praised or affirmed and where we were constantly being compared to each other. So I have one side of me that is trying to lift up Monica as part of my racial justice duty while the other side of me is pushing myself down due to decades of conditioning. Which doesn't work when you are partners in a co-directorship.

I would love to say that at this stage of my life I truly believe that I am powerful and worthy - I'm not there yet. But what I can say is 1) Monica does not need me to be pushed down in order for her to be lifted up, and 2) We chose to be in this co-directorship together and minimizing my abilities and perspectives does our partnership a disservice. I truly believe these two things and that helps me stand stronger in my leadership.

I am still on this learning journey and am having to grapple with new learnings constantly. Many people have supported me: amazing Black women leaders of MEV, including Maura Bairley and Trina Greene Brown; fierce Asian colleagues who have allowed me to learn from their Black-Asian partnerships, including Kabzuag Vaj, Mimi Ho, bex ahuja, and Susan Misra; coaches who have offered deep wisdom and guidance, including Pia Infante, Linda Gonzalez, and Diana Marie Lee. Above all, I have the utmost gratitude to my co-director Monica Dennis and her clarity and compassion - thank you for being on this journey with me.

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What I've Learned about Showing Up for My Black Co-Director - Move to End Violence

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En Español Monica Dennis and I are coming upon our two-year anniversary as Co-Directors of Move to End Violence. In addition to our shared commitment to the work of MEV and our ability to envision how we could work well together, one of most compelling reasons behind our partnership was the opportunity to build a [...]

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"Nice White Parents" is a new podcast from Serial Productions, brought to you by The New York Times, about the 60-year relationship between white parents and the public school down the block.

We know that American public schools do not guarantee each child an equal education - two decades of school reform initiatives have not changed that. But when we look at how our schools are failing, we usually focus on who they're failing: Black and brown kids. We ask: Why aren't they performing better? Why aren't they achieving more?

Those are not the right questions.

If you want to understand what's wrong with our public education system, you have to look at what is arguably the most powerful force in our schools: White parents.

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Chana Joffe-Walt. Credit... Alexia Webster

On this series:
Chana Joffe-Walt is a producer for the award-winning public radio show "This American Life," where Chana originated her reporting for what eventually became "Nice White Parents." In 2015, Chana teamed up with the reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones to do several stories about education and school segregation, for which they won the Peabody Award. In addition to education coverage, Chana's reporting on sexual harassment, including the Rashomon-style "This American Life " episode " Five Women," offered a new frame to understand a wave of #MeToo stories. "Five Women" is currently being adapted into a TV series. Before joining "This American Life," Chana was a reporter for NPR, where she helped create the podcast "Planet Money."

The original score for "Nice White Parents" was written and performed by the jazz group The Bad Plus. The band consists of bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Orrin Evans and drummer Dave King.

Additional music from Matt McGinley, who has contributed music to Serial Productions podcasts including "S-Town" and season three of "Serial." Matt is also the drummer and co-founder of the band Gym Class Heroes.

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"Nice White Parents" is a new podcast from Serial Productions, brought to you by The New York Times, about the 60-year relationship between white parents and the public school down the block. We know that American public schools do not guarantee each child an equal education - two decades of school reform initiatives have not changed that.

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But this revolutionary moment is inviting us to be a part of the solution.

By

Ms. Hodges was the mayor of Minneapolis from 2014 to 2018.

Betsy Hodges, former mayor of Minneapolis. Credit... Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

Democrats have largely led big and midsize cities for much of the past half-century. Yet the gaps in socioeconomic outcomes between white people and people of color are by several measures at their worst in the richest, bluest cities of the United States.

How could this be? Because high-profile cultural conservatives ask this question so disingenuously, white liberals have generally brushed aside this reality rather than grappled with its urgency. There's now a danger that this sidestepping will continue, even after a national evaluation of racism since the brutal police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

As the mayor of Minneapolis from 2014 to 2018, as a Minneapolis City Council member from 2006 until 2014 and as a white Democrat, I can say this: White liberals, despite believing we are saying and doing the right things, have resisted the systemic changes our cities have needed for decades. We have mostly settled for illusions of change, like testing pilot programs and funding volunteer opportunities.

These efforts make us feel better about racism, but fundamentally change little for the communities of color whose disadvantages often come from the hoarding of advantage by mostly white neighborhoods.

In Minneapolis, the white liberals I represented as a Council member and mayor were very supportive of summer jobs programs that benefited young people of color. I also saw them fight every proposal to fundamentally change how we provide education to those same young people. They applauded restoring funding for the rental assistance hotline. They also signed petitions and brought lawsuits against sweeping reform to zoning laws that would promote housing affordability and integration.

Nowhere is this dynamic of preserving white comfort at the expense of others more visible than in policing. Whether we know it or not, white liberal people in blue cities implicitly ask police officers to politely stand guard in predominantly white parts of town (where the downside of bad policing is usually inconvenience) and to aggressively patrol the parts of town where people of color live - where the consequences of bad policing are fear, violent abuse, mass incarceration and, far too often, death.

Underlying these requests are the flawed beliefs that aggressive patrolling of Black communities provides a wall of protection around white people and our property.

Police officers understand the dynamic well. We give them lethal tools and a lot of leeway to keep our parts of town safe (a mandate implicitly understood to be "safe from people of color.") That leeway attracts people who want to misuse it.

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Minneapolis Police Department officers monitoring a protest on June 11. Credit... Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Minneapolis historically has some of the worst racial disparities in the country. When I was mayor, despite changes like instituting body cameras and investing more in training, policing outcomes for people of color never improved as much as I hoped. The disparities in arrest rates and use of force, for instance, remained glaringly high.

On Nov. 15, 2015, during my term as mayor, two Minneapolis police officers shot and killed Jamar Clark, an unarmed Black man. An 18-day encampment set up by protesters surrounding the grounds of the Fourth Police Precinct house followed.

But instead of greatly increasing police presence and needlessly arresting people for blocking the street or for having tents on public property, I decided to let the protests and encampment continue while we negotiated with protesters toward a more peaceful conclusion.

Minneapolis police officers, who were worried about the precinct house's being taken over and burned down (as the Third Precinct station was during last month's uprising), guarded the building and found themselves frustrated by what they saw as conflicting orders.

"They've got fires in the street!"

"They're out there smoking weed. We can smell it in here."

"They spray-painted the precinct!"

Acts that they would have arrested people for under normal circumstances. I heard complaints like this at every shift change I attended, shepherded inside by a security vehicle. Before long, I knew that if I didn't explain to the officers what exactly I was asking of them, we had little hope of safely and effectively saving the city from widespread unrest.

"Look," I told them. "You know what will happen if I let you go out there and just arrest people. There will be riots." I told them I wanted them to get home safely at the end of their shifts and to give us time to find a peaceful resolution.

I remember clearly one officer, a middle-aged white man, who is now a sergeant with the department, looking me dead in the eye and cursing me out in front of the entire room. I needed to take a walk in their shoes, he said, peppering his insults with profanity, so that I could "know what that's like." He complained of protesters' "calling us names, getting in our faces" and throwing objects at officers. And "you're letting them," he said.

The not fully said bottom line of his message was clear: White liberals like me ask the police to do our dirty work - dealing with the racial and economic inequities our policies create. Normally, we turn a blind eye to the harsh methods that many of them use to achieve our goal of order, pretend that isn't what we've done and then act surprised when their tough-guy behavior goes viral and gets renewed scrutiny.

Whatever else you want to say about police officers, they know - whether they articulate it neatly or not - that we are asking them to step into a breach left by our bad policies. The creation of more-just systems won't guarantee the prevention of atrocities. But the status quo in cities, created by white liberals, invites brutal policing.

Last month, a veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council voted to alter the city's charter to disband the Police Department. The Council has since heard calls from residents, including many Black residents, to have "broad community input and a deliberate process before the charter change is put to voters."

Whatever the result, a sustainable transformation of policing will require that white people of means disinvest in the comfort of our status quo.

It will require support of policy changes that cities led by white liberals are currently using the blunt instrument of policing to address. It will mean organizing for structural changes that wealthy and middle-class whites have long feared - like creating school systems that truly give all children a chance, providing health care for everyone that isn't tied to employment, reconfiguring police unions and instituting public safety protocols that don't simply prioritize protecting white property and lives.

On the other side of these different choices is a better world for everyone, including us. For generations, white people have been trading genuine connectedness in the human family for the poor substitute of property values and perceived superiority. Some may think we have a lot to lose. But racial equity wouldn't be a loss for us. It would be a reclamation of our humanity.

White people, we are capable of accepting the invitation this moment has given us. If we find ways to make our actions match our beliefs this time around, the country will be far better off, and so will we.

Betsy Hodges was the mayor of Minneapolis from 2014 to 2018.
The Times is committed to publishing Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. a diversity of letters to the editor. We'd like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here's our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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Opinion | As Mayor of Minneapolis, I Saw How White Liberals Block Change

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But this revolutionary moment is inviting us to be a part of the solution. By Ms. Hodges was the mayor of Minneapolis from 2014 to 2018. Democrats have largely led big and midsize cities for much of the past half-century.

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White Kids & How to Teach Them Anti-Racism Early.

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White Kids & How to Teach Them Anti-Racism Early.

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Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America

by Margaret A. Hagerman

Published by: NYU Press

280 pages , 6.00 x 9.00 in, 5 black and white illustrations

Hardcover

ISBN: 9781479803682

Published: September 2018

$75.00
BUY

Paperback

ISBN: 9781479802456

Published: February 2020

$18.95
BUY

Request Exam or Desk Copy

Winner, 2019 William J. Goode Book Award, given by the Family Section of the American Sociological Association

Finalist, 2019 C. Wright Mills Award, given by the Society for the Study of Social Problems

Riveting stories of how affluent, white children learn about race

American kids are living in a world of ongoing public debates about race, daily displays of racial injustice, and for some, an increased awareness surrounding diversity and inclusion. In this heated context, sociologist Margaret A. Hagerman zeroes in on affluent, white kids to observe how they make sense of privilege, unequal educational opportunities, and police violence. In fascinating detail, Hagerman considers the role that they and their families play in the reproduction of racism and racial inequality in America.

White Kids, based on two years of research involving in-depth interviews with white kids and their families, is a clear-eyed and sometimes shocking account of how white kids learn about race. In doing so, this book explores questions such as, "How do white kids learn about race when they grow up in families that do not talk openly about race or acknowledge its impact?" and "What about children growing up in families with parents who consider themselves to be 'anti-racist'?"

Featuring the actual voices of young, affluent white kids and what they think about race, racism, inequality, and privilege, White Kids illuminates how white racial socialization is much more dynamic, complex, and varied than previously recognized. It is a process that stretches beyond white parents' explicit conversations with their white children and includes not only the choices parents make about neighborhoods, schools, peer groups, extracurricular activities, and media, but also the choices made by the kids themselves. By interviewing kids who are growing up in different racial contexts-from racially segregated to meaningfully integrated and from politically progressive to conservative-this important book documents key differences in the outcomes of white racial socialization across families. And by observing families in their everyday lives, this book explores the extent to which white families, even those with anti-racist intentions, reproduce and reinforce the forms of inequality they say they reject.

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by Margaret A. Hagerman Published by: NYU Press 280 pages , 6.00 x 9.00 in, 5 black and white illustrations Hardcover ISBN: 9781479803682 Published: September 2018 $75.00 BUY Paperback ISBN: 9781479802456 Published: February 2020 $18.95 BUY Request Exam or Desk Copy Winner, 2019 William J.

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If you truly care about Black lives, then it's time to dismantle and rebuild higher education.

Recently the hashtag #BlackInTheIvory trended on Twitter. This hashtag proved to be both illuminating and incredibly disheartening. I know the tumultuous experience of being Black in higher education...

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Not Just the Syllabus, Throw the Whole Discipline In the Trash

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Recently the hashtag #BlackInTheIvory trended on Twitter. This hashtag proved to be both illuminating and incredibly disheartening. I know the tumultuous experience of being Black in higher education spaces well. In fact, during my time in graduate school, I wrote about the terror of being Black at a predominantly white institution.

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Over the last few weeks we have seen a tidal wave effect in the global consciousness of issues of racism.

Since the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests began, the movement has gone far beyond marching in the streets. As a direct result of protest action, we are now starting to see real changes, meaningful apologies, and conversations about privilege and racial injustice had on a larger scale than ever before.

It really does feel as though it has the potential to go beyond the hashtags and the performative solidarity. Statues of slave owners and racist historical figures are being toppled, TV shows where comedians wore blackface have been taken down, people with problematic views are leaving their jobs, institutions are pledging to reform their internal structures to improve diversity.

Many Black people and ethnic minorities are tentatively hopeful that this could be the beginning of monumental change. But, witnessing this change happen in real-time can also feel incredibly draining and triggering for people who have experienced racism their whole lives.

Just this week, a collection of powerful, white Hollywood celebrities released another cringe-worthily earnest video in support of racial equality - giving off strong GSCE drama vibes - in which they pledged to 'take responsibility' for their privilege, and 'no longer' turn a blind eye in the face of racism and police brutality.

It was the 'no longer' that felt jarring for many. So, before today, these influential actors would have been fine with ignoring a racist joke, or staying silent about the unlawful murder of Black people at the hands of the police?

It feels like we are watching the collective belated awakening of white people to racism - as though, somehow, it has only just occurred to them to do something about it.

While it is obviously a good thing for people to acknowledge their own complicity in historic racial injustice, it is emotionally draining to realise that before this 'moment', so many people just didn't care.

Honour* says she has found the reactions from some white friends disingenuous. She doesn't buy that they have only just noticed that racism is a problem.

'I think all Black people would be lying if they said they weren't disappointed at how long it took white people to arrive at the party,' she tells us.

'We all like to think we are good at picking friends who are moral and conscious. But how can we be in the face of such incredulity from our white friends?

'I just don't accept the "we didn't know how bad it was" rhetoric. Black people have been calling out racism for generations. We said it calmly, we protested, we put it in our music, our art, our movies, our television, our stages. And they watched, danced, laughed and clapped. But they never heard.

'Or perhaps they did hear, but just didn't care until it was at their front door.'

Honour admits, however, that her thoughts on this are nuanced. In some ways, she says she can understand why white people may not have a full picture of what it's like to live with racism, because she says Black people tend to keep day-to-day microaggressions to themselves.

'Some of my friends were horrified when I recently revealed that I research racism levels in other countries before I go on holiday, or that in 2020 I stagger entrances into clubs with my other Black friends because all together we look "dangerous",' she says.

'They just couldn't fathom that anyone so close to home was dealing with anything like that on a regular basis.'

But when it comes to the overt examples of undeniable racism - a Black person dying at the hands of a police officer - Honour says claiming to be oblivious just doesn't wash with her.

'It's insulting to my intelligence frankly. Just say you didn't care before because it didn't affect you, and go,' she says.

Honour is determined not to let the disappointment at the reactions of white people distract from the important task at hand - the task of dismantling racism.

'I am more hopeful than I've ever been that we are capable of eradicating racism. So I've put aside any bitterness at white people's late arrival as it doesn't serve my cause,' she tells us.

'It is not up to Black people to deconstruct an issue we did not create. And further, what's both frustrating and humiliating is that Black people don't hold enough power to end racism ourselves. We need as many white people to care as possible. Therefore, rather they woke up late than never at all. We need to stay focused.'

Zahra* has South Asian heritage, and she says that this sudden and intense interest in racial equality from her white friends and colleagues, has been a lot to handle.

'I could never speak for the specific pain of Black people. The levels of racism and discrimination that Black people face is on a different level to other people of colour,' Zahra tells Metro.co.uk.

'I can talk about racism, though. I know what it is to be subject to racist abuse; to be held back by structures that endlessly favour white people.'

Zahra says that every time she logs on to social media or a WhatsApp group, white people are sharing pledges, links to articles, screenshots of arguments with racist people in their lives.

'Someone will text me to tell me they have called out a racist at work, but do not care to begin the conversation with, "How are you?" It's a double-edged sword for many of us,' she explains.

'It's good these conversations are happening, but it's also draining to be the person that has to clap and applaud and validate. Why should we be white people's cheerleaders at the moment? Where has everyone else been for decades?

'I feel like white people are grabbing me by the shoulders and shaking me, desperately pleading - "You have to understand I'm not racist. I'm not! Look! I'm trying really hard!" - but they simply don't realise that they're shaking too hard.

'They're unearthing old wounds in people of colour, and their grip is leaving bruises. Can't you educate yourselves quietly?'

Zahra has had counselling sessions in the last week because the emotional stress of talking these issues through with her white friends was becoming too much. She was exhausted, her body was aching and she found herself randomly bursting into tears.

'I have cried too many times to count because I'm frightened that white people will use our pain and experiences to fix their own guilt and then just... forget.'

Psychologist Dr Roberta Babb says it isn't surprising that this sudden influx of public conversations about racism is causing a severe emotional reaction for so many people.

'Seeing white people discuss racism with an apparent sense of freedom that has not been afforded to ethnic minorities in the past is painful and more than frustrating,' Dr Roberta tells Metro.co.uk.

'It feels like conversations about race have been sanctioned and are now allowed, which can evoke feelings of sadness, powerlessness and hopelessness. This can trigger traumatic memories of their own experiences of racism, which are characterised by demotion, devaluation, not having a voice and not being seen or heard.'

How to cope if racism conversations are emotionally draining
Dr Roberta Babb, psychologist
She says these conversations also re-enact some of the destructive dynamics of racism - which are associated with power, privilege and position and which have served to keep racism alive.

'Racism is serious and is a public health issue,' says Dr Roberta. 'Eliminating racism should be a priority. It should not have taken the numerous violent tragedies that we have witnessed in recent times to make the conversations about racial inequality, racial violence and racial trauma mainstream.'

On the other hand, Dr Roberta knows that anti-racism is everyone's business, and it is vital that white people and non-Black people continue to have these conversations.

'The wider the diversity of people discussing and challenging racism, the more it helps to actively deconstruct the idea that racism is a problem for/of Black people,' she explains.

'In order to progress anti-racism, important conversations about race cannot prioritise white discomfort and white guilt ahead of racism, racial inequality and trauma.

'Bearing the responsibility of having to hold the conversations about race all the time, can have a detrimental impact on Black people, their mental health, and their relationships to racial inequality and social justice.'

So, if you are feeling emotionally exhausted by the current conversations about race - you are certainly not alone.

In order to truly progress this movement, white people must find a way to discuss racism without placing undue burden on ethnic minorities to educate, validate or applaud their efforts. Because otherwise it is just an unfeasibly draining process.
Do you have a story to share? We want to hear from you. Get in touch: metrolifestyleteam@metro.co.uk.
MORE: What to do if your white friends keep saying the wrong things about racism

MORE: Don't turn your back on Black lives when the hashtags fade

MORE: Teenager becomes TikTok star raising thousands of frogs in lockdown

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The emotional impact of watching white people wake up to racism in real-time

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Over the last few weeks we have seen a tidal wave effect in the global consciousness of issues of racism. Since the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests began, the movement has gone far beyond marching in the streets.

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Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project

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Chapter 7: The Many Dimensions of Hispanic Racial Identity

For Hispanics living in the United States, Hispanic identity is multidimensional and multifaceted. For some, it is defined most by their family's country of origin, such as Mexican, Cuban or Dominican. For others, it is defined by pan-ethnic terms like Hispanic or Latino, emphasizing the commonalities of a diverse community.

At 54 million, Hispanics make up 17% of the nation's population, and they are projected to grow to be 29% of the U.S. population in 2060, according to the Census Bureau. Between 1990 and 2013, the nation's Hispanic population grew faster than any other racial or ethnic group.

Measuring racial identity among Hispanics has proved challenging for the Census Bureau. Currently, the Hispanic category is described on census survey forms as an ethnic origin and not a race. It is asked about separately from the race question, a practice also followed by many other surveys.

But when it comes to their racial identity, Latinos stand out from other Americans in their responses to race questions. For example, when asked about their race on Census Bureau decennial census and survey forms, many Latinos do not choose one of the standard racial classifications offered. Instead, more than any other group, Latinos say their race is "some other race," mostly writing in responses such as "Mexican," "Hispanic" or "Latin American." Some 37% of Latinos did this in the 2010 census, as did 42% in the 2000 census. This is also the case on Pew Research Center surveys of Latinos. In the 2014 National Survey of Latinos, 25% of Latinos volunteered that their race is "Hispanic" or "Latino" and not one of the standard racial classification groups.

Hispanics' responses to the 2010 and 2000 census raise an important question: Do Hispanics consider their Hispanic background to be part of their racial background, their ethnic background or both? According to the Pew Research survey, 11% of Hispanic adults say that their Hispanic background is part of their racial background, 19% consider it part of their ethnic background and 56% consider it part of both their racial and ethnic backgrounds. Taken together, two-thirds (67%) of Hispanic adults describe their Hispanic background as a part of their racial background.

This finding has implications for how multiracial Latinos are identified. For example, Latinos who identify themselves as one race (such as white or black) when asked to fit themselves into the country's current standard racial categorization, but then say they consider being Latino as part of their racial background as well, have effectively indicated a multiracial background. That makes this group of Latinos potentially part of the mixed-race population. Taking this broader view of the multiracial population, including Latinos who give one census race and also consider their Latino background part of their race would raise the U.S. multiracial population share to 8.9% from 6.9%.

This chapter incorporates this broader approach to Hispanic racial identity, exploring two possible ways to define and view definitions of mixed-race background among Hispanics: (1) those who say they are two census races (i.e., white and black) and are also Hispanic, a group consistently treated as multiracial throughout the report; and (2) those who name only one race (other than Hispanic), but also say they consider their Hispanic background to be part of their racial background. The chapter also explores other Hispanic racial identities, such as an Afro-Latino background and a background that includes roots among the indigenous peoples of the Americas, such as Native American, Maya, Taino or Quechua. These latter findings come from the Pew Research Center's 2014 National Survey of Latinos.

I've never identified as a single race. I think partly that would be insulting to my parents because it would be leaving one or the other out. White and Hispanic woman, age 23

Who Considers Being Hispanic a Race?

Across age groups, educational levels and language preference, most U.S. Hispanics consider their Hispanic background a part of their racial makeup. For example, 69% of Latinos ages 18 to 29 say their Hispanic background is part of their racial background, as do 68% of those ages 30 to 49, 63% of those ages 50 to 64 and 66% of those ages 65 or older.

Similarly, Hispanics who are Spanish-dominant (67%) are about as likely as bilingual (71%) and English-dominant (66%) Hispanics to consider their Hispanic background part of their racial background. Shares are similar by gender, and across educational attainment levels: Most Hispanics in each group consider their Hispanic background as part of their racial background.

Identifying Multiracial Hispanics

As noted, multiracial identity among Hispanics can be defined in two ways. The first definition matches that used throughout this report-multiracial adults are those who say the racial background of themselves, their parents or their grandparents includes two or more census races, regardless of whether they see their Hispanic background as a race. By this definition, 4.6% of adults who are Hispanic (or have a Hispanic parent or grandparent) have a multiracial background.

The second multiracial definition includes those who say their Hispanic background is a part of their racial background and who indicate that their background also includes one other census race (such as white or black or Asian). Some 12.1% of Hispanic adults are multiracial by this addition. Adding in those who qualify as multiracial under the first definition, some 16.7% of all Hispanic adults in total would then be identified as having a multiracial background. Among the Hispanic multiracial group that is one census race and considers their Hispanic background to be their race, a large majority (79%) say their racial background is white and Hispanic.

The Multiracial Experience and Latinos

Multiracial identity is not only a reflection of the racial background on one's family tree, but also a reflection of the social and cultural factors shaping how you were raised, how you see yourself and how the world sees you. For many mixed-race Hispanics, these factors may be as important as racial background in shaping their racial identity.

Do Hispanics with Multiple-Race Backgrounds Consider Themselves to Be Mixed Race?

Even though many Hispanics report having a multiracial background, many may not consider themselves to be mixed race. For example, among Hispanic adults who have a multiracial background based on reporting two or more census races, 35% say they do not consider themselves mixed race. And among Hispanic adults who consider their Hispanic background part of their racial background and who also indicate one census race in their background, 50% say they do not consider themselves mixed race. By comparison, a greater share of non-Hispanic multiracial adults, 64%, says they do not consider themselves mixed race.

How Multiracial Hispanics Think Others See Them

How do mixed-race Hispanic adults believe strangers passing them on the street see their racial background? As noted earlier, this is one of the many ways the views of one's racial identity might be shaped. For Hispanic multiracial adults, the answer depends on how their multiracial background is defined. However, no matter how it is defined, few mixed-race Hispanics say they are viewed as multiracial.

For example, among multiracial Hispanics who indicate their background includes two or more census races, 30% say most people would think they are white if they passed them on the street. An additional 24% say most people would see them as Hispanic, 17% as mixed race, 10% as black only and 4% as American Indian only.

However, for multiracial Hispanics who choose one census race but say they consider their Hispanic background to also be part of their racial background, the survey's findings are very different. About half of these multiracial Hispanics (48%) say most people would think they are Hispanic if they passed them on the street. An additional 38% say they would be seen as white by most people, and just 8% say they would be seen as mixed race. About half of this group (48%) chooses white when asked about their own race, so it's not surprising that about four-in-ten believe others see them as white.

By comparison, 55% of non-Hispanic multiracial adults say most people would think they are white if they passed them on the street, 26% say they would be seen as black by most people, 8% as mixed race and just 3% as Hispanic. But these findings vary among non-Hispanic multiracial adults. For example, among non-Hispanic biracial adults who are white and black, 61% say most people would think they are single-race black if they passed them on the street. By contrast, among non-Hispanic biracial adults who are white and American Indian, 88% say most people would think they are white.

Is a Multiracial Background an Advantage or a Disadvantage?

Like other multiracial adults, Hispanic multiracial adults are far more likely to say that having a racial background that includes more than one race has been an advantage in their lives than to say it has been a disadvantage. However, about half or more say it has not made a difference.

About a third (32%) of Hispanic adults who are multiracial because their background has two or more census races say their racial background has mainly been an advantage. A similar share (33%) says the same among Hispanics who consider their Hispanic background part of their racial background and also name one other census race in their background. This is nearly twice as large as the share (18%) of non-Hispanic multiracial adults who say the same.

By contrast, about one-in-six (15%) Hispanic adults who are multiracial by two or more census races say their multiracial background has mainly been a disadvantage. Among Hispanic adults who consider their Hispanic background part of their racial background and also name one other census race in their background, 5% say it has been a disadvantage in their life. By contrast, among multiracial non-Hispanic adults, just 3% say their multiracial background has mainly been a disadvantage.

Most Hispanic Multiracial Adults Have Felt Pride in Their Background

Compared with other mixed-race adults, Hispanic multiracial adults who are two or more races are more likely to say they have "often" or "sometimes" felt pride in their mixed-race background-76% say this. This is a higher share than that among Hispanic adults who consider their Hispanic background a race and also report one other race (62%). Among non-Hispanic multiracial adults, 58% say they have felt proud of their mixed-race background.

And across the two different groups of multiracial Hispanic adults, few say they have ever felt ashamed of their mixed-race background. Just 13% of Hispanics whose backgrounds includes two or more census races say this, as do 10% of Hispanics who consider their Hispanic background a race and also indicate one census race, and 8% of non-Hispanic multiracial adults.

Asking Hispanics About Racial Identities Beyond Census Classifications

In the sections above, we looked at what it would mean to consider a Hispanic background a racial one. This reflects what many Hispanics themselves write in on the decennial census form and other surveys when they enter "Hispanic" or "Latino" or a Hispanic origin (such as Mexican) when asked to provide their race. It also leads to about one-in-six Hispanics being identified as mixed race, even though many would not adopt that term to describe themselves.

But other recent Pew Research Center work suggests that even this broader approach to race doesn't capture the full depth and wide spectrum of views that Hispanics have of their own racial identity. This is in part because grouping together diverse communities and nationalities into a single group masks many of the differences among them.

In the 2014 National Survey of Latinos (NSL), we approached Latinos' views of race with an eye toward the specific ways that national and regional origin affects this view. Specifically, in that fall 2014 survey of 1,520 Latino adults, we asked about racial background in three ways by asking respondents if they consider themselves Afro-Latino or Afro-Caribbean or, for example, Afro-Mexican. Similarly, we asked Latinos if their background includes roots among the indigenous peoples of the Americas, such as Native American, Mayan, Quechua or Taino. Finally, we also explored mixed-race identity among Latinos using mixed-race terms such as mestizo or mulatto, terms that are used in countries like Mexico to capture a mixed indigenous and European heritage. We asked respondents these questions about their own background and that of their parents and grandparents.

How the 2014 National Survey of Latinos asked about other racial identities

Do you consider yourself to be mixed race, that is, belonging to more than one racial group, such as mestizo, mulatto or some other mixed race, or not?

Do you consider yourself to be Afro-Latino, Afro-Caribbean, or Afro-'COUNTRY OF ORIGIN,' or not? [INTEVIEWER READ AS NEEDED: "An Afro-Latino or Afro-Hispanic is Latino or Hispanic with black African ancestry"]

Do you consider yourself to be indigenous or Native American, such as (Maya, Nahua, Taino, Quiche, Aymara, Quechua*) or some other indigenous or Native American origin, or not?

*Examples provided varied according to the respondent's country or region of origin
Note: For more detail on these questions and the exact phrasing, see 2014 National Survey of Latinos topline in Appendix D.

When asked directly about their mixed-race background, about one-in-three (34%) Latino adults say they consider themselves to be mixed race-defined as belonging to more than one racial group, such as mestizo, mulatto or some other mixed race. This is more than five times the share of Latinos (6%) who indicate two or more races or volunteer that they are "mixed race" when they are just asked to describe their race and told that they can select as many races as apply. Looked at another way, among the 34% of Latinos who self-identify as mixed race, mestizo or mulatto, only 13% also indicate a racial background with two or more races or volunteer that they were "mixed race" on the standard race question. About half (46%) of this group indicates their race or one of their races is white, and 24% volunteer that their race or one of their races is Hispanic or Latino. Fully 42% choose white as their only race, and 20% choose Hispanic as their only race.

The NSL also finds that one-in-four (25%) Latino adults say they consider themselves indigenous or Native American, such as Maya, Nahua, Taino, Quiche, Aymara or Quechua, among others. But here, too, this share is higher than the 2% of Latinos who volunteer their race (or one of their races) as indigenous or Native American in the NSL's standard race question. And looked at a different way, among Latinos who say they consider themselves indigenous or Native American when asked directly, just 5% volunteer their race or one of their races as Native American on the standard race question, while 41% indicate white as their race or one of their races and 30% volunteer their race as Hispanic or Latino alone or in combination. Again, a relatively high share of this group (36%) chooses white alone in describing their race, and about a quarter (27%) chooses Hispanic alone.

Finally, the survey found that about one-in-four (24%) Latino adults say they consider themselves to be Afro-Latino, Afro-Caribbean or another Afro-Latino origin, such as Afro-Colombian or Afro-Mexican. By comparison, just 8% of Latino adults indicated that their race or one of their races was black on the standard NSL race question. And here too, Latinos who say they are Afro-Latino do not necessarily also indicate they are black on the standard race question. For example, among this group, 18% say their race or one of their races is black on the standard NSL race question, but 39% say their race is white alone or in combination and 24% volunteer Hispanic or Latino as their race or one of their races.

When considering these racial identities through grandparents, the share of Latino adults with these backgrounds increases. Four-in-ten Latino adults (40%) consider themselves mixed race or have a parent or grandparent who is mixed race, up from 34% when considering only the background of the respondent. One-third (33%) consider themselves indigenous or have an indigenous parent or grandparent, up from 25% when considering only the respondent's background. And 29% consider themselves Afro-Latino or have an Afro-Latino parent or grandparent, up from 24% when based on the respondent only.

These results shed light onto the multidimensionality of racial identity among Latinos and the challenges in capturing Hispanic racial identity through a standard race question.

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Hispanic Racial Identity: Multidimensional Issue For Latinos

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For Hispanics living in the United States, Hispanic identity is multidimensional and multifaceted. For some, it is defined most by their family's country of origin, such as Mexican, Cuban or Dominican. For others, it is defined by pan-ethnic terms like Hispanic or Latino, emphasizing the commonalities of a diverse community.

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Superstock/Everett

The Underground Railroad ran south as well as north. For slaves in Texas, refuge in Canada must have seemed impossibly far away. Fortunately, slavery was also illegal in Mexico.

Researchers estimate 5,000 to 10,000 people escaped from bondage into Mexico, says Maria Hammack, who is writing her dissertation about this topic at the University of Texas at Austin. But she thinks the actual number could be even higher.

"These were clandestine routes and if you got caught you would be killed and lynched, so most people didn't leave a lot of records," says Hammack.

There's some evidence that tejanos, or Mexicans in Texas, acted as "conductors" on the southern route by helping people get to Mexico. In addition, Hammack has also identified a black woman and two white men who helped enslaved workers escape and tried to find a home for them in Mexico.

F. Lewis/Archive Photos/Getty Images

Mexico abolished slavery in 1829 when Texas was still part of the country, in part prompting white, slave-holding immigrants to fight for independence in the Texas Revolution. Once they formed the Republic of Texas in 1836, they made slavery legal again, and it continued to be legal when Texas joined the U.S. as a state in 1845.

Enslaved people in Texas were aware that there was a country to the south where they could find different levels of freedom (though indentured debt servitude existed in Mexico, it was not the same as chattel slavery). Hammack has discovered one runaway named Tom who had been enslaved by Sam Houston. Houston was a president of the Republic of Texas who'd fought in the Texas Revolution. Once Tom got across the border, he joined the Mexican military that Houston had fought against.

Fugitive slaves got to Mexico in many different ways. Some went on foot, while others rode horses or snuck aboard ferries bound for Mexican ports. Stories spread about enslaved people who crossed the Rio Grande river dividing Texas from Mexico by floating on bales of cotton, and several Texas newspapers reported in July 1863 that three enslaved people had escaped this way. Even if this wasn't logistically possible, the imagery of floating to freedom on a symbol of slavery was strong.

But it wasn't only enslaved people in Texas who found freedom in Mexico. "I have found individuals who made it all the way from North Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama," Hammack says.

Slaveholders knew that enslaved people were escaping to Mexico, and the U.S. tried to get Mexico to sign a fugitive slave treaty. Just as the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had compelled free states to return escapees to the south, the U.S. wanted Mexico to return escaped slaves to the U.S. But Mexico refused to sign such a treaty, insisting that all enslaved people were free when they set foot on Mexican soil. Despite this, some U.S. slave owners still hired slave catchers to illegally kidnap escapees in Mexico.

It's unclear how organized the southern "underground railroad" was. Hammack says some enslaved people may have found their way to Mexico without assistance. Other evidence suggests tejanos, especially poor tejanos, played a part in helping escapees get to Mexico.

Universal History Archive/UIG/Getty images

Hammack and researcher Roseann Bacha-Garza have also identified a mixed-race family from Alabama who moved to southern Texas near the Rio Grande and helped enslaved people escape to Mexico. The wife, Matilda Hicks, was a formerly enslaved woman. Her husband, Nathaniel Jackson, was the son of the man whose plantation she used to work on.

In addition, some northern abolitionists traveled south to help enslaved people reach Mexico.

"I have come across abolitionists from the north who were going to Mexico to petition Mexico to allow them to buy land to establish colonies for runaway slaves and free blacks," Hammack says. In the early 1830s, Quaker abolitionist Benjamin Lundy "was actively petitioning the Mexican government to allow for colonies to be established for, I guess what we would consider now, refugees."

Lundy's plan to start a free colony in Mexico's Texas region was thwarted when it separated from Mexico and legalized slavery. Later, in 1852, Seminole groups that included runaway slaves successfully petitioned the Mexican government for land. "It still belongs to their descendants and they still live there to this day in Mexico," Hammack says.

These and other refugees fleeing slavery through the southern "underground railroad" all benefited from Mexico's willingness to give them a safe haven.

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The Little-Known Underground Railroad That Ran South to Mexico

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The Underground Railroad ran south as well as north. For slaves in Texas, refuge in Canada must have seemed impossibly far away. Fortunately, slavery was also illegal in Mexico. Researchers estimate 5,000 to 10,000 people escaped from bondage into Mexico, says Maria Hammack, who is writing her dissertation about this topic at the University of Texas at Austin.

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Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

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Even as we mourn the incalculable loss of human life in the COVID-19 pandemic, we also mourn yet another onslaught of anti-black violence that highlights the long-standing sickness in America. The deaths of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, and George Floyd in Minnesota, along with a white person's blatant attempt to intimidate Christian Cooper in New York City's Central Park, are all tragic events on many levels. These events claim national attention because there is video evidence in some instances to corroborate the violence, intimidation, and presumed entitlement of some white people to control, and kill, "colored people."

Am I deeply saddened by all this? Yes! Am I surprised by any of this? Absolutely not! Let me explain why I am sad but not surprised and what the implications of this are for me as an educator and as an African American man.

Sadness caused by events like these is justified. The sadness at times expresses itself in lament. In our family rooms, classrooms, cultural spaces, and private places, we must encourage personal and communal lament. Lament is a ruggedly honest declaration that something is deeply wrong and severely out of joint or that someone who is dearly loved is now significantly absent.

Lament takes many forms: guttural groans, copious tears, long stretches of silence, fits of rage, quiet questioning, bittersweet remembering, tension-riddled tossing and turning. We lament because people matter to us, because values such as dignity and the presumption of safety matter to us. We lament because there remains somewhere in us a faint hope that today's pain will not completely swallow tomorrow's possibilities. As an educator charged with cultivating the hearts and minds of emerging leaders, I lament the violence and death in these difficult times, and I encourage our students to lament.

While I have a great appreciation for lamentation, I also harbor a growing intolerance for people acting surprised by tragic events like these. It is a vexing question for me: why would anyone be surprised?

The sociologists Roger Finke and Rodney Stark insist, "Nostalgia is the enemy of history.... We frequently accept...tales that corrupt our understanding of the past and mislead us about the present." I know enough history about the United States, and I have had enough encounters with racism to never again be surprised by any form of aggression against black people.

We will slow the spread of the coronavirus by wearing masks. We will slow the spread of virulent racism by unmasking the presumption of ignorance. Some people are "surprised" by the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 or aggressive policing on communities of color only because of their willful ignorance.

Deep down inside, most adults and many young people in New York City and countless other cities and towns in the United States know where the visible and invisible color and (economic) class lines are. These color and class lines either rope people into, or out of, better or worse economic and educational outcomes and personal or communal wellbeing. While the landscapes and skylines of our communities have changed dramatically across the centuries, these color and class lines were laid down a long time ago by "the framers" and colonial architects of the American republic. Unfortunately, these lines have proven thus far to be indelible.

In 1963, James Baldwin delivered " A Talk to Teachers " as the United States was reeling from highly publicized episodes of racial violence. With probing prose, this literary sage exploded the myth of ignorance and, along with it, the myth of American innocence. Baldwin remarked:

The point of all this is that black [people] were brought here as a source of cheap labor. They were indispensable to the economy. In order to justify that [black people] were treated as though they were animals, the white republic had to brainwash itself into believing that they were, indeed, animals and deserved to be treated like animals.... What I am trying to suggest to you is that it was not an accident.... It was a deliberate policy hammered into place in order to make money from black flesh. And now, in 1963, because we have never faced this fact, we are in intolerable trouble.

More than half a century later, we are still in trouble, but trouble need not last always.

Educational institutions-from colleges and elementary and secondary schools to museums-are engaging in robust discussions about equity. While equity has many components, it certainly entails intentional individual and institutional efforts to counteract the disproportionate privilege and power related to difference that are unfairly afforded to some people while denied to others. As teachers, we can create equitable places and practices by courageously dispelling ignorance-both the benign lack of knowledge that welcomes instruction and the malignant ignoring of knowledge that revels in nostalgia.

In these times of violence and death, our classrooms-whether in-person or online-can be sites for sharing meaningful information and forming moral identity. According to the theologian Kelly Brown Douglas, a moral identity "is one that is relieved of pretensions to superiority. It lets go of any myths that suggests one people is more valuable than another.... A moral identity affirms the shared humanity of all human beings."

Let's create a world where everybody counts, irrespective of color, class, creed, or condition. Now that would be a most welcome surprise.

Further Resources for Families and Educators

Dr. Brad R. Braxton is the chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at St. Luke's School in New York, founding senior pastor of The Open Church in Baltimore, and curator for the Living Religions in Twenty-First-Century America program at the 2022 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

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Sad but Not Surprised: "A Talk to Teachers" in Times of Violence and Death

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Even as we mourn the incalculable loss of human life in the COVID-19 pandemic, we also mourn yet another onslaught of anti-black violence that highlights the long-standing sickness in America. The deaths of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, and George Floyd in Minnesota, along with a white person's blatant attempt to intimidate Christian Cooper in New York City's Central Park, are all tragic events on many levels.

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Negotiating anti-black racism in ‘liberal’ contexts: the experiences of black youth workers in community-based educational spaces

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Negotiating anti-black racism in ‘liberal’ contexts: the experiences of black youth workers in community-based educational spaces

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This paper examines how Black community-based youth workers navigate anti-Black racism in their educational programming with Black youth in a majority white college town widely recognized as 'nice,' 'liberal,' and 'progressive' with stark racial disparities between its Black and white residents. With racial liberalism and BlackCrit as theoretical guides, this paper draws on in-depth interviews with Black youth workers and observations at city events addressing racial disparities facing Black youth to understand how anti-Black racism within the larger city informs community-based educational programming. Findings indicate a 1) disregard of Black suffering, 2) deliberate shutdown of critical race dialogue and programming, and 3) the exploitation of Black youth workers' labor and the denial of advancement to positions of leadership within organizations to do white discomfort. This paper challenges liberal and progressive claims of social justice in education within predominantly white cities that reify anti-Black racism.

Additional information

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Negotiating anti-black racism in 'liberal' contexts: the experiences of black youth workers in community-based educational spaces

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This paper examines how Black community-based youth workers navigate anti-Black racism in their educational programming with Black youth in a majority white college town widely recognized as 'nice,' 'liberal,' and 'progressive' with stark racial disparities between its Black and white residents.

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Moving Beyond “I’m Not a Racist” and Toward “I’m an Anti-Racist”

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Moving Beyond “I’m Not a Racist” and Toward “I’m an Anti-Racist”

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#GeorgeFloyd #AhmaudArbery #BreonnaTaylor #TrayvonMartin #SayHerName #SayHisName #SayTheirNames. There are countless names representing the lives of Black men, women, and children who have been victims of violent injustices against Black people at the hands of systemic racism.

Around the world, there is a rallying cry for racial justice. For many White folks one response has been "How can I help?" It's an honest question requiring an honest answer. History reminds us that well-intentioned people can damage well-intentioned movements. Why? Because good intentions are often riddled with mistakes. While now is the time to show up, it is not the time to be reckless with "helpful" approaches to racial justice. To help oppressed groups without preparation is flat-out dangerous. Black people's lives are treated as expendable every day in the United States. If White people want to help join the fight for racial justice they must be intentional, prepared, and committed to the movement not just the moment. It is on every White person at this time to move beyond "I'm not a racist" and toward "I'm an anti-racist."
"I'm not a racist"
I'm not a racist. I'm also not sexist. Nor am I homophobic, transphobic, classist, or ableist, amongst many other things. I deserve no recognition for naming that. Why? Because it's called being a decent human being. It takes absolutely nothing for me to be any of those things. Yes, it's obviously important to not be a racist. It means that I am not actively hurting or oppressing Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. If my commitment to racial justice ends with me saying "I'm not a racist" then that means I'm not doing anything to disrupt the very systems that hurt and oppress Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. If I really want to help work toward racial justice then I have to do just that; I have to do the work. My work cannot just be anchored to who I am. It must be anchored to what I do. It must be active, actionable, and make change that works to dismantle systems of oppression. Why? Because if my actions work to disrupt and dismantle systems of oppression then I create space for someone to be liberated. You're not a racist? That's good for you. You're an anti-racist? Provided you approach the work in the responsible way, that's good for everyone.
What is anti-racism?
To be anti-racist means you commit to eliminating racial bias, both other peoples and your own. To be anti-racist means you do not see one racial identity group as superior to another racial identity group. In your eyes, all racial identity groups are equal. To be anti-racist means you also know that equality does not mean equity, so you actively work, support, and advocate for institutional practices and policies that disrupt and dismantle systemic oppression and foster racial equity.
Working toward "I'm an anti-racist"
So you want to support racial justice for Black people? You must support their liberation and freedom. To do that you must work toward the point where you can say "I'm an anti-racist." It doesn't mean you will be perfect. In fact, you will make mistakes, commit to learn from them, and grow. Working toward this point recognizes that this work is a process and that process requires you to be ready.

There are many places you can learn about topics of race and racism. Find those places. Listen. Learn. There are many organizations committed to anti-racist work. Contact those organizations. Engage with them. Donate if possible. There are many online resources where social justice community advocates, activists, and scholars, predominately Black, Indigenous, Women of Color, have laboriously created resources for people who share in the struggle to do this work. Locate them. Read, watch, and listen to what has been created for people in solidarity for racial justice. It is critical to gain a racial literacy to do this work. Below are important resources that I and others have used in anti-racist education work. Beyond this list, there are scores of other rich, meaningful, intersectional, and transformative resources available. I encourage you to "do your homework," discover them, and engage critically with them.

1.) The National Museum of African American History and Culture's "Talking About Race" interactive web page. Page 1 offers access to information on key topics such as bias, community building, historical foundations of race, race and racial identity, self-care, social identities and systems of oppression, and whiteness. Page 2 offers a way to sort the information by "audience." You can find materials for educators, parents, caregivers, and engaged citizens committed to equity. https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/being-antiracist

2.) "For Our White Friends Desiring to Be Allies" by Courtney Ariel (2017). https://sojo.net/articles/our-white-friends-desiring-be-allies

3.) Teaching Tolerance organization's "White Anti-Racism: Living the Legacy." A discussion between community organizers Diane Flinn, Georgette Norman, Sejal Patel, and Yvette Robles. https://www.tolerance.org/professional-development/white-antiracism-living-the-legacy

4.) "The Danger of a Single Story" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2006). https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/transcript?language=en

5.) "The Five Faces of Oppression" by Marion Young (1990). https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/young.pdf

6.) The Combahee River Collective Statement (1977). https://combaheerivercollective.weebly.com/the-combahee-river-collective-statement.html

7.) Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins (2000).

8.) The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (2010).

9.) Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique Morris (2016).

10.) White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Race by Robin DiAngelo (2019).
Closing Consideration
In the wake of George Floyd's murder, one thing I have tried to do is listen wherever I can. I hear the pain. I hear Black people and allies continue to demand racial justice. I also hear the question from Black people: Why am I hated? Hatred toward Black people is a choice anchored to the devaluing of Black lives. Anti-racists resist and condemn that hatred. Their work creates spaces that confront dehumanization. Humanization is a precursor to justice. Yes, anti-racist work is an act of social justice. It is also an act of love.

It has never been enough to think your work stops when you say "I'm not a racist." As you move toward saying "I'm an anti-racist" remember that this move requires a long-term commitment. It requires action through intention, preparation, and commitment. Everyone has a starting point. The work starts with a single step. Will you stand still or walk forward?

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Moving Beyond "I'm Not a Racist" and Toward "I'm an Anti-Racist"

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GeorgeFloyd #AhmaudArbery #BreonnaTaylor #TrayvonMartin #SayHerName #SayHisName #SayTheirNames. There are countless names representing the lives of Black men, women, and children who have been victims of violent injustices against Black people at the hands of systemic racism. Around the world, there is a rallying cry for racial justice.

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Creating the Space to Talk About Race

Most of us believe that every child, no matter what they look like or where they come from, deserves a safe and welcoming school where they can thrive. But certain politicians try to divide us by sending police to monitor and punish Black and brown students in schools that have been denied funding to even cover the basics, while ensuring well-resourced schools with mostly white students have enrichment activities, teacher training, and parent engagement. By joining together across race and place, we can rewrite the rules to ensure every student -whether Black, Brown or white- has up-to-date learning materials that give a full picture of our nation's history, the support of educators who are prepared to foster dialogue on racial justice and its impact on students and communities, and a well-resourced school environment.

NEA DEMANDS: JUSTICE FOR BLACK LIVES
As an organization representing public school educators across the country, the National Education Association recognizes the need to end institutionally racist systems and policies that have governed our society for too long and kept Black people from full participation in American life. For many Black students and families, our public schools are the heart of our communities. But far too many have been overlooked, neglected and forgotten by those in power who choose to bail out greedy corporations and line the pockets of privatizers. We must hold decision makers accountable to the people by reinvesting in policies and systems to achieve healthy and strong schools and communities. To our Black students, colleagues, parents and families: You matter, your trauma matters, your voice matters, your protest matters, your dreams matter. We mourn with you, we stand with you and we organize with you to dismantle all acts of discrimination and racism.
Therefore, we demand justice and equity for Black lives in all places and in all forms - in our judicial, education, housing, health and economic systems.
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CREATING THE SPACE TO TALK ABOUT RACE IN YOUR SCHOOL

Racism is complex and contentious. Many of us are afraid to even broach the subject. It often feels easier and safer to avoid the topic altogether.

But silence and inaction reinforce the status quo. And avoidance speaks volumes - it communicates to students of color that racism doesn't matter enough to warrant attention and, by omission, invalidates their experiences, perspectives, identities and lives. White students, on the other hand, often see racism being accepted and normalized, without acknowledgement or accountability.

To advance real solutions, we need to address real problems. As teachers, we have "teachable moments," or opportunities to constructively and productively address race. But these opportunities need to be thoughtfully created, seized, planned and managed.

The following tips can help you make race conversations normal, constructive and successful.

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NEA activists launch series of video "primers" for anti-racist white educators

Luke Michener and Terry Jess are both white, male educators who teach at Bellevue High School in Washington state. They feel they have little to add to conversations about race with students and colleagues of color that those students and colleagues don't already know themselves, based upon their own experiences in the classroom, and, more broadly, living in the United States.

On the other hand, Terry and Luke feel they do have a lot to offer other white educators who are committed to racial equity in education, but may not know where to begin.

Inspired by their own experiences working with students trying to reconcile their own identities with the realities of the world around them, as well as conversations they had at the 2017 NEA Conference on Racial and Social Justice, Terry and Luke created a series of YouTube videos they hoped could provide other white educators with ideas, insights and tools to better engage in racial equity work in their own schools and communities.

Terry now has more than 80 short videos on his YouTube channel, anchored around a 10-part series co-hosted by the pair titled "Primer for anti-racist white educators." Read the full blog post about their video project.

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Terry & Luke's Video Primers for Anti-Racist, White Educators:

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Educators, Parents, Students Mobilize in Support of District Equity Policy in WA State

Gjanje Smith says the first time her son was called the N-word was when he was a middle school student in the Bellevue School District, just east of Seattle.

After moving to Bellevue in 2010 from just outside Boston - with its long history of racial conflict in schools, including protests and riots following court-ordered desegregation and busing in the mid-1970s - Smith says she was shocked.

"I think people have this false sense of security in the Pacific Northwest because it's supposed to be this more progressive area," says Smith. "But there are still a lot of ongoing racial issues and micro-aggression."

Smith's son is now 20. By the time he graduated from high school, he had never had an African American teacher in any of his classes. She also has two daughters, ages 8 and 4. "My hope for my daughters," she says, "is that at some point they see themselves represented in the teaching staff, in the curriculum, and in the reading assignments."

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That vision has motivated Smith to become active in a community-wide effort to pass an equity policy in the Bellevue School District. She notes that racial equity is one of the top three priorities highlighted by district leadership, but the district currently has no equity policy.

"The district talks a great game about equity and serving all students," says Terry Jess, who teaches social studies at Bellevue High School and is the parent of an eighth grader and a high school junior in Bellevue schools. "But the district is not accountable for addressing the gaps that exist."

While Bellevue is less than 3 percent African American, it is one of the most diverse school districts in Washington: 42 percent of students are Asian American, 37 percent are white, and 12 percent are Latino.

Shomari Jones, director of equity and strategic engagement for the Bellevue School District, believes the district is heading in the right direction. Jones was recognized by "Education Week" earlier this year as one of nine exceptional K-12 leaders in the country for his leadership on closing opportunity gaps in the district. Last year, Jones organized a series of "community cafes" to solicit feedback from the community about equity issues. The district engaged with more than 2,500 people.

"Early on, there emerged a small but strong voice against the passing of an equity policy," said Jess. He characterized the opposition as coming primarily from affluent white parents and from Asian American parents who were concerned an equity policy would be tied to demographic quotas or limits on gifted student programs. (The Asian American & Pacific Islander Alliances has publicly supported an equity policy in the district).

During the forums, Smith says, some opponents directed comments at her and other African American parents. "There were comments like: ' Those people don't value education,' and 'We are asking the district to let people into the gifted program who won't be required to score as high on the testing as our kids have to...' "

Smith explains that nothing in the proposed equity policy would put quotas on gifted programs. Rather, she says, an equity policy would help ensure access to programs is equitable throughout the district. Smith believes that when student access to a gifted student program hinges solely on teacher recommendations, students of color too often get overlooked. "Even when SATs and GPAs of black and brown students match that of their Caucasian counterparts, their abilities are often underestimated."

Jones says some opposition to the proposed district-wide equity policy stemmed from a perceived sense of loss. "Some folks rationally believe that if we are providing greater support to a group of individuals who we have not put emphasis on before, there's a chance we may take way from other programs. That is not the case."

Following the forums, the district organized an Equity Advisory Group, which held a series of meetings to do what Jones called a "much deeper dive." This included reviewing current policies, researching equity practices in other districts and organizations, and recommending new policies and/or revisions to existing policies.

"We absolutely need an equity policy in the Bellevue school District," says educator Maria Ocampo, who was one of the participants in the advisory group. "Whether it's due to income, education, languages or other issues," she adds, "not every student's family gets information on and about all of the benefits and resources that are available to our student population. Only a percentage of our district population is well-informed, knows their rights, and speaks out - leaving other families without a voice."

The advisory group presented its report and recommendations at the March 5, 2019, school board meeting. The group found more than 50 policies that contributed to a lack of equity in the district and identified nine that need priority attention, including curriculum development, bilingual instruction and "classroom management, corrective actions or interventions."

Most who spoke during the public comment period or submitted written testimony to the board - including Jess, Smith, and students and parents from the district - testified in favor of an equity policy. Members of Students Organized Against Racism (SOAR) provided public comment at numerous board meetings and submitted written testimony in support of a policy. Jess says a catalyst for the student mobilization was the racial equity teams being created at various schools in the district.

Jess acknowledges some great equity work is being done in the district, but only in pockets. "One school might be doing good work around social/emotional learning. One principal may be doing great restorative justice work. But if it's not put in place in all schools, we are still going to see systemic gaps but be able to pat ourselves on the back and highlight the work being done in one place."

Jones says the district will often pilot something at one or two schools, before it gets rolled out to other schools. He cited "graduation success coaches" as one example. They support students who are credit deficient but still willing to work hard to graduate on time. The district started with only two, and then bumped that up to more schools.

The week after the March 5 board meeting, Jess posted an open letter to school board members, calling on them to move to pass a "complete and courageous" racial equity policy by the end of the year. "There is far too much inconsistency from building to building and ALL our students deserve to see active racial equity work in their school," he wrote.

Ocampo agrees. "The district needs to make sure we reach every student, and we need to make sure that each and every student has equitable opportunities and is treated equitably."

Three school board members replied directly to Jess in response to his open letter, indicating they support passing an equity policy by the end of the school year. The board did a first reading of a draft policy at its meeting May 7, with an eye to possibly voting on the policy before school is out for the summer.

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Young Activist Explains Institutional Racism in Under 2 Minutes

Marley Dias already knew that racism and other built-in barriers were "keeping kids like me from reaching our full potential." Tackling racism, she says, begins with a conversation. In a national video on institutional racism, Dias looks to educators across the country and asks:

"Do you care enough to look closer, to talk to each other. To your students, to your communities?... To change the dialogue?"

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Two Children, Two Zip codes, Two Outcomes. Time for Change.

A student's chances for success should not depend on living in the right zip code, winning a charter lottery, or affording private school. Every child deserves access to a system of publicly funded, equitable and democratically controlled public schools. When we short-change some students, we short-change our nation as a whole.

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SEVEN HARMFUL RACIAL DISCOURSE PRACTICES TO AVOID

Harmful racial discourse practices are found throughout our society. They are used by the media, by public officials and their staffs, by lawyers and judges, by advocates of various political backgrounds, by cultural and entertainment figures, and by others with power and influence over public perception and behavior.

When these harmful racial discourse practices prevail, either individually or acting collectively within a single narrative, they stifle the general public's understanding of systemic racism. They also reinforce the common misconception that racism is simply a problem of rare, isolated, individual attitudes and actions, and most damagingly, that as a significant barrier to the success of people of color, racism is a thing of the past.

In the "Seven Harmful Racial Discource Practices to Avoid" section of our "Racial Justice is Education Justice" report, we provide definitions for seven harmful practices and describe the specific negative effects they have on racial discourse and dialogue. In addition, we provide everyday recommendations that offer insight and tools to help overcome these harmful racial discourse practices.

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Take Action

Building Power in Our Communities

Ready to get active and be the superhero our students deserve in the fight for racial, social and economic justice in public education? Then join the NEA EdJustice League!

Join us!

Resources

Resource Guide

NEA's "Racial Justice in Education" resource guide includes tools & resources for creating the space in your classroom to talk about race, racial equity assessments, strategic planning and more.

Download PDF

The 1619 Project

Links and resources about the comprehensive 1619 Project, which informs and challenges us to reframe U.S. history and better understand the hold of institutional racism on our communities.

View Now

Anti-Racist Vid Primer

A 10-part YouTube series of video "primers" for anti-racist white educators, created by two NEA activists.

See the Videos

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Racial Justice is Education Justice - NEA EdJustice

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Creating the Space to Talk About Race Most of us believe that every child, no matter what they look like or where they come from, deserves a safe and welcoming school where they can thrive.

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As a White woman progressing through college and my internship at Ed Trust, I have come to understand the extent to which systemic racism permeates every aspect of our education system and society. Institutional inequities come through in how we discipline children and resource our schools, for example. In the United States, Black children make up 19% of preschool enrollment, yet 47% percent of out-of-school suspensions, often for lesser offenses. Black students also are more than three times more likely to be suspended from school than their White peers - in some states, this number is even higher. U.S. school districts serving the largest populations of Black, Latino, or Native American students receive roughly $1,800 less per student in state and local funding than those serving mostly White students. For a school district with 5,000 students, that means a shortage of a staggering $9 million per year.

Each day, we are presented with an opportunity to either feed into or dismantle the racist society we live in. Perhaps it is my Presbyterian upbringing, but I understand the bedrock of progress to be truth and reconciliation. So, to my White friends, we must choose, every day, to reconcile with, confront, and understand the history of the institutions in which we all operate.

This year, my high school in North Carolina will mark its 50th anniversary. However celebratory, the landmark presents an opportunity to be honest about what they are celebrating. And, better yet, to think about the ways in which the legacy of the founding families lives on in the daily operations of the institution.

Nearly a decade after the Brown decision, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) remained intensely segregated. Faced with this reality, Darius and Vera Swann, attempted to enroll their 6-year-old son, James, in the White, neighborhood school. When the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education rejected the Swann's request, Julius Chambers, an attorney for the Legal Defense Fund, picked up the case and sued the district, on behalf of 10 Black families.

Amidst fierce resistance, federal Judge James McMillan indoctrinated an integration plan which involved intentional student assignment and the busing of students to schools across the district.

Busing proved to be wildly successful in integrating Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Even more, CMS gained a national reputation for the integration strategy. Simultaneously, White Charlotteans erupted in intense and violent resistance to the practice of busing. Nikole Hannah-Jones accurately notes, in The New York Times, however, that busing became the "race-neutral euphemism that [allowed] people to pretend white opposition was not about integration but simply about a desire for their children to attend neighborhood schools." In 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools case, affirmed the constitutionality of busing as a means to integrate.

Amidst the fierce busing battle that consumed Charlotte in the height of the Civil Rights Movement, White families found new ways to dodge school integration. While some moved to the nearly all-White suburbs of Charlotte, others created private segregation academies, free from the reach of any Court decision. As Swann progressed through the federal court system, one school in particular, my high school, was founded by a community of White families.

Now, I love my school. It is the backdrop of a million wonderful memories and binds me to encouraging classmates and influential teachers. In thinking about what motivates me, it is the people on campus who invested in me and molded me into the person that I am. But, the place I love was founded on the premise of exclusivity - and for 11 of my 13 years there, I had no idea. It wasn't until I learned about the Swann case in my AP United States History class, and the corresponding busing battle that consumed my city, that my school logo that honors the school's inaugural year, 1970, felt a little bit different on my back. With any mention of the school's history, there is vehement, persistent, and powerful denial of any connection to busing or the greater civil rights history.

As I came to realize that my school was founded out of a racist desire to uphold segregation, it was disorienting. Confusion turned into frustration, as I began to notice the ways in which my school failed to support students in the present day. But looking at the history of the institution, it all made sense. The legacy of racism and foundation of exclusivity lived on and manifested themselves in a toxic school culture and in school leadership which, every day, made decisions to preserve and further the legacy of the White families who founded the school.

My last two years of high school, two friends and I battled my school's Headmaster over creating a LGBTQIA support group. Come to find out, this fight was a 20-year long one. Among the many reasons the Headmaster provided for why this couldn't happen, was that "many families choose [the school] because we don't have that." He implied that being a haven for homophobic families was a selling point. I imagine those same White families that decided to invest in a plot of land in South Charlotte, far from the urban center, to create an independent school amidst the busing battle used the same justification: "many families choose [the school] because we don't have [them]."

With each new day comes a new opportunity for reconciliation and progress. I see progress and hope in the fact that my school's leadership eventually permitted the creation of a LGBTQIA support group. And other students have successfully advocated for alliances to support Black students and Asian students on campus. And I see opportunity in the work of my colleagues at Ed Trust, who work tirelessly to shine a light on inequities in the American school system. To make true progress, we must reconcile and resist. As I head back home to North Carolina, I'm ready. So, let's do it.
Coleman Evans is a Charlotte, NC native and senior at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studying public policy, history, and education. She worked as an intern at Ed Trust for the spring and summer of 2019.

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Reconciling Your School's Racist History - The Education Trust

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As a White woman progressing through college and my internship at Ed Trust, I have come to understand the extent to which systemic racism permeates every aspect of our education system and society. Institutional inequities come through in how we discipline children and resource our schools, for example.

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UN Human Rights Council Holds Historic Hearings on Racism in US

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UN Human Rights Council Holds Historic Hearings on Racism in US

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UN Human Rights Council Holds Historic Hearings on Racism in US - Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly

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Based on a request from 54 African countries, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva listened to testimony last Wednesday on US racism and police brutality.

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Nonprofit Board Diversity, Inclusion, & Equity | BoardSource

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At BoardSource, we believe that boards can — and must — play a leadership role on issues related to board diversity, equity, and inclusion.

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Executive Summary

Significant benefits can accrue from having a demographically diverse boardroom. Among other things, a demographically diverse board is more likely to represent the composition of a company's employees, customers, and suppliers and can therefore provide a board with a better understanding of the company's key constituencies. Thus, a demographically diverse board may help a company identify and respond to market shifts and changes in consumer expectations more effectively than a homogenous board. But this is only true if the board maintains cognitive diversity as well as demographic diversity. In interviews with 18 boards of directors, the author found that cognitively diverse directors were frequently able to share valuable insights with their fellow directors, expanding the board's understanding of the company and the strategic and operating issues it faced. They also found that they were more likely to ask tough questions and challenge the proposals of management and their fellow directors than incumbent directors who were long-tenured or had personal or professional relationships with others in the boardroom.

Mike Harrington/Getty Images

Influenced by state legislation as well as the efforts of institutional investors and other diversity advocates, companies have been adding more diverse directors to their boards than ever before. In 2019, a record 59 percent of the directors added to the boards of S&P 500 companies were women or were men belonging to a racial or ethnic minority group. Now, as companies seek to navigate numerous issues few have faced before, including a worldwide pandemic, a lingering trade war, changing consumer demands, and widespread protests regarding racial inequality, even more may be seeking to increase their diversity. But what characteristics should boards look for when adding directors to improve gender, racial, and ethnic diversity to ensure that these new directors also enhance diversity in the boardroom from a practical perspective?

While it is commonly assumed that individuals who differ in demographic characteristics will bring new backgrounds, viewpoints, and perspectives to a boardroom, often this is not the case, at least in how many public companies have historically recruited demographically diverse candidates. The problem is that too often demographically diverse candidates are chosen because they have backgrounds similar to those of incumbent directors; they "fit in" well with others on the board.

In our experience, public companies wishing to increase their diversity benefit the most by recruiting candidates who also help improve cognitive diversity in the boardroom. Our views are derived from a study of the effects of cognitive diversity on board performance we conducted involving eight underperforming companies that were subject to past shareholder activism by our firm. At each company, an employee of our firm, an activist hedge fund manager, or one or more other individuals we nominated or approved, was added to the board. We interviewed on a confidential basis 18 directors who served on the boards of these companies both before and after changes were made to its composition. Through these interviews we were able to ascertain whether the directors added helped improve cognitive diversity in the boardroom and, if so, gain insight into the impact that any increase in cognitive diversity had on board performance.

The benefits of a cognitively diverse board

Our research revealed that improving cognitive diversity on a board can significantly enhance its performance, particularly when cognitively diverse directors are added with professional backgrounds, skills, and perspectives in areas pertinent to a company's business or strategic plans who lack ties to the CEO and other directors. Cognitively diverse directors were frequently able to share valuable insights with their fellow directors, expanding the board's understanding of the company and the strategic and operating issues it faced. We also found that they were more likely to ask tough questions and challenge the proposals of management and their fellow directors than incumbent directors who were long-tenured or had personal or professional relationships with others in the boardroom. As one incumbent director we interviewed said, "It is hard to vote against the CEO if you are going to see him that weekend at the country club." Over time, however, the presence of engaged, cognitively diverse "outsiders" in the boardroom made incumbent directors more comfortable asking questions, suggesting alternatives, and expressing dissent. This, in turn, helped boards more effectively oversee management and improved decision-making.

Another director we interviewed said,"The new directors [on our board] brought not just a diversity of opinions and perspectives, but a diversity of behavior - a willingness to openly challenge management and other directors, which was missing from the boardroom. By having more open debate, it created an environment where others saw it was good and healthy to have frank discussions regarding important decisions. When members of the board began challenging each other - and listening to each other's viewpoints - it led to positive outcomes. Good healthy disagreement led to good decision-making."

Expanding cognitive and demographic diversity in the boardroom

To improve both cognitive and demographic diversity in the boardroom, we recommend that boards recruit racially, ethnically, and gender diverse directors who enhance diversity on two additional levels: first, by adding professional backgrounds, skills, and experiences in areas that are needed to meet the company's strategic and operating needs; and second, by introducing new views, perspectives, and approaches to problem solving.

Improving the diversity of professional backgrounds on a board by adding directors with skills and experience that are needed in the boardroom is an efficient way to expand a board's knowledge base as well as improve its ability to advise and oversee management. Identifying directors who can introduce new views, perspectives and approaches to problem solving is a more time-consuming undertaking, given that these qualities typically are not discernable without speaking at length to candidates and their references. Taking the time to do so, however, can significantly improve board decision-making. Directors we interviewed informed us that they observed "healthier debate," "more robust discussions," and "more focused and fact-based decision-making" after the boards they served on became more cognitively diverse.

Cognitive diversity complements demographic diversity

Significant benefits can accrue from having a demographically diverse boardroom. Among other things, a demographically diverse board is more likely to represent the composition of a company's employees, customers, and suppliers and can therefore provide a board with a better understanding of the company's key constituencies. Thus, a demographically diverse board may help a company identify and respond to market shifts and changes in consumer expectations more effectively than a homogenous board. While such insights can be invaluable, demographically diverse directors with strong business backgrounds in areas that are needed on a board may be better able to incorporate their insights into the context of a company's business. It is for this reason that we recommended in 2019 that L Brands - which was subject to criticism that the marketing of its Victoria's Secret business was no longer aligned with women's evolving views of beauty, diversity, and inclusion - add more female directors to its board with experience in areas including merchandising, marketing, and international business development.

Recommendations to achieve a cognitively and demographically diverse board

Based on the results of our study, we compiled recommendations for boards interested in improving gender, racial, and ethnic diversity to incorporate into their director recruiting process to help them identify demographically diverse directors who also help improve cognitive diversity and board performance. These recommendations include the following:

Recruit demographically diverse director candidates who have strong business backgrounds. More than half of the directors we interviewed raised this point unprompted. As one director we interviewed stated, "A director must have the business background and experience to ask intelligent questions and hold management accountable ... Without such experience, it is less likely that a new director will add significant value."

Focus on identifying demographically diverse director candidates who have experience in areas that are required on the board to meet the company's current and anticipated needs. Utilize board and director-level assessments to determine what professional backgrounds, skills, and experiences are needed in the boardroom and whether such needs are being adequately met by the board's current members.

Recruit from new talent pools and venture beyond using board member networks and historical recruitment practices to help identify diverse director candidates who lack ties to incumbent directors and management and can share new views and perspectives and different approaches to problem solving.

Carefully review a candidate's background and life experiences and have in-depth discussions with the candidate and the candidate's references to determine whether he or she is cognitively diverse from other members of the board. Ask questions to determine whether the candidate readily shares unique perspectives and new approaches to problem solving.

Involve multiple directors in the interview process and conduct interviews in a variety of settings to get an accurate read of the candidate.

While labor intensive, diligent director recruiting can help boards identify candidates that maximize the diversity they bring to the boardroom. If a board approaches addressing diversity concerns solely as a "check-the-box" exercise, we believe it is doing a disservice not just to itself but also to the company and its shareholders.

Don't forget about board culture

Finally, our study revealed that the work of a board is not over once it has assembled a demographically and cognitively diverse group of directors. To make sure that a board benefits from enhanced diversity in the boardroom, it must have a culture that values diverse perspectives. Directors with strong professional credentials and unique perspectives are of little benefit if this is not the case. As an experienced female director we interviewed stated, "You can have all the diversity in the world, but it won't matter if you don't have the right culture."

We therefore recommend that boards work diligently to establish a culture that embraces diverse insights and ensures that they are shared and incorporated into the decision-making process. A survey of 700 directors conducted by PwC in 2019 revealed that 43 percent of the respondents found it difficult to voice a dissenting view in their boardroom. These findings indicate that many boards may benefit from examining their culture to ensure that diverse perspectives are truly welcomed in the boardroom.

If a board is truly committed to fulfilling its role and responsibilities effectively, improving diversity in the boardroom - both demographically and cognitively - and fostering a culture that welcomes diverse perspectives must be made a priority. In today's dynamic and competitive global business environment, ensuring that boards are performing to the best of their abilities and are able to help companies innovate and respond to challenges and disruption is a business imperative. The competitiveness of our companies and the long-term success of our economy depend on it.

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Executive Summary Significant benefits can accrue from having a demographically diverse boardroom. Among other things, a demographically diverse board is more likely to represent the composition of a company's employees, customers, and suppliers and can therefore provide a board with a better understanding of the company's key constituencies.

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Courageous Conversation - Providing Training, Coaching and Consulting for Millions of Racial Equity Leaders Around the World

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Founded in 1992 by Glenn E. Singleton, Pacific Educational Group provides services to help you facilitate courageous conversations about race in your organization, community or city.

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As massive social-justice demonstrations continue after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, students in cities around the country are organizing to demand that their school and district leaders provide them with anti-racist curricula and instruction.

A petition posted recently on Facebook, aimed at the schools in Frederick County, Md., is a prime example. It was inspired by demand letters drafted by the alumni of Xavier College Preparatory School in Arizona and the Morris County School of Technology in New Jersey. Similar letters and petitions have been making their way around the internet, and are cropping up in a number of cities.

The Maryland letter calls on the district to "reexamine how we honor Black lives in our education system in elementary, middle, and high school curricula-not simply as a reactionary means, but in direct ways that critically challenge how we frame our nation's history."

It demands that the district conduct a "third-party, holistic review" of its curriculum, hiring, and student body administration, among other things, and that it hold implicit-bias trainings for district faculty and staff. Students want the district to invite speakers to address the student body on racial justice and white privilege. And they want the district to require classes to take field trips to places that can teach students about the Black experience, such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

In the area of curriculum and instruction, the students dive into specifics, demanding that the district expand its curricula with articles, books, documentaries, and podcasts "centered on anti-racism and racial justice," and "facilitate in-class conversations about race, privilege, allyship, and justice." And they provide a list of suggested reading that spans K-12, broken down by subject area. Here are a few highlights:

Science:

Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology, Diedre Cooper Owens
Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination, Alondra Nelson
Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans, Harriet Washington

Literature:

The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X and Alex Haley
Ain't I A Woman?: Black women and feminism, bell hooks
A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story, Elaine Brown

This petition, by students from Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle, New York, includes its own reading list.

Students in the Monmouth County Vocational school district in New Jersey are circulating this five-page letter, which "respectfully insists" that the board adopt a "comprehensive four-year curriculum that addresses systemic racism and police brutality." It lists seven action steps, including revising the English and history curricula to cover the perspectives and stories of people of color and training faculty to be leaders in anti-racism.

In Newtown, Conn., two 2017 graduates are circulating a petition that takes the district to task for failing to provide an adequate multicultural education.

"We have taken the time to reflect on our experience and education in Newtown schools," it says. "Although we learned about slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and we read To Kill a Mockingbird, the formal teachings of modern-day systemic and institutionalized racism, police brutality, or white privilege were next to none."

The Newtown students asked their school board to make sure curriculum includes discussion of current events related to race when they happen, and to fostering "safe open dialogue" about them. They want the district to include books on current, institutionalized racism and white privilege, add a course specifically designed to teach students about systemic racism, and "end the notion of teaching students to be colorblind."

In California, students in Yorba Linda, Calif., are circulating their own letter, inspired by another, written by students 45 miles to the north, in Glendale, Calif. The Glendale petition, launched online June 2, has collected more than 4,300 signatures. The Yorba Linda letter, launched online June 4, has more than 2,000 signatures.
Demonstrators pray during a march on Sunday, May 31, in Atlanta. Protests continued following the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

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Attention School Leaders: Students Are Demanding Anti-Racist Curriculum and Instruction

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As massive social-justice demonstrations continue after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, students in cities around the country are organizing to demand that their school and district leaders provide them with anti-racist curricula and instruction. A petition posted recently on Facebook, aimed at the schools in Frederick County, Md., is a prime example.

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Prepared by the SPH Collaboratory for Health Justice

As recent events bring to light the need for justice, we encourage you to participate in anti-racist work. Anti-racist is one who is support an antiracist policy through their actions or expressing an antiracist idea (Kendi, 18). If you have not engaged in anti-racism work in the past, start now.

One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an antiracist.There is no in-between safe space of "not racist." The claim of "not racist" neutrality is a mask for racism.

Ibram X. Kendi | How to Be an Antiracist

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A Short Guide to Advocacy and Anti-Racist Praxis

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Prepared by the SPH Collaboratory for Health Justice As recent events bring to light the need for justice, we encourage you to participate in anti-racist work. Anti-racist is one who is support an antiracist policy through their actions or expressing an antiracist idea (Kendi, 18).

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The Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying

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The pandemic has exposed the bitter terms of our racial contract, which deems certain lives of greater value than others.

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This week's column is a round robin of information, upcoming trainings, and resources.

The Florida Nonprofit Alliance released a new report entitled, "Economic Benefits of Florida's Nonprofit Sector." This is an annual snapshot of the size, scope, and economic contributions of the sector. Before I share some of the highlights, see if you know or can guess the answers to these questions.

1. How many charitable nonprofits are there in the state of Florida?

2. What is the annual payroll of Florida's nonprofit sector?

3. Where does Florida rank in the number of nonprofits per 1,000 residents?

4. How many people are employed in Florida's nonprofit sector?

5. How many charitable nonprofits are in Leon County?

Here are the answers from this year's report based on data from 2019.

1. There are 94,000 nonprofits in Florida which includes public charities with arts, education, history, education, health care and environmental missions; and private foundations who devote their earnings to support charitable causes such as the John S. And James L. Knight Foundation.

2. The annual payroll of Florida's charitable nonprofit sector is $33 billion.

3. Florida ranks 47th out of 50 in the number of nonprofits per 1,000 residents which is like Kentucky and Arkansas. This one surprised me a bit. Despite hearing the comment, "there are too many nonprofits" many times, the data indicates Florida's nonprofit sector is smaller compared to states our size and population.

4. Florida's nonprofit sector employs 629,386 people and makes up 6.5 percent of the state's overall workforce. This compares in employment size to the construction (6.6%) and manufacturing (5.2%) sectors.

5. In Leon County, there are 2,371 charitable nonprofits and 22,838 people are employed in the nonprofit sector.

The report paints a clear picture of a diverse, vibrant nonprofit sector that contributes significantly to the economic vitality and serves the citizens of this state. It includes helpful information for grant seekers, funders and elected officials, and volunteer leaders. The report is interactive, so you sort the data by county and region of the state. Learn more at www.flnonprofits.org.

Hats off to Kathleen Spehar with Council on Culture and Arts, Amber Tynan at United Partners for Human Services, and Felina Martin at the Institute for Nonprofit Innovation and Excellence and their respective boards, who have been working together to advocate for the nonprofit sector.

This included support for the recently awarded LEAN grants and a series of virtual Town Hall meetings. I encourage readers to reach out to these organizations to learn more about their work to strengthen local nonprofits and for information about membership.

Building Better Boards, Leadership Tallahassee's annual training for new and seasoned board members, is being held virtually on June 23 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. This event has been a mainstay of providing quality education and training to local board members. Sponsored this year by Big Bend Cares, the host is G.C. Murray II, and the speakers are Bob Harris, CAE; Tony Carvajal, CEO of The Able Trust; and yours truly. The cost is $25 and registration is open at www.leadershiptallahassee.com.

Women Wednesdays is hosting an online discussion via Facebook Live on June 24 from 1 to 2 p.m. titled, "Race, Gender and Inequality" with the extraordinary Talethia Edwards, President of the Greater Bond Neighborhood Association and last year's recipient of Leadership Tallahassee's Leadership Pacesetter Award. The show is led by Barbara Westcott, founder of Women Wednesdays and a vocal champion for women entrepreneurs in the profit and nonprofit sectors, and hosted by Chrissy Souders, owner of Kitschy Wearable Art, who does an amazing job.

The Big Bend chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) is continuing to provide online resources and workshops for its members and anyone involved in charitable fundraising. The next session will be Aug. 26 from 8 a.m. to noon and the speaker is Ian Adair, a three-time nonprofit CEO and fund development expert who has raised millions of dollars by focusing on one strategy: winning donor attention.

In a 2020 world, Ian helps organizations utilize mobile devices, digital platforms, and social media to support and enhance nonprofit fundraising and marketing to win the battle for donor attention in a very competitive charitable environment. A final decision has not been if the session will be live or virtual so visit www.afpbigbend.org to learn more and register.

Planet Philanthropy, AFP's annual state fundraising conference, which was to be held this week, has been postponed to 2021. Follow Planet Philanthropy on Facebook or visit www.afpflorida.org for future updates.

I encourage you will take advantage of these opportunities to strengthen your favorite nonprofit.
Notes on Nonprofits is produced and edited by Alyce Lee Stansbury, CFRE, President of Stansbury Consulting, and Kelly Otte, MPA, who is on sabbatical. Send your questions and feedback to notesonnonprofits@gmail.com. Never miss a story: Subscribe to the Tallahassee Democrat.

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Numbers paint a vibrant, diverse picture of nonprofit sector | Notes on Nonprofits

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This week's column is a round robin of information, upcoming trainings, and resources. The Florida Nonprofit Alliance released a new report entitled, "Economic Benefits of Florida's Nonprofit Sector." This is an annual snapshot of the size, scope, and economic contributions of the sector.

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These are difficult times in America. A global pandemic has taken 100,000 lives and shut the economy down. Just as communities across the country started to reopen, a more insidious virus has yet again exposed itself for all to see. The senseless and inhumane death of George Floyd at the hands of police has ripped the polite veneer off American society, exposing the nation's failure to rid itself of systemic and institutional racism. Time and again, leaders from all facets of society have called for change, and while some progress has been made, many gains feel superficial and fleeting.

What is needed now is an honest and true national conversation about America's character, who it wants to be, and how it serves all of its people-especially our Black colleagues. As one of the pillars of a free and democratic society, business has a crucial role to play in creating the proverbial seat at the table for all who want to participate freely and equitably in our society. The debate over the role of business in society-the purpose of the corporation-takes on new urgency. As the primary economic engine of American society, businesses can reimagine themselves as active parts of the solution.

Here are four immediate steps for boards to consider as they lay the foundation for meaningful, sustained changes to address racial injustice.

Demonstrate Purpose and Values

If ever there was a time to demonstrate commitment to values, to make them honest and real, this is it. As a first step, the board, in collaboration with management, has an opportunity to revisit the company's values, to update them, if needed, to recommit to them, and to ground the company's actions and practices moving forward in that framework.

The board should also use this opportunity to partner with management to look deeply to ensure that, as imperfect as organizations are and will always be, their culture is a part of the solution and not part of the problem. Many companies-even industries-have difficult histories to confront, having emerged from, benefited from, and even perpetrated the inequity and injustice that is institutional racism.

But it goes beyond corporate action. This is a time for board members to have difficult conversations among themselves. Directors, along with their peers, can use this moment to ask themselves what they need to learn about the issues that afflict the Black community in America. Knowing that the board has an important and impactful voice within the company, and its broader stakeholder community, consider how it uses that voice to acknowledge the reality of systemic racism, affirm the painful emotions that people are feeling, and help to develop solutions.

Elevate the Experts

As overwhelming and emotionally charged as the topics of racism and inequality can be, it is important to remember that many-but not all-companies employ deep subject-matter experts-a chief diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) officer. Early on, this role was focused on the programs and processes that would encourage the recruitment and retention of people of color into the corporate ranks. More recently, these leaders have stepped up to facilitate difficult conversations and address conflict within the workplace. In some cases, DE&I leaders serve as a conscience for the company.

Historically, engagement between the board and the DE&I leader has been limited. That should change. Boards now have an opportunity to engage with their DE&I leaders, assuming such a role exists within the organization. If it does not, the board should discuss why with management and consider recruiting for that role.

Where there is a DE&I leader in place, now is the time to elevate them and their voice. They have grappled with questions of inequality and racism and know the company, its culture, and its blind spots.

In collaboration with the DE&I leader, the board should redouble its focus on the company's performance around diversity, equity, and inclusion, with a real discussion about hiring practices, representation at all levels of the company, and pay equity.

Consider whether performance in these areas is measured and compensated appropriately.

The board should also approach DE&I like it does other critical business functions such as ethics and compliance or internal audit.

Does the DE&I team have the resources it needs? Is the team independent? Is the team able to tell the board the difficult truths they need to hear?

Is the board engaged with the DE&I team?

Does the board work and stand with the DE&I leader at corporate events and in external and internal communications?

Said another way, does DE&I have a real seat and voice at the table?

Allocate Corporate Resources

Boards should engage management in a discussion to help them reevaluate where they spend their resources and how those resources can play a role in helping to solve this crisis. Through dialogue, boards and management can help identify areas of highest impact in which to invest corporate resources.

Does the company spend with women- and minority-owned businesses (WMBE)? This supplier diversity effort should not be limited to traditional supply-chain questions, but also reach marketing, consulting, and other service providers.

Recently, philanthropic strategies have moved away from some of the historical areas of focus to causes "aligned with the business." Revisit those relationships with equity and justice organizations and rethink how partnerships and funding may benefit both organizations.

Consider relationships the organization has with various levels of government. Is there an opportunity for the organization to support reform efforts, to engage elected officials, and to provide a voice or access for those that historically have not been allowed within the halls of power? Has the board engaged management on the company's political spending? Is the company supporting political candidates who refuse to take meaningful action on reform?

Clarify Expectations of the CEO

CEO activism is a growing and powerful reality. Time and again, on issues ranging from racism to gun safety to LGBTQ+ rights, CEOs have increasingly used their bully pulpits to speak out. Sometimes they put the business' performance and reputations on the line when, for instance, they plan to move facilities or events in response to issues of consequence. Understanding the role and voice of the CEO and the board's expectations of them is central to success. Actions that boards should consider include the following:

Speak with the CEO about what role they see themselves playing. Agree on broad guidelines and empower the CEO to be present and engaged with the public.

Measure and meaningfully compensate the CEO on DE&I performance goals.

Over time, be clear as a board what performance on DE&I is expected of the CEO and incorporate those expectations into the hiring and firing of the CEO as you would with other performance metrics.

The time for boards to act is now. And the first action is to be honest about what the company stands for and how it wants to lead-in the C-suite, in the boardroom, and within its communities.
Additional Resources: Future Fluency podcast episodes: Become an NACD member today.

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How Boards Can Help Address Systemic Racism in America

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These are difficult times in America. A global pandemic has taken 100,000 lives and shut the economy down. Just as communities across the country started to reopen, a more insidious virus has yet again exposed itself for all to see.

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Paul Spella / The Atlantic

America recently passed the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first captive Africans brought to what would become the United States. September 2019 was chosen as an imperfect but significant date to mark the start of American slavery and the systems of inequality perpetuated by the nation's original sin.

For 163 years, The Atlantic has discussed, argued, and analyzed America, its lofty ideals and the reality that often falls short of them. This magazine was founded, in part, to argue in favor of abolition, and has been a home for black voices such as Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., W. E. B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington-each calling upon the country to realize its promise of freedom and equity for all its citizens.

Amid a pandemic that is disproportionately killing brown and black people and an economic recession disproportionately devastating the finances of people of color, a major moment of racial reckoning has arisen after yet another series of police murders of black Americans-the latest in a generations-old trend of disproportionate killing and violence against black communities by those sworn to serve and protect.

There have been protests, looting, and more police violence. Major companies and individuals are being called to account for discrimination, leaders in the public and private sectors are losing their jobs for failing communities of color, and many Americans are seeking new ways to support the movement toward racial equity. Confronting the continued realities of racism and its steep cost is painful and complex, and forces a question: How did it come to this?

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series of police murders of black americans

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secretary of the smithsonian lonnie bunch

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America recently passed the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first captive Africans brought to what would become the United States. September 2019 was chosen as an imperfect but significant date to mark the start of American slavery and the systems of inequality perpetuated by the nation's original sin.

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As long as there is white supremacy, being Black will be debilitating.

I've been nursing the same headache for over a week and my right eye has been twitching for days on end. My eyes burn as I write this. Sometimes my eyelids feel so heavy it hurts to blink. I might be on the verge of tears, but I honestly can't even tell anymore. There are times when I don't even realize I'm crying until I feel the wetness on my face.

Sleep is elusive, it has been for many years now. "Simple" things like getting out of bed, showering, or eating my first meal of the day before the sun begins to set are a constant battle. I've come to accept a base level of pain and exhaustion. It radiates behind my eyes like a low hum. It lives in my chest, too. My entire body feels heavy. Every day.
RELATED: Mental health treatment is a Black tradition, white people just took credit for it
I am not well. I don't have any diagnoses, but I know what this is. Trauma, depression, anxiety, fatigue. From surviving white supremacy, and capitalism, and fascism, all of the things they beget and the many ways they converge. These forces work together to ensure that people like me will never be rested or "healthy."

The more I have learned about white supremacy and how it operates, the worse my afflictions have gotten. I am becoming more and more unwell. Constant waves of anti-Blackness leave me feeling simultaneously emptied and overflowing with emotion. I know that many of, if not all, the Black people I love can relate.

This week, I read about "allyship fatigue." Apparently, white folks are tired of being anti-racist now. They are feeling stretched too thin after less than a month of actively fighting racism. They signed some petitions, they posted black boxes on social media, they made some donations, they shared videos of police misconduct and brutality, they went to a few protests and made clever or poignant signs.

Some even joined in with abolitionist calls to defund the police. Others loudly demanded the arrest of Breonna Taylor's killers. Some read books, or at least started to. Some joined mailing lists and followed a slew of Black journalists and creators on social media. Some issued apologies for not doing any of this before. Maybe some did a bit more, maybe some did a bit less.

They've been in solidarity with Black people, many for the first time in their entire lives, for barely three weeks. And now they have "allyship fatigue." I don't know who coined this term. I don't know why or to what end, and I really don't care to. What I do know is that it's a term that attempts to center white people and white feelings in the conversation about demanding an end to Black genocide.

Of course it makes us tired to fight oppression. White supremacy makes it so. It helps ensure that we have less time and less energy to be able to do it. Of course it's tiring to dedicate yourself to a cause for other people's lives. That's what happens when you allow yourself to find and feel empathy.

"Allyship fatigue" really just feels like an unnecessary term to coin and utilize, especially right now. It seems like yet another way of coddling white people, to talk softly to them and hold their hand through this rather than just letting them fully feel what is barely even a modicum of what has been gripping Black folks for centuries.

It's an insult to Black folks who will never not be exhausted. What we feel is beyond bodily fatigue, it's spiritual collapse. We have no choice but to feel it and to keep pushing through it for our own survival and with hope that we can one day thrive. Black people have no choice but to fight, and our fight begins before we are even old enough to fully grasp the systemic oppressions we experience and it will last for our entire lives.
RELATED: Black people aren't resistant to mental health treatment. We're resistant to framing it as a cure
White people also feel like they have no choice but to fight. They should feel responsible and duty-bound to resolve what they unfairly benefit from. But they don't feel this responsibility, and it's why they are so eager to embrace a term like "allyship fatigue" to make themselves into sufferers for doing what they should have been doing.

As long as there is white supremacy, being Black will be debilitating. White supremacy literally impacts our water, our air, our soil . We live and die in the clutches of capitalism, environmental racism, medical racism, scientific racism, socio-economic disparity, food apartheid. Each of these tools of white supremacy steals our energy, directly impacts our bodies, and leaves us drained. This is by design.

We carry our mental scars with us through our day and in our work. We drag ourselves out from wherever we lay our heads and we carry these scars with us to the protests, as we riot, as we write, as we educate, as we organize. This, too, impacts our physical health. This, too, is by design.

Black people don't have time to rest. White supremacy and its agents do not want us to. And because of that, we will never be able to achieve "health." Living under the constant pollution of white supremacy is debilitating. We're literally trying to eradicate genocide while surviving it. Forgive me if I don't have any fucks left to give about white people being tired.

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"Allyship fatigue" is an insult to Black folks who never get to rest - The Black Youth Project

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As long as there is white supremacy, being Black will be debilitating. I've been nursing the same headache for over a week and my right eye has been twitching for days on end. My eyes burn as I write this. Sometimes my eyelids feel so heavy it hurts to blink.

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Last night I was sitting in my living room and a convoy of trucks drove by my home filled with law enforcement and National Guard troops. I am a 59-year old African-American man and this brought back vivid childhood memories. On April 4, 1968, 18 days before my seventh birthday, I was in the middle of the street in my hometown, Detroit, Michigan playing urban baseball with my friends, using a hubcap as home plate, and neighbors' cars as first, second, and third base. That evening I heard my mother and grandmother scream: "They killed him! They killed him! They killed Martin Luther King, Jr.! They killed my Martin!"

READ MORE: Dr. Bernice King Jr.'s daughter slams Comcast over attack on civil rights law

I had never witnessed my mother and grandmother in such emotional pain before. Moments later, I turned my head and immediately noticed National Guard troops coming towards me with rifles and bayonets, and before I knew it, I was looking down the barrel of a tank. My mother and grandmother screamed to me, "Get in the house, get in the house, before they kill you!" Every kid on that street, including myself, ran as fast as we could. I asked my mother and grandmother, "Why did they kill him?" She answered, "Because they are racist and they would rather kill us than treat us fairly."

That was the very moment I lost my innocence and I went from being a young boy to being a young man. I immediately became a child of war. A war that has tragically taken millions of I became fascinated with George Floyds, Breonna Taylors, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The more I read about him, the more I wanted to learn. He was a prophet, he was the greatest American who ever lived. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is the only private citizen to have his birthday celebrated as a national holiday, and helped changed the world by the age of 39 with his teachings and brilliant mind. Ahmaud Arberys, Trayvon Martins, Laquan McDonalds, Mike Browns, Eric Garners, Samuel Duboses, Tamir Rices, Frank Smarts, Sandra Blands, Phillip Whites, Freddie Grays, Jordan Bakers, Philando Castiles, Walter Scotts, Emmett Tills, and a horrifying list of many more that seems to never end. That evening, I watched as riots erupted throughout the country and smoke from the burning buildings consumed my neighborhood. Through my tears, I could not understand the reasons why. In 1967, one year before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech to students at Stanford University. The name of that speech is "The Other America." 53 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us and warned everyone that there are two Americas. ONE America has access to opportunity, a good education, jobs, bank loans, human and civil rights. The other America does not. We cannot survive as two Americas. We must become ONE America.

READ MORE: Byron Allen's 'Feeding America Comedy Festival' provides over 16 million meals

Toward the end of his life, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had just started the Poor People's Campaign to achieve economic justice. He was speaking on behalf of all poor people, which mainly included poor white people. Yesterday, I phoned Martin Luther King III and I asked if he was watching TV and did he see what I was seeing. He said, "yes." I told him, "I see people of all races coming together as one - risking their lives protesting - and demanding the ONE America your father envisioned for all of us. Your father sacrificed his life to help us achieve this moment." Martin agreed. Now, how do we TRULY achieve "ONE America"? 1) A True PartnershipI am getting lots of calls from white people wanting to know which charities to send donations. I tell them there are plenty of organizations more than happy to accept their money. But I also tell them please don't donate to help eliminate your white guilt. Don't look at Black America as a charity case that needs to be saved by you. Black America does not want, nor do we need, a handout, but rather an extension of your hand so we can shake on what we agree to be a real and equitable partnership going forward. 2) Police ReformEnact laws at the federal, state, and local levels to achieve absolute and total police reform nationwide. This must include zero tolerance of chokeholds. We must also have consistent comprehensive independent investigations and severe punishment for police brutality, corruption, and murder. 3) Justice Reform End mass incarceration. Former Attorney General Eric Holder told the world that black men in America are getting sentenced to prison terms that are twenty percent longer than white men who are committing the same crime. America must stop this racial discrimination. Our prison population is the largest in the world. This is just another form of genocide. 4) Reparations As a nation, America must acknowledge and apologize for the enslavement of African-Americans for nearly 300 years for zero compensation. The newly-freed slaves were never given the opportunity and the land they were promised, and that lack of proper compensation for helping to build this country has hurt their descendants for many generations.

5) Education Reform Education is the key. America, if we do not get access to a proper education, you will continue to position us to fail. Education needs to be completely reformed, especially preschool through sixth grade. Higher education needs to be free and available to all Americans. As a matter of national security, America does not have enough intellectual capital to compete against our rapidly-emerging foreign competitors. We need to invest at least ten times above current levels. At the top 100 universities in America, black students represent a disproportionately low percentage of the entire student body.

The African-American student body population in colleges should reflect the African-American population of the nation as a whole, which is approximately thirteen percent. If we do not improve these numbers, absolutely nothing will change. As for America's historically black colleges and universities, they are great institutions always in need of financial support and should be properly funded. 6) Economic Inclusion It should be noted that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was completely frustrated that white liberals supported civil rights, but disappeared when it was time to talk about African-American economic inclusion. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: "It's all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps." Stop using lack of access to capital as a form of economic genocide. Audit the banks and you will see that Black Americans do not have equal access to capital. Banks always tell us they have a great record lending to minorities.

They always show a black face on their minority brochures, but for lending purposes, in actuality, they re-define "minority" as white women and by doing so, intentionally using them to mislead the public and government regulators to act as if they are lending money to black people. The United States government controls over a one trillion-dollar federal pension fund, and very little, if any, is managed by African-Americans and invested in our communities.

When Black America gains equal access to capital that is not predatory, we will be able to buy homes and participate in the appreciation and tax benefits enjoyed by white Americans. The much-needed capital will allow us to invest in and acquire businesses to help employ people in our communities.

7) Health Care ReformWe need to make sure that every American has access to the best health care, free of charge. We need to completely eliminate hunger and food insecurity nationwide. We also need to recognize the mental illness epidemic that plagues our country, and invest heavily to combat it. Homelessness must be completely eradicated. 8) Environmental Justice Eliminate racial disparities in environmental safety. Many African-American communities are exposed to very harmful toxic environments, not just Flint, Michigan. My elementary school in Detroit was demolished due to toxic waste. Marathon Oil built a 250-acre refinery less than two miles from my childhood home. The air is almost impossible to breathe and the health conditions of many African-Americans is disproportionate with those in the rest of America, partly due to environmental injustice in our communities. Stop exposing our families to toxic chemicals and waste.

9) Jobs, Opportunities, Internships, and MentorshipsAmerica needs to lean in. Include us on your boards. Include us in your C-suite. Include us in your workforce. Include us as some of your vendors. And include us in your investments. Stop the analysis and paralysis and take action now. No more excuses. Chairmen and CEOs, you also need to take on the added responsibility and personally become your own company's Chief Diversity Investment Officer.

My mother got pregnant when she was 16, and gave birth to me seventeen days after her seventeen birthday. But what changed our lives is when she got accepted into UCLA and earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in Cinema/TV Production. As a single mother attending college full-time, she secured an entry-level position at NBC network. Soon after, she asked an NBC executive a question and received a reply that changed our lives forever. She asked if the network had an internship program at the executive level. The answer was no. She then asked, "Will you start one with me?"

Thank God the answer was "yes." As a young child waiting for my mother to get off work as she gave tours of the NBC studios, I went from soundstage to soundstage and watched them tape hundreds of hours of television, including Johnny Carson on THE TONIGHT SHOW, Redd Foxx on SANFORD & SON, Freddie Prinze on CHICO AND THE MAN, Flip Wilson on THE FLIP WILSON SHOW, and Bob Hope and George Burns starring in their own specials. This opportunity helped me to see myself differently and changed the trajectory of my life. Exposure to a better life can quite often lead to achieving a better life. I started my company 27 years ago from my dining room table. Today it is one of the largest privately-held media companies in the world, with approximately 1,300 employees, 9 cable television networks, including The Weather Channel, over 64 original television series currently on the air, thousands of hours of content, and 15 ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX affiliate television stations nationwide. I own my company one hundred percent, not because I planned it that way, but simply because no one was willing to invest in me. Along the way, America never stopped reminding me that I needed to work ten times harder than my white counterparts.

I have had at least four white sales executives who work for me tell me on separate occasions that potential clients have said to them, "I will never do business with you as long as you work for that N--." Since I was a child, I have conditioned myself to deal with situations like this one, but my four white male sales executives were not. I could see in their faces and hear in their voices they did not know how to process this pain and shame.

Over the years, I've lost top sales talent because racism was too much for them to bear, so I knew I had to help them deal with it. I found myself having to console and guide them to a better place. I told them that someone calling me 'N--' is no reason for us not to achieve our sales goals, but rather, another reason for us to exceed them. My excellence will always dominate and overshadow their ignorance every time.

10) Peace!!!America, you are very quick to call us thugs and tell the world we are not peaceful. Tupac Shakur taught us when you see THUGS, what you really see is The Hate U Give. When the first slave ship showed up in Jamestown in 1619, we said, "PEACE!!!" and you chose slavery. When we peacefully tried to end slavery, you chose the Civil War. After slavery, we tried to peacefully build our communities, and you chose to lynch us and bomb us. When we tried to peacefully achieve civil rights, you chose to murder our civil rights leaders. When we peacefully tried to vote, you chose to violently stand in our way. When we put our hands up in peace, you chose to shoot. When we went to church to pray for peace, you chose to execute us. When Colin Kaepernick exercised our First Amendment rights to peacefully take a knee in protest, you chose to punish us, and instead took a knee on George Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. When you came to this country, our Native American brothers and sisters said "PEACE!!!" and you chose war, rape, and went on to burn down their villages and steal their land. When our Hispanic brothers and sisters came here seeking a better life just like your ancestors, they said "PEACE!!!" and you chose to tell them they broke the law by crossing a man-made boundary, literally took their children out of their arms, incarcerated babies, and sent the parents back across the line without their loved ones. Unfortunately, this atrocity continues even to this day. America, we will never have true peace until America stops protecting, nurturing, and fostering hate groups. The white supremacists, the neo-Nazis, and the KKK are nothing more than terrorists with a long history of violence against us. America must deal with these hate groups appropriately, the same way it deals with foreign terrorism, because domestic terrorism is much worse. America, you constantly hit us with the "four Ds". 1) When we share our thoughts, you DISMISS us. 2) When we express our frustration, you DISCREDIT us. 3) When we protest, you DEMONIZE us. 4) After you demonize us, you feel self-righteous and you move on to that fourth and inevitable D, you DESTROY us. Even today, we are protesting to achieve basic civil and human rights. We're talking about murder, and you're talking about looted merchandise. Your buildings will be re-built and your shelves will be re-stocked, but you can never bring back the lives you have stolen. America, you kill us in the class room, you kill us in the board room and you kill us in the court room, long before you kill us in the streets. America, we have been saying "PEACE!!!" for over 400 years and you chose to suffocate us. I CAN'T BREATHE!!!Let me be clear, Native-Americans want PEACE!!!, Hispanic-Americans want PEACE!!!, Asian-Americans want PEACE!!!, Muslim-Americans want PEACE!!!, Jewish-Americans want PEACE!!!, and Black Americans want PEACE!!! America has been denying us what we all want the most - PEACE!!!I am sharing some of my thoughts for many reasons, mainly because I want America to live up to its fullest potential. My wife and I do not want our children sitting in their living rooms 52 years from now, looking out their windows, watching the National Guard enforcing a curfew simply because we have not achieved " ONE America."

BLACK LIVES MATTER, and we must ALL work together to achieve REAL SYSTEMATIC CHANGE!!! PEACE!!!

Byron Allen is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Entertainment Studios/Allen Media Group, which he started from his dining room table in 1993. Today, Allen Media Group is one of the largest privately-owned media companies in the world. Allen Media Group includes a motion picture distribution division, the AVOD free streaming service LOCAL NOW, the digital news platform, theGRIO, over 64 shows on broadcast television stations and cable, 15 ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliate broadcast television stations across America, and nine 24/7 HD television networks serving 160 million subscribers, including THE WEATHER CHANNEL. He is also the owner of theGrio.
Have you subscribed to theGrio's new podcast "Dear Culture"? Download our newest episodes now!

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Black America speaks. America should listen.

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Last night I was sitting in my living room and a convoy of trucks drove by my home filled with law enforcement and National Guard troops. I am a 59-year old African-American man and this brought back vivid childhood memories.

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Dr. Robin DiAngelo discusses 'White Fragility'

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Robin DiAngelo on "White Fragility" - EXTENDED CONVERSATION | Amanpour and Company

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Teaching Tolerance Interviews Robin DiAngelo: White Fragility in the Classroom

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Intersectionality Matters! is a podcast hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory.

Intersectionality Matters! is a podcast hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory.

If I could only reply to others reviews

At _2020Unties_if that's even right but I always check out reviews to get a pulse on what a podcast is so I can listen an make my own decisions...but I haven't even heard this one yet an was blown away by the complaint that this podcast only talks on black people and black and white issues and how it's disappointing that it doesn't represent the country....welp did you see the title an the description of this podcast before you listened or made that wild statement???
Reading is fundamental...

Always informative.

I always learn a lot.

Powerfully informative

This podcast is compelling and very important. Every single episode presents a lesson on how we mitigate the disease of racism and achieve true liberation. Exceptional!

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‎Intersectionality Matters! on Apple Podcasts

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Intersectionality Matters! is a podcast hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory.

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In August of 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. America was not yet America, but this was the moment it began. No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the 250 years of slavery that followed. On the 400th anniversary of this fateful moment, it is time to tell the story.
"1619" is a New York Times audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones. You can find more information about it at nytimes.com/1619podcast.

In August of 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. America was not yet America, but this was the moment it began. No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the 250 years of slavery that followed. On the 400th anniversary of this fateful moment, it is time to tell the story.
"1619" is a New York Times audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones. You can find more information about it at nytimes.com/1619podcast.

THIS POD IS BEAUTIFUL 💚💚💚

I've head the book since it dropped so now I have to read it and if the book is a reflection of this pod in any way, BOOK GOLD!!! I LOVED the story of her uncle and the story about music *chef's kiss*!!! All the stories, truly & the story about the farmland in Louisiana had me in tears. WE NEED MORE STORIES LIKE THISSSSSSS. Thank you 💚💚💚.

Great historical journalism

Excellent summarization of how the systems that built 250 years of slavery still drive our societal structures today! Compact but comprehensive series. Tells a true American history in an interesting, story telling way. Everyone should listen and absorb this; understanding our history will allow us to build a better future!

Amazing journalism of a sad but most be told history

Thanks for your work. A brilliant account of just some of the realities of what it means and has meant to be African- American. Watching all the Hulu episodes now.

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In August of 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. America was not yet America, but this was the moment it began. No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the 250 years of slavery that followed.

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A podcast chronicling significant and related events before, during and after "the single worst incident of racial violence in American history." The Tulsa Race Massacre

A podcast chronicling significant and related events before, during and after "the single worst incident of racial violence in American history." The Tulsa Race Massacre

So much important information

This podcast is not only beautiful storytelling- it has so much valuable information that has sent me on to research other historical events I didn't know about. I've learned so much.

Learning

Most pod casts I listen to are passing on information, I have learned so so much from this podcast. I am only on episode 5 and I am blown away. Such an important part of American History that must not be forgotten but shared so we never forget. Keep up the great work, I'll be listening.

Black Wall Street

It is disappointing to see that these events were not discussed in my St. Paul, Minnesota classroom at any time. The series is very good as it touches on more than just that terrible day but on events leading up to that day, lots of historical background. Very interesting, informative material being presented by scholars, and others that have first or second-hand knowledge. I have found that I am listening to it several times to get all the details. I will also spread this podcast onto others, who I know do not know anything about this event.

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‎Black Wall Street 1921 on Apple Podcasts

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A podcast chronicling significant and related events before, during and after "the single worst incident of racial violence in American history." The Tulsa Race Massacre A podcast chronicling significant and related events before, during and after "the single worst incident of racial violence in American history."

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Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race

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Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race

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How I Shed my Skin: Unlearning the Racist Lessons of a Southern Childhood

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How I Shed my Skin: Unlearning the Racist Lessons of a Southern Childhood

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Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor

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Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor

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Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing

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Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing

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I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

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I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

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The Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys

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The Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys

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Race And Revolution: Is Change Going To Come?

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Most Americans think of activism primarily in the context of and petitioning our elected representatives. It's true that elected officials do have an important influence on the development of policies and programs that affect the lives of Americans-issues like immigration, reproductive rights, gun violence, mass incarceration, sexual harassment, and the opioid crisis are front and center in November's election. The reality, however, is that activism and advocacy is a constant, ongoing process carried out by individuals, organizations, and professionals often far outside of Washington, D.C. Similar to its pervasive influence in other spheres in our life, technology has changed the nature of activism in our world. Looking at the innovations in digital activism provides a lens in the nature of change beyond what we see at the polling booth.

We live in times that challenge our commitment to a just and fair society. The media presents a picture of our country characterized by inequality, violence, and hatred. It's important to remember, though, that this is not new-people have faced these situations for centuries and have found ways to fight back. Community organizing, public interest lobbying, political action committees, legal advocacy and political fundraising have long been traditional tools of the public interest community. These methods helped create the eight-hour work day, children's rights, social security, and a host of progressive legislation. The development of the global information economy, however, has created new threats while also posing challenges for these traditional techniques. Local community organizing models are less useful in a world of international corporations. Technology allows local activists to broaden their reach to a global stage.

Activists and organizers in the 1980's began using technology to build communities and organize around issues, such as world peace, the environment and poverty. Their practices were primitive by today's standards, but evolved into a formidable capacity in the 1990s and early 2000s. Web 2.0 and social media created the opportunity for tremendous progress. Advocacy techniques, data science capacity, fundraising technology, and the ability to manage far flung operations make technology a central part of the future of activism

Technology that supports advocacy revolves around four functions: issue research, educating the public, recruiting and organizing, and applying power to decision makers. Many of the earliest technologies, such as e-mail and discussion lists, are still heavily used and address all of these functions. Newer technologies, such as social media, open street maps, and GitHub-while designed for other purposes have also been used to meet these traditional aims of activism. This has meant identifying a set of practices that go along with using a certain technology in a new context which can often be more difficult it would first appear.

Probably the most significant development that is being deployed for activism lies in the data revolution and the vast quantities of information about people, and problems that's being collected. Government data is supplemented by private corporate data released through corporate data philanthropy and data Collaboratives; there is also a large amount information available from a variety of sensors and other data collection systems. While there are serious concerns about the reach of data gathering and the decline of privacy, there is also a good deal of potential benefit that can come from the data revolution.

Activists have found different ways to use this data. Civic technology combines data with technology that harnesses the work of volunteer technologists to address issues in government and nonprofit organizations. Code for America, for example, provides fellowships as a means to link volunteer talent with organizations. Hackathons are another means of to bring technologists and organizations together.-NASA hosts annual hackathons, and beginning in 2014, the British government has organized a hackathon to develop tools for those living with dementia. Civic technology can lead to positive change in government from outside and anyone's skills can be part of this movement. A similar movement, Data4Good links professional data scientists with nonprofits and social movement organizations. This creates the capacity to address social needs using the sophisticated techniques that data science brings to a problem. One example is Data Kind an international nonprofit that applies data science tools to human problems worldwide-they've tackled projects as diverse as working with foster care workers and disaster risk management

Technology and public interest have grown from small beginnings to a place of major impact. The future promises a wealth of new and exciting possibilities. Many of the limitations that plagued activists for generations are addressed by tools that allow a movement to reach more potential supporters more quickly and at lower costs. Technology can also change the way that government operates by infusing the voice of the citizen into the corridors of power. More importantly, it is beginning to provide a way for everyday people to work for the issues that are important for them-it reminds us all that individuals have as much power as elected officials, and we can all work towards change every day, not just this 6 November.
Featured Image: Two iPhones neon city sign by Seth Doyle on Unsplash.

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Technology picks up its sword in the service of social justice | OUPblog

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Most Americans think of activism primarily in the context of and petitioning our elected representatives. It's true that elected officials do have an important influence on the development of policies and programs that affect the lives of Americans-issues like immigration, reproductive rights, gun violence, mass incarceration, sexual harassment, and the opioid crisis are front and center in November's election.

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There has long been a symbiotic relationship between the open source software movement and social justice champions. A recent research report, #MoreThanCode: Practitioners reimagine the landscape of technology for justice and , offers valuable advice to anyone interested in leveraging technology to support a cause.

Produced by the Tech for Social Justice Project and co-led by Research Action Design (RAD) and the Open Technology Institute at New America (OTI), together with their research partners, #MoreThanCode aims to use technology to make heard the voices of diverse practitioners working for social justice.

The goals of the report are to:

Explore the current ecosystem

Expand the understanding of practitioner demographics

Develop and share knowledge of practitioner experiences

Capture practitioner visions and values

Document stories of success and failure (focusing primarily on practitioners working in the United States)

The report gathers hundreds of recommendations from a wide range of practitioners and offers targeted recommendations for specific audiences: Tech Practitioner Orgs, Other Orgs, Individual Practitioners, Funders, Educators, and Government. It also synthesizes all the responses into five key recommendations that apply to all actors in the ecosystem:

1. Nothing about us without us: Adopt co-design methods and concrete community accountability mechanisms

2. From silver bullets to useful tools: Change the narrative, lead with values, and recognize multiple frames and terms across the tech for social justice and equality ecosystem

3. Real diversity numbers: Adopt proven strategies for increasing diversity and inclusion

4. Developers, developers, developers?: Recognize the different roles and expertise in tech work and support alternative pathways to participation

5. Co-ops, collectives, and networks: Support alternative models beyond startups, government offices, and incorporated non-profits

I do not live in the United States, but the report shows enough similarities with my experience in the United Kingdom to suggest that it is also valuable for practitioners outside the US.

You may be tempted to read only the executive summary, but the full report will help you better understand the reasoning behind the five key recommendations. One chapter that particularly caught my eye was Stories of Success & Failure, as too often the non-profit sector is reluctant to admit failures, even when sharing the lessons learned is valuable. If you have an interest in technology for social justice and equality, the bibliography and appendices provide links to additional research that is worth following.

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#MoreThanCode: Technology for social justice

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There has long been a symbiotic relationship between the open source software movement and social justice champions. A recent research report, #MoreThanCode: Practitioners reimagine the landscape of technology for justice and , offers valuable advice to anyone interested in leveraging technology to support a cause.

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"The lack of broadband internet access in rural areas severely affects administrators, teachers and students alike. When teachers do not have their own access and have to drive several miles just to get a strong enough cell signal to use the hotspot on their phone to connect the laptop for remote learning, or to conduct a Google Meet with students, we are not able to do our jobs efficiently and to the best of our ability. When families have to travel to a fire station miles away from home to use the school-provided wifi hotspot every evening after the parents come home from work just to get the remote learning assignments uploaded or downloaded, we add to the burden of families that are already under a significant amount of stress. We also bring to bear more tension in the relationship between families and school.

There are so many rallies saying so much has been done or excuses made for why it can't be done. It's time to simply say it MUST be done! Our children cannot thrive with an antiquated technology infrastructure. Our professionals cannot work remotely when their own location lacks the infrastructure needed to meet the expectations being placed upon them. This is not a poverty issue, although those in poverty seem to always be at a disadvantage. Our voices are not numerous enough to get the attention we deserve.

Thank you, Common Sense, for amplifying our voices and including the rural perspective in the national conversation." Gina, elementary school teacher, Churubusco, New York

"The lack of broadband internet access in rural areas affects administrators, teachers and students alike. When teachers have to drive several miles just to get a strong enough cell signal to use the hotspot on their phone to connect the laptop for remote learning, or to conduct a Google Meet with students, they are not providing the quality education that their students deserve. When families have to sit in the parking lot of a fire station 10 miles away from home to use the school-provided wi-fi spot every evening after the parents come home from work just to get the remote learning assignments uploaded or downloaded, the education of students becomes a primary stressor on otherwise supportive families and erodes that support.

Government officials need to stop believing the excuses of big Internet companies who say that they are adequately meeting the connectivity needs of the rural community. If people who live in populous areas like being able to vacation in the country, they need those of us who choose to live here to be able to thrive in order to provide the infrastructure of lodging, food, etc. Our children cannot thrive in 2020 with the technology infrastructure of 2000. Our professionals cannot work remotely when the connection lines end at major roads or at the edge of the village. This is not a poverty issue (although poverty clearly exacerbates this already untenable situation and adds further hardship). This is a ""last mile"" issue. It's a numbers game. Our voices are not numerous enough to get attention.

Thank you, Common Sense, for amplifying our voices and including the rural perspective in the national conversation." Anne, elementary school teacher, Ellenburg Depot, New York

"I am a speech therapist serving prek-5th grade in a very rural district that is the 5th largest geographically in the state. Lack of quality internet and/or devices across the region has prevented a high number of my students to go without this important therapy, having to rely on paper packets and phone calls instead. Communication is the basis of EVERYTHING we do and I am finding myself unable to successfully teach my students these crucial skills effectively. I am afraid of long-lasting consequences for these children." Jamie, elementary school teacher, Plattsburgh, New York

"Our school district is located in rural upstate New York about 15 minutes south of the Canadian border. Our district provides a breakfast, lunch and snack to every single student in the elementary, middle and high school every day. Since the pandemic began a group of dedicated staff have delivered over 700 meals every single week to each student. In many cases our students are food insecure and this is there only food made available to them.

In regards to technology our district is very limited on our options. We were having serious financial difficulties before the pandemic hit and now our future is uncertain. I would like to say that if we were a 1:1 device school it would have made our situation better but the truth of the matter is that reliable Wifi connections in our area is not available for most of our students. Actually, reliable cell phone service is spotty in many areas. If that was not enough many families do not have the financial capabilities to afford the services if they are available. To try to help the students to be successful we set-up free internet connections in three different towns across our district. Unfortunately, our district is very rural and there is no access to public transportation and some families do not have access to a reliable form of transportation.

For those students who can access technology we have set-up Google Classrooms to post assignments and help communicate through emails and Google Meets. Some teachers have set-up a weekly Google Meet time for students to answer questions and provide support. We have also created videos and tutorials and shared them with students to help with a wide range of concepts. Another step we have taken is to make phone calls to parents/guardians and students to make sure they have what they need to be successful. For those students who are unable to access the technology resources we have spent hours creating physical paper packets to send home so they can continue their education.

Our upcoming academic year is extremely uncertain. There is a high probability that we are going to experience crippling financial deficits which will force the district to make staff and program cuts that we can not afford to lose. In the end it is our children who will be denied the well-rounded education that they deserve; that the upper class are provided. The facts are is that education provides one of the most promising chances of upward mobility into a better social class. Our students are more then their current economic status. They are bright young individuals who have the potential to make something of themselves and be a positive change for society. Unfortunately, unequal opportunities in education may very well be denying us as a society their full potential." Tammy, middle and high school teacher, Ellenburg Depot, New York

"As a reading teacher in our district, I have found these past few months to be frustrating. I provide many Tier III intervention services that require direct instruction. Distance learning has put a halt to some of those services, and as a result those students have not made the necessary growth they would have made had we continued in school. In just one group in particular, made up of the most needy students, two out of the seven have reliable internet and a device to use. The other five students do not have the same access. To continue with direct instruction is impossible. I have been able to remain in contact with all of my students via telephone calls and parent emails, but this is no comparison to what I am able to get done with the two students I can see weekly in a Google Meet. Paper work packets were sent home monthly. Once each set of work packets were picked up, the work had to stay bagged in our gymnasium for two weeks before we were able to access our students' work. This made reteaching and correcting very challenging. Another challenge has been getting student work returned at all or completed well in a the time frame that was provided. The digital divide has furthered the gap between students who have access and those that do not.

My next concern is what will happen if this continues. We do not have the school budget to provide one-to-one devices to our students. Even if we were able to do that, large areas within our school district do not have high speed internet available. I am extremely concerned with my ability to connect with my students next year. Daily phone calls will have to be made to many homes to keep learning occurring. I worry about the stress on parents as they navigate this for much longer. I see how our students compare to those in neighboring districts who have one-to-one devices, and I feel that they are not afforded the same level of instruction they desperately deserve." Leslie, preschool, pre-K, and elementary school teacher, Ellenburg Depot, New York

"Our students in a low income area have school provided devices (chromebooks before this crisis) and we estimate that only 5% don't have internet at home--though Spectrum has been providing it for free and the school has passed that along to families. Yet I'm averaging about 16% participation, that includes parent contact. There is more to this issue than just lack of access. There is definitely a gap and it needs to be addressed but it is bigger than just lack of access." Casey, middle and high school teacher, Rochester, New York

"There is a huge discrepancy when it comes to connectivity in our rural area. As a K-5 STEM teacher and a parent of two children in middle school and high school, I am seeing all sides of the issue. A local survey we conducted showed 25% of our faculty do not have adequate internet and could not participate in video conferencing from home, while nearly 50% of parents reported connectivity and/or data issues making it a hardship for them.

It is creating a tremendous divide, as students without internet are completing paper packets, while students with internet are able to access instructional videos and interactive lessons. As a teacher that incorporates technology into most of what I teach, it has been frustrating knowing that I cannot deliver content and conduct lessons through that medium out of fairness and respect to the students that cannot participate.

I must travel to a family member's home to upload files and videos for work and participate in Google Meets. My daughters' teachers are posting assignments in Google Classroom, but many are not including desperately needed instructional videos because either they don't have internet or realize so many of the students don't have access. How do you learn a foreign language, a band instrument, or math without a teacher showing you how?

We can't conduct daily chats or take attendance. And because of this, many kids are checking out and are not completing work.These children are going to be so far behind where they should be. This will affect students for years to come." Amy, elementary school teacher, Altona, New York

"The number of students I am able to reach via technology is minimal. Internet access is not available to a large number of families due to geographic location, not because of economic status. Several colleagues do not have internet access and are unable to teach from home.

Our district does not have one-to-one devices for students. Several towns in our school district have set up free wifi spots, such as the parking lot of a volunteer fire station, for parents to bring their children to use their personal devices to complete assignments. Once a month packets containing paper copies of work are hand-delivered to students using school buses. Teachers are not able to check up on students regularly or give feedback in a timely manner. The thought of having to continue teaching in this manner is very concerning." Maria, elementary school teacher, Altona, New York

"My home is unfortunately located in an area that is not serviced by broadband internet in Holley, NY (Brockport Central Schools). As a teacher, in the same district, responsible for distance learning for my students with special needs, it is extremely frustrating to be at the mercy of a hotspot connection from my phone which may or may not be strong enough on a day to day basis to support what I need to do for my students and my job. Almost daily, I have had to take my hotspot and computer and drive into town to be closer to a cell tower, and sit in my car, just to participate in faculty meetings and upload instructional videos for students (this still doesn't always work). This country prides itself on education for all, but discriminates against those who choose to live in rural areas by not allowing the same educational opportunities to students, like my own, living in locations without broadband access. Regardless of the current crisis, it is imperative that all families have access to broadband internet services. We are not looking to stream movies or play video games. This is a necessity, not a luxury. We should not need to worry about whether our students will be able to learn each day either because they or their teacher does not have broadband internet service. It should not be a choice of whether we should move from the home that we built so we can function in today's connected world." Kim, elementary school teacher, Brockport, New York

"I teach at a public middle school located in West Harlem, NYC. We serve a diverse, low income and immigrant student population. Our school is a former Apple ConnectED recipient, therefore, our students have benefited from having a1:1 ipad in the classroom. It has helped them use it to support their academic and social growth. As teachers, we try to take advantage of professional development opportunities to effectively integrate various tech tools to make learning more meaningful and fun. NYC DOE is lucky to have an amazing group of folks who organize and run professional learning sessions around instructional technology for teachers and staff. Kudos to DIIT staff. Kudos to #DrewTeach educators who have also shared teaching sessions in tech integration. These two groups have built me for remote learning. I have grown so much from them. When our school closed the building because of Covid-19, we made the best efforts to distribute ipads to student families, however, not all were able to pick them up. NYC DOE has been doing a great job at sending ipads equipped with internet access to families who have needed one. We are grateful that our students have devices to work with. I do hope when we go back to school building, districts find a way to allocate funds to give students an ipad if their families cannot afford buying one." Clemencia, middle school teacher, New York, New York

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Teaching Through the Digital Divide | Common Sense Media

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"The lack of broadband internet access in rural areas severely affects administrators, teachers and students alike. When teachers do not have their own access and have to drive several miles just to get a strong enough cell signal to use the hotspot on their phone to connect the laptop for remote learning, or to conduct a Google Meet with students, we are not able to do our jobs efficiently and to the best of our ability.

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A best-of-the-best collection of resources for social justice- and equity-focused educators.

Teaching and learning happen within cultural, political, and social circumstances. As much as we want to deny it, we all have biases based on our life experiences. Each of us -- teachers and students alike -- enter classrooms from different perspectives and points of view. We must learn to negotiate those differences to better understand each other and our worlds, and to advocate for a better, more equitable future. To do so, we need to build a set of social and cultural literacies via multicultural education, social justice education, and culturally responsive pedagogy that help us navigate difficult conversations, acknowledge and challenge bias and prejudice, create inclusive classroom spaces, and fight for social justice.

In this collection, you'll find hand-picked, regularly updated resources to help you better understand and practice these important social and cultural literacies. At the top, there are featured resources as well as more comprehensive curricula. Then you'll find lessons, videos, downloadables, and games organized by a few key topic areas like facilitating tough conversations, understanding bias and prejudice, and getting students civically engaged.

Jump down to a section
Social and Cultural Literacy Curricula
Challenging or Difficult Conversations
Bias and Prejudice
Civic Engagement, Activism, and Social Justice
Inclusive Communities
Research on Social and Cultural Literacy
Social and Cultural Literacy Organizations to Explore for More
= one of our favorite resources

Social and Cultural Literacy Courses and Curricula

The providers below offer more comprehensive resources for media literacy, from courses (from just a few hours to weeks) to a curriculum linked to a scope and sequence and standards.

Black Lives Matter at School: These teaching materials, including an in-depth curriculum resource guide, will help you bring the principles and commitments of the Black Lives Matter movement into your classroom.

Deep Dive: Educating for Democracy (by the Teaching Channel): Developed in partnership with UC Riverside's Civic Engagement Research Group, this series of videos (featuring real students and teachers) and associated lesson materials is backed by research and sure to inspire.

Digital Civics Toolki t (by the Civic Engagement Research Group): Created by the same researchers behind Deep Dive: Educating for Democracy, this toolkit offers easy-to-implement conversation starters (among other resources) for activating students' passion for civics and democracy. For more, check out our review.

Talking About Race (by the National Museum of African American History & Culture): This toolkit provides in-depth resources for caregivers, educators, and individuals to reflect on race, power, and privilege, all in the interest of having constructive, equity-oriented conversations.

The Teaching Tolerance Social Justice Standards: A Professional Development Facilitator Guide (by Teaching Tolerance): This downloadable not only features a set of social justice standards schools can use to make anti-bias education a priority in their communities, but also a great PD guide for getting your educators and administrators on board with weaving these practices into daily teaching and learning practice.

Challenging or Difficult Conversations

Controversial and difficult conversations are unavoidable in classrooms, especially those grappling with important cultural, social, and political issues. Fortunately, these conversations are often a lot scarier in theory than in practice given the incredible research and resources available for handling them effectively.

Websites, articles, feeds, and newsletters

Lesson plans and activities

Building Classroom Community: Lessons for the First Day of School (by Facing History): Framed as a back-to-school toolkit, these five lessons will help prep classrooms to have meaningful, respectful conversations about identity and more.

Critical Practices for Anti-Bias Education: Classroom Culture (by Teaching Tolerance): These PD activities and reflections for educators help teachers make their classrooms more open and respectful, leading to better discussions and outcomes for all students.

"Where I'm From" Poem (by Remix at the University of Notre Dame): Use this poetry lesson to get students reflecting on -- and sharing -- who they are. Along the way students also get some experience using Audacity, an audio recording and editing tool.

Videos

Handouts, infographics, and posters

Games, apps, and tools

Help students build collaboration and communication skills using the tools on these lists.

Bias and Prejudice

We all carry biases, and it's important to reflect on them and work to expand our perspectives, experiences, and communities so we act and think with less prejudice and take aim together at systems of oppression.

Websites, articles, feeds, and newsletters

8 Ways Teachers Can Address White Supremacy in the Classroom (by Common Sense Education): Take these steps to make sure your classroom is actively anti-racist.

Anti-Racism Resources for All Ages (by Nicole A. Cooke): An excellent collection of videos, books, articles, and lessons on anti-racism, activism, and critical race theory curated by Dr. Nicole A. Cooke of the University of South Carolina.

Anti-Racist Resources: This comprehensive, crowd-sourced Google doc (created in the wake of the Charlottesville, Virginia, white supremacist rally) is a must-bookmark resource for any educator committed to combating bias and bigotry in their classroom and community.

Five Ways to Reduce Racial Bias in Your Children (by Greater Good magazine): Trustworthy practical tips from UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center.

Research-Based Advice on Teaching Children Not to Be Racist (by the Atlantic): Two researchers offer proven and age-appropriate strategies for reducing bias and prejudice in the early grades.

S ocial Justice Books (by Teaching for Change): A highly recommended resource for preschool and elementary school educators, this list of books intersects with all kinds of important cultural and social issues and will help students build perspective.

Lesson plans and activities

Anti-Bias Tools & Strategies (by ADL): A collection of ADL's articles ranging from teaching strategies to historical info to topical and definitional overviews, all aimed at anti-bias education.

Real Fake News: Exploring Actual Examples of Newspaper Bias (by Common Sense Education): Have students go beyond the buzzword, and explore inaccurate or outright false reporting about Black people, driven by bias, prejudice, and racism.

Reflecting on George Floyd's Death and Police Violence Towards Black Americans (by Facing History): Use this reflective activity to get every member of your classroom -- including you -- to reflect on police violence, racism, protest, and paths to justice.

Teaching About Race, Racism, and Police Violence (Teaching Tolerance): This combination of articles, lessons, professional development, and more is a great starting point for classroom discussions about police violence and its role in systemic racism.

Videos

Handouts, infographics, and posters

Games, apps, and tools

Civic Engagement, Activism, and Social Justice

When studying tough topics like injustice and oppression, it's important to connect people -- especially young people -- to outlets for their frustration, rage, and political goals. This is where activism comes in: It can channel these feelings toward meaningful ways to build community and create social change.

Websites, articles, feeds, and newsletters

10 Organizations That Empower Latinxs in America (by Cultura Collectiva): A good overview of Latinx-focused organizations for students looking to advocate for the rights and futures of Latinx people worldwide.

10 Ways Youth Can Engage in Activism (by ADL): Share these methods with students to give them an outlet for their political passions.

28 Organizations That Empower Black Communities (by the Huffington Post): While this is far from comprehensive, this list has a lot of great organizations for Black activists, and some are led by young people.

International Indigenous Youth Council: Started during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock, this organization fights to protect the natural world and indigenous culture while encouraging young people to become leaders in their communities.

March for Our Lives: Formed in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, March for Our Lives has mobilized young people to end the epidemic of gun violence.

National LGBT-Supportive Organizations (U.S.) (by LGBT Youth Allies): An excellent roundup of LGBTQ organizations, usefully broken into those that focus on young people and those that have broader missions.

Sunrise Movement: This youth-led climate change organization has been making headlines the past two years, most notably for being behind the push for a Green New Deal.

Lesson plans and activities

Activism Online (by Teaching Tolerance): A great introduction to both the possibilities and limitations of online activism.

Democracy & Civic Engagement (by Facing History): There are dozens of lessons -- across all grade levels -- available at Facing History that help students understand past struggles for justice and encourage them to imagine possible futures.

Social Media for Social Action (by Teaching Tolerance): Get students thinking more deeply about how social media can be leveraged for activism and change, but also about the negative effects inherent in the medium.

Transformational action through Art Build (by NEA EdJustice): This article shows how several school communities brought their schools and communities together to create and showcase activist art. There's also checklist of tasks you can use to organize your own Art Build event.

Videos

Handouts, infographics, and posters

Games, apps, and tools

Inclusive Communities

To be good citizens -- and digital citizens -- we must actively work against toxic ideas and communities rife with conspiratorial thinking, cynicism, and hate. Instead, we must create spaces where everyone is welcome and ideas and points of view are discussed constructively.

Websites, articles, feeds, and newsletters

Lesson plans and activities

Awareness Activities (by the Critical Multicultural Pavilion): These icebreakers and reflective activities help classrooms map and discuss their identities, differences, and commonalities.

Constructively Engaging in Digital Communities (by Teaching Tolerance): An in-depth lesson that ends with students developing classroom guidelines for effective community participation.

Countering Hate Speech Online (by Common Sense Education): Get students to explore the relationship between hate speech and xenophobia and how they can combat it in digital spaces.

Part of a Community Online (by Teaching Tolerance): Introduce young kids to the idea of emotionally supportive and empathic community-building.

Participating in Digital Communities (by Teaching Tolerance): Get students to make a commitment to creating inclusive communities and to practicing how to respond to bias and prejudice.

Responding to Online Hate Speech (by Common Sense Education): Help middle schoolers learn techniques to deal with hate speech when they see it or experience it.

Should Online Hate Speech Be Censored? (by Common Sense Education): Is hate speech free speech? Use this lesson to get your high school students to explore this quandary and offer an informed perspective.

Videos

Handouts, infographics, and posters

Games, apps, and tools

Research on Social and Cultural Literacy

Below you'll find some researchers and research organizations that focus on social and cultural literacy. We've also highlighted a few key pieces of their work.

Biased (by Jennifer L. Eberhardt): Dr. Eberhardt provides a highly readable mapping of the landscape of research into bias, bias's impact on our world, and ways forward.

Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain (by Zaretta Hammond): This book and study guide offers an important perspective on how to create inclusive but challenging classroom environments that are equally attuned to the way our brains work and how culture affects the way we engage with each other and the world.

Equity Literacy Institute (by Paul Gorski and others): Dig into this extensive list of equity-focused books and articles published by longtime educator and social justice advocate Paul Gorski and his collaborators.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed (by Paulo Freire): Dense but foundational book focused on how to upend top-down approaches to pedagogy and restore the revolutionary potential of education.

Social and Cultural Literacy Organizations to Explore for More
News and Media Literacy Resource Center

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Social and Cultural Literacy Resources for Classrooms | Common Sense Education

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Teaching and learning happen within cultural, political, and social circumstances. As much as we want to deny it, we all have biases based on our life experiences. Each of us -- teachers and students alike -- enter classrooms from different perspectives and points of view.

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Teachers Are People Too-Examining the Racial Bias of Teachers Compared to Other American Adults

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The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society. In this groundbreaking work, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of body-centered psychology. He argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. Our collective agony doesn't just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans - our police.

My Grandmother's Hands is a call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not about the head, but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide.

Paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy - how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system

Offers a step-by-step solution - a healing process- in addition to incisive social commentary

Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, is a therapist with decades of experience currently in private practice in Minneapolis, MN, specializing in trauma, body-centered psychotherapy, and violence prevention. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Dr. Phil as an expert on conflict and violence. Menakem has studied with best-selling authors Dr. David Schnarch ( Passionate Marriage) and Dr. Bessel van der Kolk ( The Body Keeps the Score). He also trained at Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute.

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Check out this great listen on Audible.com. The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society. In this groundbreaking work, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from th...

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When Freddie Gray was arrested for possessing an "illegal knife" in April 2015, he was, by eyewitness accounts that video evidence later confirmed, treated "roughly" as police loaded him into a vehicle.

By the end of his trip in the police van, Gray was in a coma from which he would never recover. In the wake of a long history of economic inequality and racial injustice in Baltimore, this tragedy felt like a final straw-it led to a week of protests and then five days described alternately as a riot or an uprising that set the entire city on edge, and caught the nation's attention. While attending Gray's funeral, Wes Moore saw every strata of the city come together: grieving mothers; members of the city's wealthy elite; activists; and the long-suffering citizens of Baltimore-all looking to comfort each other, but also looking for answers.

Join him to get his unique perspective of the uprising and the events that followed leading up today!

Purchase Five Days-The Fiery Reckoning of an American City here.
92Y is confronting tremendous financial losses due to COVID-19. Your ticket purchase will help sustain our beloved institution and will also support the creation of new, online programming that will bring comfort and inspiration to our community. Together, we will get through this. Please consider making a donation at 92Y.org/HelpNow.

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Protesting for Change: Wes Moore in Conversation with Willie Geist - 92Y, New York

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When Freddie Gray was arrested for possessing an "illegal knife" in April 2015, he was, by eyewitness accounts that video evidence later confirmed, treated "roughly" as police loaded him into a vehicle. By the end of his trip in the police van, Gray was in a coma from which he would never recover.

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Dena Simmons in Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Newsletter (ASCD)

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Dena Simmons

As a social and emotional learning (SEL) practitioner-scholar, I am fortunate to get invitations to support schools and districts all over the United States. When schools and districts learn that I address SEL within the larger sociopolitical context, integrating culturally responsive and SEL practices to ensure equitable student outcomes, some are excited. Too many, however, insist that there is no need to discuss equity or culturally responsive practices; their school population is mostly white. The pushback at these schools reveals an underlying discomfort with talking about race, identity, and difference in our nation's classrooms. I worry about the marginalized students and educators in these schools who are either expected to do the brunt of the race and equity work or who are likely struggling silently.

We cannot afford to wallow in our discomfort regarding issues of race and equity. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported an overwhelming 3,265 incidents of hate or bias in schools throughout the nation in the fall of 2018 alone. I, too, have experienced racial trauma at many of the education institutions where I've worked or studied. Educators have an obligation to confront the harm of racism. That is why we must commit to becoming antiracist educators and to preparing our young people to be antiracist, too. I recommend five actions for teaching for an antiracist future.

1. Engage in Vigilant Self-Awareness

People who are white or perceived as white have more privilege and fewer barriers to resources than Black people and other people of color. If we do not know our power, we can abuse it unintentionally or fail to leverage it toward antiracism. Constant self-reflection enhances our ability to disrupt white privilege when we see or enact it. Some questions to ask yourself include

How does your identity provide or prevent access to necessary resources?

How does your power and privilege show up in your work with students, take up space, or silence others?

What single narratives are you telling yourself about students, and how does that affect grading, behavior management, and other interactions?

Do you and the academic materials you use uphold whiteness or lift up the voices and experiences of people of color?

Studies show that Eurocentric values and content dominate U.S. schooling, so these reflection questions are also relevant to educators of color who may have internalized negative messages about Black or Brown people.

2. Acknowledge Racism and the Ideology of White Supremacy

When we let our discomfort or ignorance shield us from recognizing our country's racist history and present, we are part of the problem. Failing to acknowledge racism not only erases histories, cultures, and identities, but also ignores ongoing differential treatment based on race. For example, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos ignored three decades of research showing students of color are disciplined more harshly than white students when she decided to rescind Obama-era guidelines aimed at discipline equity. In addition, schools and districts have spoon-fed lessons on grit to mostly students of color, suggesting that we must "fix" them by making them grittier so that they can adapt to-rather than disrupt-racism and inequality in schools.

Acknowledging the social construct of race and racism and the ideology of white supremacy recognizes the problem so that we are not harmful in our ignorance and so that, together, we can strive for solutions. For educators of color, the work means continuing to call out racism and recruiting white coconspirators to join in antiracist work.

3. Study and Teach Representative History

No matter what subject you teach, history (including African American history, which is U.S. history) is important. Knowing our country's whole history helps us make sense of how our current education system perpetuates inequity.

For too long, we have taught U.S. history devoid of a true depiction of Black excellence and have focused on erasing the truth of racial oppression and uplifting whiteness. Our curriculum superficially talks about slavery and civil rights (notably, textbook provider McGraw-Hill called enslaved Africans "immigrants" and "workers"), and teaching practices risk traumatizing Black students by enacting mock slave auctions, slave games, and underground railroad games. Alternately, resources such as Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s PBS documentary series on Reconstruction or The New York Times Magazine's 1619 Project provide a comprehensive opportunity to learn and discuss history and race with colleagues and students. The Zinn Education Project and Rethinking Schools also have teaching materials that explore topics like the Tulsa race riots and colonization.

4. Talk About Race with Students

The educators I work with are mostly white (which matches the lack of teacher diversity on a national level) and often share that they do not feel comfortable talking about race. But when we shy away from open conversations about race with young people, we sow the seeds of prejudice by inadvertently sending the message that something is wrong with people from another race.

To open up conversations with young people, use stories from history and literature as a starting point, and ask students to take on the perspective of a character about whom they are reading. Reading literature and role-playing enhance empathy and other social cognitive skills. Teaching Tolerance's resource, "Let's Talk: Discussing Race, Racism, and Other Difficult Topics," includes suggestions for working through discomfort. The Educational Leadership article " Helping Students Discuss Race Openly" also has a great list of steps to begin the conversation. (And the September 2019 issue of this newsletter includes guidance from educator Liz Kleinrock on how to lead students through challenging topics like race.)

5. When You See Racism, Do Something

We have to fight against racism-and other isms and phobias. All students deserve to live and learn in the comfort of their own skin. To combat racism, consider how the academic resources, policies, admissions, hiring, grading, and behavior management practices at your school might be racist. Whom do the practices and policies benefit and whom do they disadvantage? Are Black people and other people of color disproportionately affected negatively by disciplinary, pedagogical, and administrative practices? For example, what hours are family-teacher conferences held? Which families are excluded from these hours? Which students are most disciplined based on dress code or physical appearance? In 2018, a high school wrestler was forced to cut his locks because the referee argued that his hair was not compliant with regulations. Ask yourself whether a particular "rule" is applied to all people or just to some. Engage in vigilant awareness of your implicit bias to ensure that you are not part of the problem, too.

Most important, when we see racism-whether at the individual or policy level-we must have the courage to act. White Fragility author Robin DiAngelo provides guidance for engaging in gentle but firm conversations with offenders that prevents the defensiveness that race conversations inspire. Share data on specific practices and use stories to humanize the data. Build partnerships with racial-justice organizations in your communities to integrate their work in teaching and learning. Form a taskforce to assess data, policies, and practices with an antiracist lens to disrupt systemic decisions that historically have disenfranchised people of color. Be mindful that these efforts should not be carried solely by the people of color in your school, who are living and struggling with racism on a daily basis.

Shape an Antiracist Future

In his book How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi writes, "The opposite of racist isn't 'not racist.' It is 'anti-racist.' ... One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of 'not racist'" (p. 9). Teaching for an antiracist future starts with us, the educators. An antiracist educator actively works to dismantle the structures, policies, institutions, and systems that create barriers and perpetuate race-based inequities for people of color. Educating students to see and respect the humanity and dignity of all people should be a national imperative, especially if we want to heal-and have a future-as a nation.

Dena Simmons (@DenaSimmons) supports schools throughout the nation to build social and emotional learning, culturally responsive practices, and equity ( www.denasimmons.com). She is the author of the forthcoming book White Rules for Black People (St. Martin's Press). Her views are her own.

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Dena Simmons As a social and emotional learning (SEL) practitioner-scholar, I am fortunate to get invitations to support schools and districts all over the United States. When schools and districts learn that I address SEL within the larger sociopolitical context, integrating culturally responsive and SEL practices to ensure equitable student outcomes, some are excited.

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ADL lessons and videos about Implicit Bias Grades 6-8

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To print the story please do so via the link in the story toolbar.

In these activities you will learn the difference between implicit and explicit bias. Then, explore and reflect on examples of everyday bias you have seen in the news and in your life.

Grade Level: High School

View Complete: Lesson Plan

Watch this short video and reflect on the following questions:

What is implicit bias?

How is implicit bias different from racism?

Does the difference matter?

Quiz

With implicit bias, the aggressor is usually (1) unaware of what they are doing (2) not conscious of their bias and (3) not acting with intent.

Match the word to the description.

Implicit Bias This type of bias involves the aggressor being aware of what they are doing and their actions are (1) voluntary, (2) on purpose, and (3) with intent.

Explicit Bias The unconscious attitudes, stereotypes, and unintentional actions (positive or negative) towards members of a group merely because of their membership in that group. These associations develop over the course of a lifetime beginning at a very early age through exposure to direct and indirect messages.

Is it Implicit or Explicit Bias?

A college student says, "I do not want to take a class with that professor because women teachers are overly emotional and terrible professors."

Is it Implicit or Explicit Bias?

Students were asked to rate teachers of an online course and they never saw the teachers. In the study, some male teachers claimed to be female and vice versa. When students took a class from someone they believed to be male, they rated the teacher significantly higher than the very same teacher, when believed to be female.

Have you considered...?

From the target's point of view, does it matter whether the bias is implicit or explicit? For the person targeted, the impact of the biased action is what really matters, not necessarily the intent of the aggressor.

For example, if a white store clerk calls the police because she feels (unreasonably) that an African American man is "acting suspiciously," no one except the clerk knows what sort of bias might be implicated. But in cases of bias, the impact on that African-American man can range from embarrassment to anger to potentially serious consequences like an arrest, even though he is innocent.

Sometimes we focus on distinguishing between implicit and explicit bias, which is helpful in understanding how our minds work and in challenging one's own biases. At the same time, if you are the target of bias, you have no way of knowing what is in the aggressor's mind or whether their actions were intentional or not. Therefore, while it is important to understand the many complexities of bias, it is more important to consider the impacts of bias, whether implicit or explicit, on targets or others in that identity group.

What are some other forms of bias?

racism

heterosexism

antisemitism

ableism

ageism

anti-trans bias

anti-immigrant bias

classism

Visit the ADL Glossary to familiarize yourself with these forms of bias.

Examples of Everyday Bias

An Asian woman was harassed by a man who cursed at her and told her, "You're the one who brought the (corona) virus here." After the woman attempted to record him on her cellphone, he slapped her phone away.

In a restaurant in New York City, a man berated customers and employees for speaking Spanish and then threatened to call immigration officials.

When an African American woman attempts to board a plane during first class seating, several passengers also boarding look at her suspiciously. The airline attendant asks, "Are you sure you're in this section?" and then upon seeing the ticket says there must be some mistake and calls her supervisor.

In the News

Have you heard about incidents of bias in the news lately?

What happened and what do you know?

Do you know what the outcome was and what are your thoughts about that outcome?

Additional Related Reading

Talk about Bias

Think about if you have ever experienced (as a target or witness) everyday bias in a public space.

What did you do or what did you wish you could have done?
Share one idea on what people do about everyday bias.

On Social Media

As a result of the everyday bias people experience, several related hashtags have been created to amplify them on social media. Some specific hashtags such as #DrivingWhileBlack, #ShoppingWhileBlack and #LivingWhileBlack. These hashtags have helped people share their own experiences and learn about others' experiences with everyday racism.

Have you seen a hashtag like this?

What did you learn by exploring the hashtags?

Have you ever used a hashtag to express how you felt about everyday bias? If so, what happened?

Learn more at adl.org.

Watch this short video and reflect on the following questions:

What is implicit bias?

How is implicit bias different from racism?

Does the difference matter?

Quiz

With implicit bias, the aggressor is usually (1) unaware of what they are doing (2) not conscious of their bias and (3) not acting with intent.

Match the word to the description.

Implicit Bias This type of bias involves the aggressor being aware of what they are doing and their actions are (1) voluntary, (2) on purpose, and (3) with intent.

Explicit Bias The unconscious attitudes, stereotypes, and unintentional actions (positive or negative) towards members of a group merely because of their membership in that group. These associations develop over the course of a lifetime beginning at a very early age through exposure to direct and indirect messages.

Is it Implicit or Explicit Bias?

A college student says, "I do not want to take a class with that professor because women teachers are overly emotional and terrible professors."

Is it Implicit or Explicit Bias?

Students were asked to rate teachers of an online course and they never saw the teachers. In the study, some male teachers claimed to be female and vice versa. When students took a class from someone they believed to be male, they rated the teacher significantly higher than the very same teacher, when believed to be female.

Have you considered...?

From the target's point of view, does it matter whether the bias is implicit or explicit? For the person targeted, the impact of the biased action is what really matters, not necessarily the intent of the aggressor.

For example, if a white store clerk calls the police because she feels (unreasonably) that an African American man is "acting suspiciously," no one except the clerk knows what sort of bias might be implicated. But in cases of bias, the impact on that African-American man can range from embarrassment to anger to potentially serious consequences like an arrest, even though he is innocent.

Sometimes we focus on distinguishing between implicit and explicit bias, which is helpful in understanding how our minds work and in challenging one's own biases. At the same time, if you are the target of bias, you have no way of knowing what is in the aggressor's mind or whether their actions were intentional or not. Therefore, while it is important to understand the many complexities of bias, it is more important to consider the impacts of bias, whether implicit or explicit, on targets or others in that identity group.

What are some other forms of bias?

racism

heterosexism

antisemitism

ableism

ageism

anti-trans bias

anti-immigrant bias

classism

Visit the ADL Glossary to familiarize yourself with these forms of bias.

Examples of Everyday Bias

An Asian woman was harassed by a man who cursed at her and told her, "You're the one who brought the (corona) virus here." After the woman attempted to record him on her cellphone, he slapped her phone away.

In a restaurant in New York City, a man berated customers and employees for speaking Spanish and then threatened to call immigration officials.

When an African American woman attempts to board a plane during first class seating, several passengers also boarding look at her suspiciously. The airline attendant asks, "Are you sure you're in this section?" and then upon seeing the ticket says there must be some mistake and calls her supervisor.

In the News

Have you heard about incidents of bias in the news lately?

What happened and what do you know?

Do you know what the outcome was and what are your thoughts about that outcome?

Additional Related Reading

Talk about Bias

Think about if you have ever experienced (as a target or witness) everyday bias in a public space.

What did you do or what did you wish you could have done?
Share one idea on what people do about everyday bias.

On Social Media

As a result of the everyday bias people experience, several related hashtags have been created to amplify them on social media. Some specific hashtags such as #DrivingWhileBlack, #ShoppingWhileBlack and #LivingWhileBlack. These hashtags have helped people share their own experiences and learn about others' experiences with everyday racism.

Have you seen a hashtag like this?

What did you learn by exploring the hashtags?

Have you ever used a hashtag to express how you felt about everyday bias? If so, what happened?

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In these activities you will learn the difference between implicit and explicit bias. Then, explore and reflect on examples of everyday bias you have seen in the news and in your life. Grade Level: High School View Complete: Lesson Plan Learn more at adl.org. What are some other forms of bias?

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Concert June 19th The Middle Project

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Eventbrite - The Middle Project presents Juneteenth Now: Get Us Free - Friday, June 19, 2020 - Find event and ticket information.

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Teaching Tolerance

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Juneteenth, celebrated June 19, marks the day enslaved Texans learned they were free in June of 1865. While the history of the holiday includes the injustice of enslavement, Juneteenth should also be understood in the context of Black people's fight for justice and freedom.

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Educate Yourself: Online Racial Equity Workshops

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Educate Yourself: Online Racial Equity Workshops

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Eventbrite Collection

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Educate Yourself: Online Racial Equity Workshops | Eventbrite

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Let's be better, together, by standing for an equitable society and with those fighting for justice for the Black community. Use this time for learning, listening, engaging in the discourse, and doing better as individuals and as a country. Donate to organizations fighting for racial equality, participate in protests or rallies, and educate yourself on systemic and learned racism.

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Books by African American and Afro-Latinx Authors 

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Books by African American and Afro-Latinx Authors 

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Fbmarketplace

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Books by African American Authors & Illustrators

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Dr. Candice Hargons on WKYT

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - A UK professor is gaining national attention for her research on racism.

Dr. Candice Hargons says racism can have a negative impact on a person, mentally and physically.

She's been curious about racism since she was a child growing up in a small town in Virginia.

"I was sitting on the bus with some white boys and they were like 'black people should be happy that slavery existed because we taught y'all how to work,'" Dr. Hargons.

UK professor Dr. Candice Hargons says racism has a negative impact on people mentally and physically. Tune in at 5:30 to hear her discuss healing from racial trauma. pic.twitter.com/KQz3m9uwXe
- Chelsea Jones (@ChelseaWkyt) June 17, 2020

The pain she felt in that moment inspires her today. She researches ways to heal the trauma of racism. In her recent study, she recruited black college students.

"We exposed them to a stimulus of an audio recording of a self-identified white woman was saying some racist things to a black person," Dr. Hargons.

Researchers found as students listened to the recording their heart rates spiked.

"They had a stress reaction," Dr. Hargons said.

But researchers found that listening to mediation relieved that stress.

The findings inspired Hargons to create a 17 minute Black Lives Matter mediation that's now used in counseling centers. She shares other methods for healing racial trauma.

"Going for a walk in the park. Journaling is free. Writing poetry is free," Dr. Hargons said.

Coping mechanisms which she says are vital at such a stressful time.

Dr. Hargons says the Center for Healing Racial Trauma in Lexington and the Collective Care Center in Louisville are also available.

Hargons will talk more about her research during a Juneteenth panel discussion on CNN.
Copyright 2020 WKYT. All rights reserved.

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UK professor gaining national attention for research on racism

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - A UK professor is gaining national attention for her research on racism. Dr. Candice Hargons says racism can have a negative impact on a person, mentally and physically. She's been curious about racism since she was a child growing up in a small town in Virginia.

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YouTube

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Netflix - Free on YouTube

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TED Talks To Help You Understand Racism 

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TED Talks To Help You Understand Racism 

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TED

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Talks to help you understand racism in America | TED Talks

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From passionate pleas for reform to poetic turns of phrase, these talks take an honest look at everyday realities of Black Americans and illuminate the way forward.

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PBS

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List of Shows A to Z | Black History & Culture | PBS

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List of Shows A to Z | Black History & Culture | PBS

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Search our list of shows and films about Black History and Culture available to watch today on PBS.

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Fan (Recording from Friday, June 12th)

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Affiliate Associate Professor of Education, University of Washington

In her 2018 New York Times bestselling book White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, University of Washington education professor Robin DiAngelo, Ph.D. explores the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged. In her view, people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress. Although white racial insulation is somewhat mediated by social class (with poor and working class urban whites being generally less racially insulated than suburban or rural whites), the larger social environment insulates and protects whites as a group through institutions, cultural representations, media, school textbooks, movies, advertising, and dominant discourses.

Racial stress results from an interruption to what is racially familiar. In turn, whites are often at a loss for how to respond in constructive ways., as they have not had to build the cognitive or affective skills or develop the stamina that that would allow for constructive engagement across racial divides. leading to what Prof. DiAngelo refers to as "white fragility." White fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.

Prof. DiAngelo received her Ph.D. in Multicultural Education from the University of Washington/Seattle in 2004, and she earned tenure at Westfield State University in Massachusetts. Currently she is Affiliate Associate Professor of Education at the University of Washington. She has taught courses in multicultural teaching, inter-group dialogue facilitation, cultural diversity and social justice, and anti-racist education. She is the co-author of Is Everybody Really Equal? and the author of the 2012 book What Does It Mean to Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy.

Dr. DiAngelo will be interviewed by Marcus Campbell, Ed. D., Assistant Superintendent/Principal of Evanston Township High School. Please note, neither audience Q&A nor chat will be enabled for this event.

This webinar event will be recorded and later available on the FAN website and our YouTube channel.

BONUS EVENT: Those who purchase a copy of White Fragility through our independent bookseller, The Book Stall, will receive a link to a special post-event gathering with Dr. Campbell following the presentation. Click here to purchase the book: https://www.thebookstall.com/search/site/white%20fragility

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In her 2018 New York Times bestselling book White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, University of Washington education professor Robin DiAngelo, Ph.D. explores the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged. In her view, people in North America live in a social environment ...

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Education with an Apron

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The POC Families' Guide For Talking About Racism - Education With An Apron

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click ANY image in this post to be taken to the product. If you are a POC Family in need of assistance in obtaining this resource, please click here. LaNesha and I created this guide after many requests for this version. We created The White Families' Guide for Racism: How Can We Grow to Be ...

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Brené with Ibram X. Kendi on How To Be An Antiracist 

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Brené with Ibram X. Kendi on How To Be An Antiracist 

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Brené Brown (podcast)

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Brené Brown: Hi everyone, I'm Brené Brown, and this is Unlocking Us. Today, I'm talking with Professor Ibram Kendi. He's a number one New York Times best-selling author and the Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. He's also an ideas columnist at The Atlantic and a correspondent with CBS News. He is the author of four books, including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. He has another book called, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, which he co-authored with Jason Reynolds, and it's a remix of the Stamped from the Beginning book that is meant for YA, teen readers - an incredible, incredible book. And he's got a new book coming out called Antiracist Baby, which is a board book that will be published this month in June. Completely evidence that it's never too early to start talking about anti-racism.

BB: He's also the author of How to Be an Antiracist, and that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about all those books, but we're going to really focus on How to Be an Antiracist, which is a groundbreaking approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society and in ourselves. It's an incredible conversation. I welcome you to the table to sit with us, talk, think, feel, ask, question, and lean in really, really far to what we need to learn about ourselves and the world. I want to start this conversation with a quote from Professor Kendi: "By not running from books that pain us, we can allow them to transform us. I ran from antiracist books most of my life, but now I can't stop running after them, scrutinizing myself and my society, and in the process changing both." Let's jump in.

BB: Alright, first let me say that I am incredibly grateful for you joining us on Unlocking Us, thank you for that.

Ibram X. Kendi: Of course, I'm so happy to be on.

BB: I always start these podcasts with not the perfunctory, but the honest, "How are you?" How are you doing right now?

IK: I'm okay. This is quite the time in American history, and as someone who studies anti-Black racism, I'm simultaneously enraged to see the deathly effects of that racism, but simultaneously energized to see all of the people resisting that racism.

BB: How are you holding up with the COVID-19 pandemic on top of all of this, as the underscore to all of this?

IK: I think that that has been difficult for me, partly because my colleagues and I, we partnered with the COVID Tracking Project to build this COVID racial data tracker. And so we're... It's like the premier tracker of racial data on COVID. And so I'm seeing the data coming in and the disparities all over the country, and so that's been difficult. And then simultaneously, my wife, Sadiqa, her family is... Her hometown is Albany, Georgia, and Albany, Georgia and that general area of Southwest Georgia has one of the worst outbreaks in the country. And simultaneously, it's a trauma desert, it doesn't have a tremendous amount of high-quality healthcare, in contrast to New York City, which also of course has been a major outbreak. And so, seeing and hearing those stories firsthand of people suffering, obviously, it's been difficult. And this is a primarily Black area.

BB: I want to get into... I want to talk a lot about How to Be an Antiracist, your book that I think is life changing. I want to talk about your new book that's coming out in a couple of weeks. Tell us the title of that new book.

IK: Antiracist Baby. It's a board book.

BB: I can't wait. I want to start because when we talk about the pandemic, when we talk about what's happening right now in the world with a rebellion, the protest, you wrote an article that went up on The Atlantic this morning.

IK: Yes.

BB: It's called "The American Nightmare: To be Black and Conscious of Anti-Black Racism is to Stare Into The Mirror of Your Own Extinction." I want to... Can I read a piece of this to you and ask you about it?

IK: Sure, yeah.

BB: Would you rather read it or would you... Can I read it to you?

IK: Yeah, you can read it. That's fine, yeah.

BB: Okay. You're using as an epigraph, a quote from Malcom X from 1964, "We don't see any American dream. We've experienced only the American nightmare." And then you write, "A nightmare is essentially a horror story of danger, but it is not wholly a horror story. Black people experience joy, love, peace, safety. But as in any horror story, those unforgettable moments of toil, terror, and trauma have made danger essential to the Black experience in racist America. What one Black American experiences, many Black Americans experience. Black Americans are constantly stepping into the toil and terror and trauma of other Black Americans. Black Americans are constantly stepping into the souls of the dead because they know that could have been them, they are them. Because they know it is dangerous to be Black in America because racist Americans see Blacks as dangerous. To be Black and conscious of anti-Black racism is to stare into the mirror of your own extinction."

BB: This is not just about the police brutality; this is not just about Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd; this is about the tens of thousands of Black victims of Covid.

IK: Yeah.

BB: Talk to me about this article. What do we need to understand?

IK: Well, I think first and foremost, the article revolves around a very, very prominent book that was written in 1896 by Frederick Hoffman, who, basically it was a book of statistical tables and racial data that showed not only racial disparities in crime rates, but also racial disparities in infection rates and racial disparities in mortality, or I should say death rates, and so he took this massive amount of racial data to proclaim that Black people were not subjected to racist policies. That wasn't the cause of Black disease, of Black death, and even Black people being disproportionately arrested and incarcerated. He made the case that this data shows that Black people are headed towards gradual extinction, and it's their fault. They are by nature or behavior, a dangerous, diseased, dying people, and to recognize anything else is to not recognize the facts. And so this idea, normalizing Black pain and suffering and death has only continued to this day, and so essentially when you normalize, when you just believe that Black people should be disproportionally dying of police violence or even COVID-19, you're thereby not going to challenge, let alone look for the policies that are actually behind this disproportionate Black death.

IK: And so then those who are experiencing those policies that are then leading to that trauma and terror, and even toil, they're going to be experiencing the American nightmare. And the reason why I use the term the American nightmare is because Black people are constantly told that America is this land of equal opportunity, that police officers protect and serve, that we too have access to the American dream. And obviously, based on the experiences of Black people, we've really, as Malcolm said, 50 years ago, experienced the American nightmare.

BB: When you talk about the Hoffman book, it's such a devastating reminder to me, because I see this a lot right now of how statistics, academics, science can be dehumanizing tools as much as kind of the language that we use.

IK: Yeah, without question. And let me give an example. So when we first were able to start getting states in early April to release racial data, and then we saw these racial disparities. We saw that Black people were disproportionately being infected and even dying, of COVID. The first response of people to that data, of many people to that data, was to say Black people are not taking the virus seriously, Black people are not socially distancing, there's something wrong with Black people, and then we were able to disprove that. Basically survey data in mid-March had already proven that actually Black people were taking the virus more seriously than white people. So then it's zeroed in to, well, it must be the result of Black pre-existing conditions.

IK: And then those pre-existing conditions are caused by Black people making disproportionately bad or unhealthy behaviors. So it just always, essentially, you take these racial disparities, and we've been arguing over their existence, even before Frederick Hoffman. Is it because there's something wrong with Black people, or is there racist policy? And those who believe we live in a nation that's post-racial, that there's equal opportunity, they're not going to ever see the racist policies that are even in many cases, hard to see, instead they're just going to blame Black people.

BB: It's almost, and I don't think it's almost, it is the confirmation bias of racist beliefs.

IK: It is, yeah, it is. And that's what's striking about Frederick Hoffman, because he opens his book arguing that, "I am free of bias. I am free of prejudice or sentimentally."

BB: Which should be our first flag, right?

[chuckle]

IK: Exactly, right. And then, ends the book stating that the gradual extinction of Black people is only a matter of time, and it's based on the data. And to give another example, you have many people arguing that police violence, disproportionate police violence is the result of Black people being disproportionately violent, and Black people are disproportionately violent, they say, because, well, just look at the violent crime data. There's this widespread belief that Black neighborhoods are more dangerous because of violent crime data, the same violent crime data that Frederick Hoffman in this book in 1896 really popularized. But what Americans don't realize, and this is what I've been trying to get people to see, is that there's no relationship between the violent crime in those neighborhoods and the Blackness of the people.

IK: In other words, people believe that the reason why those neighborhoods are violent is because there are Black people there, and that's why when they see Black neighborhoods, they assume that those neighborhoods are violent because the Black people and their culture and their behavior and even their genetics are predisposed to violence. But if that was the case, then all Black neighborhoods would have the same levels of violent crime. In other words, higher income...

BB: Because that would be the... Yeah, that would be the consistent variable.

IK: Precisely. And so, higher income Black neighborhoods would have the same levels of violent crime as extremely impoverished Black neighborhoods. That is not the case. And it's not the case in white America, it's not the case in Asian America, Native America, Latinx America. In every America, if we want to split up America racially, you have higher levels of poverty, long-term unemployment, you're going to have higher levels of violent crime, whether you're talking about a white community or neighborhood with higher levels of violent crime or Latinx or Black. So we know statistically that actually what is the consistent variable is poverty and unemployment. But people still want to call these dangerous Black neighborhoods as opposed to dangerous unemployed neighborhoods.

BB: One of the things that I find so powerful about your work, there are many things, but one of the things I find so powerful is your ability to unpack things, lay them out, and the steps always lead back to policy. It always leads back to systemic policy.

IK: And I think that's one of the things I'm trying to get people to realize, and especially, I think one of the things that happens with our discussions on race is we personalize groups, meaning we make groups into individuals, and, even though every group is made up of individuals, we say, "Oh well, this group is disproportionately obese, so therefore, why can't this group "diet or exercise more" in the way I used to do when I weighed a little bit more. But that's actually... We can't think of groups as individuals, when we think of... Especially we can't think of disparities as the result of the personal choices of the individuals in groups, because I think that's what happens, that's how we have been misled into believing, but when we actually... All of the data points to and all of the analysis points to, is that when you have two groups, there's going to be all different types of behaviors in both groups, whether that...

BB: Complete variance, right?

IK: Precisely. So you take white people and Black people, you have white people who eat unhealthy, you have white people who are vegans, you have Black people who eat in an unhealthy manner, and then you have Black people like me who are vegans. And so... And then you have vegans who are white, who don't really eat vegetables. Right? And so it's so much variable, and so we emphasize the negativities that we see among those individuals who are Black, and then ignore the negativities among the individuals who are white. And so we say, "Oh, those Black folk and their soul food, that's why they're unhealthy," as if you don't have white people who gathered this weekend and had hamburgers and hot dogs only on their barbeque menu. So I think that it's critically important for us when we think of groups and group inequality, to recognize that what changes communities, what changes groups, it's not their individual behaviors, it's policy change.

BB: I want to slow down here and go into slow motion for a moment, because, what you're saying is so profoundly important at the crux of, I think, of your entire book. And for me as a researcher, it's... We take groups and we take stereotypes and characteristics of groups, and what it seems to me that we do, and I think you write about this, but I want to check in with you to make sure I'm understanding it correctly because this is what I see. We see the most kind of negative, socially agreed upon, not good characteristics of groups of color, and we assign it to the entire group. Then we take the best characteristics of one or two people in the white folk group and assign it to that entire group. That's true, right? You see that...

IK: Exactly. So that's what I talk about how we generalize the individual negativities of people of color while we individualize the individual negativities of white people.

BB: And you know what keeps coming back to me, and I'm going to date myself with this because this was a huge raging issue as I was in school and then graduate work: the bell curve is such an example of the manipulation of statistical data to confirm a racist hypothesis. Okay. Yeah, I just... You know what? We do that. We do that. I can think of times when I do that, maybe not about race, but I do do that with... I'll tell you where I do it. I do it with political identity. I take the best part of the people I see in my group and assign it to everyone in my group. And the worst part, and it's so self-protective and self-destructive at the same time, isn't it?

IK: It is. It is. And I know How to Be an Antiracist, in particular, I remember giving a talk about this book, I believe I was in Gainesville, Florida, and this woman who was obviously a Republican or a conservative, got up during the Q&A and basically challenged me, basically by saying, "You're just another liberal who is just criticizing conservatives completely and never being able to look back on the problems of things that liberals do." And I was like, "Did you read the book?" [laughter] Because obviously, you didn't read the book, because the book was just as critical of people who identify as liberals or Democrats as people who identify as conservatives and Republicans.

BB: I want to read something from the book, early-on pages. Is it weird when I read to you? Is it okay?

IK: It's fine, yeah.

BB: Okay. "The good news is that racist and antiracist are not fixed identities. We can be a racist one minute and be an antiracist the next. What we say about race, what we do about race in each moment determines what, not who, we are." And you write, "I used to be racist most of the time. I am changing. I am no longer identifying with racists by claiming to be not racist. I am no longer speaking through the mask of racial neutrality. I am no longer manipulated by racist ideas to see racial groups as problems. I no longer believe a Black person cannot be racist, I am no longer policing my every action around an imagined white or Black judge trying to convince white people of my equal humanity, trying to convince Black people, I am representing the race well." This book is incredibly vulnerable in terms of you sharing your own experiences. Why was that important to you as you were writing this?

IK: So, I remember when I was thinking about this book and I was sort of thinking about the pulse of the book, even the heartbeat of the book. I recognize that the heartbeat, historically, of racism has been denial, has been to deny that one's ideas are racist, one's policies are racist, and certainly that one's self and one's nation is racist, and so then I was like, "Okay, by contrast, the heartbeat of antiracism is confession, is admission, is acknowledgement, is the willingness to be vulnerable, is the willingness to identify the times in which we are being racist, is to be willing to diagnose ourselves and our country, and our ideas, and our policies." And the reason why that's the heartbeat is because, like with anything else, the first step is acknowledging the problem. We can't even begin the process of changing ourselves, of acting in an antiracist fashion, if we're not even willing to admit the times in which we're being racist. And so I realize that essentially to be antiracist is to admit when we're being racist. And so I realize that in order to really give voice to that, in order to really model that for people I had to do that to myself and for myself.

BB: And you do it, and you do it throughout the book and you move forward a bunch and you slide back, and you share that with us. To me, that is the heart of the book, that there is such a deep humanity in this book. Was that intentional on your part? Did you write it from a perspective of, "This is what it means to be in the human struggle?"

IK: I think so. And I mean, I think that, to be honest, the first few chapters were a huge struggle for me to write, precisely because of how vulnerable I had to be and how many... I had to basically admit and chronicle some of the most shameful moments of my life, especially as someone who was raised in a home to value and love Black people, to be able to have to write about those times in which I did not value or love Black people, let alone other groups, was very, very difficult. And so it really wasn't... And so I think I struggled and it actually... I think the first few chapters, it took me almost like a year to write, and it really wasn't until as I write about in the end of the book that I was diagnosed with cancer, that I just wondered whether indeed I would even live to see the book come out, and I think because of that, in a way freed me to be vulnerable and to be completely sort of open and naked in writing the book.

BB: Yeah, there's just courage on every page. I mean, really, and I have to say you don't see that very often in books. You don't see that very often in the world, so thank you for that. I think the central message is that the opposite of racist isn't not racist, The true opposite of racist is antiracist. Can you break that down for us and help us understand how the opposite of racist is not, not race... Not racist is not the opposite of racist.

IK: Sure, so I think... Let me say it in this way. So when you think of... So I define a racist as someone who is expressing racist ideas or supporting racist policies with their action or inaction, I know we're not supposed to use terms in the definition, but I think what's critical about understanding what it means to be racist is understanding what a racist idea is, and what a racist policy is. And once you understand what a racist idea and racist policy is, you begin to realize that there's a fundamental contrast to that, and that contrast is not some sort of neutrality. And so if a racist idea is any idea that suggests a racial group is superior or inferior to another racial group... In other words, a racist idea connotes racial hierarchy, then what's the opposite of that? The opposite of that is ideas that connote racial equality, that challenges directly that idea of racial hierarchy and says, "No. All the racial groups are equals."

IK: And there's no in between racial hierarchy and racial equality. Either all the racial groups are equals, or certain racial groups are better or worse than others. And so there's no not racist idea, there's only a racist idea and an antiracist idea. And the same thing with policy. If a racist policy is leading to racial inequity, then an antiracist policy is leading to racial equity. There's no in between inequity or equity, and if racist policies lead to injustice, then by contrast, antiracist policies lead to justice. There's no in between injustice or justice. And so then when you take a person, you have people who are either expressing racist or antiracist ideas. So in any given moment, they're either being racist or antiracist, there's no not racist sort of category.

IK: And then I should also add very quickly that when people typically say, "I am not racist," it is in response to someone challenging something that they just did or said that indeed probably was racist. So again, I mentioned how the heartbeat, or in order to be antiracist, we have to be willing to admit the times in which we're being racist. By contrast, in order to be racist, we never admit the times in which we're being racist, and instead we say we're not racist.

BB: I have a couple of questions. So what do you say to the person who when you say we're either racist or antiracist to the person who says, "That's a false dichotomy. There can be neutrality between antiracist and race, there can be neutrality between injust and just, between inequality and equity or equality." I can't find what that neutrality is. But I would really love to know how you answer that because I get that a lot, especially when I quote you, but I can't think of a single example, because the systems are already in place. So if we were at net zero, how does that... I mean, it may be so but we're not, so what do you answer?

IK: Yeah so I state that are you... I would... So people have asked me asked that, and typically what I state say is, "Are you stating that because from a defensive posture?" In other words, you don't want to identify as racist, and you view those antiracists in some way that you don't want to sort of identify with. So this is fundamentally defensive so you can create a category for yourself. And typically, we know when people are creating categories for themselves because you can't define your category. And so are you creating this category for us, or are you creating this category for yourself? And if you're creating it for us, then define it for us, so we can understand it.

IK: What does it mean to be not racist? I know what it means to be racist. I know what it means to be antiracist. What does it mean to be not racist? And if you can't provide a very clear and consistent definition, then that shows me that you're fundamentally being defensive, and you're fundamentally seeking to create a category for yourself.

BB: That is so powerful, and starting with the defensive posturing that I think there are people that don't want to be in the racist category of course, because there's so much shame attached to that.

IK: Yeah.

BB: And they don't want to be in the antiracist category because there's so much frickin work attached to that.

IK: Yes.

BB: Do you know what I mean?

IK: Yes.

BB: Like antiracism work is, no joke, exhausting and vigilant, and there's shame in it too because it's... So it's interesting because - can we dig into something that is kind of at the intersection of your work and my work to help me figure out something?

IK: Sure.

BB: You don't seem to be... And I've only read this book and a couple of articles that you've written or maybe three or four articles from The Atlantic, but I will be getting the baby board book for sure. And it'll become my new go-to, like, I'm looking at Barrett, who's in here with me. She's like, "This will be the new. Every baby we know will be getting this book." You don't seem to be a proponent of shame as a social justice tool.

IK: No.

BB: So, let me ask you this question because I think this goes to the creating categories out of defensiveness. One of the things that I've seen and I see it a lot, I see it a lot in my social feeds, I see it a lot when I have really difficult Q&As when I'm on book tours. Let's say you and I are talking, and I share a racist idea, or I make a racist statement, and you hold me accountable for that. Right? Which is fair. You question and we dig in. But you say... I am going to feel shame about that, for most, I think most, maybe not all, but most white, I hope, most white Americans, or maybe Americans in general will feel shame about being held accountable for racist thinking or thoughts or speaking, then I go into shame. But what I'm struggling helping people understand and maybe you can share your thoughts on it with us is being held accountable for racism and experiencing shame around that, is not the same as being shamed about racism.

IK: Mm-hmm, yeah.

BB: Does that makes sense to you at all? Or am I off? I don't know.

IK: No, I think it makes sense. And I think that... Well, two things I'm trying to think of what to say first because I feel like I'll forget the other. Do you ever feel that way?

BB: All the time.

IK: So I think one thing is that... So if we talk about racist ideas, to grow up in America is to grow up, and for racist ideas to constantly be rained on your head and you have no umbrella. And you don't even know that you're wet with those racist ideas, because the racist ideas themselves cause you to imagine that you're dry.

BB: Right.

IK: And then someone comes along and says, "You know what, you're wet, and these ideas are still raining on your head. Here's an umbrella." You can be like, "Thank you, I didn't even realize I was drenched."

BB: Yeah, yeah.

IK: And then with all these ideas, and then the question, this is why I don't think people should feel ashamed, is there were other people and very powerful people in a history that was constantly raining those ideas on your head, and so what that means is, for instance if you're a white American, who has racist ideas, and then you, let's say, perpetuated those ideas by, let's say, not hiring a Black person because you thought they were lazy. You were simultaneously a victim and a victimizer. And so I think it's critical for people to recognize that literally, and as I talk about in How to Be an Antiracist, there's a specific reason why you had so many powerful Americans trying to convince white Americans that Black people were inferior; it was out of their own self interest.

BB: Yeah.

IK: And so then, white Americans and other Americans were tricked into believing that Black people should be enslaved in 1855, and then meanwhile poor whites, whose poverty was directly the result of the riches of white slaveholders were like, "Yeah, it should be this way." And so then those people were able to get richer and richer, and so me coming to that poor white person who believes Black people should be enslaved and then who have even sort of worked on slave patrols and brutalized Black people trying to run away, I'm basically coming to them and saying, "Here is the way you were a victimizer and here is the way you were a victim." And it's critically important, I think, for people to understand, people have been tricked, they've been manipulated, they've been hoodwinked, and that's why I think, that's what I'd want people to realize.

BB: Yeah, thank you for the umbrella. I didn't know I was wet. I think that might be where we lose people.

IK: Yeah.

BB: Wow. Do you ever... I think about this, I think my background is in social work, so I have my master's in social work and PhD in social work, and my bachelor's too, and so I've probably taken 20 classes on the nature of oppression. I guess the thing that always strikes me about oppression as a construct, and I know I'm going to personify it, and I know this is probably not right, but I would love your thoughts on it because I've tried to figure it out for so many years is, God, it's so hard to fight because it has an answer for everything, like it is...

IK: Yeah, yeah.

BB: Do you know what I mean?

IK: Mm-hmm.

BB: Like, it's such a formidable foe. It's like every time, like when you said to me, I got goosebumps when you said, "It's raining on you. But part of what it's raining on you is the message that you're dry."

IK: Mm-hmm.

BB: It is such a formidable foe, isn't it?

IK: It is, and that I think that it's critically important. What I'm trying to do is bring people back into reality, right? So they can realize that it's being rained on them, that that rain is coming down on their head, that they're slipping and falling and harming people in ways that they don't even realize. And when you step that back into reality, then you can actually recognize what's actually happening to you and what you're doing to other people. And then you can also begin to see how and why you have people protesting all over this country and why people are enraged and why that resistance is going to continue. Literally racist ideas, literally separate people from reality, and it prevents people, even too, from helping themselves.

IK: And so I talked a lot in my book about the ways in which even you have Black elites who believe ideas about the Black poor and who sort of reproduce racist ideas about the Black poor, not realizing that racist policies against them are being justified through ideas about the Black poor, or you have white Americans who are believing in racist ideas that these people of color will just use and abuse and take advantage of so-called social entitlement programs like Medicare for All, or increasing Social Security funding, or basic income, or other... Or paid leave, things that other countries have. And so therefore, I don't want none of that. And then it results in them not having the social safety net when they fall, their friends not having it, their family not having it, and then when they fall and become hurt, then they're told it's immigrants' fault. And so it's this constant sort of people being hurt...

BB: God.

IK: And then they believing that it's these other people who are the source of their pain, as opposed to the people who they actually support, who are the source of their pain.

BB: I'm a terrible podcast host, because I'm sitting here with my hands over my mouth, and that's not... I can't do that, but that's my response to this. I read an article, I think it was during the 2016 election, all I can remember is an MD-PhD, public health person, and I think the name of the article is: "Racism is Killing White People." And it's because they were voting against the very things, the services, and the safety nets that they themselves will need just because of the racist rhetoric that they attached to it.

IK: Exactly.

BB: It's...

IK: Yeah, Jonathan Metzl and that's based on his book Dying of Whiteness. And he talked about...

BB: Is that the who that... Is he an MD? Is that the one I'm talking about?

IK: MD-PhD, yes, yeah.

BB: My husband's a pediatrician, I think I read it in, there was an excerpt of something in American Pediatrics or something. So tell us who that was and what that book was, and we'll put it on our show notes.

IK: So yeah, it's Jonathan Metzl, who's a MD-PhD, I believe at Vanderbilt, and his book was entitled Dying of Whiteness, and he looks at the white resistance to the extension of ObamaCare or even the extension of Medicaid in particular states and how that not only harmed, obviously people of color disproportionately, but even white people, and how the resistance to creating more insurance and affordable healthcare has harmed white people, let alone people of color, or even probably the most striking aspect of that book was so he not only looked at healthcare, but even the massive debate currently over gun control.

BB: Gun control.

IK: And gun safety and gun rights, and how first and foremost, you've had white men who have been advocating for the reduction or elimination of gun safety laws so that they can arm themselves, so that they can protect their families against Muslim terrorists and Black criminals and LatinX invaders as they call them. And what's fascinating is those very states where they've been able to successfully eliminate these gun safety policies, it's led to a massive surge in people being killed, white men being killed by hand gun via suicide, so the very people, white men who've been pushing for the reduction in gun safety laws have then led to them, given them greater ability to accumulate guns, and they've used those guns to kill themselves, so literally, people are dying of whiteness.

BB: Can I just ask you just like a no bullshit question here?

IK: Mm-hmm.

BB: Why does that make so much sense to some of us and no sense, it seems, to other people? Why do some of us see the through line and some of us don't see the through line? Do you understand what I'm asking? It's a weird question.

IK: Yeah, yeah. I think first and foremost, because we're living in different sort of realities, and so, for many of these white men who are advocating, who are proud card-carrying members of the NRA, who are advocating for the accumulation of weapons by white men, they believe... I should say they've been made to believe that the cause of their own personal pain, the reasons why they're struggling in society or they do don't have more than they already have, is because of these immigrants and these people of color. They also generalize, when there's a Black person who commits murder, or a LatinX immigrant or a terrorist who commits murder, in their mind, those are the central sort of problems that are harming America and are threatening them. And so they're in tremendous amounts of fear, because they're constantly told by their politicians, by the people they listen to, that these are the people you should fear, and then they're told, "Your rights are being taken away. White men are being chastised and criticized, and demeaned by women, by people of color, by everybody, and so we are your defenders and you need to defend yourself through these weapons."

IK: And, but then what's happening is they're actually getting these weapons and killing themselves, and then all of those individual suicides are individualized, so there's not this collective national outcry about the incredible level of white men who are committing suicide, because, again, if something bad happens to white people, it's individualized.

BB: I've just been thinking a lot about your book around the How to Be an Antiracist book, and I've been thinking about how there is a very short distance in my mind between the dehumanizing dog whistle language from this administration to calling the cops on a bird watcher, to George Floyd. And it's my training, again, I think in social work systems theory, that these things lie on a continuum, but that that walk is very short between these things. Do you agree with that or disagree with that?

IK: Oh yeah, I agree. I mean, I actually tweeted out last week after we heard about what happened to George Floyd, that we should be seeing that, I think I said something to the... Well, let me just say the idea, and that is, when it comes to police violence, oftentimes the beginning of police violence is someone, and in this case, a white woman calling the police saying, "A Black male is threatening my life. I need your help, come help me," when indeed she is actually the person who's threatening the other person, but anyway, she calls up the police, and then the police come, imagining that there's this so-called Black super predator who's preying on this innocent white woman, and that it is their job principally to protect them, and so, then they come imagining the need for force. And then Christian Cooper ends up as George Floyd in Minneapolis.

BB: In a split second.

IK: In which an unarmed person is now dead. And so, there's a very straight line from Central Park to Minneapolis, and we understand because that was essentially the lynching era, but that lynching era has continued.

BB: And I think I would back the line up, because I think for me, a big part of my studies was dehumanization and the process, and the very invisible process of dehumanizing, which every genocide in recorded history starts with dehumanizing and starts with language. So when we hear things like, when we talk about immigrants and the White House uses words like infestation, and when we use words like... I don't even think I've ever heard white people referred to as thugs in my life. It's people have a very hard time understanding that once we move people outside of what we believe is humanity, that it's possible to do anything to them.

IK: It is. And I think that is the reason why when you have those racist ideas that cause you to demonize people of color, and then that is combined with racist policies that are over-policing their neighborhoods, or allowing police officers who kill them to not be prosecuted, or to get off, it only continues this cycle that not only do they not matter to me, they don't even matter to the state.

BB: Right. You wrote something, I think this was a quote from the New York Times, and I feel like I could talk to you for... I hope you come back again, and we can talk more about all the great policy change that's happening. That's what I'm hoping.

IK: That's what I'm hoping, too.

BB: But I want to read this quote because and it says, "By not running from the books that pain us, we can allow them to transform us." This is a quote from you. "I ran from antiracist books most of my life. But now I can't stop running after them, scrutinizing myself and my society, and in the process changing both."

IK: That's what we need to be doing. I think many of us have learned, even from your work, we have to be constantly growing. We cannot harden ourselves, and certainly our children into, "They're stupid or we're stupid." We have to say, "You know what, that was not a smart thing that I did or said. That was a racist act. But I am not essentially a racist." No one is. Everyone has the capacity to change, everyone has the capacity to be antiracist. Everyone has the capacity to grow. And if we're not growing as human beings, then what are we? What's distinguishing humans from other beings? It's that capacity for self-awareness and growth.

BB: That's right, meaning making. I always go back to that quote from Shawshank Redemption, "Get busy living or get busy dying." And I think if you're not learning and growing, which can be painful, stretch marks, bruises, you're dying in a way. Okay, Ibram, walk me through, because I really want to get one of your books for my soon to be 15-year-old son, and so tell me about the sequence of Stamped from the Beginning. Is there a YA version?

IK: Yes.

BB: So how does it work?

IK: So when I wrote Stamped from the Beginning, which again, chronicled this history of racist ideas, literally from their origins to the present, so upwards of 600 years of history, people would come up to me and say, "You know what, I wish I would have learned this in middle school, in high school. I didn't understand and know this history." And so, people kept telling me that, "You know what, this book needs to be before every middle schooler and high schooler." And so we decided that, "Let's create one." And Stamped from the Beginning is upwards of 500 pages, and so we decided we needed a specific book. And so I asked Jason Reynolds, who's, he's probably one of the more gifted YA novelists, who historically has written on race and racism, and he has his own voice and his own style. And I asked him a couple of times, he said no a couple of times, but eventually he agreed, and so he took Stamped from the Beginning, and completely rewrote it for young people in their voice, in his patented lyricism. And yeah, they've fallen in love with it. It actually debuted number one New York Times, so yeah, people are really responding to it well.

BB: You know what I love, is it's never too early to talk to our kids about this. And now you've given us the gifts of a board book, a YA book, and then books for adults.

IK: And that's, I want, especially in this moment, when there are a lot of people who want tools for not only understanding racism themselves, but even teaching and instructing their kids, and I'm hoping also that people realize that they should be having these discussions with their children. Their children are not color blind. The data shows that children as early as six months recognize race, and children as early as two to three years old have begun to consume racist ideas. And if you're not teaching those children antiracist ideas, if you're not challenging those racist ideas, and they're only going to grow up and then one day say something, you're going to feel completely embarrassed. Because like with anything else, people have to be taught to be antiracist, just as they're taught, indirectly, by so many things they see and experience and hear, to be racist.

BB: And I think it's been also my experience that, when you don't... The biggest mistake a lot of people I see making, is we don't talk about race, but we've raised nice and kind kids, so we assume that that's going to translate to something, and it translates to nothing, except the messaging that it's scary and not okay to talk about race.

IK: Exactly. Yeah, if the modeling... Can you imagine, there are adults, and many adults who struggle to talk about race and racism, and... But could you imagine if those adults were talking about these issues as early as 2 or 3, or 1, or as soon as you can speak, then... And I think, part of this also, is, as I'm learning on thinking through how to parent my child, of course, we've learned from you, and one of the things we're trying to model for her, is how to have difficult, uncomfortable conversations and how necessary those conversations are for her having a healthy, happy, and productive and impactful sort of life. And so this talking about race and racism is one type of difficult conversation we need to teach her how to have.

BB: Yeah, and, God, I just don't think there's a bigger gift that we... On top of knowing that you're loved and worthy of love and belonging, I don't know if there's a greater gift that we can give our kids, than the ability to lean into difficult conversation and to be vulnerable. Yeah. Okay, I have this last 10 rapid fire, and it's really important, it's more lighthearted, but it's about getting to know you as a person, and I think, sometimes, one of the hardest things about being an activist is not being seen as a person and can be sometimes dehumanizing in its own way. So if you would allow me, I'd love to ask you these 10 questions.

IK: Sure. Yeah. Let's do it.

BB: Okay, ready? Number one's fill in the blank. Vulnerability is?

IK: Courageous.

BB: Number two, you're called to do something brave, but your fear is real and it's stuck right in your throat. What's the first thing you do?

IK: Think about what the right thing to do is, and focus on that, rather than my fear.

BB: What is something that people often get wrong about you?

IK: That I'm very, very serious and angry all the time.

[chuckle]

BB: Okay. What's the last show that you binged and loved?

IK: That we binged, let's see. Probably... Oh, God, what's the show that was the... Probably the lead show on HBO, that just ended. I'm forgetting the name of it.

BB: Game of Thrones?

IK: Game of Thrones, yes.

BB: Okay, got it.

IK: Game of Thrones. So, literally... So, my wife and I, we hadn't seen it at all, any of the episodes, and we just binge-watched it late last year, and we both really liked it, except the ending, of course, but...

BB: Now, that's a binge, that's a hella binge right there, if you watched it all. Okay, a film that you really love?

IK: So I think, one of the films that I really love, particularly in context to our conversation, is After Earth, which was a movie with Will Smith and his son, in which they are sort of lost on this mysterious sort of planet, and he's hurt, and they have to figure out a way to elude people, or I should say beings and beasts that are trying to kill them. And Will is seeking to really get his son, and speak through his son, to get his son to essentially get them both to safety because he's hurt. And I remember at one point, he's trying to encourage him to face this dangerous, or horrible sort of villain beast that sort of makes up the movie, and he says something to the effect that, "Fear is not real. Danger is real, but fear is a choice," and he obviously wanted him to make a different choice.

BB: God, what a quote.

IK: Yeah.

BB: Okay, a concert that you'll never forget.

IK: Probably... So I... One of my favorite groups in the '90s, when I was growing up, was Jagged Edge, this R&B group, and so I was able to not only see them in concert, but even meet them when I was a freshman... Oh, not a freshman, when I was at FAMU, where I did my undergrad in Tallahassee, Florida.

BB: Favorite meal.

IK: So I'd say my favorite food now is probably avocado, and it's fascinating because I only really started eating avocado probably in the last five years, and one day... And I'm the type of person, if it doesn't look good to me, then I'm not going to want to eat it, and so, since it was green, I'm like, how could... It just looks weird. But then one day I tried it, and I haven't looked back since.

BB: The rest is history, avocado history. Okay, what's on your nightstand right now?

IK: Where... Oh.

BB: He's literally looking at it.

IK: Yeah. What the Eyes Don't See.

BB: Okay.

IK: Which is "A Story of Crisis, Resistance and Hope in an American city," by Mona Hanna-Attisha, which essentially is the story of the Flint water crisis, and how this pediatrician was very critical in not only sort of breaking the problem or demonstrating the problem, but even seeking to lead its recovery.

BB: Okay, a snapshot of an ordinary moment in your life that brings you real joy.

IK: Ordinary moment, is my 4-year-old daughter, I'm home after being somewhere, and she just jumps into a massive sprint, she comes and say hello and hugs me around my legs. That always brings me joy.

BB: Yeah. Last one. What's one thing that you're deeply grateful for right now?

IK: I think I'm deeply grateful for being surrounded by people, who sort of practice love with me, and who show their love as I seek to show my love to them, and so people... I believe people choose to love, and I'm sort of deeply grateful that people have chosen to love me.

BB: Well, your work is life-affirming and life-changing. Professor Ibram Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist. We just have a couple of short weeks to wait for Antiracist Baby, the board book, to come out. I'll make sure that we profile that on all of our channels, and we'll put it up on brenebrown.com. I think danger is real, to go back to your quote, I haven't seen that movie, but that quote's amazing. "Danger is real, but fear is a choice," and I am grateful for you for choosing courage. Thank you for making us braver.

IK: Well, thank you, and of course thank you for all your work, and glad we had a chance to sit down and talk about this.

BB: Me too, thank you.

(music)

Again, I want to thank Ibram Kendi for joining us on Unlocking Us. I'm committed to having him back on the program, if he'll join us, to talk even more, about antiracism and everything he has to teach us. If you want to follow Dr. Kendi, on Twitter, he's Dr. Ibram, @-D-R-I-B-R-A-M, Instagram, @-I-B-R-A-M-X-K. You can also go to our show page, on brenebrown.com, and you'll see all of his books, links to all of his books, and how to find him on social media, his website, and learn more about the work he does. I always sign these podcasts, I sign off on these podcasts by saying, "Stay awkward, brave and kind," and I would add to this one, in addition to awkward, brave and kind, I know we have to make choices, we have to use our voice in service, and for me, that rarely means giving voice to the voiceless, I think the voiceless have voices, and they've been screaming, for centuries. I think our work is to show up, be brave, give ears to the earless, and that's not easy, but right isn't easy, very often. Take good care of yourselves.

© 2020 Brené Brown Education and Research Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Brown, B. (Host). (2020, June 3). Brené with Ibram X. Kendi on How to Be an Antiracist. [Audio podcast episode]. In Unlocking Us with Brené Brown. Cadence13. https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-with-ibram-x-kendi-on-how-to-be-an-antiracist/

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Brené with Ibram X. Kendi on How to Be an Antiracist

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Ibram X. Kendi and I talk about racial disparities, policy, and equality, but we really focus on How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi's groundbreaking approach to understanding uprooting racism and inequality in our society and in ourselves.

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America & Moore

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21-Day Racial Equity Challenge — America & Moore

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In 1996, America & MOORE, LLC was established to provide comprehensive diversity and leadership trainings, workshops, keynotes and consultation for schools, businesses, colleges and universities. After 20 years, our list of challenging and action-oriented sessions includes, but is not limited to White Women Teaching Black Boys, The N!gga(er) Word, America Is Changing: Are You Ready?, The Personal Achievement Gap, #Zero2Hero: An Addiction and Success Story, White Privilege 101, Diversity, Power, Leadership & Moore. Founder, Dr. Moore is recognized as one of the nation’s top motivational speakers, educators and consultants, especially for his work with students K-16.
Dr. Moore is co-founder of the on-line journal Understanding and Dismantling Privilege, co-editor of Everyday White People Confront Racial and Social Injustice: 15 Stories and the forthcoming book, A White Women’s Guide to Teaching Black Boys. Dr. Moore received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in Education Leadership. His PhD research is on Black Football Players at D3 Schools in the Midwest. (T): @eddieknowsmoore | (IG): eddiemoorejr

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What To Read, Listen To and Watch to Learn About Institutional Racism

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What To Read, Listen To and Watch to Learn About Institutional Racism

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PBS Newshour

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What to read, listen to and watch to learn about institutional racism

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The myriad consequences of institutional racism is a matter of national conversation and reflection. This list is just a starting point.

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Race Forward (videos)

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158 Resources for Understanding Systemic Racism in America 

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158 Resources for Understanding Systemic Racism in America 

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Smithsonian Magazine

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In a short essay published earlier this week, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch wrote that the recent killing in Minnesota of George Floyd has forced the country to "confront the reality that, despite gains made in the past 50 years, we are still a nation riven by inequality and racial division."

Amid escalating clashes between protesters and police, discussing race-from the inequity embedded in American institutions to the United States' long, painful history of anti-black violence-is an essential step in sparking meaningful societal change. To support those struggling to begin these difficult conversations, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture recently launched a " Talking About Race " portal featuring "tools and guidance" for educators, parents, caregivers and other people committed to equity.

"Talking About Race" joins a vast trove of resources from the Smithsonian Institution dedicated to understanding what Bunch describes as America's "tortured racial past." From Smithsonian magazine articles on slavery's Trail of Tears and the disturbing resilience of scientific racism to the National Museum of American History's collection of Black History Month resources for educators and a Sidedoor podcast on the Tulsa Race Massacre, these 158 resources are designed to foster an equal society, encourage commitment to unbiased choices and promote antiracism in all aspects of life. Listings are bolded and organized by category.

Historical Context

Between 1525 and 1866, 12.5 million people were kidnapped from Africa and sent to the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade. Upon reaching the New World, some 3.9 million of the 10.7 million who survived the harrowing two-month journey were enslaved in the United States. Comprehending the sheer scale of this forced migration-and slavery's subsequent spread across the country via interregional trade-can be a daunting task, but as historian Leslie Harris told Smithsonian's Amy Crawford earlier this year, framing "these big concepts in terms of individual lives ... can [help you] better understand what these things mean."

Take, for instance, the story of John Casor. Originally an indentured servant of African descent, Casor lost a 1654 or 1655 court case convened to determine whether his contract had lapsed. He became the first individual declared a slave for life in the United States. Manuel Vidau, a Yoruba man who was captured and sold to traders some 200 years after Casor's enslavement, later shared an account of his life with the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, which documented his remarkable story-after a decade of enslavement in Cuba, he purchased a share in a lottery ticket and won enough money to buy his freedom-in records now available on the digital database " Freedom Narratives." (A separate, similarly document-based online resource emphasizes individuals described in fugitive slave ads, which historian Joshua Rothman describes as "sort of a little biography" providing insights on their subjects' appearance and attire.)

Finally, consider the life of Matilda McCrear, the last known survivor of the transatlantic slave trade. Kidnapped from West Africa and brought to the U.S. on the Clotilda, she arrived in Mobile, Alabama, in July 1860-more than 50 years after Congress had outlawed the import of enslaved labor. McCrear, who died in 1940 at the age of 81 or 82, " displayed a determined, even defiant streak " in her later life, wrote Brigit Katz earlier this year. She refused to use her former owner's last name, wore her hair in traditional Yoruba style and had a decades-long relationship with a white German man.

How American society remembers and teaches the horrors of slavery is crucial. But as recent studies have shown, many textbooks offer a sanitized view of this history, focusing solely on "positive" stories about black leaders like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. Prior to 2018, Texas schools even taught that states' rights and sectionalism-not slavery-were the main causes of the Civil War. And, in Confederate memorials across the country, writes historian Kevin M. Levin, enslaved individuals are often falsely portrayed as loyal slaves.

Accurately representing slavery might require an updated vocabulary, argued historian Michael Landis in 2015: Outdated "[t]erms like 'compromise' or 'plantation' served either to reassure worried Americans in a Cold War world, or uphold a white supremacist, sexist interpretation of the past." Rather than referring to the Compromise of 1850, call it the Appeasement of 1850-a term that better describes "the uneven nature of the agreement," according to Landis. Smithsonian scholar Christopher Wilson wrote, too, that widespread framing of the Civil War as a battle between equal entities lends legitimacy to the Confederacy, which was not a nation in its own right, but an "illegitimate rebellion and unrecognized political entity." A 2018 Smithsonian magazine investigation found that the literal costs of the Confederacy are immense: In the decade prior, American taxpayers contributed $40 million to the maintenance of Confederate monuments and heritage organizations.

To better understand the immense brutality ingrained in enslaved individuals' everyday lives, read up on Louisiana's Whitney Plantation Museum, which acts as "part reminder of the scars of institutional bondage, part mausoleum for dozens of enslaved people who worked (and died) in [its] sugar fields, ... [and] monument to the terror of slavery," as Jared Keller observed in 2016. Visitors begin their tour in a historic church populated by clay sculptures of children who died on the plantation's grounds, then move on to a series of granite slabs engraved with hundreds of enslaved African Americans' names. Scattered throughout the experience are stories of the violence inflicted by overseers.

The Whitney Plantation Museum is at the forefront of a vanguard of historical sites working to confront their racist pasts. In recent years, exhibitions, oral history projects and other initiatives have highlighted the enslaved people whose labor powered such landmarks as Mount Vernon, the White House and Monticello. At the same time, historians are increasingly calling attention to major historical figures' own slave-holding legacies: From Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, William Clark of Lewis and Clark, Francis Scott Key, and other Founding Fathers, many American icons were complicit in upholding the institution of slavery. Washington, Jefferson, James Madison and Aaron Burr, among others, sexually abused enslaved females working in their households and had oft-overlooked biracial families.

Though Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, the decree took two-and-a-half years to fully enact. June 19, 1865-the day Union Gen. Gordon Granger informed the enslaved individuals of Galveston, Texas, that they were officially free-is now known as Juneteenth: America's "second independence day," according to NMAAHC. Initially celebrated mainly in Texas, Juneteenth spread across the country as African Americans fled the South in what is now called the Great Migration.

At the onset of that mass movement in 1916, 90 percent of African Americans still lived in the South, where they were "held captive by the virtual slavery of sharecropping and debt peonage and isolated from the rest of the country," as Isabel Wilkerson wrote in 2016. (Sharecropping, a system in which formerly enslaved people became tenant farmers and lived in "converted" slave cabins, was the impetus for the 1919 Elaine Massacre, which found white soldiers collaborating with local vigilantes to kill at least 200 sharecroppers who dared to criticize their low wages.) By the time the Great Migration-famously chronicled by artist Jacob Lawrence-ended in the 1970s, 47 percent of African Americans called the northern and western United States home.

Listen to Sidedoor: A Smithsonian Podcast

The third season of Sidedoor explored a South Carolina residence's unique journey from slave cabin to family home and its latest incarnation as a centerpiece at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Conditions outside the Deep South were more favorable than those within the region, but the "hostility and hierarchies that fed the Southern caste system" remained major obstacles for black migrants in all areas of the country, according to Wilkerson. Low-paying jobs, redlining, restrictive housing covenants and rampant discrimination limited opportunities, creating inequality that would eventually give rise to the civil rights movement.

"The Great Migration was the first big step that the nation's servant class ever took without asking," Wilkerson explained. " ... It was about agency for a people who had been denied it, who had geography as the only tool at their disposal. It was an expression of faith, despite the terrors they had survived, that the country whose wealth had been created by their ancestors' unpaid labor might do right by them."

Systemic Inequality

Racial, economic and educational disparities are deeply entrenched in U.S. institutions. Though the Declaration of Independence states that "all men are created equal," American democracy has historically-and often violently-excluded certain groups. "Democracy means everybody can participate, it means you are sharing power with people you don't know, don't understand, might not even like," said National Museum of American History curator Harry Rubenstein in 2017. "That's the bargain. And some people over time have felt very threatened by that notion."

Instances of inequality range from the obvious to less overtly discriminatory policies and belief systems. Historical examples of the former include poll taxes that effectively disenfranchised African American voters; the marginalization of African American soldiers who fought in World War I and World War II but were treated like second-class citizens at home; black innovators who were barred from filing patents for their inventions; white medical professionals' exploitation of black women's bodies (see Henrietta Lacks and J. Marion Sims); Richard and Mildred Loving's decade-long fight to legalize interracial marriage; the segregated nature of travel in the Jim Crow era; the government-mandated segregation of American cities; and segregation in schools.

Among the most heartbreaking examples of structural racism's subtle effects are accounts shared by black children. In the late 1970s, when Lebert F. Lester II was 8 or 9 years old, he started building a sand castle during a trip to the Connecticut shore. A young white girl joined him but was quickly taken away by her father. Lester recalled the girl returning, only to ask him, "Why don't [you] just go in the water and wash it off?" Lester says., "I was so confused-I only figured out later she meant my complexion." Two decades earlier, in 1957, 15-year-old Minnijean Brown had arrived at Little Rock Central High School with high hopes of "making friends, going to dances and singing in the chorus." Instead, she and the rest of the Little Rock Nine-a group of black students selected to attend the formerly all-white academy after Brown v. Board of Education desegregated public schools-were subjected to daily verbal and physical assaults. Around the same time, photographer John G. Zimmerman captured snapshots of racial politics in the South that included comparisons of black families waiting in long lines for polio inoculations as white children received speedy treatment.

In 1968, the Kerner Commission, a group convened by President Lyndon Johnson, found that white racism, not black anger, was the impetus for the widespread civil unrest sweeping the nation. As Alice George wrote in 2018, the commission's report suggested that "[b]ad policing practices, a flawed justice system, unscrupulous consumer credit practices, poor or inadequate housing, high unemployment, voter suppression and other culturally embedded forms of racial discrimination all converged to propel violent upheaval." Few listened to the findings, let alone its suggestion of aggressive government spending aimed at leveling the playing field. Instead, the country embraced a different cause: space travel. The day after the 1969 moon landing, the leading black paper the New York Amsterdam News ran a story stating, "Yesterday, the moon. Tomorrow, maybe us."

Fifty years after the Kerner Report's release, a separate study assessed how much had changed; it concluded that conditions had actually worsened. In 2017, black unemployment was higher than in 1968, as was the rate of incarcerated individuals who were black. The wealth gap had also increased substantially, with the median white family having ten times more wealth than the median black family. "We are resegregating our cities and our schools, condemning millions of kids to inferior education and taking away their real possibility of getting out of poverty," said Fred Harris, the last surviving member of the Kerner Commission, following the 2018 study's release.

Today, scientific racism-grounded in such faulty practices as eugenics and the treatment of race "as a crude proxy for myriad social and environmental factors," writes Ramin Skibba-persists despite overwhelming evidence that race has only social, not biological, meaning. Black scholars including Mamie Phipps Clark, a psychologist whose research on racial identity in children helped end segregation in schools, and Rebecca J. Cole, a 19th-century physician and advocate who challenged the idea that black communities were destined for death and disease, have helped overturn some of these biases. But a 2015 survey found that 48 percent of black and Latina women scientists, respectively, still report being mistaken for custodial or administrative staff. Even artificial intelligence exhibits racial biases, many of which are introduced by lab staff and crowdsourced workers who program their own conscious and unconscious opinions into algorithms.

Anti-Black Violence

In addition to enduring centuries of enslavement, exploitation and inequality, African Americans have long been the targets of racially charged physical violence. Per the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative, more than 4,400 lynchings -mob killings undertaken without legal authority-took place in the U.S. between the end of Reconstruction and World War II.

Incredibly, the Senate only passed legislation declaring lynching a federal crime in 2018. Between 1918 and the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act's eventual passage, more than 200 anti-lynching bills failed to make it through Congress. (Earlier this week, Sen. Rand Paul said he would hold up a separate, similarly intentioned bill over fears that its definition of lynching was too broad. The House passed the bill in a 410-to-4 vote this February.) Also in 2018, the Equal Justice Initiative opened the nation's first monument to African American lynching victims. The six-acre memorial site stands alongside a museum dedicated to tracing the nation's history of racial bias and persecution from slavery to the present.

One of the earliest instances of Reconstruction-era racial violence took place in Opelousas, Louisiana, in September 1868. Two months ahead of the presidential election, Southern white Democrats started terrorizing Republican opponents who appeared poised to secure victory at the polls. On September 28, a group of men attacked 18-year-old schoolteacher Emerson Bentley, who had already attracted ire for teaching African American students, after he published an account of local Democrats' intimidation of Republicans. Bentley escaped with his life, but 27 of the 29 African Americans who arrived on the scene to help him were summarily executed. Over the next two weeks, vigilante terror led to the deaths of some 250 people, the majority of whom were black.

In April 1873, another spate of violence rocked Louisiana. The Colfax Massacre, described by historian Eric Foner as the "bloodiest single instance of racial carnage in the Reconstruction era," unfolded under similar circumstances as Opelousas, with tensions between Democrats and Republicans culminating in the deaths of between 60 and 150 African Americans, as well as three white men.

Between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s, multiple massacres broke out in response to false allegations that young black men had raped or otherwise assaulted white women. In August 1908, a mob terrorized African American neighborhoods across Springfield, Illinois, vandalizing black-owned businesses, setting fire to the homes of black residents, beating those unable to flee and lynching at least two people. Local authorities, argues historian Roberta Senechal, were "ineffectual at best, complicit at worst."

False accusations also sparked a July 1919 race riot in Washington, D.C. and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, which was most recently dramatized in the HBO series "Watchmen." As African American History Museum curator Paul Gardullo tells Smithsonian, tensions related to Tulsa's economy underpinned the violence: Forced to settle on what was thought to be worthless land, African Americans and Native Americans struck oil and proceeded to transform the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa into a prosperous community known as "Black Wall Street." According to Gardullo, "It was the frustration of poor whites not knowing what to do with a successful black community, and in coalition with the city government [they] were given permission to do what they did."

Over the course of two days in spring 1921, the Tulsa Race Massacre claimed the lives of an estimated 300 black Tulsans and displaced another 10,000. Mobs burned down at least 1,256 residences, churches, schools and businesses and destroyed almost 40 blocks of Greenwood. As the Sidedoor episode "Confronting the Past" notes, "No one knows how many people died, no one was ever convicted, and no one really talked about it nearly a century later."

Listen to Sidedoor: A Smithsonian Podcast

The second season of Sidedoor told the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

Economic injustice also led to the East St. Louis Race War of 1917. This labor dispute-turned-deadly found "people's houses being set ablaze, ... people being shot when they tried to flee, some trying to swim to the other side of the Mississippi while being shot at by white mobs with rifles, others being dragged out of street cars and beaten and hanged from street lamps," recalled Dhati Kennedy, the son of a survivor who witnessed the devastation firsthand. Official counts place the death toll at 39 black and 9 white individuals, but locals argue that the real toll was closer to 100.

A watershed moment for the burgeoning civil rights movement was the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till. Accused of whistling at a white woman while visiting family members in Mississippi, he was kidnapped, tortured and killed. Emmett's mother, Mamie Till Mobley, decided to give her son an open-casket funeral, forcing the world to confront the image of his disfigured, decomposing body. (Visuals, including photographs, movies, television clips and artwork, played a key role in advancing the movement.) The two white men responsible for Till's murder were acquitted by an all-white jury. A marker at the site where the teenager's body was recovered has been vandalized at least three times since its placement in 2007.

The form of anti-black violence with the most striking parallels to contemporary conversations is police brutality. As Katie Nodjimbadem reported in 2017, a regional crime survey of late 1920s Chicago and Cook County, Illinois, found that while African Americans constituted just 5 percent of the area's population, they made up 30 percent of the victims of police killings. Civil rights protests exacerbated tensions between African Americans and police, with events like the Orangeburg Massacre of 1968, in which law enforcement officers shot and killed three student activists at South Carolina State College, and the Glenville shootout, which left three police officers, three black nationalists and one civilian dead, fostering mistrust between the two groups.

Today, this legacy is exemplified by broken windows policing, a controversial approach that encourages racial profiling and targets African American and Latino communities. "What we see is a continuation of an unequal relationship that has been exacerbated, made worse if you will, by the militarization and the increase in fire power of police forces around the country," William Pretzer, senior curator at NMAAHC, told Smithsonian in 2017.

The history of protest and revolt in the United States is inextricably linked with the racial violence detailed above.

Prior to the Civil War, enslaved individuals rarely revolted outright. Nat Turner, whose 1831 insurrection ended in his execution, was one of the rare exceptions. A fervent Christian, he drew inspiration from the Bible. His personal copy, now housed in the collections of the African American History Museum, represented the "possibility of something else for himself and for those around him," curator Mary Ellis told Smithsonian's Victoria Dawson in 2016.

Other enslaved African Americans practiced less risky forms of resistance, including working slowly, breaking tools and setting objects on fire. "Slave rebellions, though few and small in size in America, were invariably bloody," wrote Dawson. "Indeed, death was all but certain."

One of the few successful uprisings of the period was the Creole Rebellion. In the fall of 1841, 128 enslaved African Americans traveling aboard The Creole mutinied against its crew, forcing their former captors to sail the brig to the British West Indies, where slavery was abolished and they could gain immediate freedom.

An April 1712 revolt found enslaved New Yorkers setting fire to white-owned buildings and firing on slaveholders. Quickly outnumbered, the group fled but was tracked to a nearby swamp; though several members were spared, the majority were publicly executed, and in the years following the uprising, the city enacted laws limiting enslaved individuals' already scant freedom. In 1811, meanwhile, more than 500 African Americans marched on New Orleans while chanting "Freedom or Death." Though the German Coast uprising was brutally suppressed, historian Daniel Rasmussen argues that it "had been much larger-and come much closer to succeeding-than the planters and American officials let on."

Some 150 years after what Rasmussen deems America's " largest slave revolt," the civil rights movement ushered in a different kind of protest. In 1955, police arrested Rosa Parks for refusing to yield her bus seat to a white passenger ("I had been pushed around all my life and felt at this moment that I couldn't take it any more," she later wrote). The ensuing Montgomery bus boycott, in which black passengers refused to ride public transit until officials met their demands, led the Supreme Court to rule segregated buses unconstitutional. Five years later, the Greensboro Four similarly took a stand, ironically by staging a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter. As Christopher Wilson wrote ahead of the 60th anniversary of the event, "What made Greensboro different [from other sit-ins] was how it grew from a courageous moment to a revolutionary movement."

During the 1950s and '60s, civil rights leaders adopted varying approaches to protest: Malcolm X, a staunch proponent of black nationalism who called for equality by "any means necessary," "made tangible the anger and frustration of African Americans who were simply catching hell," according to journalist Allison Keyes. He repeated the same argument "over and over again," wrote academic and activist Cornel West in 2015: "What do you think you would do after 400 years of slavery and Jim Crow and lynching? Do you think you would respond nonviolently? What's your history like? Let's look at how you have responded when you were oppressed. George Washington-revolutionary guerrilla fighter!'"

Martin Luther King Jr. famously advocated for nonviolent protest, albeit not in the form that many think. As biographer Taylor Branch told Smithsonian in 2015, King's understanding of nonviolence was more complex than is commonly argued. Unlike Mahatma Gandhi's "passive resistance," King believed resistance "depended on being active, using demonstrations, direct actions, to 'amplify the message' of the protest they were making," according to Ron Rosenbaum. In the activist's own words, "[A] riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear?... It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. "

Another key player in the civil rights movement, the militant Black Panther Party, celebrated black power and operated under a philosophy of "demands and aspirations." The group's Ten-Point Program called for an "immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people," as well as more controversial measures like freeing all black prisoners and exempting black men from military service. Per NMAAHC, black power "emphasized black self-reliance and self-determination more than integration," calling for the creation of separate African American political and cultural organizations. In doing so, the movement ensured that its proponents would attract the unwelcome attention of the FBI and other government agencies.

Many of the protests now viewed as emblematic of the fight for racial justice took place in the 1960s. On August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 people gathered in D.C. for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the march, activists who attended the event detailed the experience for a Smithsonian oral history: Entertainer Harry Belafonte observed, "We had to seize the opportunity and make our voices heard. Make those who are comfortable with our oppression-make them uncomfortable-Dr. King said that was the purpose of this mission," while Representative John Lewis recalled, "Looking toward Union Station, we saw a sea of humanity; hundreds, thousands of people. ... People literally pushed us, carried us all the way, until we reached the Washington Monument and then we walked on to the Lincoln Memorial.."

Two years after the March on Washington, King and other activists organized a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. Later called the Selma March, the protest was dramatized in a 2014 film starring David Oyelowo as MLK. (Reflecting on Selma, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch, then-director of NMAAHC, deemed it a "remarkable film" that "does not privilege the white perspective ... [or] use the movement as a convenient backdrop for a conventional story.")

Organized in response to the manifest obstacles black individuals faced when attempting to vote, the Selma March actually consisted of three separate protests. The first of these, held on March 7, 1965, ended in a tragedy now known as Bloody Sunday. As peaceful protesters gathered on the Edmund Pettus Bridge-named for a Confederate general and local Ku Klux Klan leader-law enforcement officers attacked them with tear gas and clubs. One week later, President Lyndon B. Johnson offered the Selma protesters his support and introduced legislation aimed at expanding voting rights. During the third and final march, organized in the aftermath of Johnson's announcement, tens of thousands of protesters (protected by the National Guard and personally led by King) converged on Montgomery. Along the way, interior designer Carl Benkert used a hidden reel-to-reel tape recorder to document the sounds-and specifically songs-of the event.

The protests of the early and mid-1960s culminated in the widespread unrest of 1967 and 1968. For five days in July 1967, riots on a scale unseen since 1863 rocked the city of Detroit: As Lorraine Boissoneault writes, "Looters prowled the streets, arsonists set buildings on fire, civilian snipers took position from rooftops and police shot and arrested citizens indiscriminately." Systemic injustice in such areas as housing, jobs and education contributed to the uprising, but police brutality was the driving factor behind the violence. By the end of the riots, 43 people were dead. Hundreds sustained injuries, and more than 7,000 were arrested.

The Detroit riots of 1967 prefaced the seismic changes of 1968. As Matthew Twombly wrote in 2018, movements including the Vietnam War, the Cold War, civil rights, human rights and youth culture "exploded with force in 1968," triggering aftershocks that would resonate both in America and abroad for decades to come.

On February 1, black sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker died in a gruesome accident involving a malfunctioning garbage truck. Their deaths, compounded by Mayor Henry Loeb's refusal to negotiate with labor representatives, led to the outbreak of the Memphis sanitation workers' strike-an event remembered both "as an example of powerless African Americans standing up for themselves" and as the backdrop to King's April 4 assassination.

Though King is lionized today, he was highly unpopular at the time of his death. According to a Harris Poll conducted in early 1968, nearly 75 percent of Americans disapproved of the civil rights leader, who had become increasingly vocal in his criticism of the Vietnam War and economic inequity. Despite the public's seeming ambivalence toward King-and his family's calls for nonviolence-his murder sparked violent protests across the country. In all, the Holy Week Uprisings spread to nearly 200 cities, leaving 3,500 people injured and 43 dead. Roughly 27,000 protesters were arrested, and 54 of the cities involved sustained more than $100,000 in property damage.

In May, thousands flocked to Washington, D.C. for a protest King had planned prior to his death. Called the Poor People's Campaign, the event united racial groups from all quarters of America in a call for economic justice. Attendees constructed "Resurrection City," a temporary settlement made up of 3,000 wooden tents, and camped out on the National Mall for 42 days.

"While we were all in a kind of depressed state about the assassinations of King and RFK, we were trying to keep our spirits up, and keep focused on King's ideals of humanitarian issues, the elimination of poverty and freedom," protester Lenneal Henderson told Smithsonian in 2018. "It was exciting to be part of something that potentially, at least, could make a difference in the lives of so many people who were in poverty around the country."

Racial unrest persisted throughout the year, with uprisings on the Fourth of July, a protest at the Summer Olympic Games, and massacres at Orangeburg and Glenville testifying to the tumultuous state of the nation.

The Black Lives Matter marches organized in response to the killings of George Floyd, Philando Castile, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and other victims of anti-black violence share many parallels with protests of the past.

Football player Colin Kaepernick's decision to kneel during the national anthem-and the unmitigated outrage it sparked-bears similarities to the story of boxer Muhammad Ali, historian Jonathan Eig told Smithsonian in 2017: "It's been eerie to watch it, that we're still having these debates that black athletes should be expected to shut their mouths and perform for us," he said. "That's what people told Ali 50 years ago."

Other aspects of modern protest draw directly on uprisings of earlier eras. In 2016, for instance, artist Dread Scott updated an anti-lynching poster used by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the 1920s and '30s to read "A Black Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday." (Scott added the words "by police.")

Though the civil rights movement is often viewed as the result of a cohesive "grand plan" or "manifestation of the vision of the few leaders whose names we know," the American History Museum's Christopher Wilson argues that "the truth is there wasn't one, there were many and they were often competitive."

Meaningful change required a whirlwind of revolution, adds Wilson, "but also the slow legal march. It took boycotts, petitions, news coverage, civil disobedience, marches, lawsuits, shrewd political maneuvering, fundraising, and even the violent terror campaign of the movement's opponents-all going on [at] the same time."

Intersectionality

In layman's terms, intersectionality refers to the multifaceted discrimination experienced by individuals who belong to multiple minority groups. As theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw explains in a video published by NMAAHC, these classifications run the gamut from race to gender, gender identity, class, sexuality and disability. A black woman who identifies as a lesbian, for instance, may face prejudice based on her race, gender or sexuality.

Crenshaw, who coined the term intersectionality in 1989, explains the concept best: "Consider an intersection made up of many roads," she says in the video. "The roads are the structures of race, gender, gender identity class, sexuality, disability. And the traffic running through those roads are the practices and policies that discriminate against people. Now if an accident happens, it can be caused by cars traveling in any number of directions, and sometimes, from all of them. So if a black woman is harmed because she is in an intersection, her injury could result from discrimination from any or all directions."

Understanding intersectionality is essential for teasing out the relationships between movements including civil rights, LGBTQ rights, suffrage and feminism. Consider the contributions of black transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who played pivotal roles in the Stonewall Uprising; gay civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, who was only posthumously pardoned this year for having consensual sex with men; the "rank and file" women of the Black Panther Party; and African American suffragists such as Mary Church Terrell and Nannie Helen Burroughs.

All of these individuals fought discrimination on multiple levels: As noted in "Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence," a 2019 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, leading suffrage organizations initially excluded black suffragists from their ranks, driving the emergence of separate suffrage movements and, eventually, black feminists grounded in the inseparable experiences of racism, sexism and classism.

Allyship and Education

Individuals striving to become better allies by educating themselves and taking decisive action have an array of options for getting started. Begin with NMAAHC's "Talking About Race" portal, which features sections on being antiracist, whiteness, bias, social identities and systems of oppression, self-care, race and racial identity, the historical foundations of race, and community building. An additional 139 items-from a lecture on the history of racism in America to a handout on white supremacy culture and an article on the school-to-prison pipeline-are available to explore via the portal's resources page.

In collaboration with the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, the National Museum of the American Indian has created a that aims to "help people facilitate new conversations with and among students about the power of images and words, the challenges of memory, and the relationship between personal and national value," says museum director Kevin Gover in a statement. The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center offers a similarly focused resource called "Standing Together Against Xenophobia." As the site's description notes, "This includes addressing not only the hatred and violence that has recently targeted people of Asian descent, but also the xenophobia that plagues our society during times of national crisis."

Ahead of NMAAHC's official opening in 2016, the museum hosted a series of public programs titled "History, Rebellion, and Reconciliation." Panels included "Ferguson: What Does This Moment Mean for America?" and "#Words Matter: Making Revolution Irresistible." As Smithsonian reported at the time, "It was somewhat of a refrain at the symposium that museums can provide 'safe,' or even 'sacred' spaces, within which visitors [can] wrestle with difficult and complex topics." Then-director Lonnie Bunch expanded on this mindset in an interview, telling Smithsonian, "Our job is to be an educational institution that uses history and culture not only to look back, not only to help us understand today, but to point us towards what we can become." For more context on the museum's collections, mission and place in American history, visit Smithsonian's "Breaking Ground" hub and NMAAHC's digital resources guide.

Historical examples of allyship offer both inspiration and cautionary tales for the present. Take, for example, Albert Einstein, who famously criticized segregation as a "disease of white people" and continually used his platform to denounce racism. (The scientist's advocacy is admittedly complicated by travel diaries that reveal his deeply troubling views on race.)

Einstein's near-contemporary, a white novelist named John Howard Griffin, took his supposed allyship one step further, darkening his skin and embarking on a "human odyssey through the South," as Bruce Watson wrote in 2011. Griffin's chronicle of his experience, a volume titled Black Like Me, became a surprise bestseller, refuting "the idea that minorities were acting out of paranoia," according to scholar Gerald Early, and testifying to the veracity of black people's accounts of racism.

"The only way I could see to bridge the gap between us," wrote Griffin in Black Like Me, "was to become a Negro."

Griffin, however, had the privilege of being able to shed his blackness at will-which he did after just one month of donning his makeup. By that point, Watson observed, Griffin could simply "stand no more."

Sixty years later, what is perhaps most striking is just how little has changed. As Bunch reflected earlier this week, "The state of our democracy feels fragile and precarious."

Addressing the racism and social inequity embedded in American society will be a "monumental task," the secretary added. But "the past is replete with examples of ordinary people working together to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges. History is a guide to a better future and demonstrates that we can become a better society-but only if we collectively demand it from each other and from the institutions responsible for administering justice."

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smithsonian asian pacific american center

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158 Resources for Understanding Systemic Racism in America

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In a short essay published earlier this week, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch wrote that the recent killing in Minnesota of George Floyd has forced the country to "confront the reality that, despite gains made in the past 50 years, we are still a nation riven by inequality and racial division."

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Literary Hub

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Across the country, black-owned bookstores have served as community gathering spaces, support for emerging authors, and educational resources. Those listed below are open and ready for online orders, with the exception of several stores that are only taking orders over the phone, which are noted in parentheses.
*
Order from these independent bookstores:
*To add your store to the following list, please email info@lithub.com
District of Columbia
Mahogany Books · Sankofa Video Books & Cafe · Loyalty Bookstore

Frontline Bookstore · Semicolon Bookstore & Gallery · The Underground Bookstore (local phone orders)

Source of Knowledge Book Store (call 973-824-2556 for local orders)

The Lit. Bar · Cafe con Libros · Sister's Uptown Bookstore

Philadelphia, PA
Books & Stuff · Uncle Bobbie's Coffee & Books · Harriett's Bookshop

Lansdale, PA
The Black Reserve Bookstore (call 267-221-3090 for local orders)
Special thanks to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, Bookshop.org, the African American Literature Book Club, and Jenna Johnson for providing information.

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You can order today from these black-owned independent bookstores.

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Across the country, black-owned bookstores have served as community gathering spaces, support for emerging authors, and educational resources. Those listed below are open and ready for online orders, with the exception of several stores that are only taking orders over the phone, which are noted in parentheses.

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What You Need To Do To Support Your Black Colleagues 

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What You Need To Do To Support Your Black Colleagues 

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The Financial Diet

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Within the last few months, as a whole, we've experienced the ravaging effects of a global pandemic, including the loss of our loved ones, the loss of our jobs, and the loss of a semblance of normal, everyday life. Moreover, that, not only has the Black community weathered the impacts of COVID-19 (while watching the Black population Refinery29 writer Danielle Cadet points out die at staggeringly higher rates from the virus, may we add), but they have also witnessed the consecutive murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, David McAtee.

They have seen that people who look like them are not safe going for a jog outside, or spending the day bird-watching. And yet, many carry on and report in for work as they normally would. But things are not normal. Cadet writes, "...we have woken up and answered the emails and gotten on the Zoom calls. We've showed up with a smile, and put the pain and fear behind us." But Cadet wants internet readers to know that your Black coworkers are most likely okay right now.

"There are certainly ways that you can show your Black coworkers the care and concern you have for them. There are also ways you can make the problem worse, so be thoughtful, and understand that this is a process. There is no shortcut to becoming an anti-racist."

I'm assuming you're reading this because hopefully you're looking for the best way to help support your Black colleagues - and thinking about the to do so is a great start. As a white, cis woman, I would never want to assume what I think Black coworkers need, but I do think the onus is on us to research and figure out the steps we can take to support our Black colleagues, friends, and peers in ways that are most impactful - not in a way that we, white folks, assume are impactful.

Matthew Kincaid (the founder of ), who graciously provided Overcoming Racism , which just launched a to help fund its pivot from classrooms and institutions to creating free resources for the general public. Matthew's viral video on white allyship is available The Financial Diet some advice, tells us, "If you are white, there are certainly ways that you can show your Black coworkers the care and concern you have for them. There are also ways you can make the problem worse, so be thoughtful, and understand that this is a process. There is no shortcut to becoming an anti-racist."

I asked several other experts for their insights on how to be a better ally in the workplace. Of course, everyone has been processing what's going on (and what has been going on) in totally different ways, so please keep in mind there is no "prescribed" way of showing your Black colleagues you support them and that you are there for them. What matters, ultimately, is that you are putting your privilege and compassion into use in a meaningful, actionable way.

1. First, don't ignore what's happening.

" When my husband died, the people that didn't acknowledge my grief by saying something, felt almost like they had committed an act of violence towards me. This is how it will feel to your Black colleagues now if you don't say anything."

" When my husband died, the people that didn't acknowledge my grief by saying something, felt almost like they had committed an act of violence towards me. This is how it will feel to your Black colleagues now if you don't say anything. You can't see Black men being lynched on the streets and not say anything. I have seen a lot of the narrative online about checking in on your Black colleagues. While checking in to see how they're doing is a first step in the right direction, it's not nearly enough. We need to keep in mind that already the Black community has suffered massive losses in terms of COVID-19. It is estimated that at least 1 in 5 in the Black community either lost a family member or someone close to them or they know of someone that died. In addition, Black communities are dealing with the tragic images in the media of Black men and women being murdered (or lynched) in broad daylight with people filming the entire thing on their cell phones. It seems like a world in chaos, so not saying anything about it and ignoring the problem is highly problematic." -Keisha Blair, author of

2. And then start by looking inward.

"Have there been times in the office where you might have contributed to them feeling invisible? Didn't stand up for them in a meeting if you watched them experience a microaggression?"

"Is it harder at this moment to be Black in America? Yes. However, we live in this skin all the time. We work with our white colleagues on a daily basis. Our reality has not changed entirely just because the racism we experience daily is being broadcast to America. That said, it's important to be reflective. Ask yourself how you have or haven't shown up for this colleague before today. Have there been times in the office where you might have contributed to them feeling invisible? Didn't stand up for them in a meeting if you watched them experience a microaggression? Engaging with your Black co-workers isn't just about how you respond in this moment. Being a good co-worker and ally to a Black person is about building a track record in which that person can trust your rather than your words. In times like these, sometimes it is less about what you are willing to give, and more about what you are willing to lose. It is helpful if you typically post on social media about your pets or your children, that you also make a public statement regarding your thoughts about racism and police brutality." - Matthew Kincaid

3. Acknowledge system racism and racial tension.

"Many Black folks operating in white spaces have been explicitly and subtly shown that it's not okay to talk freely about their experience of being Black ."

"It's scary and inconvenient to be Black in America. Verbally acknowledging that in the workplace is often the first step toward creating the space for important conversations to occur. Many Black folks operating in white spaces have been explicitly and subtly shown that it's not okay to talk freely about their experience of being Black. When the oppressed start the conversation, we're shouldering a burden on top of a burden." - Robleh Kirce, one of the facilitators (trainers) at LifeLabs Learning

4. Be present.

"This is not the time to give your point of view, ask questions for your clarification, or to release your personal guilt."

"Your Black Colleagues want you to be 'in' this moment. That looks like actively listening, being empathetic and compassionate, and being flexible and responsive with how you can provide support. This is not the time to give your point of view, ask questions for your clarification, or to release your personal guilt." - Phyllis Reagin, Founder of At the Coach's Table & Leadership Coach

5. Understand the concept of emotional labor.

"Resist the urge to ask your Black co-workers what you can or should do. If anything, with their consent, you should be finding ways that you can lighten the load for them."

"If you are checking in on your Black co-workers, try first via text, and send correspondence that doesn't require a reply. 'Thinking of you, I am here for you' is better than 'how are you,' because you could be asking the person to recount triggering situations for your edification. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, do the work and do not ask people of color to do emotional labor for you. Articles like this can be a good start if you are feeling nervous or stuck, but you should not seek out resources that simply 'give you the answer.' Resist the urge to ask your Black co-workers what you can or should do. If anything, with their consent, you should be finding ways that you can lighten the load for them. This is a challenging time and many of us are hurting right now, and our wounds are on display for the world. Anyone has the ability to place a band-aid on a wound but if you truly want to heal, you will have to sanitize the wound first. And that part of the process might burn or sting a little." -Matthew Kincaid

6. Privately messaging your Black colleagues may not be good enough.

"You need to start talking to your circles of influence and telling them how you feel and telling them the problem."

Private confession is good but it can't stop there. Sending notes to your Black friends is cool but you need to publicly say it. You need to start talking to your circles of influence and telling them how you feel and telling them the problem. Write Op-Eds, call your legislators locally, statewide and nationally and demand action. think one of the best things to do is listen." - Dr. Froswa Booker-Drew

7. Amplify Black voices, make sure their accomplishments are made loud and clear, and offer to help with their workload.

"Do your part to amplify not only the voices and concerns of your Black colleagues but highlight their achievements, too."

"Your Black colleagues get promoted far less often to higher positions (even if they work harder, because of systemic bias in the system). So, from an economic empowerment standpoint, there are huge issues. Offer to support in any way you can - whether it's assisting with a task or project and taking a load off or speaking up on your team about diversity and the importance and recognition that certain groups have endured far more than others. Do you know what it is like to show up every day and no one at work acknowledges your pain? This is what it's like for your Black colleagues. In the workplace, often Black people are hired and promoted at much lower rates, even though we have employment equity initiatives at work, most don't function well, if at all. Do your part to amplify not only the voices and concerns of your Black colleagues but highlight their achievements too. Too often, their achievements are downplayed or worse, other team members take full credit for it. This is unacceptable and we need to start speaking up about it. Already Black people know that we have to work twice as hard in a system that doesn't favor us. It's devastating to think you have to do this with a lack of recognition tied to it. -Keisha Blair, author of

8. Create safe, virtual spaces for coworkers to gather and have open conversations.

"Keep in great communication with your Black colleagues/friends to see if there are any personal/work-related issues that you might be able to assist with."

"During this time, let's even focus on virtual & group discussions, calls, and communications with our colleagues, join company-related committees and groups associated with their Black colleagues, keep in great communication with your Black colleagues/friends to see if there are any personal/work-related issues that you might be able to assist with, etc. We are at the cusp of our new normal, and what we don't want to keep around is THIS! Prevention of these types of events, happenings, racism, etc. is required, and our work as members of world society will never be done until we reach the extermination of such negativity!" - Michael James Nuells , Professional Actor & Special Events Manager

9. Please do not ask your Black colleagues or put them in a position to defend or rebuke the riots or looting.

"This question will come off as racist, and as if you are putting your colleagues in place to speak for all Black people, we are not a monolith." -Lutze B. Segu, MSW

10. Do the work and educate yourself.

"Do not ask your black colleagues to explain racism to you. It is not their responsibility."

" If you do not understand what is happening or the history of this country's racial issues, then do the work and find out. Read (e.g., " How to Be an Anti- Racist" by lbram X. Kendi, " White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism" by Robin J.DiAngelo), listen (e.g., 1619 in The New York Times, At the Intersection with Brian Kennedy and Marion Johnson) and watch (e.g., 13 th created by Ava Duvernay, I Am Not Your Negro created by Raoul Peck). Do not ask your black colleagues to explain racism to you. It is not their responsibility to educate you about racism." - Phyllis Reagin

11. Be okay with being uncomfortable.

"To support your Black colleagues, you need to be uncomfortable."

" Be uncomfortable. To support your Black colleagues, you need to be uncomfortable. This means examining your own biases, challenging colleagues to behave differently, creating a culture that respects and upholds diversity, and developing and implementing new business practices and policies that support diversity." - Phyllis Reagin

12. Don't be afraid to ask your Black colleagues how they would like to be supported right now.

"Black people are often not asked about their needs and feelings, which fuels the racist idea that we are superhuman and can weather anything."

"Black people are often not asked about their needs and feelings, which fuels the racist idea that we are superhuman and can weather anything. Yes, as a group, we are resilient, and we should ask why we are Black people tasked with being resilient. Some Black people might want to power through work, and others may want to take a day off or have shorter workdays. Treat this moment the same way you would treat a team member experiencing a death in their family because this is what this feels like for many Black people. Taking a trauma-informed approach right now is a good way of operationalizing your support and values." -Lutze B. Segu, MSW

13. There's no one-stop-shop or definitive guide for getting this right.

"Are you reading this because you want to spare yourself from committing an embarrassing gaffe? Or out of caution, because you're aware of the burden Black Americans are carrying right now?"

Black people are not a monolith - there are no one-size-fits-all solutions to supporting us right now. Be wary of any list that spells out a fill-in-the-blank step process to being a better white friend. You should also reflect on why you are seeking out the list in the first place. Are you reading this because you want to spare yourself from committing an embarrassing gaffe? Or out of caution, because you're aware of the burden Black Americans are carrying right now? Don't try to skip steps, your co-workers live with this reality on a daily basis and you should share the load with them. -Matthew Kincaid

14. Educate yourself.

"In the United States, it is imperative that non-Blacks make themselves aware of the plight of African Americans in this nation, to know where it came from and how it works."

"One of the key ways white coworkers can support their Black coworkers is by becoming culturally astute. One thing I know for sure that if you talk to someone who's Jewish, they're gonna tell you about the culture. If you talk to someone who's Italian, they're gonna talk about their culture. They are going to be very proud of it. Oftentimes, if you're African-American people assume what your culture is or your heritage is, and then when you start talking about it, they can't believe it's factual. If everybody else can have a culture and be proud of it, why can't we? Your Black coworkers can't be responsible for teaching you all about African-American history and culture. Of course, none of us are going to be an expert in every culture. But in the United States, it is imperative that non-Blacks make themselves aware of the plight of African Americans in this nation, to know where it came from and how it works." - Carolyn Cottle
Gina Vaynshteyn is an editor and writer who lives in LA. You can find more of her words on Refinery29, Apartment Therapy, HelloGiggles, Distractify, and others. If you wanna, you can follow her on or .

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What You Need To Do To Support Your Black Colleagues Right Now -- And Always

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Within the last few months, as a whole, we've experienced the ravaging effects of a global pandemic, including the loss of our loved ones, the loss of our jobs, and the loss of a semblance of normal, everyday life. Moreover, Refinery29 writer Danielle Cadet points out that, not only has the Black community weathered the [...]

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Dismantle Collective

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Allyship Definition

Allyship is a process, and everyone has more to learn. Allyship involves a lot of listening. Sometimes, people say "doing ally work" or "acting in solidarity with" to reference the fact that "ally" is not an identity, it is an ongoing and lifelong process that involves a lot of work.

A white ally acknowledges the limits of her/his/their knowledge about other people's experiences but doesn't use that as a reason not to think and/or act. A white ally does not remain silent but confronts racism as it comes up daily, but also seeks to deconstruct it institutionally and live in a way that challenges systemic oppression, at the risk of experiencing some of that oppression. Being a white ally entails building relationships with both people of color, and also with white people in order to challenge them in their thinking about race. White allies don't have it all figured out, but are deeply committed to non-complacency.

Articles

Frances E. Kendall, How to Be an Ally if You Are a Person with Privilege

Peggy McIntosh, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack

Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Case for Reparations

Ali Michael Org, 10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books For Racism and Sexism,

Allan Johnson, Excerpt from Privilege: Power and Difference

Margaret Biser, I used to lead tours on a plantation. You wouldn't believe the questions I got about slavery.

Holy shit, being an ally isn't about me!, Voices of WOC & Allies

Levana Saxon, Allyship and Accountability Glossary

Ryan Struyk, Blacks and whites see racism in the US very very differently

Matthew Hughey & W. Carson Byrd Born that Way: Scientific Racism is Creeping Back Into Our Thinking

NPR: Michael Martin, Fear of the Black Man, How Racial Bias Impacts Crime/Labor

Ernest Owens, 10 Messages of Wisdom We Need to Give Black Youth Right Now

Alexis Madrigal, The Racist Housing Policy that Made your Neighborhood

Goyette and Scheller, 15 Charts that Prove We're Far From Post Racial

Julie Turkowicz, A 'Historic Moment' for Native Americans

Nicholas Kristof, When Whites Just Don't Get It, Parts 1-7

Joy Sewing, Marrianne Williamson Asked White People To Apologize. She Got It Right

Tara Bahrampour, They Considered Themselves White, But DNA Tests Told a More Complicated Story

Books

Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools, 2nd Edition (2015) Glenn Singleton

Race Amity: A Primer on America's Other Tradition, Natl Center for Race Amity

White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism, Paula Rothenberg

Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice, Eric Mason

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Robin DiAngelo

Privilege: Power and Difference, Allan Johnson

Privilege: A Reader, Michael Kimmel & Abby Ferber

Raising Race Questions, Ali Michael

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander

Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson

America's Original Sin : America's Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America, Jim Wallis

Slavery By Another Name, Douglas Blackmon

When Affirmative Action Was White, Ira Katznelson

So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo

The Color of Law: The Forgotten Story of How Government Segregated America, Richard Rothstein

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, Ibram X. Kendi

How to be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi

White Awake: An Honest Look at What it Means to be White, Daniel Hill

Empire of Cotton: A Global History, Sven Beckert

Slavery's Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development, Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman

The Business of Slavery and the Rise of American Capitalism, Calvin Schermerhorn

The History of White People, Nell Irvin Painter

Films

13th, Ava DuVernay

When They See Us, Ava DuVernay

The Color of Fear, Lee Mun Wah

I'm Not Racist Am I?, Andre Lee

BOSS: The Black Experience in Business, PBS documentary

Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans From the Civil War to World War II, PBS based on book by Douglas Blackmon

Reconstruction, PBS based on book by Eric Foner

Videos

White Lies We Tell Our Children, Colin Stokes

The Enduring Myth of Black Criminality, Ta-Nehisi Coates via The Atlantic

How to Have a Voice and Lean Into Conversations on Race, Amanda Kemp

The Future of Race in America (on The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander

A Conversation with Black Women on Race, New York Times Op-Docs Series

A Conversation with White People about Race, New York Times Op-Docs Series

How Race Settled the Suburbs, Upworthy (Adam Ruins Everything)

Equity vs Equality, Carneades

Newsletter

For more resources, tips, and upcoming announcements, don't forget to sign up for our Dismantle Collective newsletter!

Support

You can also click here to donate to support our work.

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Resources for White Allies - Dismantle Collective

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Allyship is a process, and everyone has more to learn. Allyship involves a lot of listening. Sometimes, people say "doing ally work" or "acting in solidarity with" to reference the fact that "ally" is not an identity, it is an ongoing and lifelong process that involves a lot of work.

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Q&A: How to Talk About Race and Violence 

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Q&A: How to Talk About Race and Violence 

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NPR

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Like most public school educators, Jesse Hagopian has spent the spring struggling to teach his students online. Some are homeless, while others are working frontline jobs to support their families.

And now many of his students, like others around the country, are on the front lines in another sense: protesting the deaths of George Floyd and other black people at the hands of police.

"I don't think their schooling is stopped at all. I think, if anything, it's on hyperdrive," Hagopian says. He is an author, an activist, a father of two sons and a black teacher at Garfield High School in Seattle, a city where more than 80% of the teachers are white. And he is the co-editor, with Dyan Watson and Wayne Au, of the 2018 book Teaching For Black Lives.

I talked with Hagopian about what it means to teach for black lives and why it's important. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
I want to start with a word for parents, since so many parents are home teaching their kids now and may not know how to talk about what's happening. What's your advice for them?
Absolutely. I think that teaching for black lives now doesn't just mean teachers, right? It means all the parents who have been conscripted into home schooling. And they should take this opportunity to have these hard conversations with their kids about what's happening in our world today.
How old are your sons?
I have a 7-year-old and an 11-year-old.
How do you talk to your 7-year-old about police violence?
It's been a challenge his whole life. On his 2nd birthday, it was Martin Luther King Day, and I gave the final speech at the rally in Seattle. And a few minutes after that, a police officer pepper-sprayed me in the face. It was horrific pain. I got to his party late. I spent the party pouring milk in my eyes and my face. And it was traumatizing to him. So he's been knowing what police violence is about for most of his life.

And then [last week], we all went down to the rally. My wife and my kids and I. And we were there for about 20 minutes listening to speeches and chants before the police shot a flash-bang grenade into the crowd, just seemingly unprovoked and out of nowhere.

The smoke was rising. People were screaming. Everyone was running as fast as they can away. And my kids were really rattled and upset. And so, you know, I've had to have some very difficult talks that I wish I didn't have to have yet with my kids about this moment and about police violence.

He's learning from our experiences, and what I try to do is give him some context to it, help him process his emotions. And tell them he is not wrong for being scared, that it's nothing to be ashamed of. That it was OK to cry when we were at the rally and that we left right away. And I told him I would always keep him safe. So I'm just trying to hold them close right now.
Why did you publish the book Teaching for Black Lives?
We knew that there was a need to bring conversations about police violence, and about the loss of black life, and about the great contributions and struggles that black people have gone through throughout history, into the classroom.
And what is included in those conversations? Or to put it another way, what's missing from most school curricula?
You know, our students were having discussions about these horrific videos that they were seeing. And yet too many classrooms were not safe spaces to hold those discussions, so that kids are talking about it in the hallway, on the playground or on the school bus. But then actually analyzing it and what it means and how it relates to their lives was absent from too many classrooms.
And how is this coming into your teaching right now?
And so we wanted to help provide inroads for teachers to be able to have difficult conversations about the real-life situations that their kids are going through.

Too often black people are reduced to slavery, and the only way that kids learn about black history is learning about enslavement. And, you know, we wanted to say, actually there is this incredible legacy of struggle and contributions to our country that are far bigger than our oppression.

I've been trying to give historical context so that they can learn from the struggles of the past and then apply those lessons today.

We had Barbara Ransby [a professor of gender and women's studies and African-American studies at the University of Illinois Chicago] come to focus in on black women educators. So we looked at Septima Clark and Mamie Till ... and Ella Baker, and the way she always uplifted black youth.

But I think one of my biggest roles is just to be there for emotional support. Just to tell [my students] I care about them and that if they're having a hard time, you know, I'm someone they can talk to as they go through grief and trauma.
Schools are very segregated. But at the same time, they're among the more diverse spaces sometimes in our lives. What does teaching for black lives look like when your classroom is mixed?
We check in with their feelings every day. The first thing we do in my class is we do a mood meter. There's four quadrants with different colors. And they describe how they're feeling based on what color they're feeling. Beginning class with that. And using that as a way to then enter into a discussion about what's causing those feelings has been really important.
What does it look like for white teachers?
I think that I've had some of my most powerful moments of teaching in mixed-race settings. I have some really powerful stories of white students who had incredible breakthroughs with understanding their own identity and committing themselves to being allies for their black peers.

The vast majority of teachers in Seattle and across the country are white. And so if we're going to teach for black lives, it's going to require white teachers to do so. And that can be difficult. It can make you uncomfortable. But I hope that the video of George Floyd and the ensuing uprising that's happening around the country is enough of a catalyst to convince teachers that they need to educate themselves about the history of institutional racism. They need to explore their own identity as white educators and what that means. And then they need to take action by teaching about what they've learned.
Can you talk about the specific demands of the Black Lives Matter At School movement? I saw that Minneapolis public schools has just voted unanimously to terminate its contract with the police department.
And sometimes that looks like opening up space to allow the black students to teach and to share their experience. And sometimes that means contextualizing current events with history. Right. So, especially this week, teaching about the Tulsa massacres.

So I think that we need to struggle to get more black teachers in the workforce. But we also need to expect that the white teachers teach for black lives.

Absolutely. I think it will be a beacon to many educators across the country who are going to start putting similar resolutions forward at their school board meetings in this moment.

"Counselors, not cops," is one of the four demands we have, and I think it's one of the concrete reforms that could make a huge difference right now. The other three demands are to end "zero-tolerance" discipline policies, mandate black history and ethnic studies, and hire more black teachers.

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Q&A: How To Talk To Kids About Black Lives And Police Violence

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Like most public school educators, Jesse Hagopian has spent the spring struggling to teach his students online. Some are homeless, while others are working frontline jobs to support their families. And now many of his students, like others around the country, are on the front lines in another sense: protesting the deaths of George Floyd and other black people at the hands of police.

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Online Resources for Families Regarding Racial Injustice

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Online Resources for Families Regarding Racial Injustice

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Children's Museum of the Arts New York

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Online Resources for Families Regarding Racial Injustice - Children's Museum of the Arts New York

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CMA has an important role to play supporting parents and caregivers as they do what can be the hardest part of the hardest job in the world - listening to their children. To this end, we have compiled an ongoing list of resources below that may prove helpful to children and families.

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George Floyd And The Dominos of Racial Injustice

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George Floyd And The Dominos of Racial Injustice

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Trevor Noah - You Tube video

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George Floyd, Minneapolis Protests, Ahmaud Arbery & Amy Cooper | The Daily Social Distancing Show

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National Geographic

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Challenging Minds clip on YouTube

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Good Morning America (video)

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Sarah Smith, a mom of three black children in a predominantly white community in Connecticut, exemplifies what many black parents face, fear for her children, particularly her 12-year-old son.

"I'm scared for my son every single day that he leaves our house," Smith, a blogger, told " Good Morning America." "Because I don't know what could happen to him."

Smith said conversations about race with not only her son but also her two daughters are nothing new in their household.

"We have to have these conversations every single day because they are African-American, living in America right now," she said.

Laura Zimmermann is a white mom with two kids who live in Oak Park, an area of Chicago she and her husband chose to raise their kids in because of its diversity. Still, she said she and her husband are "grappling" with how much to tell their children, ages 8 and 2.

"The conversations that we're having in our home honestly have been a little bit strained," she told "GMA," adding, "I think this is the time in our history when white people need to step up and really engage. I think we have to start realizing that this isn't about us. It's actually about getting rid of this huge blind spot within our society that there is still systemic racism."

What the experts say

The most important thing for parents to do is to have honest conversations with their children and to be there to answer their questions, experts say.

"It is important to say conversation doesn't solve it by itself, but conversation, certainly with children, helps them make sense of the world," said Beverly Tatum, a psychologist and the author of "Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race." "You can have these conversations in an age-appropriate way with 3-year-olds or 13-year-olds."

Tatum added that it's important for white parents especially to remember that the conversations brought on by the death of George Floyd -- who was pinned down by a Minneapolis police officer, an act that was caught on camera -- is "not new information for African-American families."

"It's just a reminder that we haven't come as far as we need to go in order to really ensure everyone's safety," she said. "Racism is real. It's still with us."

For white parents who may not feel confident speaking with their children about race, or who may not feel as if they have all the answers, that can be an opportunity to learn with your children, according to Margaret Hagerman, a sociologist and the author of "White Kids: Growing Up With Privilege in a Racially Divided America."

"In order to understand the present, we have to understand the past, and it might mean that you don't know all the answers and you don't feel confident even talking about this with your children. But that means that you could do some work to learn the answers to these questions," she said. "You can take the time to read up on this and this could be something even that you do with your children."

Dr. Janet Taylor, a psychiatrist and the mother of four black children, echoed Tatum and Hagerman. For parents at this moment in time, she said, "communication is key."

"Now is the time to talk to our children about the anxiety that we are feeling, which they are feeling as well, and teach them how to resolve that, how to soothe themselves," she told "GMA." "Because what we don't want is our children to associate their anxiety with the images that they're seeing on the TV."

Here are three tips from Taylor, in her own words, on talking to kids about racism and the protests currently underway.

1. Tell the truth. "You say their names -- George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, all black people. One was being arrested. One was jogging. The other one was killed by the police [in her home]. We use those words and say that the protests are happening because [people] want justice, they want change and there are peaceful ways to do that. It's an opportunity to teach, when you have conflict, how to speak up and do the right thing instead of inflicting more pain."

2. Celebrate the differences. "You can point out the differences in skin color, hair texture, things that our kids know anyway. . . . We need to celebrate differences and we also need to point out that we can come together and make a difference and it has to be that way. Black people cannot be the only ones teaching Americans about racism. It's a combined effort."

3. Set the example as parents. "Look at mommy-and-me get togethers. You look at playdates. People need to look around and think, How diverse are those playdates? As important as it is to talk about racism, our children are not born racists. That is something that develops based on what they hear, what they see. It's really important to teach our children as early as possible to be allies, to stand side by side with their classmates. Stand side by side by your playmates. Speak up when you see someone who is not involved or not invited to a birthday party and to support. We can teach that at birth by examples as parents."

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How to talk to kids about race, privilege amid George Floyd protests

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Sarah Smith, a mom of three black children in a predominantly white community in Connecticut, exemplifies what many black parents face, fear for her children, particularly her 12-year-old son. "I'm scared for my son every single day that he leaves our house," Smith, a blogger, told " Good Morning America."

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Ben & Jerry's

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All of us at Ben & Jerry's are outraged about the murder of another Black person by Minneapolis police officers last week and the continued violent response by police against protestors. We have to speak out. We have to stand together with the victims of murder, marginalization, and repression because of their skin color, and with those who seek justice through protests across our country. We have to say his name: George Floyd.

George Floyd was a son, a brother, a father, and a friend. The police officer who put his knee on George Floyd's neck and the police officers who stood by and watched didn't just murder George Floyd, they stole him. They stole him from his family and his friends, his church and his community, and from his own future.

The murder of George Floyd was the result of inhumane police brutality that is perpetuated by a culture of white supremacy. What happened to George Floyd was not the result of a bad apple; it was the predictable consequence of a racist and prejudiced system and culture that has treated Black bodies as the enemy from the beginning. What happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis is the fruit borne of toxic seeds planted on the shores of our country in Jamestown in 1619, when the first enslaved men and women arrived on this continent. Floyd is the latest in a long list of names that stretches back to that time and that shore. Some of those names we know - Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Oscar Grant, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Emmett Till, Martin Luther King, Jr. - most we don't.

The officers who murdered George Floyd, who stole him from those who loved him, must be brought to justice. At the same time, we must embark on the more complicated work of delivering justice for all the victims of state sponsored violence and racism.

Four years ago, we publicly stated our support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Today, we want to be even more clear about the urgent need to take concrete steps to dismantle white supremacy in all its forms. To do that, we are calling for four things:

First, we call upon President Trump, elected officials, and political parties to commit our nation to a formal process of healing and reconciliation. Instead of calling for the use of aggressive tactics on protestors, the President must take the first step by disavowing white supremacists and nationalist groups that overtly support him, and by not using his Twitter feed to promote and normalize their ideas and agendas. The world is watching America's response.

Second, we call upon the Congress to pass H.R. 40, legislation that would create a commission to study the effects of slavery and discrimination from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies. We cannot move forward together as a nation until we begin to grapple with the sins of our past. Slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation were systems of legalized and monetized white supremacy for which generations of Black and Brown people paid an immeasurable price. That cost must be acknowledged and the privilege that accrued to some at the expense of others must be reckoned with and redressed.

Third, we support Floyd's family's call to create a national task force that would draft bipartisan legislation aimed at ending racial violence and increasing police accountability. We can't continue to fund a criminal justice system that perpetuates mass incarceration while at the same time threatens the lives of a whole segment of the population.

And finally, we call on the Department of Justice to reinvigorate its Civil Rights Division as a staunch defender of the rights of Black and Brown people. The DOJ must also reinstate policies rolled back under the Trump Administration, such as consent decrees to curb police abuses.

Unless and until white America is willing to collectively acknowledge its privilege, take responsibility for its past and the impact it has on the present, and commit to creating a future steeped in justice, the list of names that George Floyd has been added to will never end. We have to use this moment to accelerate our nation's long journey towards justice and a more perfect union.

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Silence Is NOT An Option | Ben & Jerry's

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Ben & Jerry's has a long history of being a values-led company. Explore some of their greatest ice cream moments.

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Summer 2020 Institute for Racial Equity in Literacy 

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Summer 2020 Institute for Racial Equity in Literacy 

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Heinemann, Dr. Sonja Cherry Paul and Tricia Ebarvia
July 13-17 and July 27-31

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Difficult Discussions: Talking to Kids about Racism, Violence and Scary News 

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Difficult Discussions: Talking to Kids about Racism, Violence and Scary News 

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Beetbox

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Beetbox | Early Education STEAM Learning Kits

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It's difficult to express the pain, sadness, and frustration we feel. Like so many of you, we at beetbox acknowledge that we lack the ability to fully understand what many of our fellow citizens of the world experience day in and day out, as an unfortunate and scary "normal". We are incapable of putting the pain so many of us feel into words.

As cities, neighborhoods and social media explode with anger, fear, and sorrow, worried parents and caregivers struggle with how to protect their children from seeing the worst of the violence while simultaneously teaching and explaining the complexities and disparities of racism and violence.

Even if they haven't been directly exposed, experts say parents should assume their children are already aware of tragedies like these and their aftermath.

Children and adolescents can be experiencing psychological and emotional pain, even if we don't think they "know"about, or are paying attention to current events. Whether it's from social media, discussions with friends, teachers, or caregivers, overheard conversations, or the distress they witness on the faces of family members, children know and can sense what's going on.

Do we try to our best to interpret or explain to them reality? Or should we protect them from such "grown up" problems? Experts agree that parents and educators shouldn't avoid difficult conversations.

Setting age-appropriate conversations into motion can give children a helpful formula for coping with and understanding difficult, real life situations. If adults are silent, children will draw their own (many times problematic or inaccurate) conclusions about what is happening and why.

We at beetbox want to do everything we can to communicate that we are here with you in experiencing this confusion and grief. While we might never have the exact right words to say, our goal is to encourage healthy conversations and do our best to help children navigate these uncertainties.

Talking to Kids about Racism and Justice - Oakland Library

How to Talk to Kids About Violence - Common Sense Media

Focusing on Anti-Racist Learning and Teaching - Early Childhood Education Assembly

Talking to Kids About Discrimination - American Psychological Association

Talking to Children After Racial Incidents - Penn GSE News

How to Talk to Children about Difficult News - American Psychological Association

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Difficult Discussions: Talking to Kids about Racism, Violence, and Scary News - Beetbox | Early Education STEAM Learning Kits

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It's difficult to express the pain, sadness, and frustration we feel. Like so many of you, we at beetbox acknowledge that we lack the ability to fully understand what many of our fellow citizens of the world experience day in and day out, as an unfortunate and scary "normal".

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June 18th at 5pm ET
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnqS49Zfrjw&feature=youtu.be

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Raising Antiracist Kids: Empowering the Next Generation of Changemakers

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Zinn Education Project

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As part of our People's Historians Online series, we hosted a special session with Keisha N. Blain on the "Roots of the 2020 Rebellion," focused on the history of policing. Many teacher participants reflected that what they learned about the origins and practices of policing is vital to make sense of current events, but is not in their U.S. history textbooks.

Therefore, we offer resources below to teach outside the textbook in middle and high school classrooms about police throughout U.S. history. There are many more books, articles, and films on the topic - these are just a few student-friendly suggestions.

To get started, we recommend the Throughline podcast on the history of policing in the United States with Khalil Gibran Muhammad.

Please let us know how you use these resources with students and key titles you suggest we add to the list.

Lessons and Textbook Critiques

"Riots," Racism, and the Police: Students Explore a Century of Police Conduct and Racial Violence by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca (Zinn Education Project)

A 7-year-old student's telling answers on a worksheet titled 'Police Protect Us' by Valerie Strauss (Washington Post, June 2, 2020)

Happening Yesterday, Happened Tomorrow: Teaching the ongoing murders of Black men by Renee Watson (Rethinking Schools)

How Chicago's Public Schools Are Teaching the History of Police Torture b

The Murder of Sean Bell: From Pain to Poetry by Renee Watson (Rethinking Schools)

Remembering Red Summer - Which Textbooks Seem Eager to Forget by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca (Zinn Education Project)

'What We Want, What We Believe': Teaching with the Black Panthers' Ten Point Program by Wayne Au (Rethinking Schools)

Podcasts

Throughline: American Police The origins of policing in the United States, starting with slave patrols. Features Khalil Gibran Muhammad, author of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America.

Intercepted: Ruth Wilson Gilmore Makes the Case for Abolition. Gilmore, in conversation with Chenjerai Kumanyika, offers a comprehensive road map for understanding how we have arrived at the present political moment of brutality and rebellion, and she lays out the need for prison abolition and defunding police forces.

Democracy Now: Badges Without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing Interview with Stuart Schrader, author of a book by the same name.

Books for High School Students and Adults

Chokehold: Policing Black Men by Paul Butler

The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale

Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea J. Ritchie

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique W. Morris

Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas by Sally E. Hadden

#Sayhername: Black Women's Stories of State Violence and Public Silence edited by Kimberlé Crenshaw

Teaching for Black Lives edited by Dyan Watson, Jesse Hagopian, Wayne Au

Young Adult Novels and Graphic Novels

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds

I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina

The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas

Say Her Name by Zetta Elliott

Also see books for children and young adults on the Social Justice Books Incarceration list, including a young readers' edition of Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson.

Articles and Collections

Student Athletes Kneel to Level the Playing Field by Jesse Hagopian ( Rethinking Schools, 2017)

Violence in Minneapolis is rooted in the history of racist policing in America: Police violence against African Americans has persisted for centuries by Keisha N. Blain ( Washington Post, May 30, 2020)

'We will overcome whatever [it] is the system has become today': Black Women's Organizing Against Police Violence in New York City in the 1980s by Keisha N. Blain, Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society, Vol. 20, Issue 1 (Fall 2018): 110-121.

Reading Towards Abolition: A Reading List on Policing, Rebellion, and the Criminalization of Blackness an invaluable list of books and articles compiled by the Abusable Past Collective

If You're New to Abolition: Study Group Guide by the Abolition Collective and published in Abolition: A Journal of Insurgent Politics

Where Do the Police Come From? by Neal Shirley and Saralee Stafford ( Scalawag Magazine, September 7, 2016)

Primary Documents

"#7. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of Black people, other people of color, and all oppressed people inside the United States." - from the Black Panther Party 1966 ten-point program.

Gordon Parks's 1960s Protest Photos Reflect the Long History of Police Brutality in the United States by Daria Harper in Artsy.

The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States by Ida B. Wells-Barnett 1895. (To compare to the current annual list of murders - or lynchings - by police.)

SNCC Digital Gateway Often missing from lessons on the Civil Rights Movement are the demands to end police brutality and violence by other white supremacists. Many stories at the website of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) highlight the role of the police and organizing to defend communities.

This Day in History Series

Selected stories of police brutality and protests of the police, including a 1941 protest of police brutality in Washington, D.C. See This Day in History stories about the police.
Art by Trust Your Struggle Collective and Dignidad Rebelde. Photo by Thomas Hawk.

Campaign Materials

We Came to Learn: A Call to Action for Police-Free Schools A report from the Advancement Project offers the history of how school police became institutionalized in the public education system in the United States, documents the negative impact on students of color, and offers a guide for how to take action. Learn more and download.

Resource Guide: Prisons, Policing, and Punishment by Micah Herskind. A resource guide that offers introductory sources on policing, prisons, and punishment that the author has utilized over the years.

Campaign Zero A police reform campaign with a platform that consists of ten proposals, all of which are aimed at reducing police violence. A result of critics who asked for specific policy proposals, this campaign has released three reports on its findings thus far.

Films

Abolition 101 taught by Orisanmi Burton.

Fruitvale Station by Ryan Coogler about the murder of Oscar Grant.

Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland by Kate Davis and David Heilbroner on HBO.

Slavery by Another Name by Sam Pollard, Catherine Allan, Douglas Blackmon, and Sheila Curran Bernard about false arrests of African Americans to feed the convict leasing system.

When They See Us by Ava DuVernay about the false arrest and imprisonment of five teenagers known as the Central Park Five. (Also see 13th.)

Mapping Police Violence
Mapping Police Violence publishes comprehensive and up-to-date data on police violence in the United States to support transformative change.

Black Lives Matter - Protect and Serve | WHUT | 8/25/2016

SNCC veteran, lawyer, and Teaching for Change board member Tim Jenkins gives a 90-second history lesson about who the police "protect and serve".

Perspective | The origins of policing in America | The Washington Post | 9/24/2020
Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Chenjerai Kumanyika explain how American policing grew out of efforts to control the labor of poor and enslaved people.

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Teach the History of Policing - Zinn Education Project

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Resources for middle and high school classrooms on the history of policing in the United States.

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How To Raise Kids To Be Anti-racist with Dr. Kendi

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How To Raise Kids To Be Anti-racist with Dr. Kendi

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CBS This Morning (video)

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How to raise kids to be anti-racist and talk to them about racism

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Parenting in Support of Black Lives-How To Build A Just Future For Kids 

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Parenting in Support of Black Lives-How To Build A Just Future For Kids 

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Common Sense Media (webinar with Ibram X. Kendi)
Recording from 6/18
https://www.youtube.com/ConversationsWithCommonSense

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Ibram X. Kendi is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author, professor of history and international studies, and the director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. He is an ideas columnist at the Atlantic and a correspondent with CBS News. He is the author of four books, including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won a National Book Award for nonfiction, and the New York Times bestsellers How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, co-authored with Jason Reynolds. His next book, the children's book Antiracist Baby, comes out June 16.

Julie Lythcott-Haims is the New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult. Her second book is the critically acclaimed and award-winning prose poetry memoir Real American, which illustrates her experience as a Black and biracial person in White spaces. A third book, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult, will be out in April 2021. She is a regular contributor with CBS This Morning on parenting. Julie is a former corporate lawyer and Stanford dean.

Allison Briscoe-Smith is an adjunct professor at the Wright Institute, and she provides consultation and training to Bay Area nonprofits and schools on how to support trauma-informed practices and cultural accountability. She earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and her clinical psychology Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Allison focuses on trauma and ethnic minority mental health. She has combined her love of teaching and advocacy by serving as a professor and by directing mental health programs for children experiencing trauma, homelessness, or foster care. Much of her work has been with schools, as a clinician, consultant, and trainer.

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Ibram X. Kendi is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author, professor of history and international studies, and the director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. He is an ideas columnist at the Atlantic and a correspondent with CBS News.

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PBS

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I am a white mother and educator. For decades in school I have taught "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Unfortunately, for many of my students, the suffering often seems abstract and they falsely believe these are stories from a distant past. But, racism didn't end with the Civil Rights Movement. It is an ever present, persistent evil that impacts us all in every aspect of our daily lives. Wishing and hoping that systemic racism will just go away--or believing that it doesn't exist in our own communities--is its own form of violence. And recently I have been asking myself if I've made this point clearly enough in my teaching practice.

It should not have taken the recent brutal murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade, at the hands of police, to spark our consciousness. But it has, and this is now the time for me, and for other white parents and educators like me, to sit up, take notice, listen to Black communities, talk to our children and demonstrate anti-racist actions. This is not a time to be dismissive, but instead it's time for us to reach out, support in every way possible and take meaningful action. I am taking action to build a better future for my children and the children in my care. As a parent and educator I can help dismantle systemic racism. As I continue my own journey of learning about, and committing to, anti-racist action, here's what I believe we can do as educators to support meaningful change.

Our words must match our actions
Frankly, what we have done in the past has not worked. If our society had dismantled systemic racism, then we would not be seeing the necessary unrest that we see today. Our rhetoric needs to match our actions. As I think about what I do as an educator and as a parent, I am not 100 percent confident that my rhetoric and actions have always matched. But when I know better, I do better. I have friends, writers and public figures whose words I listen to, whose words I reflect on, and whose words I take to heart in order to support the change that needs to happen in our society. But it's not enough to read and reflect on those words, I must put those ideas into action.

We must broaden representation in classroom reading
When I reflect on my teaching practice and consider the words that I teach - the novels I use in my classroom, the authors whose works I use on a regular basis--it is clear that I have not had enough Black, Indigenous, or People of Color representation in my curriculum. On reflection, I have not ensured that every student who sits in a seat in my classroom has felt that their experiences were reflected in what we read. As a high school English teacher, I know that the white savior trope dominates our canon of American literature. I need to do a better job of including more writers who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. People like Maya Angelou and Zora Neale Hurston, people like Amy Tan and Ta-Nehisi Coates, people like Jason Reynolds and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, people like Sandra Cisneros and Junot Díaz, people like Celeste Ng and Ted Chiang, Langston Hughes and Cleo Wade, Sherman Alexie and Leslie Marmon Silko.

We must embrace tough conversations
First, we must be better listeners. It is time to de-center myself, my stories and my experience, especially when talking about race and racial justice. This is not about me; it's about my friends, colleagues, and community. We must be disciplined and listen to the stories and experiences of others. Listening means not interjecting my point of view or saying anything that might invalidate the experience of others. I listen to People of Color on the news, I read their words in books and on social media. I listen with the intention of hearing what they have to say so I can create a connection and an understanding. I listen to the conversations students have when they are in my classroom and I find teachable moments when the conversation needs to change. I do not pretend I don't hear it. Even if this may feel uncomfortable, we need to have these conversations. I listen to the questions my own children have about race and I answer truthfully and transparently. I acknowledge the mistakes I have made as well as the mistakes others make, and we talk about ways to actively change hearts and minds.

We must explore different ideas, and listen with intention to change
I talk openly about race issues, not just on social media but with people in real life. I initiate conversations (but only if they want to talk) with non-white friends, colleagues, and students, and I actively participate by asking questions to gain understanding. Not everyone in a cultural group feels the same way and by asking questions I can explore different ideas. Again, this requires being present in the conversation, and listening to learn. I talk to my students about racial stereotypes, about how so much of what we read in class overwhelmingly has white characters and about how literature supports learning empathy for others. As a parent, I talk to my children about current events, about historical events, about implicit bias and overt racism. I talk to them about the importance of speaking up, listening, and learning.

We must commit to constant self reflection and admit our own bias
I'm still learning. I am learning how much words matter. I love To Kill a Mockingbird but it is one of many books that uses the White Savior trope - as a society we have so much exposure to this idea that white people have to step in and save Black people. This reinforces that idea that Black people need to be saved by white people. Through my own reflection, I understand how this trope is harmful. True allies don't seek to "solve and save," instead we stand beside our Black friends and colleagues, build empathy, amplify their voices, and stand up alongside them. I now constantly check my thoughts, and question even those that are fleeting: are my ideas influenced by bias, white supremacy and racism? I recently read this from Greater Good Magazine, and it stayed with me: "Admitting that we are all subject to biases creates a safer space to examine them more carefully and take steps to fight them..."

We must use media to strengthen understanding
I'm still learning about cultural appropriation, implicit bias and the historical events that have gone largely ignored, but which have inevitably led our country to this moment. Education plays a role in change. My own learning has been shaped by I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Invisible Man, and more recently, titles like Stamped, Just Mercy, The Hate U Give, Monster, and Dear Martin. These are books I can pass along to my colleagues, my high school students and to my own sons. I watch movies with my family like Akilah and the Bee, Raising Dion, See You Yesterday, Hidden Figures and BlacKkKlansman. I'm learning from podcasts such as Code Switch and Seeing White and my children and I listen to them at home and in the car.

I'm learning why and how Black communities are disproportionately impacted by Covid-19. I'm learning how and why Black people, especially Black men, are disproportionately killed by police. I'm learning and sharing the names and circumstances of the deaths with my children. I'm learning that I need to support organizations like the NAACP that actively support change. I'm learning that I need to show up.

We must keep doing the work
There is no quick fix for systemic racism. It requires continued, ongoing effort to dismantle white supremacy. But I also have hope. With our combined voices and our combined intelligence, we fight for racial justice and usher change. My Black students, colleagues and friends are in pain. As a white person, as a mother of white sons, as a white educator, it is incumbent on me to be more aware, to learn more, to empathize, to listen and to support others as we work to dismantle white supremacy and forge a new way forward.
More Resources

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a call to action for white educators who seek to be anti-racist

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A Call to Action for White Educators Who Seek to Be Anti-Racist | PBS Education

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I am a white mother and educator. For decades in school I have taught "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Unfortunately, for many of my students, the suffering often seems abstract and they falsely believe these are stories from a distant past.

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George Floyd. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor What Should We Tell the Children? 

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George Floyd. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor What Should We Tell the Children? 

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USA Today

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Should we tell the children? How?

Those are among the many questions parents are asking after the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. Many white parents wonder whether to talk with their kids at all, while parents of color swallow their grief and fear to have "the talk" once again.

These deaths are part of a more complex story, one some parents have been telling for generations, and others have long felt they've had the luxury to ignore. Experts in child psychology and race-based stress say these conversations are essential for all parents to have, and they underscore that there are developmentally appropriate ways to talk to children of all ages about racism and police brutality.
George Floyd protests: How did we get here?
"Silence will not protect you or them," said Beverly Daniel Tatum, a psychologist and author of "Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race." " Avoiding the topic is not a solution."

Racism persists, experts say, because many parents avoid difficult conversations.

"One of the most important things to remember is that you may not have all the answers, and that is OK," said Erlanger Turner, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor of psychology at Pepperdine University who studies mental health among racial communities.

USA TODAY spoke with Tatum andTurner about how to talk with children about racial violence:

Why is it important to talk with children about what happened to George Floyd and other incidents of police brutality or racism in the news?

Beverly Daniel Tatum: Even young children may see or hear about highly publicized incidents like the George Floyd case - perhaps overhearing the TV or the radio - and may ask questions. Or if parents are upset by the news, the child may perceive the parent's distress and ask why Mom or Dad is upset. In either case, an age-appropriate explanation is better than silence. Older children with Internet access may see online images on their own. Initiating an age-appropriate conversation can give children a helpful frame for understanding difficult realities. If parents are silent, children will draw their own often faulty conclusions about what is happening and why.

Erlanger Turner: Many adults are hurt and angered by these events, and their children may notice changes in their mood. It is helpful to have a healthy conversation around what happened and also talk about ways to cope when you witness social injustice.

Does COVID-19 warrant avoiding these conversations, given many children are already struggling with fear, anxiety and uncertainty?
'This report is ... a joke':House Democrats blast CDC over racial disparity data amid coronavirus
BDT: No. Not talking about upsetting events only fuels fear, anxiety and uncertainty. Being able to talk about something with a supportive adult can reduce fear, anxiety and uncertainty. Parents may avoid the conversation because they don't know what to say, but it is a mistake to think that their silence is helpful.

ET: I don't think that anxiety and fear about COVID-19 should stop a parent from talking about police brutality. This issue has been increasing in concern over the last few years as the number of black and brown people killed by police continue to rise. I think if you do talk with your child don't leave them in a high state of worry. Make sure to end the conversation by engaging in a pleasant activity after the difficult discussion so they won't stay worried or afraid.

How do parents start these conversations and how does that change depending on the age of their children?

ET: I think the first place to start a conversation around racism and police brutality is with honesty. Take ownership of your feelings and be comfortable sharing those feelings with your child. Then you can begin to allow them to share what they may already know about racial differences. I think that it is always good to allow children to share their opinion and understanding before you offer information.

For younger children conversations about racism should be limited to basic facts about how people are treated differently due to the color of their skin but also acknowledge that not everyone treats people differently based on race. For older teens, parents can consider exposure to news or social media posts as discussion points about this issue.

BDT: Regardless of the age of the child, it is important to balance acknowledging the reality of racism, or unfairness, with messages about the possibility of change, and the community of allies who are working together to make things better.

If a child of color asks if a police officer is going to kill them, what do you say?

BDT: The answer will depend on the age of the child. If it is a young child, a parent can be reassuring. "No, honey, you don't have to worry about that. Police officers don't want to hurt you."

In response to an older child, it can be reassuring to say something like: "I know that it is scary to think that something like that might happen, and I really don't want you to worry about anything like that. I know that most police officers want to help people, and most police officers never fire their guns. But sometimes they do get nervous and make mistakes. So it is important for you to know what to do if a police officer ever stops you..."

Black parents often refer to this as "the talk" they have to have with their adolescent sons to increase the odds they will survive an encounter with a police officer if and when they are stopped.

ET: That is a tough question. Depending on the age of the child, they may have some awareness of youth that have been killed by police. Obviously you don't want to respond in a way that is going to make children be more fearful for their safety. In my opinion, I think that you should let children know that most police officers work to protect them and their community.

If a child says they are afraid or angry, what do you say?

BDT: Acknowledge the child's feelings. The parent may have similar feelings. "I know it's upsetting to hear about and see these things happening. It upsets me too when bad things like this happen. Racism is very unfair. But it makes me feel better to know there are lots of people who want to change things." Being able to offer specific examples of community change agents would be useful. Being able to talk about what family members are doing to speak up against unfairness is especially useful. Actions always speak louder than words.

ET: If a child tells you that they are angry, that is appropriate. Don't force them to hide their emotional expression. However, be sure to help them identify ways to express their anger in a healthy manner which may include journaling or exercising to release the energy from their body.
Bear witness, record, de-escalate: How race may affect what bystanders are called to do in cases like George Floyd's
If a child is afraid for one of their friends, what do you say?

BDT: "I can see that you are worried about your friend. What do you think we could do that might help him or her?" Depending on the situation, this could be an opportunity to talk about what it means to be an ally, and how to stand in solidarity with another person.

ET: If a child is afraid for one of their friends, talk with them about those emotions. Allow the child to express why they may be afraid and help them identify how they can check on their friend's safety to ease their anxiety or fear. Part of what increases anxiety is the fear of the unknown. If you have a plan of action it will reduce some of those fears.

How can parents talk about law enforcement in a way that is honest but also doesn't discourage children from seeking help from law enforcement when appropriate?

BDT: Most police officers become police officers because they want to help people. And there are times when we would really want a police officer to help us - give some examples - if there's been a car accident, or if someone took something that belonged to us, etc. But sometimes a police officer does something bad, like today. When that happens, we might start to think that all police officers are like that. But it's important to remember that that is not true.

ET: I think that it is very important to talk with the children about law enforcement. For example, you can talk with them about how they protect rules in society such as making sure that people don't drive too fast so they won't harm themselves or others. Providing clear examples about the ways that law enforcement helps society will allow the child to better understand. You can also be honest about situations such as police brutality and let children know that some police officers break laws. If you have a trusted officer in your community it may be good to also allow the child to talk with them in person to reduce their fear.

Should these conversations be different depending on the race of the child?

BDT: Children of color are likely to experience racist encounters as they get older. They need to be helped to understand their own worth and feel affirmed in their identity as young people of color despite the negative messages they may get from others. Parents of color want to raise self-confident and empowered children who are not demoralized by other people's racism. This requires lots of conversation about racism and how to resist it in an ongoing way throughout their children's lives.

White children are often racially isolated as a consequence of segregated schools and neighborhoods, and consequently limited in their understanding of people different from themselves. White parents who want to interrupt the cycle of racism must learn to talk to their children about it and model their own anti-racist activity.
George Floyd video adds to trauma:'When is the last time you saw a white person killed online?'
ET: According to research, white parents often don't talk with their children about race or may emphasize "not seeing color." The concept of colorblindness or "not seeing color" is more harmful than helpful and does not honor an individual's identity. ... For white families, research suggests ... conversations should focus on raising anti-racist children and encouraging more friendships with children from others races.

Many of these deaths garner attention because footage of it goes viral. What should we say if our child asks to see it?

BDT: There are many adults who don't want to see such footage. I would not show it to a child at all. Once an image is in your head, it is very difficult to get it out. That said, it is reasonable to describe what happened and talk about why it was wrong. It is also likely that children with Internet access can view the footage without an adult's permission or assistance. Talking about it after the fact will help children process their feelings.

ET: You should not show your children these videos as it may increase the likelihood of them experiencing symptoms of trauma or having nightmares. What we know from research on witnessing disasters is that individuals may be at a higher risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder even through indirect exposure to these events.

What do we say if, in the course of this conversation, a child says something racist?
George Floyd protests: Anger floods U.S. cities
BDT: Inquire about it with curiosity, not judgment. "I'm wondering why you said that ..." After hearing more about what the child is thinking, you can offer correction by providing new information. "You know, a lot of people might think that is true, but I don't because...."
You may also be interested in: Alia E. Dastagir is a recipient of a Rosalynn Carter fellowship for mental health journalism. Follow her on Twitter: @alia_e
ET: I think the first thing to do is to not get defensive. You want to foster open communication with your child. However, I think you should explore why they have that opinion, where did they learn it from, and tell them why what they said was wrong. It might be helpful for you as a parent to think about ways that you may have unconsciously expressed racist attitudes.

How can parents explain the uprisings in a way that doesn't condone violence but also doesn't minimize the sense of injustice fueling them?

BDT: Children understand the concept of unfairness as well as the experience of frustration. Years and years of unfairness - racism - results in intense anger and frustration. The conversation can then be about what we must do to fix the continuing unfairness.

ET: I think it is important for parents to be honest. Share your hurt, anger, or disappointment with your child. You should also talk about different ways to protest social injustice such as calling your local politicians office or even visit their office to talk with them about policy change to reduce injustice.

Resources for parents

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George Floyd. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. What do we tell our children?

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Should we tell the children? How? Those are among the many questions parents are asking after the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. Many white parents wonder whether to talk with their kids at all, while parents of color swallow their grief and fear to have "the talk" once again.

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Uncomfortable Conversations with A Black Man 

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Uncomfortable Conversations with A Black Man 

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Emmanuel Acho on YouTube

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Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man - Episode 3 with Chip & Joanna Gaines + kids