# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Author's Note: I'm writing this in hopes that it can be used to lighten the load of marginalized folks, keeping in mind that not all marginalized people want to engage in the ally conversation, and that is perfect as well. For those who do, my prayer is that when someone asks you the question, "how can I be a stronger ally?" you might choose to save your breath/energy and send this in its place.
I have been asked by two dear friends, "how can I be a stronger ally?" Being the slow emotional processor that I am, I wanted to spend some time with this before I answered them. I surely appreciate and love these two individuals, and I appreciate their vulnerability in asking me this question.

I am not going to do much coddling here; I don't know that I believe that love requires coddling. Here are six things you can do to be stronger allies.

1. Listen more; talk less. You don't have to have something to say all of the time. You don't have to post something on social media that points to how liberal/how aware/how cool/how good you are. You are lovely, human, and amazing. You have also had the microphone for most of the time, for a very long time, and it will be good to give the microphone to someone else who is living a different experience than your own.

2. For one out of every three opinions/insights shared by a person of color in your life, try to resist the need to respond with a better or different insight about something that you read or listened to as it relates to their shared opinion. Try just to listen and sit with someone else's experience. When you do share in response to what someone has shared with you, it can sometimes (not always) feel like "whitesplaining" - meaning to explain or comment on something in an over-confident or condescending way. This adds to the silencing of the voices of people of color.

3. Being an ally is different than simply wanting not to be racist (thank you for that, by the way). Being an ally requires you to educate yourself about systemic racism in this country. Read Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow and Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me and Claudia Rankine's and so many other great books and articles that illuminate oppression and structures of white supremacy and white privilege. Use your voice and influence to direct the folks that walk alongside you in real life (or follow you on the internet), toward the voice of someone that is living a marginalized/disenfranchised experience.

Being an ally requires you to educate yourself about systemic racism in this country.

4. Please try not to, "I can't believe that something like this would happen in this day and age!" your way into being an ally when atrocities like the events in Charleston, S.C.,and Charlottesville, Va., happen. People of color have been aware of this kind of hatred and violence in America for centuries, and it belittles our experience for you to show up 300 years late to the oppression-party suddenly caring about the world. Don't get me wrong, I welcome you. I want for you to come into a place of awareness. However, your shock and outrage at the existence of racism in America echoes the fact that you have lived an entire life with the luxury of indifference about the lives of marginalized/disenfranchised folks. Please take several seats.

5. Ask when you don't know - but do the work first. This is nuanced. Some marginalized/disenfranchised folks will tell you not to ask them anything; don't be offended by that. Folks are tired, and that is understandable because it is exhausting to be a marginalized person in this world. However, there is something special that happens within human connections and relationships. In a nutshell, don't expect for people to educate you. Do the work to educate yourself. Ask questions within relationships that feel safe, and do so respectfully.

6. And finally, stop talking about colorblindness. It's not a thing. Colorblindness is totally impossible in a nation whose land was taken from the indigenous inhabitants through an attempt at genocide and horrific colonization. The same nation that enslaved humans and exploited them in every way imaginable built a nation on their backs, hung them, hunted them, and for centuries kept them from their basic inalienable rights and still does. The same nation that exploits and deports immigrants who were promised refuge within the American Constitution. The same nation that incarcerated Japanese Americans during World War II and continues to promote bigotry, exclusion, and violence against LGBTQ/gender non-identifying folks. This nation that allows swastika-wearing, Confederate-flag-toting, anti-Semitic racists to have a platform for their hate. The same nation that promised religious freedom, yet targets those who do not believe in a white, capitalist Jesus.

Ask when you don't know - but do the work first.

I love Jesus. And promise, Jesus was not white (literally brown, and wonderfully Jewish) and would have never been a capitalist.

It will never be possible for us to be colorblind, and we shouldn't ever want to be.

I heard a saying once at an Al-Anon meeting that offered me liberation: "We are only as sick as our secrets (and our shame)." Shame can only live in the darkness; it can live within the systems of denial and defensiveness that we use to cover it up. We have to name these things, acknowledge them, and begin to do the deep work of transformation, restoration - and reparation.

Yup, now I'm talking about reparations.

Privilege means that you owe a debt. You were born with it. You didn't ask for it. And you didn't pay for it either. No one is blaming you for having it. You are lovely, human, and amazing. Being a citizen of a society requires work from everyone within that society. It is up to you whether you choose to acknowledge the work that is yours to do. It is up to you whether you choose to pay this debt and how you choose to do so.

Sometimes living with privilege can disillusion us into thinking that being in community with other humans doesn't require work. This is a lie; it requires a great deal of work. And all of that work requires being a human and trying to love other humans well.

You're going to make mistakes - expect this. But keep showing up.

I believe that this is holy work, the work of justice, the pursuit of it. It doesn't need an audience, and it will not always have one. It will happen most days in ways that are unseen. It might mean providing a meal or shelter, listening, using your particular area of expertise to help someone in need of that expertise who might not have access to it otherwise, bailing a protester out of jail, or paying a family's rent one month (if you have the resources to do so), or marching at a rally with marginalized folks alongside other allies. There may not always be a practical, tangible way to pursue this work, but I believe you will know it when you meet it face-to-face.

However it looks, it will be something that you do without needing to be thanked or receive praise - you are not a savior. Marginalized/disenfranchised folks can and will survive without you - we are magic. However, I urge you to pursue this work, knowing that a system of white privilege afforded you access to opportunities while denying them to so many others.

Above all, I urge you keep trying. You're going to make mistakes; expect this. But keep showing up. Be compassionate. Lead with empathy, always. Keep learning and growing. If you do this, I truly believe you'll be doing the work of an ally.
Please keep in mind that self care is hugely important. Take care of yourself and protect your energy before you attempt to care for anyone else. Some additional resources:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
For Our White Friends Desiring to Be Allies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Author's Note: I'm writing this in hopes that it can be used to lighten the load of marginalized folks, keeping in mind that not all marginalized people want to engage in the ally conversation, and that is perfect as well.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The division of the world's peoples into distinct groups - "red," "black," "white" or "yellow" peoples - has became so deeply imbedded in our psyches, so widely accepted, many would promptly dismiss as crazy any suggestion of its falsity. Yet, that's exactly what this provocative, new three-hour series by California Newsreel claims. Race - The Power of an Illusion questions the very idea of race as biology, suggesting that a belief in race is no more sound than believing that the sun revolves around the earth. 

Yet race still matters. Just because race doesn't exist in biology doesn't mean it isn't very

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
One word made all the difference. Recently, I submitted a letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The letter was about race and the editor deleted the word "white." Take that in: The letter was about race and the editor deleted the word white .

My original letter:
White Pittsburgh, the time is now and the responsibility is ours. We must work to identify, confront and dismantle our own racism and that embedded in our organizations and systems. We must strive to uncover and undo the implicit bias that is marginalizing, limiting and killing our neighbors of color. And we must support only those political candidates who stand for racial justice. The time is now and the work is ours.
The editor deleted "white" from a letter about race, and in doing so, erased the very essence of the message. I left several voicemails and emails for executive editor Keith Burris, first asking for a correction and later inviting comment for this article. He neither responded nor published a correction.

I wrote the letter after attending a community gathering in The Hill after the acquittal of Michael Rosfeld in the killing of Antwon Rose II. As I wrote the above letter and as I write this, I'm thinking of both the discrimination and hate faced by all Pittsburghers of color and that specifically directed toward Black people in the region. Further, I don't imagine my writing will convert racists, but rather I have in mind those white people who don't pay much attention to race, think it's not their problem or find the problem overwhelming, so do nothing.

Why is it so important for white people to address racism in our region?

The work of confronting racism has historically been left to people of color. As such, the very people who are oppressed hold the responsibility of transforming the power structures that subjugate them. Imagine lying on the ground with someone's foot on your neck and you alone are left to overpower your aggressor.

Racism hurts us all. We may think we can ignore racism, but I suggest we feel it - we know it's there and we know it's wrong. We drive through Homewood or the Hill District and see abandoned houses and crumbling streets. We read that 80 percent of owner-occupied housing units in Pittsburgh are white-owned while just 16 percent are Black-owned . We know the K-12 achievement gap is a resource gap. We cannot fully enjoy our lives and be the people we aspire to be until our neighbors of color experience the same safety and freedom we take for granted.

As white people in this region, we must ask ourselves:

Do I try to understand the daily experience of people of color?

Do I tolerate racist comments?

Do I fail to notice subtle but impactful discrimination in our schools, workplaces and communities?

Do I care about these issues but feel unable to act?

Racism is prejudice backed by power

Racism is manifest when people and systems intentionally promote or quietly allow interactions, actions and policies that limit the opportunities, access and well-being of others based on skin color, according to Cory Collins and Robin DiAngelo who write about racism and privilege. And, as we know all too well, racism and other forms of identity hate can mean the difference between life and death.

People with power have a particular responsibility to address racism. Pittsburgh Pirates' general manager Neal Huntington recently took a stand , calling out those who stereotype athletes of color as lazy, unmotivated and gifted physically (but not intellectually) and white players as smart and competitive. Huntington's comments won't end racism in sports, but he interrupted a long-standing racist practice and moved the needle just slightly.

Learn and take action

Many white folks believe they aren't racist and the problem isn't theirs, claiming, "I don't tell racist jokes" or "I don't make hiring decisions." Not being actively racist does not excuse us from confronting racism. If we walk past a smoldering trash can and do nothing, we share the blame if the block burns down.

I challenge all of us to live out our non-racist intentions by becoming anti-racist, by seeking to understand how we can more effectively address everyday racism, how we unknowingly help systems maintain their exclusionary and sometimes deadly practices, and how we can work toward change.

For those new to anti-racism work or looking for foundational resources, I recommend watching and/or reading:

To continue learning, check out:

For strategies to confront everyday racism, visit:

Join a regional organization:

Contact elected officials and advocate for any of the recommendations proposed by The Pittsburgh/Mon Valley Black Women's Roundtable and other relevant changes.

Finally, seek and foster cross-racial friendships . Our city is highly segregated. This is something each of us can seek to change. By connecting across racial lines, we broaden our world and build collaborative energy that takes a stand for racial justice. Indeed, we are stronger together.

White Pittsburgh, the time is now and the responsibility is ours.

Editor's note, April 12: The current version of the essay has 'white' in lowercase. The author asked it to be changed after reading feedback from a reader.
Harriet L. Schwartz is a professor at Carlow University and author of the forthcoming book "Connected Teaching: Relationship, Power, and Mattering in Higher Education." The Opportunity Fund has provided funding to PublicSource to pay authors of first-person essays related to social justice issues. Learn more at www.harrietschwartz.com . Special thanks to Lisa Eible who reviewed an early draft of this article.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
First-person essay by Harriet L. Schwartz

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
When I said 'white,' I meant 'white:' Why white Pittsburghers should care about racism and what to do about it

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The work of confronting racism has historically been left to people of color. As such, the very people who are oppressed hold the responsibility of transforming the power structures that subjugate them. Imagine lying on the ground with someone's foot on your neck and you alone are left to overpower your aggressor.

# data[].attributes.body
Recommended Read by one of our Workshop Participants

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Amazon.com: The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives: 9780374303235: Slater, Dashka: Books

# data[].attributes.body
Free workshop curriculum for white anti-racist identity formation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Free workshop agendas and curriculum resources for schools, business, religious groups, and community and service organizations.

Purchase the book through Amazon. Make sure that you're getting the 2nd Ed. You'll know by looking at the subtitle. "The Need to Talk about Race..."

Visit My Blog About Witnessing Whiteness

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Free workshop agendas and curriculum resources for schools, business, religious groups, and community and service organizations. Purchase the book through Amazon. Make sure that you're getting the 2nd Ed. You'll know by looking at the subtitle. "The Need to Talk about Race..." Visit My Blog About Witnessing Whiteness

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels new, but in truth it's an old story.

Why? Where did the notion of "whiteness" come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for?

Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen took a deep dive into these questions, along with an array of leading scholars and regular guest Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, in this fourteen-part documentary series, released between February and August 2017. The series editor is Loretta Williams.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels ne

# data[].attributes.body
@LilNativeBoy (Instagram)
@nowhitesaviors (instagram)
@EraseRacism (Twitter)
@theimtiredproject (Instagram)
@annieelainey (Instagram)

# data[].attributes.body
Between the World and Me

# data[].attributes.body
A 30-day self-reflection exercise designed by Layla Saad which encourages each white person to examine how they personally perpetuate white supremacy and can seek to change their actions

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Get The Book - Me And White Supremacy Workbook

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The challenge quickly went viral, with thousands of people from all over the world (including USA, Canada, UK, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Russia, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Qatar, among others) diving deep for 28 consecutive days to examine and take responsibility for the ways in which they uphold white supremacy.

# data[].attributes.body
A collection of resources for learning more about racism in the US, but particularly surrounding confederate monuments.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Charlottesville Syllabus is a resource created by the Graduate Student Coalition for Liberation to be used to educate readers about the long history of white supremacy in Charlottesville, Virginia. While the resources selected and summaries written are by UVA graduate students, the Syllabus is not sanctioned by the University. This abridged version of the Syllabus is organized into six sections that offer contemporary and archival primary and secondary sources (articles, books, responses, a documentary, databases) and a list of important terms for discussing white supremacy. Only "additional resources" are not available online (but can be found either on JSTOR, at the library, or for purchase).

What may be the largest fascist gathering in recent memory is being held in our town center this weekend. The Charlottesville Syllabus seeks to explore the local historical and contemporary precedents for this gathering; to give it history and context; to denounce it; and to amplify the voices of community members most affected by this "alt-right" occupation of our community space.

These resources are key to contextualizing the "alt-right" and their racist motivations. The "alt-right" have been working to distance themselves rhetorically from old-fashioned racist groups like the KKK, and it is essential that we do not let them falsify the narrative of white supremacy in Charlottesville and in this country.

A new and ongoing project, the syllabus is meant to be expanded, revised, and copied. Use this document as it's useful to you, support each other, and take to the streets.
The Graduate Student Coalition for Liberation
The KKK, the Alt Right, and the History of White Supremacist Groups in Charlottesville
Sources:
"Excuse me, America, your house is on fire: Lessons from Charlottesville on the KKK and "alt-right,"" by Jalane Schmidt on Medium (27 June 2017)

Schmidt argues that the KKK thrived in and around Charlottesville because its white supremacy was in line with norms of civility, and was hence supported (if tacitly) by local civic institutions. Her piece provides a jarring and succinct history of white supremacist group presence in town, arguing that a break from politeness is necessary to take on the "alt-right."

"Why Richard Spencer Matters," by Jamelle Bouie for Slate (22 May 2017)

By exploring the history of Charlottesville's confederate statues, eugenics, white supremacy in popular culture, the "alt-right," Donald Trump and his cabinet, and more, Bouie demonstrates how racist "notions of white hegemony-of the idea that white Americans have a stronger claim on national resources, that they are somehow more legitimate citizens" have been and continue to be a part of U.S. history and politics.

The Ku Klux Klan in Virginia , (John T. Kneebone, Encyclopedia Virginia 2016)

A brief but illustrative history of the Ku Klux Klan's origin, ideologies, and three main revivals including its place in contemporary Virginia and a timeline of events.

"On Not Taking the Bait," by Marc Mazique for Black, Whole (10 July 2017)

Mazique takes to task the assumption that "protecting first amendment rights" is a politically neutral stance when people of color are disproportionately threatened by the white supremacists whose rights are being protected by police and other local institutions. As Mazique puts it, framing nonviolent forms of struggle against hate and oppressive power is not the problem, and working towards a positive, just state of peace means taking to the streets.
Database:
Citizens Councils Newspaper Historical Source by Edward H. Sebesta (editor of Neo-Confederacy, a Critical Edition)

Citizens Councils - a part of the fabric of the American South roughly during the years of 1954-1961 - were created in order to represent racial integration as misguided, in opposition to what they saw to be the natural state of segregation and white supremacy. In addition to making their newspaper available, this online archive reveals the wide reach of white supremacy as well as its appeal to an educated upper-class populace and displays in specificity the vitriolic racism of the period.

Gentrification and the razing of Vinegar Hill, Charlottesville's thriving black business district
Sources:
That World Is Gone: Race And Displacement in a Southern Town (documentary, 2010)

Through scholarly research and interviews with surviving residents, this short film documents the history of Charlottesville's Vinegar Hill neighborhood and its 1965 destruction, particularly exploring the link between property ownership and economic power.
Additional resources:
Urban Renewal and the End of Black Culture in Charlottesville , by James Robert Saunders and Renae Nadine Shackelford (1998)

In this book, Saunders and Shackelford interviewed former denizens of Vinegar Hill who lived in Charlottesville before, during and/or after urban renewal razed the once-thriving black community as part of a federally funded redevelopment project. The people interviewed varied in experience and perspective - from businessmen to cooks and from supporters of the redevelopment to those who decried its adverse effect on black life in Charlottesville.

" Root Shock" by Mindy Thompson Fullilove for Journal of Urban Health (March 2001)

Using several case studies from the second half of the twentieth century, Fullilove shows how the negative effects of urban renewal fall disproportionately on black communities and lead to dispossession, financial loss, psychological trauma, the fracturing of social organizations, and the collapse of political action. Furthermore, she argues that deurbanization policies ask us to consider how to manage "progress" in the context of democracy - what are the consequences when a government supports one group's progress at the expense of another's?
Databases: The Vinegar Hill Project
A historical site run by a UVA contingency in collaboration with the Carter G. Woodson Institute, The Vinegar Hill Project is an astounding repository of archival materials: see in particular the "Viseyes Exhibits" for maps of Vinegar Hill before and after urban renewal razed the city section.

Charlottesville Urban Design and Affordable Housing (from the IATH)

With maps, diagrams, design sketches, and photographs, architect Kenneth Schwartz identifies the causes of American cities' physical and economic decline, using Charlottesville, and especially the Vinegar Hill neighborhood, as an exemplary case study. See also the site's extensive bibliography, which lists resources on Charlottesville's history, urban design, and cultural geography.

The Lost Cause, Memorialization, and Charlottesville's Confederate Statues
Sources: Report to City Council by the City of Charlottesville Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials, and Public Spaces, December 19, 2016
This report includes findings of the Blue Ribbon Commission, including summaries of historical research related to Charlottesville's Confederate monuments and sites of African American history and community in the city, and recommendations about relocating and contextualizing the Lee and Jackson statues, possibly changing site names, and constructing new memorials to local African American history.

"Moments of Rupture," by Eileen Johnson for The Politic (12 April 2017)

An account of the evolving local political and cultural conflict over the decision to remove the Robert E. Lee statue from Charlottesville's Emancipation Park.

"Tools of Displacement," by Sophie Abramowitz, Eva Latterner, Gillet Rosenblith for Slate (23 June 2017)

A history of Charlottesville's Confederate monuments that traces how the installation of the statues in the early 20 th Century functioned as the vanguard of gentrification, uprooting and displacing black and immigrant communities from local centers of political and financial power.
Additional Resources:
"Introduction" and "Slavery's Memorial," from Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves , by Kirk Savage (1997)

The decades after the Civil War were the greatest era of monument-building in American history. The statues installed in public spaces throughout the country constitute a kind of public memory of the national past that reifies white supremacy within the civic landscape.
Database: White Supremacy and African-American Resistance in Charlottesville, Virginia, 1900-1925
A documentary history of early 20 th Century Charlottesville that excavates the black residents who lived, worked, and resisted in the face of local and statewide white supremacist political activity.

Slavery and Thomas Jefferson's University
Sources:
"Unearthing Slavery at the University of Virginia," by Brendan Wolfe for VIRGINIA Magazine (Spring 2013)

In light of the archaeological discovery of another slave burial site on Grounds in 2013, this article examines the history of slavery at University of Virginia through the lens of its memorialization initiated by University community members. Wolfe's article rests on the premise articulated by then-second year College undergraduate Jordan Jackson: "slaves built this university and they deserve to have something tangible."

" Confronting U.Va.'s history of slavery : Administration, Charlottesville community consider reparations," by Hannah Hall for The Cavalier Daily (13 April 2017)

Hall considers the different valences of the meaning of "reparations" before contextualizing and interviewing University and community members about actions taken at UVa to reckon with the university's and town's histories of slavery.
Additional Resources:
"Bonds of Memory: Identity and the Hemings Family," from Those Who Labor For My Happiness: Slavery At Thomas Jefferson's Monticello , by Lucia Stanton

Uses the historical archive to recover the lives of Sally Hemings and her family.

"Laws," from Notes on the State of Virginia , by Thomas Jefferson (1785)

Thomas Jefferson gives his pseudoscientific argument that black people are inferior to white people, providing a strong evidence to refute arguments that Jefferson was not racist.

Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery & the Troubled History of America's Universities , by Craig Steven Wilder

A historical study of the ways that the United States' lead universities were built by the labor of slaves as well as the ways these universities went on to promote the racist ideologies that justified slavery.

The University of Virginia Pioneers the Eugenics Movement
Sources:
"Study of eugenics has long history at U.Va.: Pseudoscience studied academically in early part of 20th century," by Ankita Satpathy and David Schutte for the Cavalier Daily (21 October 2015)

Outlines the prominence of eugenics research and curricula at UVa, stemming from (first UVa president) Edwin Alderman's commitment to what was considered a standard science in the first half of the 20th century. It also addresses the continued legacy at UVa, including buildings and noteworthy scholarships still named for eugenicists, as well as contextualizes UVa within the nationwide acceptance of eugenics during the same period.

Racial Integrity Laws Encyclopedia Virginia (17 February 2009)

An interactive history of Virginia's Racial integrity laws that includes timelines, documents, photographs, and audio clips. The Racial Integrity Act was passed in the 1924 during the height of the eugenics movement. The Act defined the parameters of "whiteness" and prohibited interracial marriage. These laws remained on the books until the 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision ruled the interracial marriage prohibition unconstitutional.

"Assuring America's Place in the Sun: Ivey Foreman Lewis and the Teaching of Eugenics at the University of Virginia, 1915-1953," Gregory Michael Dorr for The Journal of Southern History (May 2000)

Dorr's article describes the work, teachings, and mentorship of UVa Biology Professor and Dean of the College Ivey Lewis, who created one of the most well-known eugenics research programs in the country in the first half of the twentieth century. Lewis continued to advise students in the field long after these theories had fallen into disrepute. Dorr argues eugenics gave "educated, self-consciously modern Virginians" a means to continue justifying Jim Crow with a scientific gloss. Eugenics was a bridge between the archaisms of the Old South and the "progressive" scientism of the day a means to uphold white supremacy while still "ushering in modern liberal-industrial society in one motion."
Database:
Eugenics (Historical Collections at the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library)

Original historical documents, photographs, and other materials concerning the history of eugenics in Virginia are available at the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library. Its website gives an overview of the infamous supreme court ruling Buck v. Bell (1927) and its legacy. The court ruled the state of Virginia had the right to sterilize Charlottesville native Carrie Buck due to 'imbecility,' upholding the Virginia Sterilization Act of 1924. This Act would only be repealed in 1979, after over 7,000 Virginians had been forcibly sterilized.

Jim Crow and Civil Rights organizing by students at the University of Virginia
Sources:
"Preserving Public Education in Charlottesville," from The Moderates' Dilemma: Massive Resistance to School Desegregation in Virginia , by Andrew B. Lewis (1998)

Lewis argues for the significance of The Parents' Committee for Emergency Schooling (PCES) - an organization started in Charlottesville by nine white mothers in the aftermath of Brown v Board and Virginia Governor Lindsay Almond's decision to close public schools and engage in massive resistance rather than allow schools to be desegregated. This organization decoupled support for public education with support for racial integration, and in so doing provided a third option for white Charlottesvillians and white Virginians who were wary of integration but loathe to do away with public education altogether. The success of the PCES and the position they maintained helped to make massive resistance via school closure a politically unviable option for Virginia.
Databases:
The Race and Place Project (also useful for section 4)

Race and Place is an archive on racial segregation laws and their effects in Charlottesville. Focusing on the 1880s to mid-twentieth century, the database includes maps, letters, political broadsides, oral histories, and a historical timeline.
White Supremacy & African American Resistance in Charlottesville, 1900-1925 archive
This site focuses on African American suffrage in Charlottesville from 1900 to 1925 and chronicles attempts to prevent African Americans from voting and anti-disenfranchisement political activity. Author T. Nicole Tucker has compiled news clippings, political correspondence, legislation, meeting minutes, and individual profiles of politically-active African Americans in Charlottesville.
An Epoch of Change: A Timeline of The University 1955-1975
Compiled by Atima Omara-Alwala, this project documents an often-untold period in UVa's history: the University's desegregation in the 1950s through the 1970s. In addition to photos, essays, and a historical timeline, the site features biographies of seven trailblazing African American alumni.

(organized by Professors Kevin Jerome Everson and Claudrena N. Harold, begun in 2013)

A "multimedia initiative documenting the struggle for social justice and racial equality at the University of Virginia," Black Fire uses alumni interviews, documentary film, public lectures, photography, and Black Student Alliance files to record the transformative power of student activism. Created by Professor Claudrena Harold and her students at UVa.

After August 12, Pt. 1: Community Responses to the White Supremacist Rally
Sources:
"'Not Here, Not In My Town': Charlottesville Black Lives Matter on the Meaning of Community Defense," interview with Dr. Lisa Woolfork for In These Times, 14 August 2017

This interview with Dr. Lisa Woolfork, an associate professor at UVa and a member of Charlottesville's Black Lives Matter chapter, outlines and contextualizes the violence of the white supremacist alt-right on August 12th as well as community responses to that violence. Professor Woolfork stands resolutely on the side of the counter protestors as people eager to defend their city against racist thought and action. The interview inspires with a tone of hope as well as a call-to-action to readers to investigate the structural racism occurring in their cities.

"There is Only One Side to the Story of Charlottesville: Five lessons from what could prove a decisive moment," by Tom Periello for Slate, 13 August 2017.

Periello argues that the events on Saturday August 12th were undeniably about race, enabled by Trump's presidency, and reflective of the fact that America fails to grapple with the contemporary (violent) ramifications of monuments erected to celebrate the Confederacy. He further argues that the white supremacists who came out that weekend - in all of their varying forms - should be collectively considered the modern KKK. Finally, he argues that without stronger gun laws and stronger cries against white nationalist violence, what happened on August 12th could become a dystopian norm for America's future.

"Terror in Charlottesville, Part 2," Amy Goodman interviews Cornel West, Rev. Traci Blackmon & BLM Activist Jalane Schmidt for Democracy Now, 14 August 2017

Cornel West, Harvard professor, Reverend Traci Blackmon, executive minister of Justice and Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ, and Jalane Schmidt, local Black Lives Matter activist and Professor of Religious Studies at UVa offer their first-hand perspective of August 12th. In addition, each comments on President Trump's first response immediately following the terror attack. They all agree that Trump's statements continue the political war he has been waging on people of color, trans people, and immigrants through his policies. Highlights include Professor Schmidt importantly dismissing myths around confederate statues; Professor West portrays antifa activists as life-savers and vigilant protectors of more defenseless counter protesters.

"I witnessed terrorism in Charlottesville from a foot away," David Straugh for Scalawag, August 15, 2017.

Charlottesville BLM organizer David Straugh offers his moving, personal account of the events on August 11-12, from his experiences being besieged at St. Paul's church Friday Night, participating in the counter-protests at Emancipation, celebrating the apparent victory over the White supremacists afterward, and then witnessing the horror and trauma of the tragic terrorist attack which took Heather Heyer's life and injured 19 others.

"Yes, What About the 'Alt-Left'?" , Dahlia Lithwick compiles interviews with community members and witnesses to August 12, Slate, August 16, 2017.

Community eyewitness accounts of the counter-protests that refute Trump's lies of a violent "alt-left" that "came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs." Instead, Antifa activists protected unarmed clergy and racial justice protesters from armed phalanxes of white supremacists  -  Cornel West even claimed afterward that they saved his life. Most of recollections compiled are of clergy who participated alongside West in an interfaith non-violent direct action to block the Park's entrance from white supremacists.

After August 12, Pt. 2: Student Voices

"What UVA Students Saw in Charlottesville," Weston Gobar; Aryan A. Frazier; Isabella Ciambotti; Leanne Chia; Elizabeth Sines; Nojan Rostami; Brendan Novak for the New York Times, 13 August 2017. (Companion Facebook Live stream video available here .)

University of Virginia students recount what they saw and experienced on August 11th and 12th. These interviews detail the violence students saw downtown on August 12, moments of community solidarity and care, feelings about University administration's response to the white supremacist march on the Lawn, and evolving opinions about the "alt-right" and the best ways to confront white supremacy.

"What It Was Like to Witness Terror and Hate on Display at Charlottesville," interview with Luca Connolly by Callie Beusman and Zing Tseng for Vice (Broadly), 14 August 2017.

Community activists Luca Connolly and Emily Gorenski recount their experiences on August 11-13 when they protested the white supremacist "Unite the Right" rally. Importantly, both organizers remind us to see this rally as part of larger white supremacist movements and institutions. Counter to the oft-quoted idea that bigotry has "no place in American society," Connolly and Gorenski identify the local, national, and international contexts that made the violence in Charlottesville both possible and predictable.

" UVA Student Recounts His 24 Hours Of Counter-Protest in Charlottesville ," interview with Ian Ware by Hilary Hughes for MTV News, 12 August 2017.

UVa student activist Ian Ware gives his eyewitness account of events of the weekend. He discusses the importance of grappling with Thomas Jefferson and the legacy of white supremacy at UVa and in Charlottesville more generally, noting that although neo-Nazis aren't a constant presence, the need to dismantle systemic white supremacy in Charlottesville and UVa remains. Ware also notes the lack of police action despite their heavy numbers, even compared to the KKK rally the month before.

" Natalie Romero es la colombiana de 20 años víctima de ataque en Charlottesville ," TV interview with Natalie Romero by Hannah Melissa Borja for RED Noticias, 14 August 2017.

[Spanish language source] Twenty year old UVa student, Natalie Romero, of Colombian nationality, was one of the 35 people injured in the attacks on counter-protesters that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday, August 12. She suffered a fracture in her cranium. Correspondent Jaime Moreno spoke with one of her friends, who said that Natalie is recovering from her injuries and that her passion for racial justice has not diminished.

" Charlottesville might be changed for me forever' Students Contemplate Return to School ," featuring Ian Nakayama; Wes Gobar; Oronde Andrews; Devin Willis, by Susan Svrluga; T. Rees Shapiro, Sarah Larimer for Washington Post, 14 August 2017.

This article documents the experiences of student activists who participated in the counter-demonstrations held on August 11 and 12, ranging from terror at the "monstrous hatred" of the torch lit march and fear in the chaos of the vehicular terrorist attack on Fourth and Water St. to catharsis facing white supremacy head-on at Emancipation Park. The article particularly addresses the emotional impact of these events on the students as they prepare to begin the fall semester at UVa.

Sections in Progress (with resources)

The Charlottesville Syllabus is a new and ongoing project organized through the University of Virginia Graduate Student Coalition for Liberation that explores the entwined histories of violence, oppression, and power as it effects Charlottesville's marginalized populations.

Future sections will include writings on queer life and history in Charlottesville, with particular attention to the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of local woman Sage Smith (see activist and former Charlottesville resident Emma Eisenberg's excellent "'I Am A Girl Now,' Sage Smith Wrote. Then She Went Missing," (24 June 2017); work on indigenous tribes in Charlottesville and Virginia more broadly ( The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail , an online guide, edited by Kerenne Wood (2008) and We're Still Here: Contemporary Virginia Indians Tell Their Stories , by Sandra F. Waugaman and Danielle Moretti-Langholtz (2000), to begin); writing on the forced redevelopment of Charlottesville's housing complex Friendship Courts (see the Resident Directed Positive Vision for Redevelopment written by the PHAR Board, which is comprised entirely of people in affordable housing and created in order to reckon with redevelopment, an extension of gentrification and the razing of Vinegar Hill); work surrounding the excellent Take Back the Archive database initiative, a collaboration between UVa students, faculty, archivists, and librarians that's meant to preserve, visualize, and contextualize the history of rape and sexual violence at the University of Virginia, honoring individual stories and documenting systemic issues and trends; and, importantly, critiques of white centrist liberal racism in town ( "I Rebuke You, Charlottesville" by D. Straughn for Parle Mag, 8 June 2017; "A message to Charlottesville about Lee Park from your local Black farmer," by Chris Newman for the Sylvanaqua Farms Facebook Page, 17 May 2017; "What It's Like To Be A Black Student As White Supremacists March In Your College Town," by UVa student activist Wes Gobar for Vox, 19 May 2017).
The UVa Graduate student Coalition for Liberation is an expanding interdepartmental group of graduate students committed to making the University of Virginia and the city of Charlottesville more just places to live and work. In our unique position as students, researchers, and educators, we seek to pool and share knowledge. And in our position as workers and community members, we seek to build coalitions with undergraduates, fellow University workers, and other community members in Charlottesville, holding our University accountable to all those it serves and affects.
Contact us with questions, comments, syllabus suggestions, and requests to be added to our mailing list or to join the Coalition!

Also for you:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
The Graduate Student Coalition for Liberation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
12 AUGUST 2017 The Charlottesville Syllabus is a resource created by the Graduate Student Coalition for Liberation to be used to educate readers about the long history of white supremacy in Charlottesville, Virginia. While the resources selected and summaries written are by UVA graduate students, t

# data[].attributes.body
At the heart of allyship is understanding the history of racism in America.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Invariably, around February of each year, coinciding with Black History Month, you'll hear people asking, "Why isn't there a white history month?"

Do these people mean we should condense all the American history centering around white people to just one month and devote the other 11 to people of color? Of course not.

It's readily accepted that white history is taught, year-round, to the exclusion of minority histories. But the literal history of whiteness - how and when and why what it means to be white was formulated -- is always neglected. The construction of the white identity is a brilliant piece of social engineering. Its origins and heritage should be examined in order to add a critical layer of complexity to a national conversation sorely lacking in nuance.

I'm guessing that's not what they mean, either.

In conversations about race, I've frequently tried and failed to express the idea that whiteness is a social construct. So, here, in plain fact, is what I mean:

The very notion of whiteness is relatively recent in our human history, linked to the rise of European colonialism and the Atlantic slave trade in the 17th century as a way to distinguish the master from the slave. From its inception, "white" was not simply a separate race, but the superior race. "White people," in opposition to non-whites or "colored" people, have constituted a meaningful social category for only a few hundred years, and the conception of who is included in that category has changed repeatedly. If you went back to even just the beginning of the last century, you'd witness a completely different racial configuration of whites and non-whites. The original white Americans - those from England, certain areas of Western Europe, and the Nordic States - excluded other European immigrants from that category to deny them jobs, social standing, and legal privileges. It's not widely known in the U.S. that several ethnic groups, such as Germans, Italians, Russians and the Irish, were excluded from whiteness and considered non-white as recently as the early 20th century.

Members of these groups sometimes sued the state in order to be legally recognized as white, so they could access a variety of rights available only to whites -- specifically American citizenship, which was then limited, by the U.S. Naturalization Law of 1790, to "free white persons" of "good character." Attorney John Tehranian writes in the Yale Law Journal thatpetitioners could present a case based not on skin color, but on "religious practices, culture, education, intermarriage and [their] community's role," to try to secure their admission to this elite social group and its accompanying advantages.

More than color, it was class that defined race. For whiteness to maintain its superiority, membership had to be strictly controlled. The "gift" of whiteness was bestowed on those who could afford it, or when it was politically expedient. In his book "How the Irish Became White," Noel Ignatiev argues that Irish immigrants were incorporated into whiteness in order to suppress the economic competitiveness of free black workers and undermine efforts to unite low-wage black and Irish Americans into an economic bloc bent on unionizing labor. The aspiration to whiteness was exploited to politically and socially divide groups that had more similarities than differences. It was an apple dangled in front of working-class immigrant groups, often as a reward for subjugating other groups.

A lack of awareness of these facts has lent credence to the erroneous belief that whiteness is inherent and has always existed, either as an actual biological difference or as a cohesive social grouping. Some still claim it is natural for whites to gravitate to their own and that humans are tribal and predisposed to congregate with their kind. It's easy, simple and natural: White people have always been white people. Thinking about racial identity is for those other people.

Those who identify as white should start thinking about their inheritance of this identity and understand its implications. When what counts as your "own kind" changes so frequently and is so susceptible to contemporaneous political schemes, it becomes impossible to argue an innate explanation for white exclusion. Whiteness was never about skin color or a natural inclination to stand with one's own; it was designed to racialize power and conveniently dehumanize outsiders and the enslaved. It has always been a calculated game with very real economic motivations and benefits.

This revelation should not function as an excuse for those in groups recently accepted as white to claim to understand racism, to absolve themselves of white privilege or to deny that their forefathers, while not considered white, were still, in the hierarchy created by whites, responsible in turn for oppressing those "lower" on the racial scale. During the Civil War, Irish immigrants were responsible for some of the most violent attacks against freedmen in the North, such as the wave of lynchings during the 1863 Draft Riots, in which "the majority of participants were Irish," according to Eric Foner's book "Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877" and various other sources. According to historian Dominic Pacyga, Polish Americans groups in Chicago and Detroit "worked to prevent the integration of blacks into their communities by implementing rigid housing segregation" out of a fear that black people would "leap over them into a higher social status position."

Behind every racial conversation is a complex history that extends to present-day interactions and policies, and we get nowhere fast if large swaths of our population have a limited frame of reference. An understanding of whiteness might have prevented the utter incapability of some Americans to realize that "Hispanic" is not a race - that white Hispanics do exist, George Zimmerman among them. This knowledge might have lessened the cries that Trayvon Martin's murder could not have been racially motivated and might have led to, if not a just verdict, a less painfully ignorant response from many white Americans.

This comprehension of whiteness could also dissuade many white people of such detrimental and pervasive racial notions, such as, "Why is black pride OK but white pride is racist?" If students are taught that whiteness is based on a history of exclusion, they might easily see that there is nothing in the designation as "white" to be proud of. Being proud of being white doesn't mean finding your pale skin pretty or your Swedish history fascinating. It means being proud of the violent disenfranchisement of those barred from this category. Being proud of being black means being proud of surviving this ostracism. Be proud to be Scottish, Norwegian or French, but not white.

Above all, such an education might help answer the question of whose problem modern racism really is. The current divide is a white construction, and it is up to white people to do the necessary work to dismantle the system borne from the slave trade, instead of ignoring it or telling people of color to "get over" its extant legacy. Critics of white studies have claimed that this kind of inquiry leads only to self-hatred and guilt. Leaving aside that avoiding self-reflection out of fear of bad feelings is the direct enemy of personal and intellectual growth, I agree that such an outcome should be resisted, because guilt is an unproductive emotion, and merely feeling guilty is satisfying enough for some. My hope in writing this is that white Americans will discover how it is they came to be set apart from non-whites and decide what they plan to do about it.

So, yes, for one month, let's hear about white history, educating ourselves and others. Let's expose whiteness as a fraudulent schema imposed as a means to justify economic and physical bondage. Let's try to uncover the centuries-old machinations that inform current race relations and bind us in a stalemate of misunderstanding. Then let's smash this whole thing to pieces.
This piece is the latest in a series by feminists of color, curated by Roxane Gay. To submit to the series, email rgay@salon.com.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Invariably, around February of each year, coinciding with Black History Month, you'll hear people asking, "Why isn't there a white history month?" Do these people mean we should condense all the American history centering around white people to just one month and devote the other 11 to people of color?

# data[].attributes.body
An anti-Racism Curriculum

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
One of the ways that racism affects us is by shaping our identity (and this is true for whites and People of Color). These materials, prepared by the Rev. Doctor William Gardiner, are made available to Unitarian Universalists (UUs), particularly white people interested in transforming their whiteness through understanding the complex history of white supremacy of over four hundred years in the United States, and the impact it has on us as individuals and the society as a whole.

Providing an anti-racism curriculum for white people allows deeper understanding of issues that are essential to furthering a white anti-racist identity. The curriculum includes sections on:

The History of White Supremacy in the United States

The Emotional Lives of White People

Racial Identity Development

Racial Identity Journey

White Power and Privilege

Developing a Positive White Identity

There are two sections for the Examining Whiteness curriculum. One is written for individuals and a separate section is available for facilitators. The individual section is available for personal and group study. However, the recommended process for learning from the curriculum is in a group. Studying as part of a group provides a richer experience to discuss, share, and respond to writings that may evoke complicated and strong emotions and thoughts.

A workshop based on the Examining Whiteness curriculum is also offered by Unitarian Universalist Allies for Racial Equity, a group of white anti-racist allies working to build an anti-racism movement among white UUs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Examining Whiteness: An Anti-Racism Curriculum

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
One of the ways that racism affects us is by shaping our identity (and this is true for whites and People of Color). These materials, prepared by the Rev.

# data[].attributes.body
by Robin DiAngelo

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Small Doses with Amanda Seales - Side Effects of White Women - 54:04

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This is an episode that may touch some nerves but is about elevation. In a world where it seems like daily, many white women are exercising their privilege in potentially harmful ways to others it's time to have a real convo about the past, present, an...Learn more about your ad choices.