# data[].attributes.body
Author Yaa Gyasi: “I don’t think that racism is something that I need to overcome, that I can overcome. . . I think of racism as a problem that white people need to overcome, that they need to figure out what to do about it, how to approach their lives in a way that is better. . . .”

# data[].attributes.body
The Good Things Black People Do, Give and Receive All Over The World

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Harvard University-based historian and Finding Your Roots host Henry Louis Gates Jr. will be the editor-in-chief of Oxford's new dictionary entitled the Oxford Dictionary of African American English.

This dictionary, slated to debut in 2025, will provide a comprehensive collection of words and phrases created and used by Black Americans, past and present.

Gates Jr., Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, announced the project officially in an interview with the New York Times.

"Just the way Louis Armstrong took the trumpet and turned it inside out from the way people played European classical music," Gates Jr. said. "Black people took English and "reinvented it, to make it reflect their sensibilities and to make it mirror their cultural selves."

"The bottom line of the African American people, these are people who love language."
I am proud to announce I will be the editor in chief for the Oxford Dictionary of African American English. Read more here: https://t.co/fUakIdNo45

- Henry Louis Gates Jr (@HenryLouisGates) July 21, 2022

"Words with African origins such as ' 'goober,' 'gumbo' and 'okra' survived the Middle Passage along with our African ancestors," Gates Jr. said. "And words that we take for granted today, such as 'cool' and 'crib,' 'hokum' and 'diss,' 'hip' and 'hep,' 'bad,' meaning 'good,' and 'dig,' meaning 'to understand '- these are just a tiny fraction of the words that have come into American English from African American speakers ... over the last few hundred years."
RELATED:
To quote the New York Times:

Resources could also include books like " Cab Calloway's Cat-ologue: a Hepster's Dictionary, " a collection of words used by musicians, including "beat" to mean tired; "Dan Burley's Original Handbook of Harlem Jive," published in 1944; and "Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner," published in 1994.

Researchers can look to recorded interviews with formerly enslaved people, Salazar said, and to music, such as the lyrics in old jazz songs. Salazar said the project's editors also plan to crowdsource information, with call outs on the Oxford website and on social media, asking Black Americans what words they'd like to see in the dictionary and for help with historical documentation.

"Maybe there's a diary in your grandmother's attic that has evidence of this word," Salazar said.

In addition to word and phrase definitions, the Oxford Dictionary of African American English will also provide also where they came from and how they emerged.

"You wouldn't normally think of a dictionary as a way of telling the story of the evolution of the African American people, but it is," Gates said. "If you sat down and read the dictionary, you'd get a history of the African American people from A to Z."
To read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/21/books/african-american-dictionary.html

According to Variety.com, award-winning musical artist H.E.R. will play Belle in ABC's upcoming hybrid special celebrating the 30th anniversary of Disney's animated musical classic Beauty and the Beast.

H.E.R. is a five-time Grammy Award winner, including last year's Song of the Year Grammy for "I Can't Breathe" inspired by George Floyd, from her 2021 album Back of My Mind.

In 2021, H.E.R. also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Fight For You" from the film Judas and the Black Messiah.

"I can't believe I get to be a part of the 'Beauty and the Beast' legacy," H.E.R. said. "The world will see a Black and Filipino Belle! I have always wanted to be a Disney princess, and I get to work with two wonderful directors Hamish Hamilton and my favorite, Jon M. Chu. It is very surreal and I couldn't be more grateful."

Beauty and the Beast was originally released in 1991 and achieved box office success as well as critical acclaim. In 1992, it became the first animated film to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture, which helped motivate the creation of a separate Oscar category for animated films.

Although it didn't win Best Picture that year, Beauty and the Beast won Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Original Song.

In addition to re-screening the film in its entirety, the special will also include live, never-before-seen musical performances and feature brand-new sets and costumes inspired by the story.

The special will air on ABC on Dec. 15 at 8pm and will stream the following day on Disney+.

H.E.R. will make her feature acting debut in the upcoming Warner Bros. adaptation of the Broadway musical version of The Color Purple.

According to the New York Times, just after noon today, Ketanji Brown Jackson took the judicial oath, becoming the first Black woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

Justice Jackson, 51, was confirmed in April, when the Senate voted 53 to 47 on her nomination. She has replaced Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, who she once clerked for. Breyer stepped down at the conclusion of the court's current term.To quote nytimes.com:

Justice Jackson took both a constitutional oath, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts, and a judicial oath, administered by Justice Breyer. The brief swearing in ceremony took place in the West Conference Room at the Supreme Court, before a small gathering of Judge Jackson's family. Her husband, Patrick G. Jackson, held the Bible.

"It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States," Judge Jackson said in April at a White House celebration following her confirmation. "But we've made it. We've made it. All of us."

[To listen to GBN's recent bonus podcast about Jackson's life and career on our site and read the transcript, click Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/us/politics/ketanji-brown-jackson-sworn-in-supreme-court.html here. To go to Apple Podcasts, click below:]

[Photo: Anthony Bruce, the great-great-grandson of Charles and Willa Bruce, at Bruce's Beach on Thursday. Photograph: Jay L Clendenin/Los Angeles Times/Rex/Shutterstock]

This week, in California, a case for reparations was finally won.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors voted their unanimous approval of the return of two oceanfront parcels unjustly taken by the government known as Bruce's Beach to the descendants of former owners Charles and Willa Bruce.

Near the beginning of the 20th century, Charles and Willa Bruce made their way to California and purchased two lots in Manhattan Beach right by the sand and ran a popular lodge, cafe and dance hall for Black beachgoers.

A few more Black families, drawn to this new neighborhood that became known as Bruce's Beach, bought and built their own cottages nearby. But they all soon were threatened by white neighbors and harassed by the local Ku Klux Klan.

When those attempts at intimidation failed, in 1924 city officials condemned the neighborhood and seized more than two dozen properties via eminent domain, claiming there was an urgent need for a public park. For decades, the properties sat empty.

The two oceanfront parcels that had been owned by the Bruces were transferred to the state in 1948, then to the county in 1995. The other lots were eventually turned into the park by city officials in Manhattan Beach.

To quote latimes.com:

In a heartfelt moment during the board meeting Tuesday, Supervisor Janice Hahn reflected on all the legal, legislative and very complicated real estate details that had to be worked out to right a wrong that had sparked a movement and captivated the country.

"We are finally here today," said Hahn, who launched the complex process more than a year ago. "We can't change the past, and we will never be able to make up for the injustice that was done to Willa and Charles Bruce a century ago. But this is a start, and it is the right thing to do."

The property will now enter escrow before officially transferring to the Bruce family. After it's transferred, the county has agreed to rent the property from the Bruces for $413,000 a year and will maintain its lifeguard facility there.

The lease agreement also includes a right for the county to purchase the land at a later date for $20 million, plus any associated transaction costs.

This unprecedented case of restorative justice to a Black family or property owners who were harassed by the KKK and run out of Manhattan Beach via racially-weaponized invocation of eminent domain almost a century ago - paves the way for more efforts by the government to rectify similar historic injustices.

To quote latimes.com once more:

For Anthony Bruce, the great-great-grandson of Charles and Willa Bruce, the last two years have been a jumble of emotions.

What Manhattan Beach did almost a century ago tore his family apart. Charles and Willa ended up as chefs serving other business owners for the remainder of their lives. His grandfather Bernard, born a few years after his family had been run out of town, was obsessed with what happened and lived his life "extremely angry at the world." Bruce's father, tormented by this history, had to leave California.

Bruce, a security supervisor in Florida, was thrust into the spotlight after Bruce's Beach became a national story. It has been painful for him to talk publicly about his family's history, but he has been heartened to see the growing movement of people calling for justice.

"Many families across the United States have been forced away from their homes and lands," he said. "I hope that these monumental events encourage such families to keep trusting and believing that they will one day have what they deserve. We hope that our country no longer accepts prejudice as an acceptable behavior, and we need to stand united against it, because it has no place in our society today."

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-06-28/county-officials-approve-transfer-of-bruces-beach-property?utm_id=59648&sfmc_id=2415824 https://www.npr.org/2021/10/10/1043821492/black-americans-land-history https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/01/bruces-beach-returned-100-years-california

by Jeff Meier (FB: Jeff.Me ier.90)
Today on #MusicMonday, we're celebrating the beginning of Summer 2022, which officially kicks off tomorrow.

One of our most popular playlists of the last couple years was our Summer Breeze: Soulful Summer Songs playlist, which we created two years ago in the midst of the pandemic.

So this year, we've taken that original playlist and created the 'new and improved' version with about 50 more tracks (!) added to the lineup.

Our playlist is slightly different than the typical summer mixtape - these are not just summer hits, or summer favorites. To qualify for our list, a song literally had to feature the word "summer" in its title. It had to be literally "about" summer - the moods and feelings it evokes.

Fortunately, the season of BBQs, island vacations, swimming in the pool has provided inspiration to virtually every genre and generation of Black musicians, so we've got all the "summer"-titled popular hits spanning the '30s to today from DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince, Kool & The Gang, Carl Thomas, War, Sly & The Family Stone, Childish Gambino, Chic, Megan Thee Stallion and The Isley Brothers, mixed in with jazz, hip hop, dance, reggae, and plenty of vocal standards.

Nat "King" Cole is not only one of our top singers of Christmas standards, but also the leader in "summer" tunes, with five songs on our playlist.

And throughout, we've sprinkled multiple versions of the Porgy & Bess standard "Summertime," performed here by everyone from Anita Baker to James Brown.

Among the new songs we've added are everything from Jhene Aiko to Joan Armatrading, Anderson.Paak to Prince, Jim Jones to Johnny Mathis, Leon Bridges to Labi Siffre to St. Lunatics.

So, fire up the grill, break out the water slide for the kids, and perhaps grab a mai-tai or piña colada. Then relax to the sounds of Summer. Happy Summer everyone!

The iconic "A Great Day in Harlem" photograph of 57 jazz musicians taken by Art Kane in 1958 was the inspiration for the recently recreated "A Great Day in Animation" photo of 54 Black professionals in animation.

The homage was the brainchild of Disney visual effects supervisor Marlon West (who GBN is exceedingly proud to have as a regular contributor - check out his latest #MusicMonday playlist for Juneteeth here), and was taken just a few weeks ago by Randy Shropshire with Jeff Vespa as production lead.

To quote variety.com:

For decades, West has been moved by "A Great Day in Harlem," as well as Jean Bach 's Oscar-nominated film of the same name, which documents how the photo came to be.

"I've had a framed copy of that photo in my office or somewhere for 30 years," West tells Variety. "And I thought it would be cool to do the same thing with Black animators."

Aided by his friends and colleagues Bruce Smith, Peter Ramsey and Everett Downing Jr., West began putting together a list of animation professionals to include, aiming for legends like Floyd Norman, whose work on 1959's "Sleeping Beauty" made him Disney's first-ever Black animator, and his close collaborator Leo D. Sullivan.

"In the original photo, Coleman Hawkin s is standing front and center. He was one of the elders of those folks," West explains. "I just envisioned Floyd Norman standing in Coleman Hawkins' spot, and all of us radiating out from him, and Leo Sullivan and other grandmasters who have upped the game."

It was also important to West to invite up-and-comers such as Latoya Raveneau, who recently directed "The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder" and Chrystin Garland, a background painter and designer on series like "Solar Opposites."

"If people look at this photo 10 or 20 years from now, [I hope] they're like, 'There's so-and-so when they were just starting out!" West says.

(2022 photo: Pictured above: Aaron Spurgeon, Abelle Hayford, Ayo Davis, Breana Williams, Brie E Henderson, Bruce W. Smith, Camille Eden, Carole Holliday, Chris Copeland, Chrystin Garland, Constance Allen, Deborah Anderson, Devin Crane, Eric, Ramsey, Everett Downing Jr., Floyd Norman, Frank Abney, Jay Francis, Justin Copeland, Kaela Lash, Kai Akira, Karen Toliver, Kelley Gardner, Kemp Powers, Kenny Thompkins, Kwesi Davis, Latoya Raveneau, Layron DeJarnette, Lennie Graves, Lenord Robinson, Leo D. Sullivan, Leo Sullivan Jr., Lyndon Barrois Jr., Lynne Southerland, Maimuna Venzant, Marcella Brown, Marlon West, Marshall Toomey, Morenike Dosu, Peter Ramsey, Pixote Hunt, Ralph Farquhar, Reginald Hudlin, Robert Tyler, Ron Husband, Ron Myrick, Shabrayia Cleaver, Shari B. Ellis, Shavonne Cherry, Shay Stone, Sidney Clifton, Swinton Scott, Tara Nicole Whitaker, Tyree Dillihay, Umaimah Damakka) To read more: https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/great-day-in-harlem-black-animation-nickelodeon-paramount-1235294723/

According to variety.com, filmmaker Tyler Perry announced he's donating $500,000 to New York's famed Apollo Theater during the venue's annual spring benefit gala yesterday.

Perry made the offer during his acceptance speech for the organization's Impact Award, which was presented to him by Whoopi Goldberg.

"My studio [in Georgia] was once a former Confederate-owned army base where there were 3.9 million negroes and slaves at the time, and there were Confederate soldiers plotting and planning how to keep them enslaved," Perry said.

"While now that land is owned by one negro and I know the importance of what it means to honor that and honor the history of what it has been, and what it has been and to redirect it and rechange it. So it's very important to me that we all give and support, and with that said, I'd like to give a half-million dollars to make sure this place continues to grow and thrive."

To quote Variety.com:

Perry concluded his speech by sharing that 98 percent of the people he paid last year with his $154 million payroll were Black. He then implored those listening not to give up on their career goals, using his own uplift of Black people in the industry as an example of the good that can come from Black people's success.

"That is the power of us, that is the power of understanding our stories, our messages, whether who gets it or who don't. Long as you walk you path, you understand who you're talking to, you know your audience. If you've got a dream in this room, please hear me when I say this, do not give up on your dreams," Perry said.

"If I would have given up, I don't know who would have given that payroll, or if they would be in Hollywood, if people wouldn't let them in the door. When you come to Tyler Perry Studios, you see the most diverse group of people who have ever worked in the industry, and for that I am grateful."

Including Perry's gift, the Apollo raised a record-breaking $3.7 million last night as comedian Kenan Thompson hosted the fundraising event.
Read more: https://variety.com/2022/scene/news/tyler-perry-apollo-theater-1235293971/#recipient_hashed=e4ade4bb4c820e62c1711f6b9f58ef75312251d8145e19a72a9f5413dbe0fb9e

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)
I couldn't believe I hadn't done a #Juneteenth playlist for GBN. This year it shares a Sunday with Father's Day.

While I didn't grow up with the holiday, it's believed to be the oldest African-American holiday, with annual celebrations on June 19th in some parts of the country dating back to 1866. Well.
Open in Spotify
Since becoming aware of it, I've been all-in for years. As a father and son, I am thrilled with the one-two holiday punch.

I've tried to gather a set of tunes that can be enjoyed while the grill is full of food, with folk sitting around the table, or when you're chilling around the crib.

From its Galveston, Texas roots, is now one of five date-specific federal holidays along with New Year's Day (January 1), Independence Day (July 4), Veterans Day (November 11), and Christmas Day (December 25).

Juneteenth will coincide with Father's Day not only this year, but also in 2033, 2039, 2044, and 2050. It's the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was declared a holiday in 1986.

Do enjoy another free-wheeling and eclectic collection celebrating this uniquely American holiday by your friend and selector.

And as always, stay safe, sane, and kind.

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)
"With the possible exception of the Beatles, no band in the history of popular music, and certainly no African American act, has left a more substantial legacy on popular music than the Isley Brothers." - Bob Gulla, Icons of R&B and Soul

While they're well respected enough to be in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame since 1992, The Isley Brothers are not afforded their proper place of widespread esteem in the pantheon of popular music.
Open in Spotify
They're the only group in the history of music to have a demonstrable influence on both the Beatles (who covered the Isleys' take of "Twist And Shout" for one of their biggest early hits) and Ice Cube (who rapped over "Footsteps In The Dark, Pts. 1 & 2" on "It Was A Good Day").

Over a 60-year run the group changed - one brother, Vernon, died young, while another, Rudolph, became a church minister, to be replaced by a family member - one aspect has remained constant: Ronald's instantly recognizable, golden voice.

Last month he turned 81 years old. Any listener to the playlists I've created for GBN knows I'll slip an Isley Brothers track into a collection whenever possible.

This one is an unapologetic tribute to the vocalist that fronted the most essential band this nation has produced. He's mastered a series of genres and has also sung the modern American of songbooks.

Ronald Isley has song standards from Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley. He has gifted us definitive versions of classics penned for the Motown production line by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland, as well as delicate reinterpretations of ballads by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

Enjoy this hours-long collection of the best of one of America's greatest and most enduring vocalists.

And as always, stay safe, sane, and kind.

The United Negro College Fund is offering the Pierre and Tana Matisse Scholarship for New York City students of Black, Latinx or Indigenous descent.

Funded by a $1 million grant from this Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, the program provides students attending any accredited two-year community or four-year college in the United States with scholarships of up to $5,000.

The deadline to apply for the 2022-2023 academic year is June 30, 2022. Eligibility requirements are listed below. For more detailed information on the scholarship and to apply, click here.

To see a FULL LIST of other scholarships currently available through UNCF, click here.

Eligibility Requirements

1. Be Black, Latinx, or Indigenous.

2. Be a US citizen, permanent US resident, an undocumented student, or an undocumented student with DACA status.

3. Be a permanent resident of one of the five boroughs of New York City: Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, or Staten Island. (See the list of eligible NYC ZIP codes here.)
Applicants who are permanent residents of New York City and attend college outside of NYC may apply if their permanent home address is in NYC.

4. Have a minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 2.5 on a 4.0 scale.

5. Be currently classified as a graduating high school senior, or college freshman, sophomore, or junior. Current first-semester college seniors who are graduating in December 2022 may also apply.

6. Will be enrolled as a full-time freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior at any accredited US 4-year institution or 2-year community college in the 2022-2023 academic year.

7. Have completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and have a demonstrated unmet financial need, as verified by the applicant's institution.

NOTE: Undocumented students and students with DACA status will be exempt from Eligibility Requirement #7.
Learn more: https://scholarships.uncf.org/Program/Details/69fe5148-0820-442b-9a38-6a00ab3c65d0

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Harvard University-based historian and Finding Your Roots host Henry Louis Gates Jr. will be the editor-in-chief of Oxford's new dictionary entitled the Oxford Dictionary of African American English. This dictionary, slated to debut in 2025, will provide a comprehensive collection of words and phrases created and used by Black Americans, past and present.

# data[].attributes.headline
When White Women Cry: How White Women's Tears Oppress Women of Color

# data[].attributes.subject
When White Women Cry: How White Women's Tears Oppress Women of Color

# data[].attributes.body
by Mamta Motwani Accapadi

# data[].attributes.headline
Resource Center for Confronting Racial Injustice

# data[].attributes.subject
Resource Center for Confronting Racial Injustice

# data[].attributes.body
From Pennsylvania Conference for Women

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Now more than ever, we stand together to join the voices calling for change and call on women to support one another to achieve equality for people of color. Featuring speakers within the CFW community as well as external thought-leaders, these anti-racism resources have been curated and shared to amplify the voices of Black women and women of color, and to help us learn and take action together. WE are the women the world needs now, and we are ready to act.

Together we can go further and do better.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Resource Center for Confronting Racial Injustice - The Conferences for Women

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Now more than ever, we stand together to join the voices calling for change and call on women to support one another to achieve equality for people of color. Featuring speakers within the CFW community as well as external thought-leaders, these anti-racism resources have been curated and shared to amplify the voices of Black women and women of color, and to help us learn and take action together.

# data[].attributes.headline
Blackout bestseller lists with Black voices 

# data[].attributes.subject
Blackout bestseller lists with Black voices 

# data[].attributes.body
June 14-20, campaign to lift up Black voices in publishing by purchasing any two books by Black writers

# data[].attributes.body
White Privilege
Here is an example of how white privilege sounds:

You keep saying “It’s horrible that an innocent black man was killed, by destroying property has to stop.”

Try saying “It’s horrible that property is being destroyed, but killing innocent black men has to stop.”

You are prioritizing the wrong part.

# data[].attributes.headline
The racist history of policing in America

# data[].attributes.subject
The racist history of policing in America

# data[].attributes.body
Throughline, featuring Khalil Gibran Muhammad

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Unrest was sparked across the nation after a black man in Minneapolis was killed in police custody. Tensions between African American communities and the police have existed for centuries.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

George Floyd's name is on a list now, a very long list, a centuries-old history of black Americans dying at the hands of police. Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei of NPR's history podcast Throughline set out to learn the origins of policing in America and start in the South.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

KHALIL GIBRAN MUHAMMAD: In this country, for the years that cover the 1600s to the mid-19th century, the most dominant presence of law enforcement was what we call today slave patrols. That's what made up policing.

RUND ABDELFATAH, BYLINE: This is Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a historian at the Harvard Kennedy School.

MUHAMMAD: And perhaps the most revealing aspect of the way slave patrols functioned is that they were explicit in their design to empower the entire white population with the duty to police movements of black people. So the tying together early on - the surveillance, the deputization, essentially, of all white men to be police officers or, in this case, slave patrollers and then to dispense corporal punishment on the scene are all baked in from the very beginning.

RAMTIN ARABLOUEI, BYLINE: These Southern slave patrols were eventually disbanded after the Confederacy lost the Civil War. But the violent control of newly freed black citizens continued.

MUHAMMAD: A number of Confederate states began to pass these mega bills, these crime bills that we call today black codes. And they try to cover just about everything they would need to maintain absolute control over black folks as, quote, unquote, "freedmen" and "freedwomen." But the 13th Amendment abolished slavery except as punishment for a crime. So in some ways, the genius of the former Confederate states was to say, oh, well, if all we need to do is make them criminals and they can be put back in slavery, well, then that's what we'll do. And that's exactly what the black codes set out to do.

ABDELFATAH: The South was slow to formalize policing. So in the decades following the Civil War, these codes were enforced by vigilante groups, like the Ku Klux Klan. This is partly what sparked the Great Migration, when millions of Southern blacks went north in search of better and safer lives. But what very few of these migrants could have known was that northern cities had been developing their own professional police forces.

MUHAMMAD: And part of the context for early modern policing was that the immigrant population of Europeans, particularly the Irish, were generating a similar kind of social anxiety, xenophobic, nativist, racist reaction. The early emphasis on people whose status was just a tiny notch better than the folks who they were focused on policing. And so the Anglo-Saxons are policing the Irish. The Irish are policing the Poles. And so this dynamic that's playing out is that police officers are a critical feature of establishing a racial hierarchy, even among white people.

ARABLOUEI: This is the system Southern black migrants were met with when they arrived in northern cities, where they quickly learned they were no safer up north than they were down South.

MUHAMMAD: When a white person throws a Molotov cocktail into a new black homeowner on a street that had previously been all Irish or all Polish or all German, the police come, and they arrest the black family and defend the white mob. This happens over and over again. They are policing the racial norms of white supremacy from the very beginning in the north. And so what do these black folks do who are observing all this? They begin to write about it. W.E.B. Du Bois is writing for the NAACP magazine. He has essentially a police blotter, which systematically details all the examples of police brutality directed against African Americans everywhere.

The National Urban League begins to do systematic survey research. And they overwhelmingly see that police officers are doing, essentially, stop-and-frisk policing in the 1920s. Other researchers looked at this all over the country and began to come to the same conclusion - that these big cities had a systemic, massive policing problem.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MUHAMMAD: The thing about police that just is so blatant is that they are the most visible representation of the state in most people's lives, especially for black people. So for example, in 1935, one of the leading black sociologists publishes a really poignant statement about what police officers represent to the black community. He says, too often, the policeman's club is the only instrument of the law with which the Negro comes into contact. This engenders in him a distrust and resentful attitude toward all public authorities and law officers. He's saying, look. Police officers are directly responsible for telling black people how much their lives don't matter in this society.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MUHAMMAD: The irony about police professionalization that is occurring by the 1930s and will carry us into the 21st century is that part of police science begins to draw on crime statistics and sociological research about the innate or cultural tendencies of black people to criminality, which then legitimate racist notions of black people as a race of criminals. Part of this professionalization is to say, those are the only real criminals we have to worry about.

And so the question that has to be asked in the wake of George Floyd - and I think this question is being asked and answered by more white people than I've seen in my lifetime - is, do white people in America still want the police to protect their interests over the rights and dignity and lives of black and, in too many cases, brown, Indigenous and Asian populations in this country?

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

INSKEEP: That was Khalil Gibran Muhammad speaking with Throughline hosts Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei. You can hear Throughline wherever you get your podcasts.

Copyright © 2020 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NPR's History Podcast 'Throughline' Explores Policing In America

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Unrest was sparked across the nation after a black man in Minneapolis was killed in police custody. Tensions between African American communities and the police have existed for centuries. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: George Floyd's name is on a list now, a very long list, a centuries-old history of black Americans dying at the hands of police.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Our biases can be dangerous, even deadly — as we’ve seen in the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner, in Staten Island, New York. Diversity advocate Vernā Myers looks closely at some of the subconscious attitudes we hold toward out-groups. She makes a plea to all people: Acknowledge your biases. Then move toward, not away from, the groups that make you uncomfortable. In a funny, impassioned, important talk, she shows us how.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Heather C. McGhee: Racism has a cost for everyone

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Racism makes our economy worse -- and not just in ways that harm people of color, says public policy expert Heather C. McGhee. From her research and travels across the US, McGhee shares startling insights into how racism fuels bad policymaking and drains our economic potential -- and offers a crucial rethink on what we can do to create a more prosperous nation for all.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
T. Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison: The trauma of systematic racism is killing Black women. A first step toward change...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
T. Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison, founders of the health nonprofit GirlTrek, are on a mission to reduce the leading causes of preventable death among Black women -- and build communities in the process. How? By getting one million women and girls to prioritize their self-care, lacing up their shoes and walking in the direction of their healthiest, most fulfilled lives.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Baratunde Thurston: How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Baratunde Thurston explores the phenomenon of white Americans calling the police on Black Americans who have committed the crimes of ... eating, walking or generally "living while Black." In this profound, thought-provoking and often hilarious talk, he reveals the power of language to change stories of trauma into stories of healing -- while challenging us all to level up.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Now more than ever, it’s important to look boldly at the reality of race and gender bias -- and understand how the two can combine to create even more harm. Kimberlé Crenshaw uses the term “intersectionality” to describe this phenomenon; as she says, if you’re standing in the path of multiple forms of exclusion, you’re likely to get hit by both. In this moving talk, she calls on us to bear witness to this reality and speak up for victims of prejudice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
smithsonian asian pacific american center

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
158 Resources for Understanding Systemic Racism in America

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As protesters take to the streets to speak out against police brutality and systemic racism long endured by black people in the United States, during a pandemic that disproportionately affects communities of color, the myriad consequences of institutional racism is a matter of national conversation and reflection.

In this moment, many non-black people are seeking to educate themselves about the experiences of black Americans and what actions everyone - but specifically, white Americans - can take to dismantle their own racial biases, as well as the larger discriminatory social, political and economic power structures that shape the nation.

Books, podcasts, films, articles and other resources can serve as a starting point for people who wish to become better allies in the fight for racial justice and equality by engaging with the work of black writers and scholars, learning about intersectional forms of oppression in the U.S. and actively educating their friends and family on these topics. Talking with some of the voices featured on the PBS NewsHour, as well as sharing some of our own recommendations, we've compiled a list of things for you to read, listen to and watch that might illuminate your understanding. This list is just a starting point.

Books

"White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide" by Carol Anderson

"Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon To White America" by Michael Eric Dyson

"How To Be Anti-Racist" by Ibram Kendi

"White Fragility: Why It's So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism" by Robin DiAngelo

"Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do" by Jennifer L. Eberhardt

"So You Want to Talk About Race" by Ijeoma Oluo

"The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap" by Mehrsa Baradaran

"The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism" by Edward Baptist

"The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story Of America's Great Migration" by Isabel Wilkerson

"Me And White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor" by Layla F. Saad

"White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America" by Margaret A. Hagerman

"The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin

"Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility" by Dorceta Taylor

"Playing In The Dark: Whiteness And The Literary Imagination" By Toni Morrison

"No, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America" by Symone D. Sanders

"Say It Louder! Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving Our Democracy" by Tiffany Cross

"Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People" by Ben Crump

"Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements" by Charlene A. Carruthers

"To The Mountaintop: My Journey Through the Civil Rights Movement" by Charlayne Hunter-Gault

"The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr." by Peniel E. Joseph

"We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

"Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008" by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

"Stony The Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, And The Rise Of Jim Crow" by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

"Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity" by C. Riley Snorton

"The Mis-Education of the Negro" by Carter G. Woodson

"Come Hell Or High Water: Hurricane Katrina And The Color Of Disaster" by Michael Eric Dyson

"When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir" by Patrisse Cullors and ashe bandele

"Vernon Can Read!: A Memoir" by Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.

"Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement" By John Lewis and Michael D'Orso

"My Vanishing Country: A Memoir" by Bakari Sellers

"In My Place" by Charlayne Hunter-Gault

"How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir" by Saeed Jones

"Angela Davis: An Autobiography" by Angela Davis

"Black Indian: A Memoir" by Shonda Buchanan

"The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas

"Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler

"Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi

"Mama's Girl" by Veronica Chambers

"With the Fire on High" by Elizabeth Acevedo

READ MORE: Go beyond Toni Morrison with these 7 books that stare down the white gaze
Podcasts and films

Broken Justice is a PBS NewsHour original podcast series that looks at the impact that overworked and underfunded public defenders have on the American criminal justice system. It tells the story of Ricky Kidd, who was sentenced to life without parole for a double homicide he says he didn't commit and argues his court-appointed lawyer is the reason for that conviction.

Code Switch is an NPR podcast created by "a multi-racial, multi-generational team of journalists" that covers "overlapping themes of race, ethnicity and culture, how they play out in our lives and communities, and how all of this is shifting."

1619 is a podcast series from New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah Jones that connects "past and present" by examining "the long shadow of American slavery."

Say It Loud is "a PBS Digital Studios series that celebrates Black culture, context, and history."

" 13th," available both on Netflix and YouTube, is a documentary from director Ava DuVernay that looks at the U.S. prison system and "how the country's history of racial inequality drives the high rate of incarceration in America."

More to read
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Candice Norwood, Bakari Sellers and Tonya Alston contributed recommendations to this list.
READ MORE
13-year-old founder of #1000blackgirlbooks shares some of her favorite reads 10 books besides 'To Kill a Mockingbird' that tackle racial injustice 10 children's books that feature diverse characters

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What to read, listen to and watch to learn about institutional racism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As protesters take to the streets to speak out against police brutality and systemic racism long endured by black people in the United States, during a pandemic that disproportionately affects communities of color, the myriad consequences of institutional racism is a matter of national conversation and reflection.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Cities across the United States have seen ongoing protests since the death of George Floyd while in police custody on 25 May. Conversations are taking place on social media as well as in the real world, and media coverage has been relentless. We at Oxford University Press would like to highlight some of our books across politics, history, and philosophy that we hope can contribute to the important conversations currently taking place and provide valuable context. Where possible, we've made some of these books available at no cost for a limited time. Explore additional free articles on race and diversity on our website.

1. American While Black: African Americans, Immigration, and the Limits of Citizenship by Niambi Michele Carter
Carter argues that immigration, both historically and in the contemporary moment, has served as a reminder of the limited inclusion of African Americans in the body politic. As Carter contends, immigration provides a way to understand the nature and meaning of black American citizenship-specifically the way that white supremacy structures and constrains not only African Americans' place in the American political landscape, but the black community's political opinions as well.
American While Black is free on Oxford Scholarship Online until 10 July.

2. The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea by Christopher J. Lebron
Started in the wake of George Zimmerman's 2013 acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin, the #BlackLivesMatter movement has become a powerful campaign to demand redress for law enforcement injustices against the African American community in the United States. Drawing on the work of revolutionary black public intellectuals, Lebron clarifies what it means to assert that "Black Lives Matter" when faced with contemporary instances of anti-black law enforcement.

3. Situational Breakdowns: Understanding Protest Violence and Other Surprising Outcomes by Anne Nassauer
Nassauer demonstrates that when routines break down, surprising outcomes often emerge. Focusing on detailed accounts of peaceful and violent protests from the 1960s until 2010, violent uprisings such as Ferguson 2014, and armed store robberies caught on camera, Nassauer argues we can understand how and why routine interactions break down by looking at how situations develop systematically. She discusses how violence emerges and what police and protesters can do to avoid violent clashes.

4. Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones, and the New Protest #Journalism by Allissa V. Richardson
This book reveals how the perfect storm of smartphones, social media, and social justice empowered Black activists to create their own news outlets, which continued a centuries-long, African American tradition of using the news to challenge racism.Bearing Witness While Black is the first book of its kind to identify three overlapping eras of domestic terror against African American people-slavery, lynching, and police brutality-and explain how storytellers documented such atrocities through journalism.

5. Steeped in the Blood of Racism: Black Power, Law and Order, and the 1970s Shootings at Jackson State College by Nancy K. Bristow
Minutes after midnight on 15 May 1970, white members of the Jackson city police and the Mississippi Highway Patrol opened fire on young people in front of a women's dormitory at Jackson State College, a historically black college. Just ten days after the killings at Kent State, the attack at Jackson State never garnered the same level of national attention. In the aftermath, the victims and their survivors struggled unsuccessfully to find justice. The shootings were soon largely forgotten except among the local African American community. This book reclaims this story and situates it in the broader history of the struggle for African American freedom in the civil rights and black power eras.
Steeped in the Blood of Racism is free on Oxford Scholarship Online until 10 July.

6. Black Software: The Internet & Racial Justice, from AfroNet to Black Lives Matter by Charlton D. McIlwain
Activists, pundits, politicians, and the press frequently proclaim today's digitally mediated racial justice activism the new civil rights movement. InBlack Software, McIlwain shows how the story of racial justice movement organizing online is much longer and more varied. Chronicling the long relationship between African Americans, computing technology, and the Internet from the 1960s to present, the book examines how computing technology has been used to neutralize the threat that black people pose to the existing racial order, but also how black people seized these new computing tools to build community, wealth, and wage a war for racial justice.

7. Sick from Freedom: African American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction by Jim Downs
Downs recovers the untold story of one of the bitterest ironies in American history-that the emancipation of the slaves had devastating consequences for innumerable freed people. Slaves who fled from bondage during and after the Civil War did not expect that their flight toward freedom would lead to sickness, disease, suffering, and death. But the war produced the largest biological crisis of the nineteenth century, with deadly consequences for hundreds of thousands of freed people.
Sick from Freedom is free on Oxford Scholarship Online until 10 July.

8. A Duty to Resist: When Disobedience Should be Uncivil by Candice Delmas
Advocates from Henry David Thoreau and Mohandas Gandhi to the Black Lives Matter activists have recognized that there are times when, rather than having a duty to obey the law, citizens have a duty to disobey it. There are limits: principle alone does not justify law breaking. But Delmas argues that uncivil disobedience can sometimes be not only permissible but required in the effort to resist injustice.
A Duty to Resist is free on Oxford Scholarship Online until 10 July.

9. Until There is Justice: The Life of Anna Arnold Hedgeman by Jennifer Scanlon
Scanlon presents the first-ever biography of Hedgeman, a demanding feminist, devout Christian, and savvy grassroots civil rights organizer. Anna Arnold Hedgeman played a key role in over half a century of social justice initiatives. Hedgeman ought to be a household name, but until now has received only a fraction of the attention of activists like A. Philip Randolph, Betty Friedan, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

10. Most of 14th Street Is Gone: The Washington, DC Riots of 1968 by J. Samuel Walker
Walker's book takes an in-depth look at the causes and consequences of the Washington, DC, riots of 1968. It shows that the conditions that existed in the city's low-income neighborhoods helped generate the problems that erupted after Martin Luther King's murder. The book also discusses the growing fears produced by the outbreaks of serious riots in many cities during the mid-1960s. Walker analyzes the reasons for the riots and the lessons that authorities drew from them. He also provides an overview of the struggle that the city faced in recovering from the effects of the 1968 disorders.

11. The Color of America Has Changed: How Racial Diversity Shaped Civil Rights Reform in California, 1941-1978 by Mark Brilliant
Brilliant examines California's history to illustrate how the civil rights era was a nationwide and multiracial phenomenon-one that was shaped and complicated by the presence of not only blacks and whites, but also Mexican Americans, Japanese Americans, and Chinese Americans, among others. The Golden State's status as a civil rights vanguard for the nation is due in part to the numerous civil rights precedents set there and to the disparate challenges of civil rights reform in multiracial places.

12. Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Raymond Arsenault
They were black and white, young and old, men and women. In the spring and summer of 1961, they put their lives on the line, riding buses through the American South to challenge segregation in interstate transport. Their story is one of the most celebrated episodes of the civil rights movement, yet a full-length history has never been written until now. In these pages, acclaimed historian Raymond Arsenault provides an account of six pivotal months that jolted the consciousness of America.

Feature image created by OUP.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Twelve books that give context to current protests [reading list]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Cities across the United States have seen ongoing protests since the death of George Floyd while in police custody on 25 May. Conversations are taking place on social media as well as in the real world, and media coverage has been relentless.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In these socially charged times, one of the most important things in the fight against systemic racism and our own internal biases is education. Faculty at Rutgers University-Newark teach and work at one of the most diverse university in the United States, and their research covers race and bias from across a wide range of disciplines in the arts, humanities, sciences, business and law. We put out a general call asking for book recommendations on the black experience in America, and the response was immediate and overwhelming. Below, our faculty recommend their current and classic favorites and tell us why we should read them now.

Most Recommended:

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, Richard Rothstein

From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

In the Castle of My Skin, George Lamming

The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin

These books were named multiple times as essential reading. The Color of Law is a "hard-hitting and sobering book [that] traces the role of local, state and federal housing policies in segregating the races in the United States," says Tom McCabe, who teaches a History of Newark course at RU-N. "If you ever wondered how your neighborhood came to be all-white, all-black-or-brown, or if you ever wondered the same about your schools, read this book," adds Belinda Edmondson, acting chair of African American and African Studies.

Melissa Valle, an assistant professor in Sociology says From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation "provide[s] much needed structural analyses and context for this latest spate of uprisings around the country. Lamming's novel, In the Castle of My Skin, is "A powerful story about the relation between the UK and its Caribbean colonies," says Sadia Abbas, associate professor of English. And finally, Mark Krasovic, says The Fire Next Time, is a classic for reasons including "the stunning beauty of its language in the face of ugliness and its constant reminder of our interconnected fates, whether they ultimately be liberatory or destructive."

Full Reading List

Recommends:

"A powerful story about the relation between the UK and its Caribbean colonies and the ways in which race structures experience in the colony and the colonial center. Characterized by Lamming's densely suggestive storytelling and analytical style."

"Professor Judy is originally from Minneapolis. The book brings together critical theory, the suppressed Muslim history of american slavery, antiblack racism and the philosophical tradition. It's a significant and brilliant contribution to several disciplines and a profound meditation on language, thought and the possibilities of different varieties of signification."

"A powerful and slily brilliant modernist text about race, poverty and disability."

"The first volume of Moten's trilogy, consent not to be a single being, this book is a collection of brillliant and anarchic, brilliantly anarchic, deeply thoughtful essays aesthetics, politics, life and blackness."
Recommends:
Recommends:

"This collection of essays by writer, cultural critic and Emerson College professor Jabari Asim explores our contemporary moment of emergency as an afterlife, marshaling the past to shed light on the present. Asim salvages hope through a focus on black resilience and black survival. The collection was a finalist for PEN's Art of the Essay award last year. Asim has also written children's books about African-American history."

"This is the first and only substantive history of the U.S. Border Patrol, by UCLA African-American Studies professor Kelly Lytle Hernandez, who won a MacArthur Genius Award last year. Just as interrogating the history of policing in the United States is key to understanding black lives and Black Lives Matter, knowing the history of how our borders are policed is key to understanding the lives of immigrants and racialized Others in the United States."

"Minneapolis-based author and scholar Erika Lee provides a tragically timely genealogy of hate directed at "aliens" in American society, beginning with Ben Franklin and ending with Trump's travel bans. Lee is director of the Immigration Resource Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Her comprehensive narrative shows how a nation of immigrants is, paradoxically, also a nation of xenophobia."

Recommends:

"It's easy to read and provides useful background."

"Provides theoretical background, comparative perspective."

"This is a great novel by a major writer."
Recommends:

If you ever wondered how your neighborhood came to be all-white, all-black-or-brown, or if you ever wondered the same about your schools, read this book.

"It argues that the reason we, the residents of the richest country on earth, find ourselves in a pandemic without enough hospital beds or indeed (for 10 percent of the population) without even healthcare; or with barely enough unemployment insurance policies to cover the masses of suddenly unemployed people, is because in the United States the white majority would rather shrink the social welfare net than pay into any system that supports "undeserving" people of color."

"It examines recent US history to argue that the segregation that plagues our cities and contributes to the kind of explosive racial strife we are currently experiencing is the result of decades of consistent anti-integration local, state and federal policies in housing and education. If you ever wondered how your neighborhood came to be all-white, all-black-or-brown, or if you ever wondered the same about your schools, read this book."

"This book builds on the argument, first advanced by Trinidadian historian (and eventually prime minister) Eric Williams that slavery and capitalism are intrinsically linked by illustrating how slavery did not simply contribute to but actually provided the foundation for America's present wealth. In so doing it refutes the belief that African Americans are somehow marginal or play a supporting role in the creation of this country's wealth when their ancestors provided the very basis of it."

"It links the present injustices--the systematic incarceration of mostly African American men, the denial of voting rights to ex-felons who are disproportionately African American--to the nation's shameful "Jim Crow" era of the past century, arguing that the segregation era has never ended, only resulted in (to paraphrase Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man) a more efficient blinding."

"A classic."
Recommends:
"My main advice is that what is needed right now, above all, in this era of COVID-19 and BLM, is class-conscious antiracist literature that points to the material interests that most people in the 99% share when it comes to eradicating racism. Some poems by Langston Hughes in the 1930s are particularly powerful and accessible e.g., "Always the Same"; "Open Letter to the South"; "White Man!"; "Rising Waters" -- and there are plenty more.

"A novel that explores the need for antiracist class consciousness among working-class whites in the South."

Two short stories: "A Party Down at the Square", Ralph Ellison, and "Like a Winding Sheet", Ann Petry

"These two stories from the 1930s have worked for me time and again in the classroom. This last short story is just wonderul for the way it links the alienation of labor to sexist and racist ideology and practice."
Recommends:
"This is a comprehensive review article by one of the premier social psychology researchers of this topic. In it, Fiske distinguishes between the three anti-social tendencies, between motivated prejudice and prejudice that arises from mental short-cuts (automatic processes), and between overt, conscious expressions of prejudice and more subtle, implicit forms of prejudice."

"This book, although a bit old, provides an excellent review of what it feels like to be stigmatized--as well as why stigmatization happens. Chapters discuss how stigmas affect the way one is treated, how it restricts relations with others and limits one's own public behaviors, and how it affects one's own sense of self. This is a text I go back to often."

"This is a somewhat unconventional choice, but it may be an important part of the total story. Fogelman tries to understand the motives and characters of people who overcame their prejudices and did so at a crucial time under the most trying of circumstances. Knowing how and why prejudices are overcome may provide some markers on our way out of the current difficulties."

Recommends:

"I recommend this for so many reasons, including the stunning beauty of its language in the face of ugliness and its constant reminder of our interconnected fates, whether they ultimately be liberatory or destructive."

"Read this for its chronicle of the life of one of our nation's most remarkable thinkers and organizers, for its detailing of her 'radical democratic vision,' and for its conviction that there is no shortcut around that vision in our search for peace and justice."

Recommends:

"This book makes connections between the founding organizations and publications of intersectional black feminism in the 1970s, the radical abolitionism of Harriet Tubman and leaders of the Movement for Black Lives today... The book recounts how Black queer feminists, survivors of violence, have historically and recently organized themselves to demand freedom. As Yamahtta-Taylor's title suggests, this primer shows how to get free by drawing on lessons from history and responding with alacrity, passion, and creativity to violence and crisis."

"Cathy Park Hong recalls the long history of Anti-Asian racism and incarceration in the United States. This precisely written anti-racist manifesto addresses complex feelings of guilt, shame, and rage through readings of the brilliant Afro-Latino standup comic Richard Pryor; meditations on migrating while Asian; and unflinching assessments of quotidian, startlingly normalized racist violence that characterizes the United States from the 1882 race-based Chinese Exclusion Act through the first decades of the twenty-first century."

"The first generation of formerly enslaved Hispanic Caribbean migrants arriving in New York and South Florida in the 1870s organized themselves into clubs that gave them a voice in a revolutionary political party, created a self-funded voluntary night school, and created newspapers where they published their opinions and engaged in interpretation, critique and debate.

Members of this tight-knit Afro-Latinx community eventually founded the Schomburg Collection... at a time of extreme anti-black racial terror and Supreme Court decisions that made racial segregation and exclusion from full citizenship the law of the land. These Afro-Latinx thinkers offer a model for how to get organized to bring about change that is relevant during the economic and policing fallout of the COVID19 global pandemic."

Recommends:

"Part history, part memoir this page-turner lays bare a 1970s racial murder in North Carolina, and it also eloquently elicits a time and place in America that seems like it was a long time ago, but it wasn't. Tyson experienced these events and tries to make sense of them through the lens of the humanist-historian."

"A New Journalism account of the Newark Rebellion of 1967, Ron Porambo's book is a years-long investigation of institutional racism and corruption that spread from the top of city and state governments to local police forces in the state's largest city."

"This hard-hitting and sobering book traces the role of local, state and federal housing policies in segregating the races in the United States. Rothstein, who spoke at the HLLC a year or so ago, details how the government and our courts upheld racist policies to maintain the separation of whites and blacks."

Recommends:

Recommends:

We can counteract our own prejudices. The first step is to turn a hidden bias into a visible one.

Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, Anthony Greenwald and Mahzarin Banaji

"A deep dive into the origins of implicit bias for all readers by the two researchers who put implicit bias on the map with their ground-breaking work. A take-home message is that we may not have much power to eradicate our own prejudices, but we can counteract them. The first step is to turn a hidden bias into a visible one."

"Dr. Eberhardt makes a connection between implicit bias and system racism. She exposes racial bias at all levels of society, including law enforcement. And she also offers us tools to address it."
Recommends:
"This book makes the critical distinction between race, which is a construct, and racism, which is a real and devastating set of behaviors that create oppression and distort democracy. Progress will not be possible until the nation recognizes and acts upon the fact that racism, not 'race,' is our biggest problem. Racecraft can be read in tandem with Melissa L. Cooper's brilliant intellectual history Making Gullah: A History of Sapelo Island, Race, and the American Imagination. Cooper's book details how white Americans created a 'racial' identity for African Americans from Georgia's coastal islands, and how black Sapelo Islanders understood their own history and identity as one of struggle against oppression. It thereby shows the critical distinction between 'making race' and 'fighting racism' in U.S. life."

"Muhammad's study of Progressive-era Philadelphia shows how easy it was for white "experts" to manipulate seemingly neutral statistics about crime to support their belief that African Americans were inherently criminal."

"White Americans' ongoing economic exploitation and cultural denigration of African Americans has been strongly facilitated by residential segregation. Rothstein's comprehensive study details the multiple ways that U.S. laws at the local, state and federal level have consistently buttressed segregation. He demonstrates how at least some Americans have demonstrated a willingness to live in integrated communities, only to have their efforts thwarted by often obscure forms of institutionally racist laws. Until these laws are exposed and replaced by policies facilitating integration and fairness, segregation and its attendant evils will remain a primary support for the American racism."

"This book examines the famous power outage and subsequent looting that hit New York City in the summer of 1977 through multiple perspectives, but makes the fundamental point that looting and civil unrest is ultimately caused by a maldistribution of power."
Recommends:

In Darkness and Confusion, Ann Petry, a 1947 short story about the Harlem Riot of 1943 which appears in Petry's 1971 collection.

The Movement: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality, Lorraine Hansberry - a book-length brochure by the Civil Rights group, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) with text by Lorraine Hansberry.

"The Riot" Gwendolyn Brooks - a series of three poems about the Chicago Riots of 1968.

The three books that I've chosen are lesser-known works by authors renowned for championing racial and gender justice. As importantly, they were written as Ann Petry, Lorraine Hansberry, Gwendolyn Brooks engaged with the respective social justice movements of their time and how they as black women turned their words into being witnesses to and weapons to injustice.

Recommends:

"I would recommend Faces at the Bottom of the Well by Derrick Bell because it is such an important read of the condition of racism through a legal and political lens but with such narrative creativity. Books like this that are rich and provocative yet nontraditional and accessible invite vigorous discussion. Plus he's just so smart about so much. And We Are Not Saved is equally good for similar reasons."

Recommends:

"All three books provide much needed structural analyses and context for this latest spate of uprisings around the country. Taylor focuses specifically on the Black Lives Matter movement and the purposes of these kinds of protests. Hill uses high-profile and controversial cases of State violence similar to the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor (e.g., the police killings of people like Mike Brown, Kathryn Johnston and Freddie Gray, as well as the poisoning of the water in Flint, MI) to demonstrate that such cases are "a symptom of a deeper American problem," and that at the root of each case "is a more fundamental set of economic conditions, political arrangements, and power relations that transform everyday citizens into casualties of an increasingly intense war on the vulnerable" (p.xxii). Davis provides insights into what a just future could and should look like and the need for a radical re-imagining of the criminal justice system that abolishes prisons."

Recommends:

"These books constitute serious scholarship that combines historical sense with uncompromising anti-racism. Each places the question of race in historical, political and ideological contexts in the United States while avoiding the perils of race reductionism or reducing racism to a question of perception or individual prejudice. Required reading to enable effective anti-racism in the context of broad emancipatory politics in the United States."
Recommends:
"Typically, when we think of racism, our focus is on major events that generally receive widespread news coverage. However, racism also occurs in everyday, mundane situations such as those that occur in the marketplace. It is in this context that we often see what researchers describe as microaggressions, microassaults, implicit racism, etc. This research-based book provides not only empirical evidence of marketplace discrimination, but it also examines the legal issues and historical contexts of such marketplace phenomena."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Summer Reading: Over 40 Books on Race, Racism, and the Black American Experience to Read Now, as Recommended by Rutgers-Newark Faculty

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In these socially charged times, one of the most important things in the fight against systemic racism and our own internal biases is edu

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
These recent poetry collections offer poignant narratives and snapshots of racial injustice in America, from lasting testaments of systemic violence to a public appeal for the vital work that remains to be done as the country confront its legacy of racism and exploitation.

White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia by Kiki Petrosino (Sarabande)
"In this deeply felt fourth collection, Petrosino investigates her family tree-especially its roots in Virginia-and reports back on this exploration and its gaps.... This is an important and remarkable exploration of heritage."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
These recent poetry collections offer poignant narratives and snapshots of racial injustice in America, from lasting testaments of systemic violence to a public appeal for the vital work that remains to be done as the country confront its legacy of racism and exploitation.

# data[].attributes.headline
Why You Need to Stop Saying "All Lives Matter"

# data[].attributes.subject
Why You Need to Stop Saying "All Lives Matter"

# data[].attributes.headline
Implicit Bias -- how it effects us and how we push through | Melanie Funchess | TEDxFlourCity

# data[].attributes.subject
Implicit Bias -- how it effects us and how we push through | Melanie Funchess | TEDxFlourCity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Implicit Bias -- how it effects us and how we push through | Melanie Funchess | TEDxFlourCity

# data[].attributes.headline
12 Movies to Watch to Educate Yourself About Racism and Protest History, Recommended by Experts

# data[].attributes.subject
12 Movies to Watch to Educate Yourself About Racism and Protest History, Recommended by Experts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
12 Movies to Watch About Racism and Protest History

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
From 'Do the Right Thing' to 'Fruitvale Station', these films have much to teach viewers about about the history of racism, police brutality and resistance.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus | JSTOR Daily

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The United States has seen escalating protests over the past week, following the death of George Floyd while in custody of the Minneapolis police. Educators everywhere are asking how can we help students understand that this was not an isolated, tragic incident perpetrated by a few bad individuals, but part of a broader pattern of institutionalized racism.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Florida Housing Complex Forced to Stop Illegally Evicting Black Families

Last January we launched a rapid response campaign following a wave of evictions at Holly Court Apartments in Tampa. Victoria Lee, a tenant there, used our OrganizeFor platform to mobilize thousands of members and amplify tenant demands to fix the plumbing, honor leases, and support tenants who'd been illegally pushed out. Many families were given eviction notices on New Year's Eve for no reason at all and given just 30 days to find a new home. One mother reported having to go to the corner store to use the bathroom as raw sewage backed up in her tub. Management all but ignored calls for help and she had to call out of work for days because she couldn't shower. After the online petition and a sleep-in protest, Palm Communities agreed to honor residents' leases, provide temporary housing for displaced residents, and resolve maintenance issues. Housing is a human right, but far too often greed and profit trump the needs of Black and low-income residents who live in buildings owned by private equity firms. Your calls and text messages kept residents in their homes!

AT&T Pulls Funding from White Nationalist Network

With your help, we pressured AT&T to stop funding the far-right network One America News. OAN was a major vehicle for Trump, and has continued to provide a "friendly" platform for his allies. We've seen correspondents use racial slurs, call for the execution of election officials, suggest shooting unhoused people - all without consequence. OAN consistently promotes hate-filled content, and disseminates dangerous misinformation about the 2020 elections and safety of the COVID-19 vaccine, with the goal of provoking their audience. Research revealed a major reason for the network's success was support from AT&T. AT&T should know better. So thousands of Color Of Change members wrote to AT&T CEO John Stankey, and we were heard. One America Network has been removed from DirectTV. This is another step towards making sure the media isn't allowed to amplify racist lies that lead to real-world violence against Black people.

Biden Grants Clemency to 70 People on Home Confinement

Throughout the pandemic, we've fought to get incarcerated people who pose no risk to their communities but could fall deathly ill with COVID sent home. On April 26, 2022, nearly 150,000 Color Of Change members helped convince President Biden to free 70 people on home confinement. That means they can live independently, pursue their dreams, spend time with friends and family without electronic monitors or other dehumanizing conditions of confinement. It is historic for a president to grant so many clemencies in their first term. But thousands more people deserve to be free - and risk being sent back due to minor technicalities or bureaucratic errors. People on home confinement have had to turn down jobs or miss funerals because they're outside of the range they're allowed to travel. Biden promised he'd end mass incarceration and cut the prison population in half. Help us hold him to that.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Color Of Change - Color Of Change helps you do something real about injustice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Last January we launched a rapid response campaign following a wave of evictions at Holly Court Apartments in Tampa. Victoria Lee, a tenant there, used our OrganizeFor platform to mobilize thousands of members and amplify tenant demands to fix the plumbing, honor leases, and support tenants who'd been illegally pushed out.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
CNN and 'Sesame Street' to host a town hall addressing racism | CNN

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As anger and heartbreak have swept across America over the killing of yet another black man at the hands of police, CNN and Sesame Street are refocusing their second town hall to address racism.

# data[].attributes.headline
The world we dream of cannot be achieved with silence, especially in the face of hateful rhetoric. Speak out. Speak up.

# data[].attributes.subject
The world we dream of cannot be achieved with silence, especially in the face of hateful rhetoric. Speak out. Speak up.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What we saw this weekend in Philadelphia was not a protest - it was a riot. In fact, nearly every major city across the nation was ravaged by looting, violence and arson.

The perpetrators of this urban domestic terror are radical left-wing hate groups like Black Lives Matter. This organization, in particular, screams racism not to expose bigotry and injustice, but to justify the lawless destruction of our cities and surrounding communities. Their objective is to unleash chaos and mayhem without consequence by falsely claiming they, in fact, are the victims.

For years, our police men and women have been demonized and degraded by the radical left. As a result of this defamation and character assassination, as well as a complicit media constantly pushing the bogus narrative of systemic police brutality and white racism, law enforcement is afraid to do their job of protecting innocent people and their property.

In addition, too many Democrat mayors are sympathizers of these far-left radical enemy combatants. As a result, their misguided empathy has enabled a level of unfettered criminality never witnessed before in American history.

Sadly, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney falls in this category of sympathetic Democrat mayors. And his handpicked Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw seems to share her boss's sentiment. Frankly, the name Outlaw fits her to a tee.

This past weekend, I watched television coverage of police officers being ordered to stand down as the statue of Frank Rizzo was spray painted, lit on fire and attempted to be pulled down.

The only way to stop this vandalism and chaos is by allowing law enforcement to do their job of enforcing the law. Otherwise, so-called 'peaceful protests' end up escalating to into violence, arson and looting.

Police cannot continue to 'give space' to opportunists and lawbreakers. Because as they say, 'If you give an inch, they will take a foot.'

We need law-and-order. We need leaders who will uphold the laws they swore to defend when they placed their hand on the Holy Bible on inauguration day. The broken promises of failed Democrat mayors like Jim Kenney have led not just to broken windows, but a broken public trust that must be restored before more cities are shattered.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Montgomery County commissioner's statement on riots and looting in Philadelphia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What we saw this weekend in Philadelphia was not a protest - it was a riot. In fact, nearly every major city across the nation was ravaged by looting, violence and arson. The perpetrators of this urban domestic terror are radical left-wing hate groups like Black Lives Matter.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
For more than three centuries, African Americans have overcome barriers and defied restrictions to gain access to higher education, but it wasn't until after the Civil War that they were able to enroll by the thousands in higher education institutions - predominantly at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). In the twentieth century, many risked administrative punishment, expulsion, violence, and even death to fight for change. From the early 1920s through the 1970s, these students were especially active in desegregation efforts, the Civil Rights Movement, and what later became known as the Black Campus Movement (1965-1972). Included below are just a few of the many ways that Black students have stood up for equality and helped create a legacy of campus activism that still lives today.

Students at Florida A&M University, an HBCU, stage a three-month protest - including boycotting classes and firebombing a building - to demand the resignation of the institution's president, who accommodated segregation policies.

Fisk University students hold a 10-week strike after their president refuses to let them establish an NAACP chapter on campus.

NAACP leadership, at the behest of young Black activists, form the NAACP Youth and College Division.

HBCU students from across the U.S. and other young activists convene in Chicago to form the Southern Negro Youth Congress to advance equal rights in education and other causes.

1940
2,000 students protest New York University's (NYU) decision to pull an African American player from a football game against the University of Missouri (MU) to accommodate MU's policy against interracial athletics. NYU loses the game 33-0.

1952
The University of Alabama (UA) admits Autherine Lucy and Pollie Anne Myers, two Black graduate students, before learning of their race. Thurgood Marshall and others join the fight to desegregate UA after admissions officials refuse to let them enroll in classes.

1956
Lucy enrolls at UA and is attacked by a White mob on her third day on campus; officials promptly expel her for what they say is her own protection.

FEBRUARY: Four students from North Carolina A&T University stage the country's first lunch counter sit-in in Greensboro, NC.
APRIL: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee is formed. It propels Black student participation in sit-ins, Freedom Rides, and other forms of peaceful protest.

1961
JANUARY: Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes win a lawsuit to be admitted to the University of Georgia (UGA) and immediately enroll. Although White mobs protest their appearance on campus and the administration tries to persuade them to withdraw for their own safety, UGA faculty successfully petition for their right to stay.

MAY: Freedom Rides, in which young Black and White students and activists travel on public transportation together to test the South's adherence to desegregation laws, begin. They are frequently met with extreme violence from segregationists. (photo courtesy of David Fankhauser)

1962
More than 5,000 police officers and military are sent to quell riots against the admission of James Meredith, an African American, to the University of Mississippi.

1963
Alabama Governor and pro-segregation icon George Wallace physically blocks Black students James Hood and Vivian Malone Jones from entering UA. Federal police are sent to control White rioters.

1964
Hundreds of students from across the U.S. participate in the Mississippi Summer Project to register disenfranchised Black voters. College student Andrew Goodman, who is White and Jewish, and volunteers James Earl Chaney and Michael Henry Schwerner are murdered by the Ku Klux Klan one day after the project launches.

1966
MARCH: Activists at San Francisco State University (SFSU) form the first Black Student Union at a predominantly White institution.
OCTOBER: Merritt College students Huey Newton and Bobby Seale found the Black Panther Party to monitor police interactions with African Americans and inform them of their rights.

SEPTEMBER: San Jose State University students hold campus protests, and Black athletes threaten to strike unless the administration meets demands to improve racial campus climate.

1968
FEBRUARY: Police officers open fire on a peaceful civil rights protest at South Carolina State University (SC State), an HBCU, in what is later known as the Orangeburg Massacre. Nearly 30 demonstrators are wounded and SC State freshman Sammy Hammond, high school student Delano Middleton, and 18-year-old protester Henry Smith are killed.

OCTOBER: San Jose State student athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos become civil rights icons by raising their fists in a Black power salute at the 1968 Summer Olympics.

NOVEMBER: SFSU's Black Student Union launches the longest student strike in U.S. history. It ends on March 4, 1969, when officials agree to create an ethnic studies school - the first of its kind - and a Black studies department.

JANUARY: Brandeis University students occupy a building for 11 days before the university agrees to demands for better African American support and representation.

FEBRUARY: Black students stage multiple simultaneous protests across the U.S. At University of Wisconsin-Madison, thousands participate in a strike that lasts for several weeks before the administration agrees to their demands.

APRIL: A burning cross is erected outside a Black women's dormitory at Cornell University. Black students occupy the student union building and, following clashes with White students, weaponize and barricade themselves inside for 36 hours.

MAY: Police officers and the National Guard raid dorm rooms, deploy tear gas, and open fire on demonstrators at North Carolina A&T University, an HBCU. Freshman Willie Grimes is killed.

MAY 7: Days after protesters are killed at nearby Kent State University, The Ohio State University closes for two weeks amid demonstrations against the Vietnam War and unequal treatment of women and African Americans on campus.

MAY 14: Phillip Gibbs, a junior, and James Earl Green, a high school student, are killed and 12 demonstrators wounded at Jackson State University, an HBCU, during what officers claim was a violent protest. Witnesses deny the accusation.

The University of Florida's Black Student Union stages multiple demonstrations after officials refuse to establish a Black Cultural Center or take other measures to improve campus climate. Nearly 70 are arrested or suspended for occupying the president's office and more than 100 African American students withdraw.

By the end of the Black Campus Movement in 1972, 13 students had been killed during campus demonstrations and more than 100 college presidents ousted. It is estimated that students at 1,000 institutions across 49 states engaged in campus activism to demand better treatment and support of African American students, employees, and communities during this time period. Their efforts soon spurred similar movements for other marginalized student groups and helped propel the ongoing struggle for equity in higher education.

Mariah Bohanon is the senior editor of INSIGHT Into Diversity. This article ran in the January/February 2020 issue.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
African American History: A Look Back at Early Student Activism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For more than three centuries, African Americans have overcome barriers and defied restrictions to gain access to higher education, but it wasn't until after the Civil War that they were able to enroll by the thousands in higher education institutions - predominantly at historically Black colleges and universities

# data[].attributes.body
https://transstudent.org/issues/black-lives-matter/

# data[].attributes.body
These Are Not Riots, They Are Rebellions

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
"These Are Not Riots, These Are Rebellions." - Marc Lamont Hill

# data[].attributes.headline
Excerpted from Scott Woods' 2014 essay: 

# data[].attributes.subject
Excerpted from Scott Woods' 2014 essay: 

# data[].attributes.body
"The problem is that white people see racism as conscious hate, when racism is bigger than that. Racism is a complex system of social and political levers and pulleys set up generations ago to continue working on behalf of whites at other people's expense, whether whites know/like it or not. Racism is an insidious cultural disease. It is so insidious that it doesn't care if you are a white person who likes Black people; it's still going to find a way to infect how you deal with people who don't look like you. Yes, racism looks like hate, but hate is just one manifestation. Privilege is another. Access is another. Ignorance is another. Apathy is another. And so on. So while I agree with people who say no one is born racist, it remains a powerful system that we're immediately born into. It's like being born into air; you take it in as soon as you breathe. It's not a cold that you can get over. There is no anti-racist certification class. It's a set of socioeconomic traps and cultural values that are fired up every time we interact with the world. It is a thing you have to keep scooping out of the boat of your life to keep from drowning in it. I know it's hard work, but it's the price you have to pay for owning everything."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Public Address On Revolution: Revolution Now | Rachel Cargle

# data[].attributes.body
You have to be woke to do the work!

# data[].attributes.body
I am Black

I am exhausted

I am traumatized

I am angry

I am frustrated

I am frightened
I AM RESILIENT

I NEED my Allys to decide whether or not they are willing to make sacrifices. It requires my Allys to put their knees on the neck of the white supremacist culture that nurtures poverty, exclusion, health, and social disparities, and hatred.  I need my Allys to acknowledge that systemic oppression tries to lead me to believe that you are smarter or more of a go-getter than me. I ask you to recognize that your skin color contributed to your journey and successes. Yes, that is a big pill to swallow, but take it with a tall glass of water. I got your back. Be as brave as this new generation here at Bryn Mawr College and across the country and across the globe who have shown that they are strong, resilient, and ready for change although we act like we don't hear them. Collectively, they have tried to get us to see what we are doing to the world and their futures.  We tell them that they can be whoever they want to be, yet we stand back and watch them flounder in a system that doesn't support change.

It is my choice to MAINTAIN hope. I choose to believe that we, as advocates, have positioned this generation to cross the finish line into achieving a more inclusive world.  Much Love, Lisa A.

# data[].attributes.headline
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Desmond Tutu

# data[].attributes.subject
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Desmond Tutu

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa once said, "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." It is with that prompting that Disability Rights Washington issues this statement deploring the recent and past violence against Black people in our country.

DRW recognizes the disproportionate impact of state violence and police brutality against the Black community, including Black people with disabilities. The disability rights movement is inseparable from the human rights movements for racial, economic, and gender equity. We recognize that we need to take an intersectional approach to change by centering the experiences of people of color with disabilities in our fight for justice.

Our work is rooted in the firm belief that all people deserve respect, dignity, and self-determination. As long as racism permeates the systems and institutions that make up America, we will fall short of the diversity, equity, and inclusion goals for which we strive and Black and Brown people, including people with disabilities, will continue to be harmed and killed by racist institutions and actions. But we cannot stop at pointing a finger at the failings of others.

For the many of us who work within the social justice movement and benefit from white privilege in a place like Seattle, Washington, it is not a bold act to speak out against an injustice as horrific as the killing of innocent Black lives. Unlike Colin Kaepernick, we don't risk losing the work that we love. Therefore, as important as speaking out is, it is not enough to issue a statement. We must do more and it needs to start at home. We must look internally to the structures that we influence and control and commit ourselves to ending the racism that exists within us as well. That is what we intend to do.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black Lives Matter - Disability Rights Washington

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For the many of us who work within the social justice movement and benefit from white privilege. We must do more and it needs to start at home. We must look internally to the structures that we influence and control and commit ourselves to ending the racism that exists within us as well.

# data[].attributes.headline
75 LGBTQ Organizations Release Letter Condemning Racial Violence

# data[].attributes.subject
75 LGBTQ Organizations Release Letter Condemning Racial Violence

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As an organization dedicated to Black liberation and to collective liberation, we need a radical and ongoing investment in our own healing. By claiming love for our own bodies, our own psyches, our own experiences, and by building the resources we need to integrate healing justice into all that we do, we are insisting on conditions that can carry us towards the next generation of work, and towards a deeper place of freedom for all of us.

Powerful Campaigns

BLVC is committed to a long term vision in which ALL Black lives not only matter, but are able to thrive. What we know to be true in order to create this world is that oppressed people, especially Black people, need to build collective power in order to create systems transformation. Through the development of powerful strategic campaigns, we seek to expand the power of Black people across the Twin Cities metro area and Minnesota. This can look like delivering mobilization and action goals as part of a national coalition in which Black lives are centered, but it most often looks like visioning and leading targeted collaborative local campaigns that advance a concrete impact for people's lives here, while also advancing a shift in public narrative that connects to transformative long-term change.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As an organization dedicated to Black liberation and to collective liberation, we need a radical and ongoing investment in our own healing. By claiming love for our own bodies, our own psyches, our own experiences, and by building the resources we need to integrate healing justice into all that we do, we are insisting on conditions that can carry us towards the next generation of work, and towards a deeper place of freedom for all of us.

# data[].attributes.headline
Black Lives Matter Unity Walk Organized by Montclair High School students Sunday, June 7, 2 p.m., beginning at Montclair High School

# data[].attributes.subject
Black Lives Matter Unity Walk Organized by Montclair High School students Sunday, June 7, 2 p.m., beginning at Montclair High School

# data[].attributes.body
The walk comes with demands upon the district: 1) to desegregate classrooms, including initiating busing for the South End; 2) to have more black teachers and leadership; 3) to dismantle what students called a Eurocentric curriculum; 4) to demand mandatory teacher training on institutional racism; 5) to change the culture by hosting dialogues.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Montclair High School students have organized a Black Lives Matter Unity Walk for Sunday, June 7, 2 p.m., starting at Montclair High School.

The students have also released detailed demands of the Montclair School District to combat institutional racism:

Click here to sign up for Baristanet's free daily emails and news alerts.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Montclair High School Students Demand Change, Organize Black Lives Matter Unity Walk Sunday | Baristanet

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Montclair High School students have organized a Black Lives Matter Unity Walk for Sunday, June 7, 2 p.m., starting at Montclair High School. The students have also released detailed demands of the Montclair School District to combat institutional racism: Baristanet Local OffersHome Appliances: SERVICE. PRICE.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
toward belonging: kickoff dialogue june 16

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
toward belonging: kickoff dialogue june 16 tickets

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Toward Belonging: Kickoff Dialogue June 16

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Eventbrite - Othering & Belonging Institute presents Toward Belonging: Kickoff Dialogue June 16 - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - Find event and ticket information.

# data[].attributes.body
The Aeloians Oakwood University Alumni 2020 "We Shall Overcome"

# data[].attributes.headline
75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice

# data[].attributes.subject
75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
106 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Note 1: This article was last updated on February 5, 2022.
Note 2: Our work is to fix what we broke and left broken. The work isn’t done…

# data[].attributes.headline
How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change

# data[].attributes.subject
How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change

# data[].attributes.body
written by Barack Obama

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Photo by Xena Goldman

As millions of people across the country take to the streets and raise their voices in response to the killing of George Floyd and the ongoing problem of unequal justice, many people have reached out asking how we can sustain momentum to bring about real change.

Ultimately, it's going to be up to a new generation of activists to shape strategies that best fit the times. But I believe there are some basic lessons to draw from past efforts that are worth remembering.

First, the waves of protests across the country represent a genuine and legitimate frustration over a decades-long failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system in the United States. The overwhelming majority of participants have been peaceful, courageous, responsible, and inspiring. They deserve our respect and support, not condemnation - something that police in cities like Camden and Flint have commendably understood.

On the other hand, the small minority of folks who've resorted to violence in various forms, whether out of genuine anger or mere opportunism, are putting innocent people at risk, compounding the destruction of neighborhoods that are often already short on services and investment and detracting from the larger cause. I saw an elderly black woman being interviewed today in tears because the only grocery store in her neighborhood had been trashed. If history is any guide, that store may take years to come back. So let's not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves.

Second, I've heard some suggest that the recurrent problem of racial bias in our criminal justice system proves that only protests and direct action can bring about change, and that voting and participation in electoral politics is a waste of time. I couldn't disagree more. The point of protest is to raise public awareness, to put a spotlight on injustice, and to make the powers that be uncomfortable; in fact, throughout American history, it's often only been in response to protests and civil disobediencethat the political system has even paid attention to marginalized communities. But eventually, aspirations have to be translated into specific laws and institutional practices - and in a democracy, that only happens when we elect government officials who are responsive to our demands.

Moreover, it's important for us to understand which levels of government have the biggest impact on our criminal justice system and police practices. When we think about politics, a lot of us focus only on the presidency and the federal government. And yes, we should be fighting to make sure that we have a president, a Congress, a U.S. Justice Department, and a federal judiciary that actually recognize the ongoing, corrosive role that racism plays in our society and want to do something about it. But the elected officials who matter most in reforming police departments and the criminal justice system work at the state and local levels.

It's mayors and county executives that appoint most police chiefs and negotiate collective bargaining agreements with police unions. It's district attorneys and state's attorneys that decide whether or not to investigate and ultimately charge those involved in police misconduct. Those are all elected positions. In some places, police review boards with the power to monitor police conduct are elected as well. Unfortunately, voter turnout in these local races is usually pitifully low, especially among young people - which makes no sense given the direct impact these offices have on social justice issues, not to mention the fact that who wins and who loses those seats is often determined by just a few thousand, or even a few hundred, votes.

So the bottom line is this: if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn't between protest and politics. We have to do both. We have to mobilize to raise awareness, and we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform.

Finally, the more specific we can make demands for criminal justice and police reform, the harder it will be for elected officials to just offer lip service to the cause and then fall back into business as usual once protests have gone away. The content of that reform agenda will be different for various communities. A big city may need one set of reforms; a rural community may need another. Some agencies will require wholesale rehabilitation; others should make minor improvements. Every law enforcement agency should have clear policies, including an independent body that conducts investigations of alleged misconduct. Tailoring reforms for each community will require local activists and organizations to do their research and educate fellow citizens in their community on what strategies work best.

But as a starting point, here's a report and toolkit developed by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and based on the work of the Task Force on 21st Century Policing that I formed when I was in the White House. And if you're interested in taking concrete action, we've also created a dedicated site at the Obama Foundation to aggregate and direct you to useful resources and organizations who've been fighting the good fight at the local and national levels for years.

I recognize that these past few months have been hard and dispiriting - that the fear, sorrow, uncertainty, and hardship of a pandemic have been compounded by tragic reminders that prejudice and inequality still shape so much of American life. But watching the heightened activism of young people in recent weeks, of every race and every station, makes me hopeful. If, going forward, we can channel our justifiable anger into peaceful, sustained, and effective action, then this moment can be a real turning point in our nation's long journey to live up to our highest ideals.

Let's get to work.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As millions of people across the country take to the streets and raise their voices in response to the killing of George Floyd and the ongoing problem of unequal justice, many people have reached out asking how we can sustain momentum to bring about real change.

# data[].attributes.body
Here is an example of how white privilege sounds:

You keep saying “It’s horrible that an innocent black man was killed, by destroying property has to stop.”

Try saying “It’s horrible that property is being destroyed, but killing innocent black men has to stop.”

You are prioritizing the wrong part.

# data[].attributes.headline
The 2020 Census:  Make Sure You're Counted

# data[].attributes.subject
The 2020 Census:  Make Sure You're Counted

# data[].attributes.body
An accurate count insures a more equitable distribution of resources in our communities.  Make sure you and your family are counted!
https://www.census.gov/library/fact-sheets/2020/dec/counting-college-students.html

# data[].attributes.body
from Amnesty International

# data[].attributes.body
Where do I donate?  Why is the uprising so violent?  Should I go to protest?
And other commonly asked questions by white and/or privileged people, answered by other white and/or privileged people.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
And other commonly asked questions by white and/or privileged people, answered by other white and/or privileged people*
For a while now we've been working on understanding our own relationship with racism and anti-blackness and how to take action. We live all over the country. We do a range of work and come from a range of class backgrounds. We don't have a lot of answers, but apparently our friends think we do, because they keep texting us.

In light of that, we decided to create a collective Q&A that could be shared widely. These are not the answers, but they are some answers. One mistake white people make is trying to show up only when they think they can do it perfectly.

*Another mistake white people make is doing stuff like this without asking people of color, particularly Black women, how this sits with them; we did that and got some crucial feedback that is integrated here.

We hope it is useful to you as you navigate this moment, the lifelong journey of countering white supremacy, and taking anti-racist action. (Speaking of anti-racist, if that term is new to you, or you want to learn more, this is a great resource.)

Of course things are changing minute by minute right now, so some of this may seem irrelevant in the coming days and weeks. Then again, sadly there are speeches from the late 60s that will blow you away with how contemporary they sound.

Why is the response violent and destructive?

First and foremost, police officers and the National Guard, themselves, are initiating violence. Violence. Take that in - not the destruction of property, but violence against people; these are two very different things. There is also evidence that much of the destruction has actually been instigated by white supremacists. This is not new. White Americans have a long, storied history of violence and destruction in this country.

Read mainstream media reports with that in mind. As Mia Birdsong writes: "The mainstream media generally parrot the 'official story.' Police are official. They hold press conferences." ( Follow her!)

Language is important here. White people use the word riot in a largely negative way, but riots or uprisings or revolutions, or...or...or..., have led to some of the most important advances in justice that this country has ever known. Charles Blow reminds us that the Fairing Housing Act came about as a direct result of the uprisings after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassinations. King, a pacifist, said, "In the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear?" So while he didn't encourage riots, he didn't condemn them either.

Consider why the sight of a burning building is so repellent to you, but so many other acts of violence and destruction that are a part of daily life in America for Black people haven't registered in the same way. ( Trevor Noah's video on this, and the broken social contract, is well worth the 18 minutes).
2. Should I go protest? Won't I get Covid-19?
Protest is only one way to participate in change right now. There are so many things we need to be doing long-term. In other words, this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Ideally, the biggest reason we've been staying home during Covid-19 has been to protect the health and well-being of our community in the face of an horrific threat. While it's important not to be brash about any exceptions to that rule, the reason why Black activists have asked for white people to join them in the streets is exactly the same - to value community in face of an horrific threat. White people showing up and following the lead of local Black leaders during these protests is critical for a variety of reasons. There are also a variety of kinds of protests happening, including car caravans and other safer forms of gathering.

But whatever you choose, remember that having the choice, itself, is a privilege, and that the fear you feel for your own physical and emotional safety is what a Black person likely feels, but with far more accuracy given that they are more likely to be targeted by police and more likely to be vulnerable to covid-19 infection because of our racist economic, healthcare, and other systems. Don't wallow in guilt if you choose not to go, but do take a moment to really reflect on why you're not showing up. If it's fear, consider that the fear you feel is no less real than the fear others feel (and likely out of proportion to your actual risk). Also take a minute to feel in your body how much this fight means to Black people hat they are willing to show up in the face of those fears.
3. Is de-funding or abolishing the police really the answer?
One of the most beautiful aspects of the contemporary prison and police abolition movement (regardless of whether you agree with it fully or not) is its ability to imagine the potential for community support and solidarity. While it's easy to focus on the headline - "defund police" or "abolish police"- a more helpful starting point might be to think through "what would need to be true for the way communities worked with and related to each other that would make law enforcement, as we currently know it, unnecessary?"

Abolition may feel like an extreme answer to you right now. That makes sense. You've been socialized to think that police "protect and serve" and are a necessary presence for our common life together. But try on the idea that abolition doesn't mean anarchy, but intentionality. Ruth Wilson Gilmore, one of the most venerated abolitionists in the country, said of incarceration, but it applies to policing: "So many of the proposed remedies don't end up diminishing the system. They regard the system as something that can be fixed by removing and replacing a few elements."

From her perspective, this is a strategic mistake (and goes a long way in explaining why we've seen so many of these videos in the last five years and felt so little change despite the increased awareness, protests etc.). Instead of trying to fix policing, how do we focus on policy that reduces the need for it in the first place? How do we change our approach to addiction and mental illness from punitive to healing? How do we move towards an economy that works for people? How do we bolster public schools so they are a place where young people find compelling projects? There are so many rich questions when you stop just asking: but don't the police have to exist? Stop asking that. Start asking new questions.

Consider the words of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors: "If you were willing to say #AbolishIce. I need you to be willing to say #DefundThePolice. Full stop." ( Follow her, obviously. And her co-founders Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi.)
4. What are resources I can call in my community instead of the police?
Before calling anyone, take three deep breaths and ask yourself about your motivation. Is anyone actually in danger? How is your own racial and/or class bias potentially playing a role in your interpretation of the situation? Can you check your interpretation with someone else nearby?

If you still feel like a call needs to be made, what are the alternatives in your community to the police? Most places have an alternative number for a mental health crisis, for example, which is non-punitive. Or if you know your neighbors and can get support from other people, maybe you call them to help you figure out how to support someone in crisis. Having actual relationships with your neighbors and community members means you have more options to get help if conflict is happening - more effective and less dangerous options than calling the cops.

If you're never heard of restorative and/or transformative justice, now would be a good time to do some exploring. Not all forms of justice are binary, win-lose. Some aim to restore both perpetrators and victims and they are being used in all kinds of settings to profound effect.

Many white people, especially white men, are raised with the idea that calling the police is heroic. We must unlearn this. This is a great read on how to think about your own motivation to call the police.
5. Where should I donate money?
We'd recommend thinking about this in two ways. First, short-term, immediate needs like bail funds in your local community (assuming there are uprising there). Note on bail funds: this was a need before this week and will continue to be a need after the cameras have moved on because we'll still be under the weight of the systemic injustice of the criminal justice system. Minnesota Freedom Fund has received a flood of support and asked that people give to other organizations, like Black Visions Collective, Reclaim the Block, and the North Star Health Collective.

Which brings up the second kind of donation you might consider: Black-led organizing in your own community. Check out this resource guide that folks in Minneapolis put together as a great example. (Does such a guide exist in your community? If not, who could you work with to build one?) This, like bail funs, is the kind of giving that you should consider making on an ongoing basis if you're able to, not just when another hashtag bubbles up.

You should give money if you've got it, but you should also remember that we can't donate our way out of white supremacy.

Some Black leaders have also been asking that white allies pledge to invest in and/or spend their money in Black-owned businesses, in addition to their philanthropy. Another great idea, and one you can organize around locally. (Does your community have a list of Black-owned businesses? If not, who could you work with to build one?)
6. What should I read?
There are so many amazing books. Here's a good list. And another. But don't forget to feel and act, too. The work of our time, as white/privileged people, is to take real measurable action to redistribute power and resources and reform systems, focus on the wellbeing of Black people and other people of color, but also to work on ourselves (not just intellectually, but emotionally and physically). It's easy to order a book and feel like you've done something. You have, but it's a familiar, safe something.

Do something harder. Explore how racism lives in your own body via a somatic practice. Create a giving circle with other white neighbors and focus on redistributing some of your wealth to local Black organizing. Refuse to be on any panel that doesn't include a person of color. Pass on work opportunities to people of color, brag on them to the prospective employer. Share your cultural capital with young people of color (making intros, explaining industries etc.), even if it means you don't have time to mentor your friends' white kids. Volunteer repeatedly and reliably for an organization serving the unhoused in your city. Send your kid to a global majority school and show up humbly.

Whatever you do, don't use the reading you haven't yet done as an excuse for the action you haven't yet taken. Read alongside imperfect action. Look inside yourself. Reckon with the obvious.
7. What should I say to my kids about all this?
It depends what age your kids are. What you should definitely NOT say is nothing ( which is all too common). Tiny humans are already making meaning about race. If you don't say anything, they will make their own meaning. We all experience what is called "racial development" - when and how we make sense of our own racial identity and that of others. Dr. Jen Harvey ( this podcast interview is a great listen), emphasizes "scaffolding" information about white supremacy for white kids. Start now so you can keep building on it. Create lots of space for your kids' questions. Tolerate the silence. Signal that you're there for future questions and conversations.

They already know. As Dr. Harvey says: "Every single study...shows us that kids have internalized messages about difference by the ages of three...Prelingual they start to, and this is all kids, negatively affix characteristics to darker skinned people and falsely attach notions of superiority to light skin people. And by the ages of five, children can tell that those differences have something to do with social status in the world. By the ages of five, they also know that they aren't really supposed to talk about that with adults. That's how early our kids learn that it's taboo, if they are in family structures where you're not, where you don't talk about it, which is what white families tend to do."

Mia Charlene White encourages exploring the phrase "police impunity" rather than talking about it in terms of misconduct by a bad apple. She writes: "Let's have community conversations about how to fight police impunity and the way in which we all pay (literally money to pay off judgements against cops - if tax money is a main metric to convince some folk) when we can never get these lives lost back."

If you commit to having the conversation about the historic and present reality of white supremacy with your kids before the next tragedy, you'll be extremely surprised by the ability of even young kids to apply that lens in the future. They'll amaze you at their ability to process and think critically about how you all respond as a family both in everyday moments and in moments of acute tragedy.
8. What should I say to or do for my Black friends?
If you have Black friends that you are close to, a simple text checking in on them would probably be welcome. Let them know you're upset and taking action, but don't make them take care of you or expect praise. Just let them know you're thinking of them. Tell them you love them. Consider offering to do something nourishing for them, like buying them some take-out or some beautiful plants. Racism is exhausting and traumatizing for people of color. You can't change that today, but you can show up as a nourishing force in someone's life.

Do not center yourself in your communication. The last thing they need right now is to take care of you. If you need to talk about being upset about what you're seeing and hearing, and you probably do, do that with other white folks.
9. Why does the Amy Cooper thing matter so much to people?
Amy Cooper matters because she represents the truth about so many self-identified liberal white American women - so many of us haven't actually done the work to confront our own racism, we've just learned how to say and do some of the right things to signal that we don't want to be racist. Not seeing yourself as racist is not enough. It's hardly anything, actually. It's self-preservation in an era where it's not socially acceptable to be openly racist. (But perfectly acceptable to be racist in a million other ways.)

Her actions weren't a caricature of racism - some extreme, tiki-torch racism that is easy to distance ourselves from. She is uncomfortably identifiable - it should be easy to see ourselves in her, and that makes her actions less easy to distance ourselves from.

As Trevor Noah also points out, in some ways, Amy Cooper's threat was so clarifying because it confirmed what so many people of color knew: that white people, for all of our heartbreak and solidarity in public, often still operate in this way under even the smallest private pressure, so calculated and with such total disregard for Black lives. She knew exactly what to say to weaponize whiteness, meaning with one panicked phone call to the police, she could threaten Christian Cooper's life. She didn't need a gun. She just needed her white skin and her feminized vulnerability. (This kind of weaponizing has been happening through out American history.)
10. Why are Black people frustrated when I say I'm shocked? Shouldn't I be shocked?
It's critical that you are now paying attention, but it's hard to hear that it's shocking because it's not new.It means you weren't really paying attention before if you are shocked. Imagine walking along the street with a friend and being harassed, and then when you say something to the friend, he says, "I'm so upset. I'm so surprised." But you were right next to one another? Did he not see what was happening, did he not hear? Your friend's surprise would be hurtful. Our surprise is hurtful.

Looking at this timeline of events that led up to this moment might prove helpful. Also, watch this address by Rachel Cargle to get some sense of what that surprise sounds like and put it in the context of this moment. Follow her on Instagram for ongoing education and ideas for meaningful reflection and action.
11. Does posting on social media matter or is it performance?
Both! It is performative, but do it anyway. Just don't only do that. Sign petitions. Donate (see above). Read. Feel. Show up. Shut up. Commit for the long haul. But sure, post on social media, because the more white and/or privileged people make their outrage visible, the better. Amplifying Black voices is a great way to boost the signal. If you are telling your own friends and family something that you think will be more powerful coming in your own words, do that, but give credit to the Black thinkers who are influencing you.

Another thing you can do: counter the posts by your white friends and family that perpetuate tired myths about how white supremacy works ("all we need is love," "my children are colorblind"-type shit). You don't need to wait for a rabidly racist comment to pop up to be an ally.

As you decide what to post and when, think about the difference between being an ally and an accomplice. As Colleen Clemens writes: "An ally will mostly engage in activism by standing with an individual or group in a marginalized community. An accomplice will focus more on dismantling the structures that oppress that individual or group - and such work will be directed by the stakeholders in the marginalized group. Simply, ally work focuses on individuals, and accomplice work focuses on the structures of decision-making agency."

As you post, keep looking for ways to show up as an accomplice, not just an ally.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Where do I donate? Why is the uprising violent? Should I go protest?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
And other commonly asked questions by white and/or privileged people, answered by other white and/or privileged people* For a while now we've been working on understanding our own relationship with racism and anti-blackness and how to take action. We live all over the country.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | University of Michigan

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Growing up the son of a minister and two civil rights activists, one of my favorite gospel songs is "I don't feels no ways tired." That song, like so many other songs from my African American culture, evokes an everlasting optimism about tomorrow that is built on "the faith that our dark past has taught us" as well as "the hope that the present has brought us."

I have always said that Black folks are the most optimistic subscribers of the American dream, despite our long history of dehumanization and degradation in this country. This other-worldly optimism is perhaps most famously exemplified in Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech (that America ironically likes to co-opt by trotting it out every year on his birthday as a self-congratulatory sign of how much progress we have made as a society since his death).

This morning, I woke up very tired. Not your normal tired. I woke up with a kind of tired that can only be found on the other side of loss, anger, frustration, sadness, and despair. This morning, I woke up in a state in which African Americans make up roughly 13% of the population, but comprise 31% of the people with COVID-19 and 40% of the people dying from COVID-19. I woke up in a country where a White woman can not only accuse an African American man of threatening her because he is simply asking her to obey the law in a public space, but she can actually weaponize the police for her own aims simply by repeatedly referring to him as being African American.

The scary truth of the matter is not that she believed (or even hoped) that she would get a different response by evoking race when making her 911 call. The really scary thing is that she was right. By evoking race and Blackness specifically, she placed a target on his back, putting a man's life in real danger. The recent murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery make this point abundantly clear: being a Black male interacting with law enforcement can be hazardous to one's health. Lest we get it twisted, being a Black woman in these situations is no picnic either. I woke up in a country where a Black woman is being repeatedly punched in the head by a member of my local sheriff department.

This morning, I woke up bone-weary tired.

Some people argue that this country, while being built substantially by us, was never meant for us. (They are not wrong.) As such, some of these same people believe that other-worldly optimism is a sign of weakness and is ultimately what has sealed our fate as a people. They question the wisdom in holding out such faith and hope for change in a system (in a society) that has time and time again demonstrated that Black dignity, Black bodies, and Black lives matter a little less. (It is hard to argue with the logic of the question.)

These times really do raise for me the question of how long must we wait, plan, work, march, agitate, forgive, and vote before we have a society in which all lives matter equally, regardless of race or color? In my bone-weary tired state this morning, before I even got out of bed, I asked myself why should I continue to fight to try to change a system that has proven time and time again that it simply does not regard me and people who look like me as fully human.

As I woke up this morning, I could not get out of bed. I laid there for a while trying to grapple with my feelings of exhaustion and despair. Often, when I am struggling to understand important things in my life, I turn to my parents' example for guidance. I tried to access the collective wisdom of those who came before me, those who sacrificed so that I could have more. I wondered what they would say about the state of race in today's society and what my role should be. From birth, my parents instilled in me and my siblings through their words - and more importantly their actions - that the fight for racial justice is a long, intergenerational one. It is also one that we are destined to win because right is on our side.

No matter the nature of the setbacks they faced (and there were many and some brutal ones at that), they were always able to get through them through tears and laughter, forever keeping their eyes on the prize. In many ways, they epitomized that other-worldly Black optimism. Don't get me wrong, they never hid their own feelings of frustration, anger, and tiredness from us. In fact, that is how I recognized my own feelings this morning. Nonetheless, my parents never veered from their belief that the brightest day only shone on the other side of the darkest night.

As I laid in that bed thinking about what lessons I could glean from their lives and what they had said to me and my brothers and sister, I was hoping for some form of instant relief from my feelings of tiredness. I was hoping that their legacy and story would wipe away my doubts about our society and where we are going. I was hoping that my reflecting on my parents' lives would magically re-charge my batteries and somehow soothe my pain. Sadly, my reflections did none of that.

What my recollections of my parents' example did do was provide me with a perspective, a lens through which I can view and understand all that is happening now. This lens reminds me that this struggle is not new, nor is it likely to be won in my life time. Sadly, it is likely that more Black people will die before we become the country that remotely resembles the one described in our constitution. This lens also reminds me that this country is MY country. My ancestors sacrificed their lives in building this country.

Their blood, sweat, and tears fertilize the rich soil upon which much of this country's wealth and standing in the world is built. I have no choice but to fight for it - to fight to make it live up to its creed. I owe it to those who came before me, those who fought and died to make this country just a little bit better for those who came after them. They fought for me. To not do so would be akin to walking away from my birthright. It is a birthright that does not belong only to me; it also belongs to future generations of Black folks.

What reflecting on my parents' example provided me was renewal - not in the form of relief, but instead in the form of resolve. My reflections on their example gave me new insights into that other-worldly optimism that is foundational to the strength and resilience of Black people.

That optimism does not reside in a belief that America will simply change, it actually resides in the knowledge that each generation of African Americans has changed America for the better and a great faith that the next generation will take the next steps in changing America even more (even if it feels way too slow). This perspective has renewed my resolve to do all that I can to make whatever change I can. For me, to do otherwise would be turning my back on the investment that my ancestors made in this country and disinheriting my descendants.

I am still tired of this shit though.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
I Am So Tired - Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | University of Michigan

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ODEI) at the University of Michigan, leads and supports universitywide initiatives focused on the recruitment of a diverse faculty, staff, and student body, while fostering an inclusive and equitable university community. Our office also engages surrounding communities in mission-focused, mutually beneficial partnerships.