# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If National Geographic's April issue was going to be entirely devoted to the subject of race, the magazine decided it had better take a good hard look at its own history.

Editor in Chief Susan Goldberg asked John Edwin Mason, a professor of African history and the history of photography at the University of Virginia, to dive into the magazine's nearly 130-year archive and report back.

What Mason found was a long tradition of racism in the magazine's coverage: in its text, its choice of subjects, and in its famed photography.

"[U]ntil the 1970s National Geographic all but ignored people of color who lived in the United States, rarely acknowledging them beyond laborers or domestic workers," writes Goldberg in the issue's editor letter, where she discusses Mason's findings. "Meanwhile it pictured 'natives' elsewhere as exotics, famously and frequently unclothed, happy hunters, noble savages-every type of cliché."

Unlike magazines such as Life, " National Geographic did little to push its readers beyond the stereotypes ingrained in white American culture," Goldberg says, noting that she is the first woman and first Jewish person to helm the magazine - "two groups that also once faced discrimination here."

To assess the magazine's coverage historically, Mason delved into old issues and read a couple of key critical studies. He also pored over photographers' contact sheets, giving him a view of not just the photos that made it into print, but also the decisions that photographers and editors made.

He saw a number of problematic themes emerge.

"The photography, like the articles, didn't simply emphasize difference, but made difference ... very exotic, very strange, and put difference into a hierarchy," Mason tells NPR. "And that hierarchy was very clear: that the West, and especially the English-speaking world, was at the top of the hierarchy. And black and brown people were somewhere underneath."

For much of its history, the pages of National Geographic depicted the Western world as dynamic, forward-moving and very rational. Meanwhile, Mason says, "the black and brown world was primitive and backwards and generally unchanging."

One trope that he noticed time and again was photographs showing native people apparently fascinated by Westerners' technology.

"It's not simply that cameras and jeeps and airplanes are present," he says. "It's the people of color looking at this technology in amusement or bewilderment." The implication was that Western readers would find humor in such fascination with their everyday goods.

Then there's how the magazine chose its subject matter. Mason explains that National Geographic had an explicit editorial policy of "nothing unpleasant," so readers rarely saw war, famine or civic conflict.

He points to an article on South Africa from the early 1960s that barely mentions the Sharpeville Massacre, in which 69 black South Africans were killed by police.

"There are no voices of black South Africans," Mason told Goldberg. "That absence is as important as what is in there. The only black people are doing exotic dances ... servants or workers. It's bizarre, actually, to consider what the editors, writers, and photographers had to consciously not see."

Then there's the way women of color were often depicted in the magazine: topless.

"Teenage boys could always rely, in the '50s and '60s, on National Geographic to show them bare-breasted women as long as the women had brown or black skin," Mason says. "I think the editors understood this was frankly a selling point to its male readers. Some of the bare-breasted young women are shot in a way that almost resembles glamour shots."

Mason says the magazine has been dealing with its history implicitly for the last two or three decades, but what made this project different is that Goldberg wanted to make reckoning explicit - "That National Geographic should not do an issue on race without understanding its own complicity in shaping understandings of race and racial hierarchy."

For those of us who have spent long afternoons thumbing old issues of the magazine and dreaming of far-off lands, Mason wants to make clear that looking at foreign people and places isn't a bad thing.

"We're all curious and we all want to see. I'm not criticizing the idea of being curious about the world. It's just the other messages that are sent-that it's not just difference, but inferiority and superiority."

So where does the storied publication go from here?

One good step would be to invite the diverse contributors to the April issue to become part of the magazine's regular pool of writers and photographers, Mason suggests.

"Still it's too often a Westerner who is telling us about Africa or Asia or Latin America," he says. "There are astonishing photographers from all over the world who have unique visions - not just of their own country, but who could bring a unique vision to photographing Cincinnati, Ohio, if it came to that."

He notes that the magazine's images have so often captivated, even when they were stereotypical or skewed. Mason says a number of African photographers have told him that it was magazines like National Geographic and Life that turned them onto photography in the first place.

"They knew that there were problems with the way that they and their people were being represented," he says. "And yet the photography was often spectacularly good, it was really inviting, and it carried this power. And as young people, these men and women said, I want to do that. I want to make pictures like that."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'National Geographic' Reckons With Its Past: 'For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If National Geographic's April issue was going to be entirely devoted to the subject of race, the magazine decided it had better take a good hard look at its own history. Editor in Chief Susan Goldberg asked John Edwin Mason, a professor of African history and the history of photography at the University of Virginia, to dive into the magazine's nearly 130-year archive and report back.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A podcast from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Polite White Supremacy is the notion that whites should remain the ruling class while denying that they are the ruling class, politely. Affectionately, it's called #PWS for short. It has been referred to as the Casual American Caste System, Delicate Apartheid, Gentle Oppression, or what I like to call it after a few drinks: Chad Crow, the super chill grandson of Jim Crow.

No but seriously, Polite White Supremacy is very real. So why is it that we must specifically say 'Polite White Supremacy' rather than Racism? We must say Polite White Supremacy for three reasons. First, saying #PWS puts the responsibility solely on the creators of a systemic problem. Second, this phrase addresses the subtlety and casualness with which oppression is administered. Thirdly, it eradicates the all-too-common confusion between racism and prejudice. It's important to eradicate this confusion so it can be clear that racism is tied to a power structure and access to resources.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
RACISM AND PREJUDICE

Racism and prejudice are NOT interchangeable. Racism is the systemic oppression of one group of people who can be categorized within certain phenotypical traits over multiple generations that has been, at one point, sanctioned by a country, the majority and/or ruling class. Racism is committed only by the ruling class and agents of the ruling class because they have the power that comes with racism. Racism, in America, is absolutely the attack dog of the white ruling class. However, sometimes it's also a slow poison in that it causes its victims to die of exhaustion or grief. Again, racism is a kind of prejudice that comes with power. Racism is the systematic and intentional oppression of group of people from the ruling class and its agents. In America, the ruling class is white people...of all classes.

America has been playing a centuries-long game of 'stop hitting yourself' while holding the arms of Black America.

Prejudice, though harmful, is not necessarily systemic and can be committed by anyone. It simply requires one to pre-judge. It does not require its user to have any access to the ruling class or status of whiteness. However, you have to be part of or support the ruling class to wield the power of racism. Those who are not part of the white ruling class, yet support white supremacy of any form, are called agents of white supremacy. They are not white, but benefit in some direct way from empowering and enforcing white supremacy often times on their own people. Historically black overseers and house slaves were bestowed more rights, and ultimately more power during slavery. These were employed agents of white supremacy who oppressed their fellow blacks. This employment was a status. It was a form of racist power that white slave owners gave to black overseers as a way to also instill mistrust within the black community. Prejudice alone, has no real power without the system of control and power to support it.

OVERT RACISM TO COVERT RACISM:
THE EARLY STAGES OF POLITE WHITE SUPREMACY

Today's covert version of white supremacy is a lot more subtle than having black overseers beat their fellow slaves. Nor is this power the same as buying or selling your slaves children for a good price, using black children as alligator bait, cutting open pregnant black women, castrating black men, generational rape and molestation of black women and men, and lynchings of those who were accused of making whites nervous. This is something more subtle than that. The ruling class has begun to employ a particularly clever passive tactic to remain in power while denying this power. They pretended this was the natural way for society to function and influenced perception by using double standards in language as a starting point.

The passive methods of #PWS have been ingrained in almost every facet of American society to such a point that speaking about it's existence seems mythical. It's not a unicorn though. In fact, bringing it up causes people of all colors to feel discomfort because Black Americans have become accustomed to appeasing the comfort levels of white fragility. As a result, certain black folks think about white reactions first before doing any action. This subservience illustrates the passive 'slow poison' effect of polite white supremacy that still effects many Black Americans until this day.

THE 3 KEY INGREDIENTS OF
POLITE WHITE SUPREMACY

In detail, Polite White Supremacy relies on three key components to ensure its success: comfort, control, and confidentiality.

Whites who participate in #PWS desire to be comfortable in all settings while maintaining some influential level of control over all situations without acknowledging this power. Omitting acknowledgment of white privilege gives off the psychological effect that whites have somehow worked harder than non-whites and blacks must be lazy since statistically blacks are suffering a great deal in America. They pretended this was all natural.

These three components manifests themselves in various scenarios. They are not restricted to obvious positions like law enforcement or government. Often times, it was not the wealthy or elite that carried out the bulk of these practices. Their employees did. One such group of employees were home loan officers. White home loan officers carried out and maintained Polite White Supremacy by using the subtle tactic of redlining.

Redlining ensured whites would control of their neighborhoods comfort by confidentially employing this tactic. Later, discriminatory hiring practices reinforced an intrinsic authoritative status for whites.

INGREDIENT 1 - COMFORT

The comfort level of whites relied on redlining to keep blacks out of white neighborhoods. To maintain comfort, home loan officers covertly switched from overt segregation to the more subtle practice of redlining, one early example of Polite White Supremacy.

This practice prevented black people people from getting home loans, bank accounts, insurance and other services necessary for financial growth. Often times, poor whites would get the aforementioned services while middle and upper-class blacks faced rejection. This ensured that Black Americans would have a much more difficult time in establishing a multi-generational legacy. Eventually, redlining helped to create present-day black inner-cities across America along with dependence on white oppressors for employment and certain resources. Meanwhile, this white participation privilege lead to multi-generational wealth and self-sufficiency in white communities.

As mentioned before, all classes of whites can and did participate in Polite White Supremacy. Moreover, Polite White Supremacist practices such as redlining reinforced stereotypes and portrayals of blacks as underachievers because it helped create the ghetto. Because of practices such as redlining and employment discrimination, blacks are still inaccurately perceived as dependent underachievers.

AHOLC 1936 security map of Philadelphia showing redlining of lower income
neighborhoods.[1]Households and businesses in the red zones could
not get mortgages or business loans.
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining

Omitting the acknowledgment of white privilege from practices such as redlining gives off the psychological effect that whites have somehow worked harder than non-whites and blacks must be lazy since statistically blacks are suffering a great deal in America.

Redlining is a direct ancestor of gentrification.

The subtle power of controlling neighborhoods, resources and wealth is present today in social and professional settings. Redlining disregarded the qualifications of people of color who already proved their competence, bravery, and skills. Remember, redlining is only one example of polite white supremacy. There are many others that ensured the comfort of white nerves.

INGREDIENT 2 - CONTROL

Control the terminology and you can control the perception. Eventually this perception helps onlookers judge whether an area is good or bad. Polite White Supremacy adapted many forms of control to maintain its subtlety. #PWS controls the narrative and perception by controlling language itself. The subtle linguistics of Polite White Supremacy influence perception through usage of disingenuous and misleading terminology with subtle double standards. These double standards continue to permeate stereotypes within news, film, education and music.

Polite White Supremacy attempts to control the language, the narrative, and the perception. Moreover, the heavy white-washing of history to eradicate black contributions to the global human story has negatively impacted black self-worth and self-confidence. Consequently, psychological effect of believing these stereotypes is that, simply put, blacks deserve to suffer.

CONTROL THE LANGUAGE

Polite White Supremacy relies on subtlety such as using the passive voice to describe events involving a white aggressor and a non-white victim. For example, when a police officer shoots someone, the report uses the passive voice instead of the active voice when describing the shooting. Saying things such as "There was an officer-involved shooting" or "Force was used" sidesteps any notion of personal responsibility and makes it automatically appear as though the officer acted defensively. Often times the officer does everything to escalate the situation regardless of what version of the truth he or she writes in their report. There is a difference between saying 'There was a person who got into a fight' and 'he punched someone because they hurt his ego and they punched him back'.

Law enforcement 's reliance on the term 'resisting arrest' incarcerates many blacks who have claimed to do no such thing. As a matter of fact, it's a simple fact that the human body bends in certain ways at certain joints. So, when an arm is twisted by surprise at specific angles by a burly officer (or several), any person's involuntary muscular reaction is to correct the pain they're feeling. This is called 'resisting'. What regular person can lie perfectly still as their arm is being broken? Who can pretend to not be in pain?

CONTROL THE NARRATIVE

Terms such as 'black on black' crime place a spotlight on black crimes while omitting that 'white on white' crime is nearly identical statistically. Major news outlets rarely pay attention to black conferences for peace or organizations that uplift our youth such as Black Girls Rock as blacks try to 'do for self'. As a result, the narrative continues that blacks don't care about crimes or the well-being of black neighborhoods. Nothing could be further from the truth.

When white crimes are actually acknowledged there are double-standards in the terminology. The same action committed by whites versus those committed by blacks are somehow perceived as less threatening if there is a white aggressor. According to Polite White Supremacy, screwdrivers become 'burglary tools' depending on the color of the person holding them. A group of black people gathering is thus deemed a 'gang' and a group of whites gathering is...a group of whites gathering. Words such as 'Lawlessness', 'looting', 'criminal' and 'thug' often accompany the most peaceful protests by Black Americans long before agent provocateurs can influence a crowd towards violence.

What do media outlets call white rioters who torch property after their team wins or loses? 'Revelers'. Basically, 'revelers' means they're white and just having some wild fun. The perception is that revelers are white and aren't scary like those black 'rioters' who did just as much property damage, though for different reasons.

There's also the less of physical control and less lethal assaults placed upon the bodies of unarmed white aggressors. In a nutshell, it's important to look at what's not being done when whites pose a threat.

What did the police not do to the white bikers who got into a brawl that killed nine people? What did the police not do to Dylan Roof or TJ Lane when they were arrested? Polite White Supremacy makes it seem safer to be a white serial killer rather than a black man or woman speaking their American rights to an officer of the law.

White aggressors who do the same actions (or far worse) as black aggressors don't face the consequences blacks often face because white lives are actually valued more by law enforcement.

CONTROL THE PERCEPTION

The value of white lives influences the perception of good neighborhoods vs bad neighborhoods. The oversimplified assumption is that good neighborhoods have very little crime, while bad neighborhoods have high crime. This seems like common sense. Unfortunately, it's slightly inaccurate. The perception of neighborhoods as good or bad comes highly influenced from whether or not it is being over-policed. Good neighborhoods don't have a large police presence so naturally one must conclude that bad neighborhoods have a high police presence. The problem with this comes from the documented fact that police departments across America are around disproportionately white males.

Frankly put, these white males are not going to over-police their own communities. They're not going to snitch on each other and reveal who amongst them are of the ' Ghost Skin variety. When they do police and potentially arrest their own people, their lives are actually considered. White lives actually matter to the police. To them, ' white on white crime' seems ludicrous. Meanwhile, blacks seem like an easy target to fill a quota.

INGREDIENT 3 - CONFIDENTIALITY

Confidentiality is silent complicity while pretending that black suffering happens because blacks somehow deserve it. Polite White Supremacy uses confidentiality to pretend this is all normal for it's own existence to remain in power covertly.

The silence of confidentiality is the glue holding this whole charade in place because #PWS can't exist out in the open as overt white supremacy, not because it's wrong, but because it's unfashionable to be an open white supremacist in today's society.

Instead of openly celebrating a lynching, pretend you actually believe it was a suicide. Pretend you actually believe that whites work harder when blacks worked for free and literally built this country. These are the same people who don't hire equally qualified Black Americans for positions then complain that Blacks are lazy and unemployed. Pretend that over-policing doesn't target the poor and perpetuate the stereotype of bad neighborhoods. Pretend you didn't just see a man choked to death and his heart attack happened randomly at the same moment he was being choked because 'he was fat'. Pretend that unionization had nothing to do with whites fearing competition from the useful, tangible skills of blacks. Pretend like redlining didn't exist and that whites just worked harder so they lived in 'better' areas.

Pretend that giving a bullet proof vest and Burger King to a person that just walked into a church and massacred nine Black Americans after he has been is not at act of terrorism. Pretend it was a coincidence we had to watch black officers to re-raise the Confederate Flag after a Black American woman bravely, but illegally removed it. Later, white officers took it down and treated it like it was some heavenly artifact during a religious ceremony. Let's just pretend that didn't happen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Subtle Linguistics of Polite White Supremacy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Polite White Supremacy is the notion that whites should remain the ruling class while denying that they are the ruling class, politely. Affectionately, it's called #PWS for short. It has been referred to as the Casual American Caste System, Delicate Apartheid, Gentle Oppression, or what I like to call it after a few drinks: Chad Crow, the super chill grandson of Jim Crow.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Fashion designers. Community activists. Parents. Converts. High school students facing down bullies. Podcasters creating their own space to exhale.

The newest generation of American Muslims is a mosaic, one of the most racially and ethnically diverse faith groups in the country. At a time when all religions are struggling to keep youth engaged, Islam is growing in the U.S., according to the Pew Research Center.

Many American Muslims found themselves on the defensiveafter the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But this generation says it is tired of being expected to apologize. Instead, young Muslims are determined to take control of their own stories. And they are creating fresh paths for the estimated 3.45 million Muslims in America.

Rather than defending themselves, they are defining themselves. In a tense political climate, they are worried less about explaining Islam to others and more about contributing to the American tapestry through their unique perspectives.

"There is a distinctive American Islam that is emerging," says Jihad Turk.

Turk is the head of California-based Bayan Claremont, the only Islamic graduate school in the country. There, he tells his students that "the sign of us having arrived in America is not just that we are consumers of culture but that we're producers of culture. That we contribute to art and the aesthetic of what it means to be an American."

Over the past year, NPR correspondent Leila Fadel traveled across the country - from Chicago to Los Angeles to northern California to southern Texas - to meet young Muslims expressing themselves in new ways. Below is a montage of what she found.

Her stories were reported in collaboration with National Geographic. You can read and see more in the May issue of the magazine.
Representing on the mic
Ikhlas Saleem and Makkah Ali are best friends - each from Atlanta, from black Muslim communities, and married. They say they were tired of being asked to react to Muslims doing bad things or bad things happening to Muslims. So they started their own podcast to ask the questions no one was asking them.

On Identity Politics, they talk about their experiences as black women, as Muslims and as millennials in America.

The podcast is a lot like the two 28-year-olds who run it - alternately light and serious. Saleem has a graduate degree from Harvard, and Ali a graduate degree from George Mason University.

They met as students at Wellesley College and say that when they are around each other, they don't have to "code switch" - or change how they communicate - they can just be. And that is what they want their podcast to be, too. They talk with guests about art, identity, race, the #MeToo movement, gender and religion. What they don't do, Saleem says, is "Islam 101."

At the Muslim Protagonist conference in February in New York, where Muslims discussed how to be heroes of their own stories, Ali and Saleem encouraged students to do the work.

"I want to see Muslims building their own platforms," Saleem tells the audience. "The only way you can represent is when you represent yourself."

"Complicate the narrative," another panelist tells them.

Ali and Saleem's podcast audience of about 3,000 listeners is mostly made up of young Muslims like themselves. More than half of Muslims in America came of age after the Sept. 11 attacks. And by not trying to appeal to a wider audience, they've actually attracted non-Muslim listeners, too, because the issues they discuss exist "outside of Islam and within Islam."

"We live day to day," Ali says, "we have to manage our anger and our budgets and relationships, and we're curious about various things in the world."
Radical inclusion
Mahdia Lynn believes that every Muslim "should have a right to pray without fear of violence or excommunication."

The 30-year-old is a transgender Muslim woman and executive director of Masjid al-Rabia. It's a unique space as an LGBTQ-affirming and women-centered mosque in Chicago; its founders call it a "mosque for all Muslims."

For now, the community runs Friday prayer out of the Second Unitarian Church. Each week, members put out their donated library: translated Qurans and Islamic texts mostly from Muslim feminist writers. The mosque is "radically inclusive," founders say, so that anyone who may feel marginalized in other Muslim spaces feels welcome here.

Islam, like other faith traditions, struggles with inclusion of LGBTQ people and homophobia, so Masjid al-Rabia is rare.

But inclusive spaces like it are growing; there is a Unity Mosque in Toronto, an annual LGBTQ Muslim retreat and informal prayer circles popping up in cities across America.

Blair Imani, a 24-year-old, bisexual, Muslim woman, author and activist, says Masjid al-Rabia gives LGBTQ Muslims ownership over an affirming worship space.

"It's a shift from the idea that we can't be Muslim because we're LGBT," she says. "I'm bisexual and Muslim at the same time and that still blows people's minds and it really shouldn't. I don't find the controversy within myself. It's mostly from the external."
Black Muslims reclaim their identities
In South Los Angeles, Jihad Saafir is transforming his father's storefront mosque into something much more ambitious to include a school and community center. It's called Islah LA; "islah" is the Arabic word for "reform."

"We deal with what has happened historically in the African-American community and the African community. So we make sure that the children are aware of who they are, their identity."

His generation of black Muslims and the next is reclaiming, reviving and retaining institutions their parents and grandparents built, while highlighting the diverse traditions of their communities in the U.S. About a third of U.S.-born Muslims are black Muslims, and yet many feel eclipsed by the immigrant story.

"Not only are we losing the generation before us and their leadership, but we're also being sort of erased," said Su'ad Abdul Khabeer, author of Muslim Cool: Race, Religion and Hip Hop in the United States.

She says that erasure comes in part from the focus, negative or positive, on Muslim immigrant communities and a depiction of Islam as only a foreign faith.

So black Muslims are "reclaiming their identities as opposed to defining them."

Khabeer runs Sapelo Square, a website that serves as a resource for and about black Muslims. On religious holidays, people post pictures of their celebrations on social media with the hashtag: #blackouteid. And black Muslims, Khabeer says, never went on the defensive about the faith because Islam in black communities has always been a form of "self-determination."
Worship through service
On the South Side of Chicago, the Inner-City Muslim Action Network goes by the acronym IMAN. It's the Arabic word for "faith," and faith is the action in this organization. The Muslim nonprofit sees social activism and community organizing as the way to keep Islam relevant to the next generation.

The group's founder, Rami Nashashibi, says, "We're trying to celebrate the legacy of the spirit of a transformational, empowering, inspirational Islam that is not just constantly apologizing or having to explain itself."

The work, he says, honors the tradition of Islam in urban communities where the religion was adopted as a tool of empowerment.

IMAN is a coalition of black, South Asian, Arab, Latino and other Muslims. Some from the South Side, others from the suburbs. They try to effect change on the issues that matter in the lives of residents of urban communities but are neglected. These include food access, health care at their clinics, criminal justice reform and a supportive re-entry program for people leaving prison.

"The work, in and of itself, is worship," says Sara Hamdan of IMAN, "in that there's blessing in all the service that we're doing, in all the organizing we're doing. That can be my way of worshipping."

Hamdan is in her 20s and wears a headscarf. She says putting it on was a spiritual decision, but also, she didn't want to "pass anymore." In the face of being painted as good or bad, villain or victim, she wanted to be a visible Muslim who is neither.

IMAN recently opened a branch in Atlanta. For this work, Nashashibi was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" for "building bridges across racial, religious, and socioeconomic divides to confront the challenges of poverty and disinvestment in urban communities."
Hijabs and high fashion
From "Austere Attire" to "Haute Hijab," young Muslim fashion designers are starting their own lines to give Muslim women who want to dress modestly ways to do it with confidence and style. And the fashion industry is jumping on board.

Most recently, Macy's started selling a modest fashion line featuring maxi dresses and hijabs. Fashion designer DKNY started a Ramadan collection in 2014, Nike sells a sports hijab called the "Pro Hijab," and American Eagle debuted a denim hijab last year.

The nail polish giant Orly partnered with MuslimGirl.com founder Amani Al-Khatahtbeh to create a "breathable" polish called #HalalPaint so young women can paint their nails and still pray. Typically, Muslim women don't pray with nail polish on because water doesn't penetrate the lacquer when they wash for prayer.

Khatahtbeh started the MuslimGirl website from her bedroom as a teenager, writing about issues that interest her as a Muslim American woman, from fashion to identity. The problem, she says, is that the estimated 1.8 billion Muslims in the world are constantly referenced as one entity even though Muslims are so diverse.

MuslimGirl.com, she says, amplifies stories of women like her - as well as women who are not like her. "Because you know we, just like any women ... can't be put in a box."
Pride after hate
When the mosque in Victoria, Texas, burned in January 2017, it was the first time young people in this community saw their parents sob.

But out of the ashes came a renewed sense of pride in their faith - and support by their community

Sixteen-year-old Jenin Ajrami didn't talk about her religion at school, afraid of discrimination. Now, she Snapchats her friends from the mosque.

"I just send them a picture of me in the hijab," she says. "They don't expect it from me because I don't cover my hair at school."

I just send [friends] a picture of me in the hijab. They don't expect it from me because I don't cover my hair at school.

Last year, more than 100 mosques were targeted with arson, threats or vandalism across the country, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The FBI has tracked an increase in hate crimes against Muslims in 2015 and 2016. The incidents at mosques range from death threats to the buildings being torched like the one in Victoria.

But overwhelming support came in from Victoria's community and around the world, helping the mosque raise over a million dollars. Now, the community southeast of San Antonio is rebuilding and hopes to be praying in a new mosque by this summer.
Singing worship
Some of the young women at the Bosnian Islamic Cultural Center of Chicago say they're arguing with their parents because they want to cover their hair, but their parents won't let them out of fear they'll be attacked.

Those who don't cover their hair outside the mosque say no one thinks they're Muslim - they don't fit the stereotype with their European looks.

According to the Pew Research Center, Muslims in America hail from more than 75 countries, thus the country's more than 2,000 mosques vary widely in tradition and practice. At this Bosnian mosque, they have a girls' choir that performs in front of the congregation. They sing about God, the Muslim prophet and Islam.

Enessa Mehmedovic, 24, picked the outfits for the singers and organizes teens and young women from the center to volunteer in the larger community. She encourages them to wear their headscarves, even if they usually only wear it to pray, so people who see them know exactly who they are. Some women choose to wear the headscarf, others do not.

"Being a walking representation of Islam is, like, so beautiful to me," Mehmedovic says, "because when someone looks at me what is the first thing they notice? That I'm Muslim."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
America's Next Generation Of Muslims Insists On Crafting Its Own Story

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fashion designers. Community activists. Parents. Converts. High school students facing down bullies. Podcasters creating their own space to exhale. The newest generation of American Muslims is a mosaic, one of the most racially and ethnically diverse faith groups in the country.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Accountability between funders and grantees is critical, yet typically that accountability is one-way, with funders rarely asking for honest feedback on their own performance. Instead, harmful impact and inequitable grantmaking practices are shared in whispers in nonprofit circles or possibly with a trusted program officer. There is legitimate fear of directly or publicly sharing stories about foundations' actions due to the potential ramifications. Most grant-dependent organizations believe the risk is too high to call foundations in for racially inequitable practices.

Even funders that espouse racial equity values engage in these harmful practices. In 2015, Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a national network of racial justice and healing organizations with the audacious vision to end racism within our lifetimes, launched a Racial Justice Funding survey to collect anonymous data from these organizations. Stories emerged of some effective grantmaking practices, but more pointed to the lack of philanthropy's commitment to or understanding of racial equity in processes, vision and grantmaking strategies. Specific concerns included: small grants with demanding reporting schedules, unwillingness to marshal political will to fund systems change work, privileging white organizations and white culture* practices, forcing solutions and ignoring stakeholder voices, being silent in racialized crises, lack of internal racial equity work while expecting grantees to report on theirs, and requests to educate staff on racial equity with no compensation or support.

These harmful practices cannot continue. Communities of Color most impacted by structural racism must have access and control over resources. And poor grantmaking practices, of any sort, can have a deep long-term impact on people of color-led organizations.

While racial justice organizations work to dismantle inequitable systems in every sector using organizing strategies, sharing data about inequities, and telling stories, we don't typically do this with the philanthropic sector. We cannot significantly move the needle for racial justice if we are unwilling to challenge how resources are distributed.

We need to speak the truth on the impact of the current grantmaking system and practices. We can no longer protect our own resources by being silent when we know one of our funder's unjust practices have devastating effects on other organizations or in the communities where we work. We need to stand in solidarity. We can't just complete anonymous surveys from foundations in the hopes of change, without any philanthropic accountability.

And to Funders: we cannot address life and death issues and racial injustices while also being told how we should do our work, or prove our work is effective based on the foundation's standards, or meet deliverables decided on by you and not by the community, or consistently witness the disparate funding between white led organizations and people of color-led organizations. These critiques are not unknown by your sector, yet because the power differential leads to our silence, the many, many stories of racially inequitable funding and practices are not told publicly, which ends up lessening the urgency. So, the disturbing impact of the racially inequitable system of resource distribution continues to be maintained.

We say no more. Within Our Lifetime and Old Money New System Community of Practice are issuing an invitation for courageous and collective action, joined by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy to movement building groups and racial justice and healing organizations. We urge groups to challenge philanthropy to develop racially just grantmaking practices and transform structures, so we can collectively tackle structural racism and white supremacy to end racism within our lifetimes. #DisruptPhilanthropyNOW

We must do this. We must move beyond transactional funding relationships to demand accountability with philanthropy as we demand it in other sectors. We need to come together as racial justice organizations to radically transform philanthropy. We can no longer let fear of consequences deter us from speaking our truth about the impact of unjust practices by our funders. There are philanthropic leaders who have been advocates for justice and we need to work with them intentionally and strategically.

Racial justice organizations need to organize for transformational changes and racially equitable resource distribution by philanthropy.

YES! Magazine's spring cover for 2018, is "End to White Supremacy," which can provide a pause for anyone strolling down the magazine aisle. In the article " The Disruption of White Supremacy," Michael Trahant, an independent journalist and member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribes, discusses disruption, "'Disruption'" is an important word to add to a discussion of ending colonialism. It explains the sudden-and not-so-sudden shifts in history-in a way that "decolonization" alone does not. Disruption is what we need to free ourselves from the economic, racial, and cultural oppression that is colonialism's legacy. ... We need democratic institutions that share power among diverse people and reflect the range of life on Earth. We need disruption and innovation."

If we are working for racial justice and ending white supremacy, then we must organize together with our philanthropic co-conspirators to disrupt the status quo of how philanthropy reinforces and maintains systems of oppression and white supremacy. We hope you will join us.

What can you do now...

Tell your Story: If you are an organization that has experienced racially inequitable practices with a foundation, and you are interested in sharing it - please use this form and someone will contact you. And we also now have encrypted email address, DisruptPhilanthropy@protonmail.com Your information will be confidential until you are ready to share your story.

Accept the Invitation for Courageous and Collective Action: #DisruptPhilanthropyNOW here.

Get Involved #DisruptPhilanthropyNOW and work with colleagues on this campaign: sign up here.

Share this #DisruptPhilanthropyNOW Blog Series with your networks.

Here are some information changing funding practices and resources.

In future blog posts and on this site, we will share with you some of the work already happening to transform philanthropy. Please share your examples and ideas with us, along with stories of effective racial equitable grantmaking: info@withinourlifetime.net

*Here are a few resources about white culture: White Supremacy Culture, Tema Okun and Kenneth Jones, DR Works, and Paying Attention to White Culture and Privilege: A Missing Link to Advancing Racial Equity, Gita Gulati-Partee and Maggie Potapchuk, The Foundation Review, and Challenging White Dominant Culture: Time To Look In The Mirror, Lupe Poblano, CompassPoint

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Invitation for Courageous and Collective Action: #DisruptPhilanthropyNow

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Accountability between funders and grantees is critical, yet typically that accountability is one-way, with funders rarely asking for honest feedback on their own performance. Instead, harmful impact and inequitable grantmaking practices are shared in whispers in nonprofit circles or possibly with a trusted program officer.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Photo by Michela Ravasia via Stocksy.

As someone with very low tolerance for racist bullshit, I've managed to surround myself with white people who are cognizant of their privilege and strive to make the world a less terrifying and frustrating place for people of color. This means that I often deal with said white people asking me what they can actually do to affect change. So here, anxious allies of the world, are 100 simple ways to be the change. It's not nearly comprehensive, but it's somewhere to start. Go forth and disrupt our harmful racial paradigm!

1. Just because you can't see racism around you doesn't mean it's not happening. Trust people of color's assessment of a situation.

2. Don't assume that all people of color share the same views. We are not a monolith.

3. Don't assume or guess people's races. This is NOT a fun game for us.

4. If someone tells you they're from Uganda, don't say, "I went to Nigeria once!" Just, please.

5. Related: Don't refer to Africa as a country. It's a continent and it's wildly varied. Yes. Take a moment.

6. Oh, and rest assured that literally no person of color ever wants you to get back from holiday, show off your tan and excitedly exclaim, "Look, I'm almost as dark as you!" Cease and desist.

7. Don't assume that a person of color knows everything about their country of heritage. Do you know everything there is to know about America? Germany? Sweden? That's what I thought.

8. Don't assume we can run if we're Black, do math if we're Asian, have drinking problems if we're indigenous...

9. Regard us as autonomous, unique individuals, not as representatives of our race.

10. Don't make embarrassing jokes to try and be "down" with people of color. We'll laugh at you, not with you.

11. Don't rinse our culturally specific memes. They're ours. Go enjoy that weird one about the plums.

12. If you're at my house party, don't turn off the Weeknd to put on Arctic Monkeys. (Okay this one is very specific but it happened to me once and I'm not over it. The audacity!)

13. Avoid phrases like "But I have a Black friend! I can't be racist!" You know that's BS as well as we do.

14. When you endlessly complain about how terrible white people are, you are being that terrible white person. Jeez.

15. Don't say shit like, "I know what it's like to be a person of color...I'm a ginger!"

16. Don't question someone's Blackness if they're light-skinned. It's not your place. Other Black people can make sure that light-skinned Black people are cognizant of their privilege.

17. Never try and tell a person of color what is or isn't racist.

18. When you find instances of racist bullshit online, please don't send it to us. We know racism exists, thanks.

19. Read something already written about it rather than coming to your friends/acquaintances of color looking for hot takes on anything and everything appropriative a Kardashian/Miley Cyrus does. We don't wanna think about this shit 24/7!

20. Understand that some days are even more mentally exhausting for people of color thanks to the news cycle. Try not to badger us for our opinions on the latest atrocity that has occurred. Leave us to grieve.

21. But when we do have something to say about it, listen.

22. Share articles relating to the everyday experiences of race and racism written by people of color.

23. But don't be that person who is weird and sycophantic and loves to demonstrate their wokeness constantly to the people of color around them. Be thoughtful.

24. Read books by people of color. I recommend Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and literally everything that Junot Diaz writes for great insights into Blackness.

25. Watch shows that are created by people of color i.e. Atlanta or Insecure. (Seriously, if you haven't seen Atlanta, you need to watch it. Now.)

26. Have a critical eye when watching TV and movies. How are they portraying people of color and why? What purpose does it serve?

27. If you go to an art gallery, notice how many works are by people of color. If it's lacking, make some noise, send an email, query the curator. White people shouldn't have a monopoly on what can be considered art.

28. If a character you assumed was white in a book is portrayed by an actor of color in the movie, embrace it. Whiteness is not the default.

29. Support plays written by and acted in by people of color. The world of theater is overwhelmingly white.

30. Refuse to go to club nights or drag shows or burlesque nights that use culturally appropriative acts.

31. If you have kids, buy them dolls of color and books with characters of color.

32. Support crowdfunding campaigns for cultural products created by people of color if you can.

33. Donate money to grassroots movements around you that are run by and support people of color.

34. Support small businesses owned by people of color.

35. If you're upper or middle class try to avoid moving into an area that has historically been populated by low-income people of color. Gentrification tears communities apart.

36. Don't assume people of color can't speak English.

37. But also be patient if our English isn't perfect. Are you bi/tri/multi-lingual? Probably not. It's hard.

38. In general, just don't assume we want to be white or want to assimilate. And don't pressure us to do so.

39. Recognize that you can't assume someone's religion based on how they look. Not all South Asians and Middle Eastern people are Muslims, not all Black people are Christian, not all East Asian people are Buddhist. You get the idea.

40. Remember that not all people of color are straight.

41. Remember that people of color are not inherently more homophobic than white people.

42. People can be Black and gay and disabled and trans and middle class. Blackness is expansive. It doesn't look one way. Keep this in mind.

43. When we talk about race, we're not just talking about men! Repeat after me: Intersections of race and gender exist.

44. Remember that it is Black women and Native women and mixed race women who are most likely to be raped in their lifetimes in America. You cannot be an advocate against sexual violence without considering the impact of race.

45. Don't ask Black women if it's our "real hair." And don't judge Black women for wearing wigs or weaves or having relaxers.

46. Don't touch our fucking hair.

47. If you have a Black girlfriend, please make sure that your shower is always adequately stocked with conditioner. Never that 2-in-1 stuff!!! We beg you.

48. Never try and pull any uninvited "race play" shit in the bedroom. Seriously, what the fuck?

49. Actively try to identify and unsubscribe from orientalist tropes i.e. believing that East Asian women are naturally more submissive or docile. People of color are people, not characters.

50. If you call a woman of color "exotic," you deserve to stub your toe every day for a year. Do. Not. Do. This.

51. Also, saying "I've never fucked a Black/Asian/Native etc. person" to someone you're trying to hook up with is a one way ticket to hell.

52. If you have such fetishistic thoughts, just don't even bother coming near a person of color.

53. Remember that having mixed race children is not a cure for racism or a way to live out weird racial fantasies.

54. If you're trying to start a mixed raced family, sit down and deeply interrogate your intentions.

55. If you do have mixed race children, make sure that they have access to people who look like them and who understand their experiences.

56. If you have a partner of color or children of color, trust and believe that you can still be racist. You're not exempt. If anything, you have even more of a duty to examine your behavior for the benefit of your loved ones.

57. Take your racist family members to task for the shit they say over the dinner table or via social media.

58. Confront your colleagues who say racist shit unchecked at work.

59. Look around your workplace-are the only people of color cleaners or assistants? What can you do to change that? (The answer is almost never "nothing.")

60. If someone asks you to fill a role that you think a person of color would be better suited for, recommend a talented person of color who you know and forego the position yourself.

61. Don't make us be the de facto diversity guy at work. Or at least pay us extra to do the labor of diversifying the workplace.

62. Refuse to speak on an all-white panel. Regardless of the topic.

63. If there are only a couple of people of color in your seminar, don't weirdly stare at them when the lecturer poses questions about race and expect them to answer everything.

64. If you're in charge of making curricula, make sure there is work by people of color, especially women of color, on the reading list. And not just in the weeks dedicated to race.

65. Commission people of color to make work about race.

66. Commission people of color to make work that has nothing to do with race.

67. Don't say things like "there are two sides to every story!" or play devil's advocate when it comes to conversations about race.

68. In those situations, just listen.

69. It's never useful to say stuff like, "But what about the white working class!!!" Have you thought about non-white working class people's needs?

70. Don't? Vote? For? Racist? Politicians? Can't believe I need to say this one but it seems like possibly, maybe, some of y'all did not get this memo.

71. Research your candidates. Who has progressive policies that won't needlessly criminalize people of color? Vote for them.

72. Remember that Black women are not here to save you from yourselves. You've gotta put in the work, too.

73. Be cognizant of how your whiteness could be weaponized against Black people. i.e. white women, don't play into stereotypes about Black men being inherently threatening to you. It gets Black men killed. See: Emmett Till.

74. Use your white privilege to be on the frontline between people of color and the police at protests. You're at much less risk than us.

75. Record police encounters you see involving Black people.

76. Share alerts when ICE is planning a raid.

77. Stand up to Islamophobia wherever you see it.

78. If you have ever thought a phrase like "Black lives matter" is too assertive, consider why you're so uncomfortable with Black people standing up for our humanity.

79. Listen when Black people say, "I'm not comfortable in this situation." You've seen Get Out, haven't you?

80. If you haven't seen Get Out, watch Get Out. Understand that the everyday horror is real.

81. Question whether you have double standards when it comes to drugs. Do you think it's cool when white weed entrepreneurs make tons of money but think that Black people who are found to have traces of marijuana in their systems deserve to be thrown in prison?

82. Don't have dreadlocks if you're not Black, just don't. Beyond being offensive, it's just not suited to your hair type. Do literally anything else with your hair.

83. Don't refer to things as your "spirit animal" if you're not Native. There are other ways to express affinity with something.

84. Do not compare the exploitation of animals to racism. Ever. I'm deadly serious.

85. I can't believe I even need to say this in 2018 but here we go: Don't wear Blackface.

86. Don't even think about saying the N word. Even if you're alone. Even if you're listening to rap. Even if you're alone and listening to rap.

87. Similarly, don't use the word "g*psy" or "p*ki" or "r*dskin" or any other racial slur. Even if you're repeating what someone else said or reading from a text.

88. That includes the word "colored." "Person of color" and "colored" are not the same. Trust me.

89. Understand that America has what it has because it stole land from indigenous people and stole people from Africa.

90. Care about race on the 364 days that aren't Martin Luther King Jr. day.

91. Also, don't whitewash his legacy and use it to argue that Black people should just take what they're given lying down.

92. Think about how race is operating even when people of color aren't around. Be cognizant of it wherever you are, whichever situation you're in. People of color have to, so should you.

93. Remember that your queerness/womanhood/transness/class background/disability doesn't exclude you from white privilege.

94. Make your feminism useful to all women rather than calling yourself an 'intersectional feminist'. Show, don't tell.

95. Don't assume, full stop, that you can understand what it's like to experience racism. You can't. That's the whole point.

96. Understand that nothing in your life has been untouched by your whiteness. Everything you have would have been harder to come by if you had not been born white.

97. Be grateful for the lesson when you're called out on racism, getting defensive won't help.

98. Move past your white guilt. Guilt is an unproductive emotion. Don't sit there mired in woe, just be better.

99. Recognize that fighting racism isn't about you, it's not about your feelings; it's about liberating people of color from a world that tries to crush us at every turn.

100. And remember: Being an ally is a verb, not a noun. You can't just magically be an ally to people of color because you say you're one, it's something that you must continually work on.
For More News Like This, Sign Up for Our Newsletter

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
100 Ways White People Can Make Life Less Frustrating For People of Color

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Photo by Michela Ravasia via Stocksy. As someone with very low tolerance for racist bullshit, I've managed to surround myself with white people who are cognizant of their privilege and strive to make the world a less terrifying and frustrating place for people of color.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Miniature golf is golf's younger, tackier friend. Popularized in the 1920s by a Tennessee resort owner, the sport is now thought of - if it's thought of at all - as a quaint vacation activity or a reliable idea for a kid's birthday party.

But during the Great Depression, miniature golf was wildly popular across the country, including in Washington, D.C. In 1928 there were only a handful of courses in the U.S. Two years later, there were more than 25,000 nationwide, and upwards of 30 in the nation's capital alone.

"American sportdom has known no such epidemic," a Washington Post article from Aug. 31, 1930, gushed. "Even the bicycle craze, of the old days, pales into insignificance beside the popularity accorded Lilliputian golf."

In Washington, D.C., people built mini-golf courses on rooftops, in vacant lots, and, eventually, on government land. An 18-hole mini golf course on the federally-managed East Potomac Park opened on May 9, 1931. It featured long, leisurely fairways, stone barriers, and a few flourishes, including miniature reconstructions of the White House, Capitol Building and Mt. Vernon.

The course's opening was met by joy from the mini-golf crazed locals, and consternation from public officials.

"I very much regret that the miniature golf course has become a public nuisance," public parks director Ulysses S. Grant III wrote in an Aug. 7, 1931 letter to the course's concessionaire. "It may be necessary to ask you to close it entirely."

Within just a few weeks of the mini-golf course's opening, Grant had received word from detectives with the D.C. police that men and women associated with "professional gambling, selling liquor, etc." had been spotted hanging around it. Grant didn't shut the course down in the end, but he did make the concessionaire close it by 11:30 p.m. each night.

Ten years later, the course found itself in the middle of another controversy, this time over desegregation.

The National Park Service managed many of Washington's public recreation facilities, including the mini-golf course, and they were all segregated. But in the summer of 1941, a group of black men came to play golf at the whites-only East Potomac Park.

White people verbally harassed them in protest, according to Patti Kuhn Babin, a National Park Service historian who is conducting a study on the NPS golf courses in D.C. But, she said, their efforts to keep the course segregated failed. Interior Department Secretary Harold Ickes opened the courses to everyone the following day, a move which Babin called the first step in desegregating all public recreation areas in the city.

Miniature golf remained relatively popular through World War II, in part because it was inexpensive. In 1948, a round of miniature golf in Washington cost 35 cents. A wave of new suburban courses sprouted up during another "boomlet" in the 1950s and early 1960s. Few remain today.

Out of the 30 or so courses that once existed in Washington, East Potomac Park Mini Golf is the only one left. It's now considered one of the oldest continuously running mini-golf courses in the country ( the oldest, depending on who you ask) and is on the National Register for Historic Places.

The course's current manager, Kim Thomas of GolfDC, dreams of adding decorations and introducing wine nights and other events geared towards millennials, but her federal contract makes it difficult. For now, the course remains remarkably similar to how it looked back in 1931. The miniature White House and Capitol Building decorations are long gone, but the original 18 holes remain, vestiges of a bygone recreational craze.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Mini-Golf Played A Big Role In Desegregating Public Rec Spaces

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Miniature golf is golf's younger, tackier friend. Popularized in the 1920s by a Tennessee resort owner, the sport is now thought of - if it's thought of at all - as a quaint vacation activity or a reliable idea for a kid's birthday party.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When teaching about race and racism, I invite participants to consider the following analogy: Think of racism as a gigantic societal-sized boot.

"Which groups do you think are fighting the hardest against this boot of racism?" I ask them. Invariably, participants of diverse races answer that those fighting hardest to avoid getting squashed by the boot are people of color. (Keep in mind that I don't ask this question on day one of our study of race. Rather, participants come to this conclusion after exploring the concept of white privilege and studying the history of race and racism in the United States through multiple sources and perspectives.)

"If that's true," I continue, "then who do you think is wearing the boot?" The participants' answer (though it often only reluctantly hits the air): white people.

"If that's true, then whose responsibility is it to stop the boot from squashing them? The people of color already pushing upward and resisting the boot? Or the people wearing the boot-consciously or not-who contribute to a system that pushes downward?"

Everyone has a role in ending racism, but the analogy shows how little sense it makes for only those facing the heel-end of oppression to do all the work. It's time for white America to take on a far bigger role in taking off the boot.

There are no doubt complexities that come with white Americans working for racial justice. White privilege can lead to a chronic case of undiagnosed entitlement, creating poor listeners, impatient speakers who talk over others, and people unaccustomed to taking orders. Nevertheless, the movement for racial justice needs more white Americans to get involved. And it's our responsibility to help each other get involved-and get involved productively.

I compiled this list to help white Americans do so. One positive to emerge from these difficult times is the wealth of resources now available for white Americans. Never have I seen so many ideas, options, and concrete steps to take action against racism. And we are making progress: Looks Like White Americans Are Finally Starting to Come Around on Race and Policing. A few police officers are even being held accountable -finally-for their devastating decisions.

But so much work remains.

A few notes about this list:

To keep this list from becoming overwhelmingly long, I prioritized recent sources-from Ferguson to Charleston-and organized them in reverse chronological order.

Every resource listed is relatively short. Not one of these resources links to a book (except here, here, and here). In other words, there's no excuse not to dig into them.

Many links on the list focus on the recent killings of Black men, but, as the three articles below illustrate, institutionalized racism has a much longer reach (and that these lists are hardly comprehensive):

Finally, by "curriculum," I do not mean a unit of study for classroom use (to be clear: this list is separate from my work in the classroom); rather, these resources, inspired by the #Charlestonsyllabus, are for anybody who wants to learn more from perspectives often underrepresented among many white circles.

To My White Friends Who See Tragedy in the Black Community and Say Nothing, Make it Personal, published by Huffington Post on June 26, 2015

'We need co-conspirators, not allies': how white Americans can fight racism, published by The Guardian on June 26, 2015

Be Less Racist: 12 Tips for White Dudes, by A White Dude, published by Mash-up Americans

7 Ways To Be A White Ally For Charleston And The Black Community, published by Huffington Post on June 19, 2015

10 Things All White Folks Need to Consider about the #BaltimoreUprising, published by Everyday Feminism on April 29, 2015

11 Things White People Can Do to Be Real Anti-Racist Allies, published by AlterNet on April 27, 2015

6 things I wish people understood about being biracial, published by Vox on March 11, 2015 (This one is not specifically addressed to white people but many would benefit from reading it.)

What white people need to know, and do, after Ferguson, published by The Washington Post on November 28, 2014

12 Things White People Can Actually Do After the Ferguson Decision, published by Huffington Post on November 26, 2014

To follow sources that publish such articles, find an extensive listing here. If these articles leave you with unanswered questions, there's now even a website devoted to answering the questions of white Americans: askawhiteperson.com.

Native Americans Get Shot By Cops at an Astonishing Rate, published by Mother Jones on July 15, 2015

Slavery to Mass Incarceration, a five-minute video, narrated by Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, that concisely contextualizes mass incarceration as an evolution of slavery, published on July 7, 2015

I, Racist: Why I don't talk about race with White people, published by Medium on July 6, 2015

The Atlantic Slave Trade in Two Minutes, a short video that provides a "haunting" glimpse into the mass abduction, abuse, and murder of Black people that lasted centuries, published by Slate Magazine on June 25, 2015

What Is Whiteness?, published by The New York Times on June 20, 2015

We Need To Talk About White Culture, published by The Daily Beas t on June 19, 2015

Historian Says Don't 'Sanitize' How Our Government Created Ghettos, a 35-minute interview with Historian Richard Rothstein, in which he links current racial inequities directly to past governmental policies, from NPR's Fresh Air on May 14, 2015

If Anyone Ever Questioned How White Privilege Manifested Itself in America This Is The Perfect Illustration, a five-minute video excerpt showing that, though race is a social construction with no scientific basis, governmental policy systematically gave it social and economic significance-all to the benefit of white Americans over the course of centuries-from Atlanta Blackstar on May 2, 2015

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism, published by The Good Men Project on April 9, 2015

Only Part of the Story Is Being Told About the Police Shooting in Pasco, published by Time on March 3, 2015

Our Anti-Immigrant Racism Is Rooted in History, published by Common Dreams on February 17, 2015

Killing in Washington State Offers 'Ferguson' Moment for Hispanics, published by The New York Times on February 16, 2015

We Can't 'Get Over It': 4 Ways Understanding Past Wrongs Can Create Better Indigenous Allies, published by Everyday Feminism on January 15, 2015

Why Ferguson Should Matter to Asian-Americans, published by Time on November 26, 2014

Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites (CARW): a group of white people in the Seattle area working to undo institutional racism and white privilege through education and organizing in white communities and active support of anti-racist, people of color-led organizations. We support the self-determination of people of color, honor their leadership and are held accountable to people of color-led organizations.

European Dissent: a national network of groups with the goal to be a visible force in the creation of a multiracial network of people intent on building working relationships between the white community and the communities of color in the struggle for a just society.

Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ): a national network of groups and individuals organizing white people for racial justice.

Radical Washtenaw (RAW): a collective of artists and activists in Washtenaw County, Michigan, that coalesced after the police murder of Aura Rosser in Ann Arbor in November of 2014.

How silence can breed prejudice: A child development professor explains how and why to talk to kids about race, published by The Washington Post on July 6, 2015

It's My Job to Raise Children Who Are Not Only Not Racist But Actively Anti-Racist, published by Huffington Post on July 1, 2015

The Hard Talk: White Parents Discussing Racism with White Children, published in Uprooting Criminology on June 20, 2015

Facing this country's racist past and present will likely stir up a lot of feelings for many of us. Guilt may be among them. In dealing with guilt, I encourage you to read the words of Audre Lorde:

I cannot hide my anger to spare you guilt, nor hurt feelings, nor answering anger; for to do so insults and trivializes all our efforts. Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one's own actions or lack of action. If it leads to change then it can be useful, since it is then no longer guilt but the beginning of knowledge. Yet all too often, guilt is just another name for impotence, for defensiveness destructive of communication; it becomes a device to protect ignorance and the continuation of things the way they are, the ultimate protection for changelessness.

Instead of spending your energies on guilt, I encourage you to spend them seeking inspiration to act. There's no shortage of inspiration. For a moment on June 30th, in the wake of terrorism in Charleston, you could even find it on a flagpole at the South Carolina State House.

Less than two weeks after Bree Newsome's act of resistance, the governor of South Carolina signed a bill into law removing the Confederate Flag from the State House. Change is possible.

For more ideas on how we can work toward racial justice, click here. To learn more about the race curriculum controversy that led to the creation of this website, a controversy in which a public school district attempted to shut down a long-established study of race for seniors-all based on the misinformation of one white family-click here.

About the Author: Jon Greenberg is an award-winning public high school teacher and writer. Creator and facilitator of the celebrated curriculum, Citizenship and Social Justice, he has dedicated his career to social justice and civic engagement. He recently joined Everyday Feminism as a Contributing Writer and is currently working on a project about the Race Curriculum Controversy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Curriculum for White Americans to Educate Themselves on Race and Racism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
America is a violent, racist country. When teaching about race and racism, I invite participants to consider the following analogy: Think of racism as a gigantic societal-sized boot. "Which groups do you think are fighting the hardest against this boot of racism?" I ask them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
San Antonio Head Coach Gregg Popovich On #TakeAKnee And Racial Injustice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The new MSN - your customisable collection of the best in news, sports, entertainment, money, weather, travel, health and lifestyle, combined with Outlook, Facebook, Twitter, Skype and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
subscribe to Hidden Brain podcast

Are you racist?

It's a question that makes most of us uncomfortable and defensive.

Harvard University psychologist Mahzarin Banaji says while most people don't feel they're racist, they likely carry unfavorable opinions about people of color - even if they are people of color themselves.

Banaji is one of the creators of the Implicit Association Test, a widely-used tool for measuring a person's implicit biases. She says it's important to acknowledge that the individual mind sits in society.

"Perhaps we behave in ways that are not known to our own conscious awareness, that we are being driven to act in certain ways not because we are explicitly prejudiced, but because we may carry in our heads the thumbprint of the culture," she says.

This week on Hidden Brain, we examine research about prejudices so deeply buried, we often doubt their existence. We'll begin with a focus on police shootings of unarmed black men. Later in the show, we look at how biases affect judges in the U.S.

This episode includes references to research by Mahzarin Banaji, Eric Hehman, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Joshua Correll, and Maya Sen. You'll also hear from Philip Tetlock.
The Hidden Brain radio show is hosted by Shankar Vedantam and produced by Parth Shah, Jennifer Schmidt, Renee Klahr, Rhaina Cohen, and Matthew Schwartz. Our supervising producer is Tara Boyle. You can also follow us on Twitter @hiddenbrain.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
subscribe to Hidden Brain podcast Are you racist? It's a question that makes most of us uncomfortable and defensive. Harvard University psychologist Mahzarin Banaji says while most people don't feel they're racist, they likely carry unfavorable opinions about people of color - even if they are people of color themselves.