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From code-switching to daily microaggressions, here’s a slice of what Black people go through in corporate America.

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Black Americans in the Workplace | The Daily Social Distancing Show

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Ijeoma Oluo - The Pyramid Scheme Of White Supremacy | The Daily Social Distancing Show

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A housing policy expert explains how federal government policies created the suburbs and the inner city

smithsonianmag.com

It's not surprising to anyone who has lived in or visited a major American metropolitan region that the nation's cities tend to be organized in their own particular racial pattern. In Chicago, it's a north/south divide. In Austin, it's west/east. In some cities, it's a division based around infrastructure, as with Detroit's 8 Mile Road. In other cities, nature-such as Washington, D.C.'s Anacostia River-is the barrier. Sometimes these divisions are man-made, sometimes natural, but none are coincidental.

A narrative of racially discriminatory landlords and bankers-all independent actors-has long served as an explanation for the isolation of African-Americans in certain neighborhoods in large cities. But this pervasive assumption rationalizing residential segregation in the United States ignores the long history of federal, state and local policies that generated the residential segregation found across the country today.
Your book aims to turn over misconceptions on how American cities came to be racially segregated. What are some of the biggest misconceptions people have, and how did they influence your research and writing of this book?
In The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, aims to flip the assumption that the state of racial organization in American cities is simply a result of individual prejudices. He untangles a century's worth of policies that built the segregated American city of today. From the first segregated public housing projects of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, to the 1949 Housing Act that encouraged white movement to the suburbs, to unconstitutional racial zoning ordinances enacted by city governments, Rothstein substantiates the argument that the current state of the American city is the direct result of unconstitutional, state-sanctioned racial discrimination.

Smithsonian.com spoke with Rothstein about his findings and his suggestions for change.

There's one overall misconception. And that is that the reason that neighborhoods in every metropolitan area in the country are segregated by race is because of a series of accidents driving prejudice and personal choices.
Why do you think there is this national amnesia about the history of these policies?
Income differences, private discrimination of real estate agents, banks and all of these come under the category of what the Supreme Court called, and what is now generally known as, de facto segregation, something that just happened by accident or by individual choices. And that myth, which is widespread across the political spectrum, hobbles our ability to remedy segregation and eliminate the enormous harm that it does to this country.

The truth is that segregation in every metropolitan area was imposed by racially explicit federal, state and local policy, without which private actions of prejudice or discrimination would not have been very effective. And if we understand that our segregation is a governmentally sponsored system, which of course we'd call de jure segregation, only then can we begin to remedy it. Because if it happened by individual choice, it's hard to imagine how to remedy it. If it happened by government action, then we should be able to develop equally effective government actions to reverse it.
How did the Great Depression contribute to the problem?
When we desegregated the buses, people could sit anywhere on the bus they wanted. When we desegregated restaurants, people could sit anywhere in the restaurant that they wanted. Even when we desegregated schools, if the ruling was enforced, the next day, children could go to the school in their neighborhood. But residential segregation is a much more difficult thing to do. If we prohibit the effects of residential segregation, it's not as though the next day people can up and move to suburbs that once excluded them by federal policy.

So given how difficult it is and how disruptive it would be to the existing residential patterns in the country, people avoid thinking about it, rather than having to confront something that's very difficult. And once people start to avoid thinking about it, then fewer and fewer people, as time goes on, remember the history at all.
How did the Roosevelt administration justify these New Deal policies, like the WPA, if segregation wasn't constitutional?
In the Great Depression, many lower-middle class and working-class families lost their home. They couldn't keep up with their payments. So the Public Works Administration constructed the first civilian public housing ever in this country. Initially, it was primarily for white families in segregated white projects, but at some point, a few projects were built for African-Americans in segregated African-American projects. This practice often segregated neighborhoods that hadn't previously been that way.

In Langston Hughes' autobiography, he describes how he lived in an integrated neighborhood in Cleveland. His best friend in high school was Polish. He dated a Jewish girl. That neighborhood in Cleveland was razed by the WPA, which built two segregated [ones], one for African-Americans, one for whites. The Depression gave the stimulus for the first civilian public housing to be built. Were it not for that policy, many of these cities might have developed with a different residential pattern.
How did the Housing Act of 1949 contribute to the issue of segregation?
The main justification they used was that segregation was necessary because if African-Americans lived in those neighborhoods, the property values of those neighborhoods would decline. But, in fact, the FHA had no evidence of this claim. Indeed, the opposite was the case. The FHA had research that demonstrated that property values rose when African-Americans moved into white neighborhoods, but it ignored its own research.

African-Americans had fewer options for housing. African-Americans were willing to pay more to purchase homes than whites were for identical homes, so when African-Americans moved into a white neighborhood, property values generally rose. Only after an organized effort by the real estate industry to create all-black suburbs and overcrowd them and turn them into slums did property values decline. But that was the rationale and it persisted for at least three decades, perhaps more.

President Harry Truman proposed the act because of an enormous civilian housing shortage. At the end of World War II, veterans returned home, they formed families; they needed places to live. The federal government had restricted the use of building materials for defense purposes only, so there was no private housing industry operating at that time.

Conservatives in Congress in 1949 were opposed to any public housing, not for racial reasons, because most housing was for whites. But they opposed any government involvement in the private housing market, even though the sector wasn't taking care of the housing needs of the population.

So they decided to try to defeat the public housing bill by proposing a "poison pill amendment" to make the entire bill unpalatable. It said from now on that public housing could not discriminate, understanding that if northern liberals joined conservatives in passing that amendment, southern Democrats would abandon the public housing program and along with conservative Republicans, defeat the bill entirely.
How did the Supreme Court decision in Buchanan v. Warley set the U.S. on a path of racial housing segregation?
So liberals in Congress fought against the integration amendment led by civil rights opponents [resulting in a] 1949 housing program that permitted segregation. When the civilian housing industry picked up in the 1950s, the federal government subsidized mass production builders to create suburbs on conditions that those homes in the suburbs be sold only to whites. No African-Americans were permitted to buy them and the FHA often added an additional condition requiring that every deed in a home in those subdivisions prohibit resale to African -Americans.

Eventually, we had a situation everywhere in the country where there were large numbers of vacancies in the white projects and long waiting lists for the black projects. The situation became so conspicuous that the government and local housing agencies had to open up all projects to African-Americans. So these two policies, the segregation of public housing in urban areas and the subsidization of white families to leave urban areas and to the suburbs, created the kind of racial patterns that we're familiar with today.

In the early 20th century, a number of cities, particularly border cities like Baltimore, St. Louis, and Louisville, Kentucky, passed zoning ordinances that prohibited African-Americans from moving onto a block that was majority white. In 1917, the Supreme Court found in Buchanan v. Warley that such ordinances were unconstitutional, but not for racial reasons. The Court found it unconstitutional because such ordinances interfered with the rights of property owners.
People say that housing segregation happens because African-Americans simply can't afford to live in middle class neighborhoods, but you argue that this is overly simplistic.
As a result, planners around the country who were attempting to segregate their metropolitan areas had to come up with another device to do so. In the 1920s, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover organized an advisory committee on zoning, whose job was to persuade every jurisdiction to adopt the ordinance that would keep low-income families out of middle-class neighborhoods. The Supreme Court couldn't explicitly mention race, but the evidence is clear that the [Commerce Department's] motivation was racial. Jurisdictions began to adopt zoning ordinances that were exclusive on economics, but the true purpose was, in part, to exclude African-Americans. So they developed ordinances that for example, prohibited apartment buildings from being built in suburbs that had single-family homes. Or they required single-family homes to have large setbacks and be set on multiple acres, all as an attempt to make the suburb racially exclusive.

Even though the Buchanan decision was handed down in 1917, many cities continued to have racial ordinances in flagrant violation of the decision. Richmond, Virginia, passed an ordinance that said people couldn't move on to a block where they were prohibited from marrying the majority of people on that block. And since Virginia had an anti-miscegenation law that prohibited blacks and whites from marrying, the state claimed that this provision didn't violate the Buchanan decision. Many of these devices were used to evade the Court's decision. Some cities adopted ordinances that prohibited African-Americans from living on a block that was majority white. So the Buchanan decision wasn't totally effective, but it did stimulate the drive for economic zoning to keep African-Americans out of white neighborhoods.

For one thing, when these practices of public segregation were most virulent, many African-Americans could afford to live in white suburbs. Large subdivisions developed with FHA support like Levittown, New York, were built on conditions that they be all white. The homes in those places sold, in today's dollars, about $100,000 apiece. They cost twice the national median income and were easily affordable to African-Americans as well as whites, but only working-class whites were permitted to buy into those homes.
How did reverse-redlining impact the African-American community in the financial crisis of 2008?
In the next several generations, those homes sell for seven-to-eight times the median national income - unaffordable to working-class families. So the segregation that took place when the homes were first built created a permanent system that locked African-Americans out of it as appreciation grew. White families gained in home equity, in wealth, from the appreciation of their homes. African-Americans who were forced to live in apartments and not be homeowners gained none of that appreciation.
If the federal government was complicit in this, what is the obligation of the federal government now as the nation continues to recover from that crisis and the legacy of residential discrimination?
The result is that today African-American average incomes are about 60 percent of white incomes, but African-Americans' average wealth is about 5 percent of white wealth. That enormous difference is almost entirely attributable to unconstitutional federal housing policy in the mid-20th century.

Reverse-redlining is a term used to describe the targeting by banks and mortgage lenders of minority communities for exploitative loans, called subprime loans. They were typically loans designed to induce African-American and Latino homeowners to refinance their homes at a low-interest rate that then exploded into a very high rate once they're locked into the mortgage. In many cases, these subprime loans were issued to African-American families who qualified for conventional loans, but they were denied those mortgages. The result was that foreclosure [rates] in minority communities far-exceeded that in white communities. Federal regulators were certainly aware of the fact that banks they supervised were targeting African-American communities with these loans. This was their job. So the federal government was complicit in this reverse-redlining in the period leading up to 2008. The result was devastation of middle-class and lower-middle-class African-American communities.

The obligation is under our constitution. If it's a constitutional violation, it's the obligation of our government to fashion a remedy. It's not as though simply saying "we're no longer segregating" creates a situation where segregated families can pick up and move to integrated neighborhoods. But there is an obligation to remedy segregation.

That's the reason why learning this history is important. If people believe that this all happened without government direction, then there is no constitutional obligation to desegregate. It might be a good policy, but there's no obligation.

There are many remedies. For example, Congress could prohibit the use of exclusionary zoning ordinances in suburbs that were segregated and prohibit those ordinances from being enforced until such time the suburb became diverse. That would permit developers to create townhouses and modest apartment buildings or single-family homes in all-white suburbs that currently prohibit all of those things. There are many policies we could follow, but we're not likely to have the political support to develop them without understanding the role of government in creating the segregation in the first place.

About Katie Nodjimbadem

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The Racial Segregation of American Cities Was Anything But Accidental

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smithsonianmag.com It's not surprising to anyone who has lived in or visited a major American metropolitan region that the nation's cities tend to be organized in their own particular racial pattern. In Chicago, it's a north/south divide. In Austin, it's west/east. In some cities, it's a division based around infrastructure, as with Detroit's 8 Mile Road.

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selected by Brian Judd

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subscribe to Fresh Air podcast

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In her book, 'The Sum of Us,' Heather McGhee examines the cost of racial discrimination in the U.S., and draws on a wealth of economic data to make the case that discriminatory laws and practices that target Black people also negatively impact society at large. McGhee says when racial barriers to voting, employment, and housing are broken down, white working people are among the beneficiaries.

Also, John Powers reviews the miniseries 'It's a Sin' about a group of friends in London during the AIDS epidemic.

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In her book, 'The Sum of Us,' Heather McGhee examines the cost of racial discrimination in the U.S., and draws on a wealth of economic data to make the case that discriminatory laws and practices that target Black people also negatively impact society at large.

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https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/index.htm

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Seattle has a unique civil rights history that challenges the way we think about race, civil rights, and the Pacific Northwest. Civil rights movements in Seattle started well before the celebrated struggles in the South in the 1950s and 1960s, and they relied not just on African American activists but also on Filipino Americans, Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans, Jews, Latinos, and Native Americans. They also depended upon the support of some elements of the region's labor movement. From the 1910s through the 1970s, labor and civil rights were linked in complicated ways, with some unions and radical organizations providing critical support to struggles for racial justice, while others stood in the way.

This multi-media web site brings the vital history of Seattle's civil rights movements to life with scores of video oral histories, hundreds of rare photographs, documents, movement histories, and personal biographies, more than 300 pages in all. Based at the University of Washington, the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project is a collaboration between community groups and UW faculty and students. Here is more About the Project, about our contributors, and the project's impact.

Tour the Project

Activist Oral Histories We have interviewed more than 80 civil rights activists. You can watch video excerpts and read short biographies.

Films & Slide Shows Here are short films and powerpoint slide shows that introduce special themes of the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project.

Research Reports These in-depth historical essays explore fascinating issues, incidents, and people. Each is fully illustrated with photos and newspaper articles.

Segregated Seattle Learn about the history of racial segregation in Seattle and check to see whether property in your neighborhood includes restrictive covenants. See What's In Your Deed?

Seattle's Ethnic Press Read about the newspapers that have represented Seattle's communities of color.

Civil Rights Organizations Here are short profiles and links to more information about more than fifty organizations that have participated in struggles for civil rights over the course of the 20th century.

For Teachers Lesson plans, project ideas, powerpoint slide shows, and other materials for high school, college, and middle school classrooms.

Special Sections We have comprehensive reports, oral histories, photo collections, and documents about these movements and organizations:

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Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project

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Seattle has a unique civil rights history that challenges the way we think about race, civil rights, and the Pacific Northwest. Civil rights movements in Seattle started well before the celebrated struggles in the South in the 1950s and 1960s, and they relied not just on African American activists ...

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African Black Culture. Enlightening and informative.

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Trevor Interviews His Grandmother and Brings Back Stories from Soweto | The Daily Show

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Seeing Color w/ Chip & Joanna Gaines + kids- Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man - Ep. 3

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Shared by Sonia Johnson

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Tools For Anti-Racist Teaching | Designing a Path Forward

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Added by Sonia Johnson

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Is "critical race theory" a way of understanding how American racism has shaped public policy, or a divisive discourse that pits people of color against white people? Liberals and conservatives are in sharp disagreement.

In truth, the divides are not nearly as neat as they may seem. The events of the last decade have increased public awareness about things like housing segregation, the impacts of criminal justice policy in the 1990s, and the legacy of enslavement on Black Americans. But there is much less consensus on what the government's role should be in righting these past wrongs. Add children and schooling into the mix and the debate becomes especially volatile.

School boards, superintendents, even principals and teachers are already facing questions about critical race theory, and there are significant disagreements even among experts about its precise definition as well as how its tenets should inform K-12 policy and practice. This explainer is meant only as a starting point to help educators grasp core aspects of the current debate.

Just what is critical race theory anyway?

Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.

The basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, among others.

A good example is when, in the 1930s, government officials literally drew lines around areas deemed poor financial risks, often explicitly due to the racial composition of inhabitants. Banks subsequently refused to offer mortgages to Black people in those areas.

Today, those same patterns of discrimination live on through facially race-blind policies, like single-family zoning that prevents the building of affordable housing in advantaged, majority-white neighborhoods and, thus, stymies racial desegregation efforts.

CRT also has ties to other intellectual currents, including the work of sociologists and literary theorists who studied links between political power, social organization, and language. And its ideas have since informed other fields, like the humanities, the social sciences, and teacher education.

This academic understanding of critical race theory differs from representation in recent popular books and, especially, from its portrayal by critics-often, though not exclusively, conservative Republicans. Critics charge that the theory leads to negative dynamics, such as a focus on group identity over universal, shared traits; divides people into "oppressed" and "oppressor" groups; and urges intolerance.

Thus, there is a good deal of confusion over what CRT means, as well as its relationship to other terms, like "anti-racism" and "social justice," with which it is often conflated.

To an extent, the term "critical race theory" is now cited as the basis of all diversity and inclusion efforts regardless of how much it's actually informed those programs.

One conservative organization, the Heritage Foundation, recently attributed a whole host of issues to CRT, including the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, LGBTQ clubs in schools, diversity training in federal agencies and organizations, California's recent ethnic studies model curriculum, the free-speech debate on college campuses, and alternatives to exclusionary discipline-such as the Promise program in Broward County, Fla., that some parents blame for the Parkland school shootings. "When followed to its logical conclusion, CRT is destructive and rejects the fundamental ideas on which our constitutional republic is based," the organization claimed.

(A good parallel here is how popular ideas of the common core learning standards grew to encompass far more than what those standards said on paper.)

Does critical race theory say all white people are racist? Isn't that racist, too?

The theory says that racism is part of everyday life, so people-white or nonwhite-who don't intend to be racist can nevertheless make choices that fuel racism.

Some critics claim that the theory advocates discriminating against white people in order to achieve equity. They mainly aim those accusations at theorists who advocate for policies that explicitly take race into account. (The writer Ibram X. Kendi, whose recent popular book How to Be An Antiracist suggests that discrimination that creates equity can be considered anti-racist, is often cited in this context.)

Fundamentally, though, the disagreement springs from different conceptions of racism. CRT puts an emphasis on outcomes, not merely on individuals' own beliefs, and it calls on these outcomes to be examined and rectified. Among lawyers, teachers, policymakers, and the general public, there are many disagreements about how precisely to do those things, and to what extent race should be explicitly appealed to or referred to in the process.

All these different ideas grow out of longstanding, tenacious intellectual debates. Critical race theory emerged out of postmodernist thought, which tends to be skeptical of the idea of universal values, objective knowledge, individual merit, Enlightenment rationalism, and liberalism-tenets that conservatives tend to hold dear.

What does any of this have to do with K-12 education?

Scholars who study critical race theory in education look at how policies and practices in K-12 education contribute to persistent racial inequalities in education, and advocate for ways to change them. Among the topics they've studied: racially segregated schools, the underfunding of majority-Black and Latino school districts, disproportionate disciplining of Black students, barriers to gifted programs and selective-admission high schools, and curricula that reinforce racist ideas.

Critical race theory is not a synonym for culturally relevant teaching, which emerged in the 1990s. This teaching approach seeks to affirm students' ethnic and racial backgrounds and is intellectually rigorous. But it's related in that one of its aims is to help students identify and critique the causes of social inequality in their own lives.

Many educators support, to one degree or another, culturally relevant teaching and other strategies to make schools feel safe and supportive for Black students and other underserved populations. (Students of color make up the majority of school-aged children.) But they don't necessarily identify these activities as CRT-related.

As one teacher-educator put it: "The way we usually see any of this in a classroom is: 'Have I thought about how my Black kids feel? And made a space for them, so that they can be successful?' That is the level I think it stays at, for most teachers." Like others interviewed for this explainer, the teacher-educator did not want to be named out of fear of online harassment.

An emerging subtext among some critics is that curricular excellence can't coexist alongside culturally responsive teaching or anti-racist work. Their argument goes that efforts to change grading practices or make the curriculum less Eurocentric will ultimately harm Black students, or hold them to a less high standard.

As with CRT in general, its popular representation in schools has been far less nuanced. A recent poll by the advocacy group Parents Defending Education claimed some schools were teaching that "white people are inherently privileged, while Black and other people of color are inherently oppressed and victimized"; that "achieving racial justice and equality between racial groups requires discriminating against people based on their whiteness"; and that "the United States was founded on racism."

Thus much of the current debate appears to spring not from the academic texts, but from fear among critics that students-especially white students-will be exposed to supposedly damaging or self-demoralizing ideas.

While some district officials have issued mission statements, resolutions, or spoken about changes in their policies using some of the discourse of CRT, it's not clear to what degree educators are explicitly teaching the concepts, or even using curriculum materials or other methods that implicitly draw on them. For one thing, scholars say, much scholarship on CRT is written in academic language or published in journals not easily accessible to K-12 teachers.

What is going on with these proposals to ban critical race theory in schools?

The bills are so vaguely written that it's unclear what they will affirmatively cover.

Could a teacher who wants to talk about a factual instance of state-sponsored racism-like the establishment of Jim Crow, the series of laws that prevented Black Americans from voting or holding office and separated them from white people in public spaces-be considered in violation of these laws?

It's also unclear whether these new bills are constitutional, or whether they impermissibly restrict free speech.

It would be extremely difficult, in any case, to police what goes on inside hundreds of thousands of classrooms. But social studies educators fear that such laws could have a chilling effect on teachers who might self-censor their own lessons out of concern for parent or administrator complaints.

The laws could also become a tool to attack other pieces of the curriculum, including ethnic studies and "action civics"-an approach to civics education that asks students to research local civic problems and propose solutions.

How is this related to other debates over what's taught in the classroom amid K-12 culture wars?

The charge that schools are indoctrinating students in a harmful theory or political mindset is a longstanding one, historians note. CRT appears to be the latest salvo in this ongoing debate.

In history, the debates have focused on the balance among patriotism and American exceptionalism, on one hand, and the country's history of exclusion and violence towards Indigenous people and the enslavement of African Americans on the other-between its ideals and its practices. Those tensions led to the implosion of a 1994 attempt to set national history standards.

The culture wars are always, at some level, battled out within schools, historians say.

"It's because they're nervous about broad social things, but they're talking in the language of school and school curriculum," said one historian of education. "That's the vocabulary, but the actual grammar is anxiety about shifting social power relations."

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What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is It Under Attack?

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Here's what you need to understand about the academic concept-and how it's portrayed in political circles.

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Very Informative Article.  Sourced by Sonia Johnson

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How to Promote Racial Equity in the Workplace

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Many White people deny the existence of racism against people of color because they assume that racism is defined by deliberate actions motivated by malice and hatred. However, racism can occur without conscious awareness or intent. When defined simply as differential evaluation or treatment based s…

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Book: What Happened to You? by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce Perry, PhD

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Book: What Happened to You? by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce Perry, PhD

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Amazing book about the impact of trauma on the neurological pathways in a developing brain!

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To celebrate the release of their new co-authored book, What Happened To You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing, Oprah and psychiatrist Bruce Perry connected for a virtual conversation about their collaboration, which offers insight into how childhood trauma impacts your life into adulthood.

In exclusive clips for Oprah Daily, Dr. Perry reflects on eight of Oprah's favorite quotes from the book. From Saturday April 24 until May 1, you can check in here for a new daily insight into revelations Oprah would like to share exclusively with Oprah Insiders. And if you'd like even more insight, Oprah's virtual book tour begins on April 27 through May 3, set to welcome guests like Gayle King, Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell, and Rob Lowe. Learn more at WhatHappenedToYouBook.com.

What Happened to You? is available beginning April 27.

Saturday, May 1
Quote of the Day: "Good relationships are the key to healing."
Friday, April 30

Quote of the Day: "What attention, nurturing touch, reassurance-what love didn't you get?...Neglect is as toxic as trauma."

Bruce Perry's Reflections: " All of these systems in our brain that allow us to think, feel, move, be creative, be productive, be connected, they all require a certain degree of stimulation in order to organize normally. So nobody would expect somebody to speak Russian if they never heard Russian. Nobody would expect somebody to play piano if they never had the opportunity to get on the keyboard and practice. So it's the same way with every other brain mediated capability, including the ability to care for others. The ability to love. If you've never been loved, you don't have the machinery to love other people."
Quote of the Day: "All of us tend to gravitate to the familiar, even when the familiar is unhealthy or destructive. We are drawn to what we were raised with."
Thursday, April 29
Quote of the Day: "When someone is speaking from the space of anger or fear you can't reach them with reason."
Bruce Perry's Reflections: "The gift of the human brain's malleability-its adaptability-is that it's designed to take in the world early in life and then turn on and organize the systems that will theoretically help you survive best in that world. And so when that world in early life is dramatically different than the world that you're asked to go to school in or go work in, your brain is gonna have a different organization. And it will feel uncomfortable and unfamiliar, so what you will do is you will try to illicit from the world a predictable response. If you're work space is consistent, predictable nurturing, but your history has been chaos, and you're familiar with that, you'll start to do things that are provocative. Either unconsciously or consciously, and you'll sabotage your job."
Quote of the Day: "Connectedness has the power to counterbalance adversity."
Wednesday, April 28
Quote of the Day: "When children don't feel respected by the decisions of their parents, their beliefs about how they are valued are crushed."
Bruce Perry's Reflections: "The brain's organized in a hierarchal way. So there's a bottom, a middle, and a top. And the top part of the brain is where all your thinking sits. Where your speech and language comes from, and your ability to reflect on the past and think about the future, and be creative. But in order to get to that top part of the brain, you have to go through the bottom and middle parts of the brain, which are exquisitely sensitive to the emotional climate. So if there is a sense of anger, frustration, fear, that is being projected by the person you're interacting with, anything they say or do will be short circuited before it can get to the thinking part of the brain."
Quote of the Day: "We elicit from the world what we project into the world; but what you project is based upon what happened to you as a child."
Tuesday, April 27
Quote of the Day: "Each of us creates a unique worldview shaped by our life's experiences."
Bruce Perry's Reflections: "Human beings are social creatures, and because of that, we are neurologically designed to be in relationships with other people. When you see another person and they send a signal that you belong, or they smile and give you a gentle touch, that literally changes the physiology of your brain and body in ways that lead to a more regulated stress response system, healthier heart, healthier lungs, and literally it will influence your physical and mental health."

Monday, April 26

Bruce Perry's Reflections: "The developing child really is using the parent's input as a filter to make sense out of the world, and indirectly to make sense out of who they are in this world. If a parent either is ignoring or disrespecting the behaviors, the wishes, the desires of the child, pretty soon they begin to think they're invisible. That they don't matter. That their thoughts, their feelings, are not as important as the thoughts and feelings of other people."

Sunday, April 25

Bruce Perry's Reflections: "One of the amazing qualities of the human brain is that it begins to anticipate what is going on in the world around you. And so it really has certain expectations based upon your previous experiences. So if you have a world view that people are unsafe and you go into a classroom, your brain is basically going to be scanning for evidence that that's true. It's going to be ignoring the fact that that teacher is kind. It's going to be ignoring the fact that the teacher tried to engage you and teach you, but it will focus on the fact that the teacher raised their voice when you handed in your homework late."

Saturday, April 24

Bruce Perry's Reflections:" The human brain is a meaning making machine. It gets information through our senses and as you develop, it starts to integrate and organize sights, and sounds, and smells so that you create a unified image and representation of the world you live in. And that process is very much front loaded. So early in life, the experiences that you have are most influential in shaping that world view.

So if you have consistent, predictable, nurturing caregiving, your brain starts to feel that the world is safe-that people are kind and trustworthy. On the other hand, if you have inconsistent, unpredictable, chaotic interactions with the people who are caring for you, your brain starts to view the world as an unsafe place. In that situation, it starts to create a whole set of protective adaptations that will in the moment be appropriate for the infant. But as you get older be maladaptive for the developing child and adult."

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Oprah and Bruce Perry Talk Good Relationships

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To celebrate the release of their new co-authored book, What Happened To You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing , Oprah and psychiatrist Bruce Perry connected for a virtual conversation about their collaboration, which offers insight into how childhood trauma impacts your life into adulthood.

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Makes a good case for why all our work needs to be done in an accessible way.

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I'm an artist first. But I decided long ago that my art would be in the service of fighting oppression.

Since then, I've waded more deeply into social justice spaces, and I find myself surrounded more and more by people professing these same aspirations.

Being in these spaces has been therapeutic in so many ways and has created some of the best support systems I could ask for.

It's comforting not to have to constantly explain yourself and your work. It's beautiful to learn from and be around folks who understand ideas like microaggressions, gaslighting, white fragility, and all the other odd terms that describe the myriad, important, and insidious ways oppression operates.
But some of those ways are too insidious to recognize even within these spaces. Some are, in fact, unique to these spaces. Some oppressions are fostered by the very things supposedly set up to help justice spaces thrive. Inadvertently, they create power structures mirroring those they're working to address.
Being in these spaces for a while now, I've noticed that I've been increasingly receiving feedback that my writing is inaccessible. I dismissed a lot of this critique on the basis that I am, at my core, a big idea and theory girl. My way of communicating isn't supposed to be meant for everyone.

But that became a more difficult excuse to embrace once I noticed these concerns coming even from those who generally embrace theoreticals.

So when I read Kai Cheng Thom's piece "9 Ways We Can Make Social Justice Movements Less Elitist and More Accessible," I understood how many of the things she listed were problems.

But it took me a while to piece together how so much of what I learned and embraced in these spaces would inevitably lead to those problems - like not being able to address certain mistakes or ignoring activist hierarchies.

It seemed clear that some of the items addressed in her piece are based on systems of power that only benefit a select few, just like those systems I have dedicated my life toward eradicating.
I wondered: What if my increasing inaccessibility was proof I was on the road to those same problems? What if it was less about whether or not my big ideas are a problem and more about who those ideas seemed to be for and in service to? What did it mean that I hadn't always found weird academic jargon comforting, even while theorizing, but I do now?
Being someone who often thinks and writes academically, I needed space to engage with the issues important to me in a way that made sense for me.

Activist spaces provided room to flesh out big theories and concepts, but many also implicitly prioritized those things. Often being set up for and by other people like me, these spaces sometimes benefited us to the detriment of everyone else.

So I started vigilant observation for any problematic behavior I felt encouraged to take part in simply by being among people (like me) who would benefit from it.

And in doing so, I recognized ten patterns that demonstrate how activist spaces can inconspicuously feed elitism and inaccessibility.

1. "Punching Down" More Than "Punching Up"

In social justice spaces, we're rightly encouraged to address oppressive words and deeds when we can. A lot of folks criticize the veracity of what often translates into call-outs, and push for " calling in " instead, but I think a more telling problem of call-out culture is the predictability of who gets the worst of it.

Personally, I think there's a time and place for calling out that's ignored with a blanket call for more polite responses to violence.

But one of the first things I noticed was that it was far easier to call out folks with no standing and power in social justice communities for their oppressive words and deeds than it was to criticize those with it.

We're supposed to hold people accountable, but holding accountable those with no standing is the least daunting and dangerous and therefore much more inviting.
Conversely, I've seen folks turn the other way when abusive behavior is committed by activists with standing. This especially happens when that standing directly influences the position of the person who has the opportunity to address the situation.
This reinforces a system of giving power to those who can shore up invincibility through their resume, which is necessarily those with access to build a resume in the first place.

The flipside of this is that people with standing are often targeted by those who may be jealous of them, and famous figures are many times not treated as real people with feelings.

This isn't to say that calling out those with a following is always rooted in baseless negativity any more than calling out those without is rooted in upholding the power of fame. It's just to say that both can influence us if we're not careful.

If we're serious about the fact that oppression has no place anywhere, we should be as eager to address it everywhere it occurs.

2. Only Acknowledging the Work of Those with Stature

When I wrote one of my first pieces on my gender journey, I naturally used a quote from Judith Butler about gender realities.

Regarded as one of the foremost queer theorists, it made sense to use her words to explore my queer complexities.

Or did it?

I'd had many conversations, particularly with gender non-conforming, non-binary, and trans folks, that pointed to the same truths Butler describes. I'd read many words, mostly from people of color, that explained the same things, often much more accurately to how my journey was racialized.

And, of course, Butler is nearly universally incomprehensible. Reading a quote of hers is like being smacked upside the brain with Encyclopedia Britannica. It's an act of violence.

And yet, I quoted her because of her stature as one of the most famous and influential queer theorists.
Social justice spaces encourage you to give credit to those who paved the way, which is commendable. But those who paved the way are only those who had access and a platform to do so.
We should give credit where credit is due, but also recognize that there are many unnamed people whose lives and experiences are used in order for ways to get paved.

People were living Butler's theories well before she put convoluted (if profound) words to their lives.

Give them credit, too. They deserve it just as much, if not more.

3. Using Academic Language When No One Understands It

When I discover new language or concepts that describe complex ideas, it excites me. This is because we learn in social justice spaces that part of the struggle in dealing with oppression is that we don't always have the language to describe what we're experiencing.

But what good is having this language if those who experience what's being described the most can't engage, too?
This isn't to say that academic language can't be grasped by folks who aren't academics (I'm not an academic). But there are other ways of using language that is just as fluid, just as powerful and necessary to communities that never had access to the academy - language that can be used to cover new ideas just as importantly.
If you find academic language necessary or useful in your work, that's okay, too. But not including explanations is a clear indicator of the audience you're catering to.

And while sometimes it's okay to speak specifically to those with access to the academy, if that's all you do, your work might never reach anyone else.

To combat this, what I've found really helpful is thinking about how I have these conversations with family members who aren't familiar with social justice lingo. They seem to understand what I'm talking about, sometimes better than the people who read my work, and that says something.

Ask yourself: How am I expressing myself differently to them than in my writing, and why?

4. Immediately Using Newly Learned Concepts to Criticize Others

As I mentioned, I love discovering new terms to describe concepts that I've experienced, but may not have known how to articulate. A lot of times it's like finding a light switch after stumbling around in the dark.

These spaces offer a lot of lights, but sometimes don't emphasize where you're supposed to go once they're turned on, leading to practices that can be very self-serving.

I'd been frustrated by the workings of neoliberalism for the longest, but until I had a word for it, most of the conversation was taken up just trying to describe what's going on ( it's complicated).

Once I learned a word for the pattern, I started noting how everyone else's work was feeding neoliberalism - performing radicalism for the purposes of gaining social or economic capital without real radical substance.
And maybe some of it was feeding this reality (okay, a lot of it was), but what should have been more important in discovering the term and what it meant was how it could be used to describe all the pressures I felt for my work to be capitalized - not only to use it to criticize those around me.
I could use it to explore the pressures to punch down more than up, to find only those who have standing worth citing, to forget about access in favor of money or other returns. Neoliberalism describes so much of the problems discussed in this piece, and here I am still struggle with them.

And maybe it's always inescapable on some level, but the important part is to try. Using newly learned language immediately to demonize others may indicate a desire to use knowledge to prove superiority, rather than to grow in your work.

And if your work is to liberate folks, this should be the main goal.

5. Rarely Mentioning Class and Disability

Increased engagement with the politics of oppressed identities has complicated our ideas about oppression, helping to explain how it isn't a linear process. At the same time, this type of engagement can very easily give discussions of certain systems of oppression credence and marketability over others.

For example, race and gender conversations dominate so many activist spaces. This would be more or less fine - if we emphasized those at these margins who would necessarily also have other identities as well (like gender non-conforming Indigenous people with disabilities, for example).

But even "inclusive" spaces that claim to be intersectional have a habit of just tacking on other identities that are rarely acknowledged, especially disability, to their mission statements without actively engaging with the issues specific to those communities.
This comes from the encouragement to deal with multiple issues at once, which is great. But the problem comes when we're not actually being given the tools to tackle them.
I can't write on physical disabilities from a first-person perspective because I have none, but I can go out and seek writers and artists who have that experience if I'm serious about including them in my work. At the very least, I can consider how disability affects the issues I'm engaging with at the time.

I point out economic conditions and disability specifically because they explicitly bar entire populations from physical spaces - and if we aren't addressing those forms of oppression, they're probably barring those populations from our work as well.

6. Spending Little Time Engaging with the Communities Your Work Is Intended to Serve

Recently, a good friend gave a talk on sexual violence that had no way to be viewed without going to the place where the talk was being held.

Important to the discussion of sexual violence, though, is that many folks who experience it don't have the ability to "leave" a place, being that most violence is at the hand of someone close to them who may have control over their whereabouts.

My friend is more committed to work around sexual violence than anyone I know, but the pressures to forget to consider these factors are intense in these spaces where more presentations, more publications, and more panels give a person more of a platform.

And that platform, which provides more money, might actually be necessary to survive when you're not making it anywhere else.
It may not always be possible to provide access to everyone. But at the very least, we should consider these things and push for more access whenever we can.
Without regularly engaging with all of those affected by our work, it's easy to patronize and miss when the needs of communities evolve (and they constantly do).

If they aren't there (or, importantly, you aren't in their communities), you're not receiving the feedback necessary to inform your work.

7. Using Your Resume Instead of Addressing Criticisms

When you've worked in an area for a while, like many of us in these spaces, it's easy to believe you know all there is to know about the topic.

In truth, I probably do know more than the average person about race, gender, and sexuality - but I can never know everything (or I wouldn't still be reading, studying, and going to talks).
But the understanding that we know more can give folks who have had the access and opportunity to build a resume the feeling of invulnerability if we are not careful.
I remember once, in response to someone's critiques on a post of mine, posting more links to my work. I told myself that I did this because I didn't feel like re-explaining, but what if it was more (or at least also) because I felt like I didn't have to explain? That I was above it?

It turns out the other person was digging much deeper than what I'd covered before, and thankfully, they were graceful enough not to be put off by my display of arrogant untouchability - and I ended up learning something new.

But feelings and assertions of invulnerability against critique is usually a telltale sign of oppressive spaces.

8. Monetizing Everything You Do

This is tricky. Obviously I want to get paid for my work - and I believe that others should, too.

Being in these spaces with others who recognize the value of this work encourages us to demand others recognize it, too. Writing and other activist pursuits takes time, skill, and is emotionally expensive.
But when monetary payment is the primary concern in every situation, those who can't economically compensate don't get access.
We should all be compensated for labor, but if we're serious about addressing the ills of capitalism, we need to also look at less capitalistic forms of assessing compensation.

It might be worth it to parse out those who deserve to give us financial compensation (capitalist institutions) from those who may not (everyday economically disenfranchised people), and see what else, if anything, might be more appropriate payment.

Can people reciprocate with time? a trade of skills? some form of advertisement?

9. But Not Compensating Others for the Work They Contribute to Your Projects

I wouldn't have the connections and opportunities to make money writing, speaking, and teaching were it not for all of the amazing writers who have helped me build a platform in RaceBaitR.

For the longest time, I wasn't paying for contributions. I make no money from the site itself, after all, and it has a relatively tiny audience. For many of us doing this work, it can be fruitless, and if we do make anything, it's barely enough to get by.

But that site was listed on resumes and bios that got me paying gigs - and so it made no sense to continue asking folks to write for free.

This isn't a call for everyone with a blog to pay people when your site only nets a couple thousand views a month.

But compensation doesn't have to look like money. Many people who published me and couldn't offer monetary compensation, for example, worked hard to get my name and work out there in ways that paid back tenfold.
But if you're profiting off of the labor of others and not sharing those profits in any way (or only in a very limited way), you're participating in an oppressive labor system.
When people with platforms take without giving back, they're setting up a power structure that's for the benefit of those with platform and no one else.

It's easy to forget this when we're still struggling to get by, which so many of us are forced to do once we commit to this work.

10. Doing Work with Institutions That Have Explicitly Worked Against Your Causes

Many institutions that have no real interest in social justice will offer enticing opportunities to those considered activists for their own malicious purposes (to satisfy diversity concerns, for the appearance of philanthropy, or because they truly are interested in justice for some, but not all).
These are often institutions with money that we might need, being as it's hard to make money in these fields, and they may pad that resume which benefits us so much. But sometimes it's not worth the cost.
Transgender activist and writer Janet Mock recently experienced this when she pulled out of a talk on LGBTQIA+ issues at Brown University Hillel after protestors pointed out what they felt was participation in pinkwashing, the strategy of using the a progressive image around LGBTQIA+ issues to mask Israel's human rights abuses of Palestinians.

Spending a lot of time in these spaces and racking up talks and speaking engagements sometimes obscures what that cost really is. When it becomes routine and its benefits are always salient, the detriments are hard to keep in mind.

I have done all of these things, sometimes often, many even recently, and will likely fall into the trap of doing them again in the future.

But this is part of the reason why my work was sometimes becoming inaccessible. And if these ten experiences apply to you, they may be hindering your work as well.

They truly are traps - designed to be as unavoidable as possible. But my hope is that awareness helps us keep ourselves and each other accountable so that we can continue doing what we've dedicated our work to do.
Hari Ziyad is a Contributing Writer for Everyday Feminism and a Brooklyn-based storyteller. They are the Editor in Chief of RaceBaitR, a space dedicated to imagining and working toward a world outside of the white supremacist cisheteropatriarchal capitalistic gaze, and their work has been featured on Gawker, The Guardian, Out, Ebony, Mic, Colorlines, Paste Magazine, Black Girl Dangerous, Young Colored and Angry, The Feminist Wire, and The Each Other Project. They are also an assistant editor for Vinyl Poetry & Prose. You can find them (mostly) ignoring racists on Twitter @RaceBaitR and Facebook. [Feature Image: A black and white image of a person with brown skin and medium-length dark curly hair sitting on a couch indoors. They are staring straight ahead while resting on the couch. Source: Flickr.com/J]
TBINAA is an independent, queer, Black woman run digital media and education organization promoting radical self love as the foundation for a more just, equitable and compassionate world. If you believe in our mission, please contribute to this necessary work at PRESSPATRON.com/TBINAA

We can't do this work without you!

As a thank you gift, supporters who contribute $10+ (monthly) will receive a copy of our ebook, Shed Every Lie: Black and Brown Femmes on Healing As Liberation. Supporters contributing $20+ (monthly) will receive a copy of founder Sonya Renee Taylor's book, The Body is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self Love delivered to your home.

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10 Ways Your Social Justice Work Might Be Inaccessible and Elitist (And Why That's a Problem)

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I'm an artist first. But I decided long ago that my art would be in the service of fighting oppression. Since then, I've waded more deeply into social justice spaces, and I find myself surrounded more and more by people professing these same aspirations.

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In the vocabulary of ethnicity, some designations are obvious. African Americans are of African descent; Latinos have Latin American roots. But what about Caucasians? If a Native American told a Caucasian to "go back where you came from," where would that person go?

Geographically, Caucasia is a region of Russia, a place from which few white Americans come. Yet the term Caucasian remains in wide use as a synonym for a white person.

The classification dates back to 1795, when Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, a respected German physician and anthropologist, conducted research in which he measured skulls, a then-common practice for comparing disparate human groups.

His views on race were complicated. While studying a female skull from the Caucasus region, he was struck by its symmetry and fine features, describing it as "handsome and becoming." He believed the white race was the most beautiful human type - a common Enlightenment belief shared by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin - and he made a logical leap. If the white race was the most beautiful, and this was the most beautiful skull, then its place of origin - the Caucasus Mountains - must be the birthplace of the white race: hence, the term Caucasians.

Blumenbach's ideas were a reflection of the unconscious bias and white racial pride of his era, and when he created the first racial schema of five races, he placed Caucasians at the apex. Yet in some ways he was surprisingly progressive. He believed in "the unity of humankind," arguing that individual members of all groups had equal capacity for intelligence, creativity and organization. In fact, he was often mocked by his fellow scientists for his generous views of equality regarding nonwhite groups.

Blumenbach also correctly hypothesized that humans of all races descended from a common ancestor (monogeny) rather than from multiple origins (polygeny), a key debate of his time. The geography of human origin, of course, he got wrong. The overwhelming majority of scientific findings since Blumenbach's time - DNA, the fossil record, the human genome - point to humankind emerging from Africa.

In the years following Blumenbach's suppositions, they came to be widely cited as proof of white racial superiority, especially in the young republic of the United States. Over the next century, scholars gave scientific cover to the idea that racial groups had distinctive genetic character traits. The new American nation absorbed Blumenbach's racial theories, and they remain ingrained in our legal history, racial ideology and national identity.

Europeans today rarely invoke Caucasian as an ethnic identity, so why do Americans? Here's my simple theory: Being Caucasian provides white Americans with an origin myth. Since there is no official "White Land," to say "I'm Caucasian" has the mystical ring of geography to it. The word "Caucasian" functions as an almost magical word referring to a distant, unknown land from whence white people come. The myth also had a key historical function for white ethnics: During the heavy immigration through Ellis Island, groups then considered racially distinctive - Jews, Italians, Syrians - could invoke Caucasian as a racial identity and thereby downplay ethnic differences.

The story of our current usage of Caucasian is one of myth living on in defiance of science. Using the term Caucasian is no more scientific than, say, calling people of short stature Hobbits - another fictional race with European origins.

Language matters: To stop using the word Caucasian would be a first step toward undoing our attachment to color-coding humankind, something that has been at the root of at least 300 years of identity and ideology. As the U.S. continues to grapple with race and racism, it's time for the nation, its police officers and its media to stop being complicit in using a term based on a discredited 18th century theory rooted in false notions of white racial superiority.
Joel Dinerstein is an English professor at Tulane University and the author of two books on race, music and culture.

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Opinion: The pernicious myth of a Caucasian race

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In the vocabulary of ethnicity, some designations are obvious. African Americans are of African descent; Latinos have Latin American roots. But what about Caucasians? If a Native American told a Caucasian to "go back where you came from," where would that person go?

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Quick Reads to help become a better Ally and also to create your personal brand at work.

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Quick Reads to help become a better Ally and also to create your personal brand at work.

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1. Polite White Supremacy Culture

Article: What is Polite White Supremacy Culture? Ingredients for #pwsc to occur = comfort, confidentiality, control. It is so subtle it's hard to identify especially at work.

https://medium.com/@YawoBrown/the-subtle-linguistics-of-polite-white-supremacy-3f83c907ffff

2. Ostracism: exclusion from a society or group. Video of effects With of Ostracism https://youtu.be/NURy5t_Oh4w

3. Personal Brand videos listed below:

What your brand says about you

https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=c0da885f-9f41b0bb-c0daa0ef-8621b744bf41-b80e886beab9558a&q=1&e=544bda68-c950-4e8d-8f3d-5a27868356d5&u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FMUHQVsOnKbw

Creating your personal brand

https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=fb876da7-a41c54b8-fb874517-8630ffab37ab-cdf5e4717139bffb&q=1&e=d76800ed-c089-4b6a-806a-bb41aed901e8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FIx2W1m6ZuR4

Rebuilding your personal brand https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=5d4d23be-02d61b5a-5d4d0b0e-8621b744bf41-a35970781191e1ee&q=1&e=e1a96aba-dec4-4456-bbd1-8ba24a76c10e&u=https%3A%2F%2Ftransformleaders.tv%2Ffive-steps-to-rebuild-your-personal-brand%2F

List of Racial Equity Tools https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=e97b57d0-b6e06ee7-e97b7f60-86ab8bdaf1e2-f23846924cb3bb70&q=1&e=8bce1ccd-87d2-4b8a-b642-3962d2dab834&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.racialequitytools.org%2Fresources%2Ffundamentals%2Fcore-concepts%2Fsystem-of-white-supremacy-and-white-privilege

To aid in accountability, curiosity, and understanding.

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Article about building relationships at work.

Article:https://www.vensure.com/human-resources/building-good-relationships-work-benefits-everyone/#:~:text=Why%20Are%20Good%20Relationships%20So,according%20to%20the%20Gallup%20study

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Colorism and anti-Blackness in Hollywood and Latinx communities in light of the controversy sparked around the film release of “In The Heights.”

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Maria and Julio are joined by Alexa Muñoz, a teacher and translator based in Washington Heights, and Dr. Jessica Marie Johnson, assistant professor in the department of history at Johns Hopkins University. They dive into a conversation about colorism and anti-Blackness in Hollywood and Latinx communities in light of the controversy sparked around the film release of "In The Heights." They also unpack the notion of Latinidad and what it means to push back against internalized white supremacy.
ITT Staff Picks:

In this 2019 piece for The Nation, Miguel Salazar interviews a group of journalists, organizers, and thinkers about pushback against the concept of Latinidad.

Nili Blanck writes about the immigrant and Dominican history of Washington Heights, the neighborhood behind "In The Heights," for Smithsonian Magazine.

"The truth is there can be no Latino representation without Afro-Latinos. There is no story of Washington Heights without Black people and Afro-Dominicans of all shades," writes Natasha S. Alford in this piece for CNN.

Photo credit: Warner Bros. via AP

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A flood. A wave. A surge. What's happening at the U.S.-Mexico border is none of those things, but you wouldn't know it from watching or reading some of the coverage in U.S. media. In recent weeks, the phrases "surge of migrants," "migrant surge," "the surge," "surge at border" and other variations have all appeared in...

We host a wide-ranging discussion of the historic inauguration of President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris - the first-ever woman, South Asian and Black vice president - how we got here, and what comes next, with award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa and author and Harvard professor Cornel West. Hinojosa says she had "mixed emotions" watching the...

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with journalist Maria Hinojosa and Texas immigration attorney Efrén Olivares about the Trump administration's imprint on immigration policy.

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Maria and Julio are joined by Alexa Muñoz, a teacher and translator based in Washington Heights, and Dr. Jessica Marie Johnson, assistant professor in the department of history at Johns Hopkins University. They dive into a conversation about colorism a...

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Exploring Relational Cultural Theory with Maureen Walker: Power, Race, and RCT

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Exploring Relational Cultural Theory with Maureen Walker: Power, Race, and RCT

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"The source of most human suffering is chronic disconnection"

From a teaching perspective, but also very relevant from a management perspective

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Exploring Relational Cultural Theory with Maureen Walker: Power, Race, and RCT

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What are your strengths and how they can be used within the Anti-Racist revolution

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What are your strengths and how they can be used within the Anti-Racist revolution

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Mount Olivet Conference and Retreat Center

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Theresa F. Latini

Nearly two weeks ago, George Floyd died as a Minneapolis city police officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Many of us living in the Twin Cities and all around the world have watched the video of his murder. We have heard his desperate final cries, "Please I can't breathe." Cries that went heartlessly unheeded in those moments. Cries that then compelled people around the world to protest a long history of police brutality against people of color in the United States.

Demands for reform continue because entrenched systemic racism is woven deeply into our country. This racism is at odds with the very values of liberty and justice espoused in our founding documents. Even more so, it contradicts the most basic claim of Christian faith that all people are created in God's image; the visions of shalom (wholeness and wellbeing) and koinonia (union and communion with one another and God) that stretch throughout the entire Christian scripture; and, the persistent call to compassion and justice for those who are vulnerable, marginalized, despised, forgotten and rendered invisible.

Given all this, many of us may be asking the question, what can I do right now to make a difference in my home, my work, my church, my community and beyond? How can I be faithful and do my part in dismantling racism? There are numerous news articles that list concrete actions to take, like this one, " 100 ways you can take action against racism right now. " Imagine what we might accomplish if we all chose one of these actions each day.

Another approach comes from Deepa Iyer who has mapped the many roles needed in the work of justice, healing, and reconciliation. Her map reflects a diversity of skills, insights, perspectives, and ways of being in relationship to other persons and organizations. We've seen so many of these people with distinct roles and gifts in the news every day, and that has given me much hope and reminded me of the beauty of humanity in the midst of trauma writ large.

Weavers see through-lines of connectivity between people, places, organizations, ideas, and movements.

Experimenters innovate, pioneer, and invent. They take risks and course-correct as needed.

Frontline Responders address community crises by marshaling and organizing resources, networks, and messages.

Visionaries imagine and generate our boldest possibilities, hopes and dreams, and remind us of our direction.

Builders develop, organize, and implement ideas, practices, people, and resources in service of a collective vision.

Caregivers nurture and nourish the people around me by creating and sustaining a community of care, joy, and connection.

Disruptors take uncomfortable and risky actions to shake up the status quo, to raise awareness, and to build power.

Healers recognize and tend to the generational and current traumas caused by oppressive systems, institutions, policies, and practices.

Storytellers craft and share community stories, cultures, experiences, histories, and possibilities through art, music, media, and movement.

Guides teach, counsel, and advise, using their gifts of well-earned discernment and wisdom.

If you are wondering what you can do right now to participate in God's ministry of justice and healing, it might help to contemplate these questions in light of this framework of social change:

Who am I? What if any of these roles most fits who I am or what I am trained to do?

How can I carry out this role in my community, my place of work, my home, and elsewhere?

How can what I do (e.g., as a caregiver, nurturer, weaver, disruptor and so forth) confront and transform prejudice, discrimination, and racism?

Who do I need to join in this? What groups and organizations can I accompany in this common work?

Who do I need to listen to and learn from as I do this now? (People of color need to be at the top of this list for all of us who are white.)

As always, we hope you find that the practices of retreat - prayer, meditation, poetry and music, mindfulness, and nature activities - sustain you in this good and necessary work, knowing that God goes before us in all of it.

This week we share a video: Race, Justice and Mindfulness. In it, Rhonda Magee, Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco and author of The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming our Communities through Mindfulness, and Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of mindfulness-based-stress reduction, mindfulness teacher and author, lead a conversation addressing society's pain, inequity and disenfranchisement through the lens and practices of mindfulness, wisdom and compassion.
*Theresa F. Latini, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of Mount Olivet Conference & Retreat Center and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA)

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Finding our Place in an Ecosystem of Social Change

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Theresa F. Latini Nearly two weeks ago, George Floyd died as a Minneapolis city police officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Many of us living in the Twin Cities and all around the world have watched the video of his murder.

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If You Have To Ask If It's Racist, It Probably Is

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If You Have To Ask If It's Racist, It Probably Is

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Resource credit to Kidist Dejene

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CELESTE HEADLEE: A lot of Americans might think they need an interpreter or maybe a referee in discussions about race, especially in the aftermath of racially charged events like the George Zimmerman trial. And leaders, including our president, say that what's called for is a sober, tolerant, patient conversation. But writer Andrew Ti doesn't necessarily see it that way.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "YO, IS THIS RACIST?)

ANDREW TI: You know what, if you don't like hip-hop, [bleep] keep it to yourself.

TED LANGE IV: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

TI: So anyone who says...

LANGE: I see what you're saying.

TI: ...They don't like hip hop...

LANGE: I see what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah.

TI: ...Is racist.

LANGE: Oh, big time.

HEADLEE: That's Andrew Ti and a guest speaking on his "Yo, Is This Racist?" podcast. He's also been writing a Tumblr blog of the same name since late 2011. Andrew Ti joins us now. Andrew, welcome.

TI: Thanks for having me.

HEADLEE: We're going to talk about the blog in just a minute, but let me go back to that clip of tape that we just heard. What exactly is the connection between saying you don't like hip-hop and being racist?

TI: Well, so that was one of those moments where it's not necessarily racist to not like hip-hop, but it's one of those things where you notice that the people who most vociferously talk about it tend to ultimately be doing it for maybe coded, and maybe not sort of overtly hateful reasons, but it tends to always be for racist reasons.

HEADLEE: Oh, I see.

TI: In my experience.

HEADLEE: So the difference here isn't whether you like hip-hop or not, it's...

TI: Right.

HEADLEE: ...whether you don't like it and don't feel the need to talk about, and those who need to really, really talk about how much they hate it.

TI: Exactly, yeah. Harping about it is, to me, a big red flag.

HEADLEE: OK. But, you know, as we mentioned, a lot of American leaders, including our president, have called for a very quiet, sober discussion about race. And I'm sure you respect that, but you respectfully disagree in some way. Explain your philosophy on racial discussions to me.

TI: Well, to me, I feel like there's no particular need to be polite in this discussion. When someone confronts you with sort of like a racist viewpoint, I just feel like, you know, they're not being censored. It's not a place where those viewpoints aren't being aired in our popular culture and people clearly, on the Internet and Twitter and Tumblr, feel very comfortable airing racist notions. And I think that reacting to them with sort of a small amount of anger or profanity, in my case, is warranted and, in my opinion, acceptable.

HEADLEE: But, you know, they say to a hammer everything looks like a nail. Do you feel like you may be too ready to label things as racist?

TI: You know, I do a little bit, but what I do on my blog and podcast, to some degree, is I am, you know, curating and having a discussion that is not a two-way street. And so in the face of a lot of accepting and a lot of equivocating on whether things are racist, you know, I'm just one voice saying, yes, this is racist. And I feel like my track record is pretty good.

HEADLEE: Well, I mean, obviously something must've really compelled you. I mean, at some point you got so frustrated with the level of discourse that you started this blog in 2011. What was that that kind of pushed you over the edge?

TI: Surprisingly, it was a moment of, you know, relatively fun. It was more - not so much a pushed-me-over-the-edge in anger moment, but it was a eureka moment where I was actually at work talking about Looney Tunes - because that's what you do when you're bored out of your mind at work. And someone brought up the idea that, or just mentioned when Yosemite Sam is engaging in his litany of cartoon swears, "cotton pickin'" is among them.

And it was just one of those moments where I had the eureka moment of, that is a racist thing to say. And it's so sort of sanitized and part of our culture that it isn't even commented upon. And that is the first entry on my blog, if you go back and look. And it is just one of those things where there's so many moments, and so many accepted parts of our culture, that either have a racist origin or have become code words for racism, sort of the hip-hop thing, calling people thugs - that it's so easy to point out. And I thought I could lend my, if not talent for analysis, talent for rhetoric and swearing at the issue.

HEADLEE: So tell me about some of the questions that you get. I mean, with your tone, you must get a certain number of them which are sarcastic...

TI: Sure.

HEADLEE: ...Maybe joking around. But do you actually get people who seriously want to know if something is racist?

TI: You know, I feel like there's a lot of joking around and there're a lot of combative people, but I feel like people know. I think people mostly know. And if they don't know - oftentimes you can tell, sort of by the way the questions are phrased, that these people have an answer that may not be sort of widely socially acceptable or something that puts them in a difficult situation. One of my favorite recurring questions is, why isn't there White Entertainment Television? To which, by the way, my answer is twofold. One is, what exactly would you put on White Entertainment Television, and two, all television is...

HEADLEE: Yeah.

TI: ...Pretty much white television. We used to call it CBS.

HEADLEE: It's the same answer for...

TI: You know.

HEADLEE: ...Why isn't there White History Month, right?

TI: Actually, yeah. On every March, I like to wish my readers happy White History 11 Months, 'cause it's back. But, you know, I think that people mostly know. People mostly know. And, for me, the line between whether someone is sort of redeemable or whether someone is not immediately redeemable and probably will take some work, it's how they react to being told that something, you know - the way I say it is, you're racist, which is really shorthand for, the thing you're doing is racist or unacceptable. And that, I feel like, is a moment that people really show their character.

People either react incredibly badly and defensively, and that's sort of always an interesting moment, because someone who thinks they aren't racist in that situation invariably starts down a line of argument that gets more and more and more racist-sounding, which is telling. Or there are people who, when confronted with this, will apologize, try to learn some more about the situation, think about it, and try to think empathetically. And really, that's the line. And really that's, I think, sort of the litmus test for the people who read my blog is if you feel like, you know, these swears are more of an affront to you than your racist behavior or...

HEADLEE: You're talking about the language that you use, 'cause you're insulting...

TI: Sure.

HEADLEE: ...Often.

TI: I'm quite insulting...

HEADLEE: Yeah.

TI: ...And I'm quite profane. I think we can both agree.

HEADLEE: Absolutely.

TI: But, you know, for me, it's really just, how do you take that? If you don't take it in a spirit of, oh, man, this is something I should look into, then there isn't much of a discussion that we can have.

HEADLEE: So one more for you, and that is that, how do you respond to somebody who might say, yo, you're part of the problem? That when a conversation becomes insulting or profane, that it keeps us from having a real connection from one race to the other.

TI: Well, you know, I feel like there's certainly a possibility of being part of the problem. But if you want to have a discussion with someone who's sort of very nice and going to be very accepting of your racism, frankly, it's possible to have that conversation with all manner of people.

There are people who, you know, sort of the stereotypical NPR listening audience, that is their forte. And I just feel like I'm another option, you know. If you're a young person of color, if you're a young person who is oppressed for any reason, I just want to point out that there's other options, that you don't have to sort of take it.

HEADLEE: We didn't mention you're Chinese-American. But I think that's racist, so I'm not going to.

TI: Sure.

HEADLEE: (Laughing)

TI: Well, you know, the idea obviously that the race discussion is something that you need to be personally offended or affected by, I think is something that divides people. I think it's just one of those things where it shouldn't matter who you are. You know, that's how the man keeps everyone apart.

HEADLEE: Andrew Ti is the creator of "Yo, Is This Racist?," both the Tumblr and the podcast. He joined us from NPR West in Culver City, California. Thanks so much, Andrew.

TI: Thanks. It was fun.

Copyright © 2013 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.

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If You Have To Ask If It's Racist, It Probably Is

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Talking about race can be difficult. But not for Andrew Ti, creator of the Yo, Is This Racist? blog and podcast. He bluntly takes on questions about racial sensitivity. Guest host Celeste Headlee asks Ti if he thinks he's helping or hurting the national conversation.

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"What are relational skills in the workplace?" Article

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"What are relational skills in the workplace?" Article

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Relational work skills is the term used to describe the ways in which professionals interact with each other. Human relational skills go beyond knowledge of business models and professional experience to include personal traits. As with professional skills, relational skills differ from person to person. The skills you possess make you uniquely qualified for work-related tasks and responsibilities.

Patience is a relational work skill that is valuable when it comes to dealing with picky or difficult clients, complex long-term projects or colleagues who are slow and hard to keep on task. Patient employees often are given high-level or sensitive assignments in which a rational and calm approach is necessary.

This type of employee is an asset when it comes to smoothing out differences, mediating disputes and explaining company policies to customers. For example, patience is an essential skill in customer service. Long-winded upset customers are more apt to calm down if they are able to express themselves without interruption.

Trustworthy employees are an invaluable asset to employers, who not only feel comfortable with the individual's honesty and ethical values but believe they will do what they say when they say they will do it. These human relational skills are put to use by team leaders, project managers and supervisors. In terms of the value of workplace relational skills, trustworthiness is a trait that can help advance your career goals in a significant way and open the door to leadership roles.

Being able to listen, look at and understand the perspective of others is a valuable relational skill, according to Freemont College. This type of employee is able to put himself in another's position and perform professional responsibilities with that mindset in place. Sensitivity to coworkers' feelings can reduce conflict in the workplace.

Empathy is a trait often desired by employers in the health and human services industries. Social workers and psychologists build trust and rapport with clients by conveying empathy and acceptance. Nurses with empathy can help comfort and reassure anxious patients.

A relational person is kind and offers assistance even before being asked to help out. When people know they can depend on you, you become known as an important team player. Reliability is an important relational skill in every profession.

Reliable and dependable employees show up for work on time, perform duties as assigned and meeting crucial deadlines. Highly relational employees demonstrate that they know that the company's time, and that of their colleagues, is as valuable as their own. They take pride in consistently meeting and exceeding job expectations.

Having the ability to effectively persuade and influence others is a valuable relational workplace skill, particularly as it pertains to sales and marketing positions. Highly relational salespeople have exceptional interpersonal skills, as explained by Mind Tools. They use active listening skills to build rapport. Great salespeople seem to instinctively know what will make a buyer want to buy a particular product.

Relational people can be charming, charismatic and persuasive. This type of skilled negotiator is also good at crafting deals and developing solid contract agreement terms. An influential employee is typically intuitive and able to read people, which is an asset in many professional venues.

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What Are Relational Skills Within the Workplace?

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What Are Relational Skills Within the Workplace?. Relational work skills is the term used to describe the ways in which professionals interact with each other. Relational skills go beyond knowledge of business models and professional experience to include personal traits. As with professional skills, relational skills ...

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Relational Culture Document from SOCR's RSJI Team

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Relational Culture Document from SOCR's RSJI Team

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Podcast Episode, This American Life: LaDonna

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Podcast Episode, This American Life: LaDonna

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A great example of how Human Resources forgets the humanity of employees, and what happens when one employee injects humanity back into training.

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"The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society.

In this groundbreaking work, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of body-centered psychology. He argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. Our collective agony doesn't just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans—our police.

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

This book paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy—how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system. It offers a step-by-step solution—a healing process—in addition to incisive social commentary"

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My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mendi...

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Read 1,020 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endur...

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Trigger Warning: "Human Resources (The Control of Human Behaviorism and Psychology)" YouTube Movie

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Trigger Warning: "Human Resources (The Control of Human Behaviorism and Psychology)" YouTube Movie

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This documentary investigates the origins of Human Resources as a line of business. It is pretty triggering for a multitude of reasons, so please go into this with Self-Care in mind!

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'Human Resources' (The Control of Human Behaviorism and Psychology)

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Me and White Supremacy Workbook by Layla F. Saad

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Me and White Supremacy Workbook by Layla F. Saad

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A great infrastructure for personal, internal investigation into how White Supremacy Culture functions in your life.

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When Layla F. Saad ran a free month-long Instagram challenge during the summer of 2018, she had no idea it would become an international cultural movement.

Thousands of people from around the world were galvanized by the #meandwhitesupremacy challenge, examining and owning responsibility for the ways in which they uphold white supremacy.

Over 80,000 people downloaded her guide to the movement, Me and White Supremacy Workbook in the space of just six months. And now, that guide is a NYT, USA Today, WSJ and Amazon bestseller.

Me and White Supremacy: A 28-Day Challenge to Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor leads readers through a journey of understanding their white privilege and participation in white supremacy, so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on black, indigenous and people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too. The book goes beyond the original workbook by adding more historical and cultural contexts, sharing moving stories and anecdotes, and includes expanded definitions, examples, and further resources.

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Over 80,000 people downloaded her guide to the movement, Me and White Supremacy Workbook in the space of just six months. And now, that guide is a NYT, USA Today, WSJ and Amazon bestseller.

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Own the fight to end systemic racism at work

As with all organizational imperatives, the fight to end systemic racism needs to be led from the top and be informed by your employees, especially women of color who have been historically and systematically marginalized. But as you undertake this work, recognize that the systemic racism we are now grappling with in our national dialogue is NOT new.

Racism has chipped away at Black lives every single day for generations, including those of your Black leaders, colleagues, and staff. Consider the wider context of this moment: the killing of Black people by state-sanctioned racialized violence is unfolding amid a pandemic that is disproportionately impacting Black and Latinx communities. This is all happening because of institutionalized racism and sexism, which governs how we care for people in this country. Now is the moment to reflect deeply, examine your own organization, and speak up and show up for your staff.

Do not be silent in this moment

This is a moment when leaders everywhere need to speak out. If you are unsure what to say, seek guidance from your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lead or outside advocacy groups in developing a message that is authentic to you and your organization.

Don't let fear of saying the wrong thing keep you silent. If you make a mistake, apologize quickly and reiterate your commitment to combatting racial and gender discrimination.

Know that silence can feel like violence for Black communities. Black people across the country are calling on all of us to acknowledge the harm felt by their communities. Saying nothing builds on those acts of violence.

Be humble about where you're starting from and commit to backing up public statements with action. If you have not done this already, now is the time to add anti-racism to your core values and operationalize those values by evaluating all of your policies and decision-making processes through an anti-racist lens.

Don't just signal support. Root out racism at your workplace.

Assess the demographic makeup of your entire staff, at all levels, and up and down the wage scale.

Establish clear goals tied to becoming an anti-racist workplace and attach owners and success metrics to them so that you can track your organization's journey over time.

Apply an intersectional analysis as you seek to understand and improve the experience of your Black staff. Recognize the overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination some of them may face because of their race, gender, sexuality, gender identity, ability, and other critical forms of identity, and center their experiences in this work.

Investigate the effects of your external actions on Black people and people of color, particularly women. How do the products you produce or the policies you lobby for impact Black communities? What you can do through your business to support Black women? The work that your organization does externally is directly connected to your internal culture. It can either build credibility and trust or undermine your stated values.

Put resources towards efforts that actually enhance the lives of Black staff and Black communities. Invest in structural changes that will genuinely benefit communities of color. For example, you can commit to a strategic planning process that centers on anti-racism; hire facilitators that specialize in racial equity and racial healing; or design long-term programs to develop and retain your Black talent. Set significant resources aside for training that effectively teaches people of all races and genders how to combat racist behavior, including unconscious bias and microaggressions.

Hold conversations to bring awareness to racism at work and create genuinely safe spaces where people can share their experiences openly

Hold space for your Black employees to gather and respect their boundaries and wellbeing. This includes creating, funding, and prioritizing Black Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and making time and space, either virtually or in real life, for ERGs to gather, support one another, and raise issues, such as toxic workplace culture, fears of retaliation, and other barriers that prevent clear pathways to career growth and promotions. And while this should be a safe space for your Black employees, communicate that there are channels - including anonymous ones - to address and correct issues raised by your Black ERG.

Lead with empathy. This is likely an exhausting and emotionally trying time for your Black staff. Ensure that they understand paid time off is an available option and that work can be reallocated in the interim. Respect the response you receive and make the offer again at a later time without an expiration date. This is not a time to add additional responsibilities or offload emotional labor onto your Black staff, particularly Black women who may be experiencing additional caregiving responsibilities at home. Encourage managers to ask their Black team members how they want to be supported and to honor whatever they may need, especially if you don't fully relate to their healing process.

Create opportunities for all staff to come together as a group. In addition to holding space for your Black staff to gather, bring your entire staff together to share what they are thinking and feeling, to answer questions or concerns, and to discuss how your organization should evolve to meet the essential demands of this moment. Recognize that every staff member is starting from a different place and that their proximity to and understanding of systemic racism will vary widely. Navigate these complexities by investing in experts and trained facilitators with cautiousness and understanding of these nuances - some of your staff are already consumed by racial injustices while others are only just coming to terms with it. Be prepared to meet each person where they are without tolerating sexist or racist views. Expect to manage and hold space for an array of emotions when you gather. Staff may be sad, angry, anxious, fearful, or a combination of all of these feelings.

Lead the way on anti-racist efforts while learning from your Black colleagues

Like other key priorities, anti-racism efforts should be led from the top, by the leadership team. It is incumbent to educate yourselves independently, as this is self-guided work that you must approach before leading your teams [See Demonstrating Your Leadership]. Be humble about what you don't know and reach out for advice from the experts. Do the work by studying how white supremacy, racial violence, and systemic racism have shaped, and continue to shape, American society. These issues are complex and pervasive. Consider how they shape your workplace and the lives of your employees.

Give voice to Black leadership, colleagues, or employees, but do not lean on them to address these issues; you must own this work. Involve Black staff in these efforts but don't expect them to do the work. Too often, Black staff and staff of color are called upon to help organizations navigate issues regarding race, only to end up shouldering burdens that are not theirs to carry. It is not right or fair to rely on your Black staff to tackle these issues; you must take the lead yourself.

If you're only asking for Black staff to weigh in on issues of race , that's an issue. Give Black staff the option to contribute to your anti-racism work from the expertise of their lived experience and cultural sensitivity, but do not make assumptions about their time, emotional capacity, or interest in contributing. Give them credit, ask for their input, and run decisions by them, but be careful not to tokenize your Black staff.

Encourage and empower everyone to speak out against racist workplace practices and adopt a zero tolerance policy for this behavior. Set up systems that enable and empower your employees to come forward if they confront racist, unsafe, or illegal practices at work. These should cover a range of behaviors, from the most egregious acts to microaggressions that deprive your staff of the dignity they deserve at work. All of your employees, particularly women of color, must feel comfortable shining a light on workplace practices that jeopardize their safety or undermine their dignity.

Make sure you have a whistleblower policy in place that promotes a culture of transparency and accountability and gives staff a concrete way to share their concerns. If you already have a whistleblower policy in place, review it and make sure it meets this moment. If not, work with your legal team to enact one that encourages your staff to unearth problems early and protects them from retaliation. Work with experts and facilitators to outline a clear process that facilitates learning, growth, and correction when incidents arise. Continue to check in with your staff about the processes that are created or revised. In a quickly evolving world, processes may need to be reevaluated or refreshed regularly.

Move into action swiftly to examine and dismantle racist and sexist practices embedded in all business functions

Evaluate the many ways racism shows up in the workplace and how racism harms staff and erodes company culture. A lack of diverse representation at your organization may indicate racism or sexism within your recruiting and hiring practices. And language used in performance evaluations may reveal internal biases that impact pay and promotions.

Remove racism from your recruiting, hiring, and talent management processes and increase Black representation across all levels and departments. If you have paused new hires or are moving more slowly to fill positions, take the time to look for and build a more diverse pool of candidates. And if you are in an industry that is growing and hiring, stay vigilant about protocols that promote the consideration of Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and women, even when you need to staff up quickly. Below are some practical tips for diversifying your talent pool and advancing your Black staff:

Focus your talent pipeline: Recruit candidates from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and minority-serving institutions (MSIs). When recruiting at predominantly white institutions, seek out organizations that represent Black students and other students of color. Build relationships with networks that represent Black and POC emerging leaders. Work with your local high schools and community college systems.

Commit to diversity internship, fellowships and secondment programs and commit a percentage of your internship hires to BIPOC. Consider how to support HBCUs and MSIs outside of recruiting. This could include investing in scholarships or offering financial support to these institutions in other ways.

Overhaul your talent processes to remove racist practices. Conduct a thorough examination of your interview process, your performance management practices, your compensation structures, and your retention and promotion policies. How are these processes failing your Black staff? What additional mentorship and sponsorship can you offer your talent of color to ensure that they are supported at each stage of their career and have the opportunity to reach their fullest potential within your organization?

Examine your company policies related to dress code, including hairstyles and other matters related to appearance to ensure they are not barriers to BIPOC professional and socio-economic advancement. Know that perceptions about what is deemed appropriate are rooted in white supremacy. Learn about how respectability politics has impacted the Black community.

Position the fight to end systemic racism as an ongoing effort that you are committed to in the long run

Becoming an anti-racist organization is not a static achievement; it is life-long work that you and your colleagues must commit to each and every day. Make sure that the goals you set are understood, measurable, and embodied by everyone, and that every member of your team knows what role they play in achieving these goals. Remind everyone that you are building an essential muscle which will grow stronger with effort and time. There is no shortcut to this work; the only way forward is through.

As the author of So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo, says, "You don't need to be free of racism to be an anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it's the only way forward."

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Building an Anti-Racist Workplace - TIME'S UP Foundation

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As with all organizational imperatives, the fight to end systemic racism needs to be led from the top and be informed by your employees, especially women of color who have been historically and systematically marginalized. But as you undertake this work, recognize that the systemic racism we are now grappling with in our national dialogue is NOT new.

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Book: Black and White Styles in Communication

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Book: Black and White Styles in Communication

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Thanks to Thomas Kochman for braving a topic that opens him up to racial criticism. I am finding the book hugely valuable as a South African, even though he clearly addresses US racial issues and doesn't make more universal claims.

So far all I've read are his opening chapters, up to and including one about how black and white styles show up in US classrooms.

In his first chapter, "Black Culture," Kochman debunks the normative perspective that all people are the same. He acknowledges that comment...more

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Thanks to Thomas Kochman for braving a topic that opens him up to racial criticism. I am finding the book hugely valuable as a South African, even though he clearly addresses US racial issues and doesn't make more universal claims. So far all I've read are his opening chapters, up to and including one about how black and white styles show up in US classrooms. In his first chapter, "Black Culture," Kochman debunks the normative perspective that all people are the same.

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This is a book AND a website. Sonya Renee Taylor is a body-positive, accessibility expert. Her website has a well-organized Article Library that allows you to search for articles by topic.

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Yo, como gorda de toda la vida, he sido el blanco de estigmas sobre el peso y gordofobia desde que tengo uso de razón, solo que no sabía que lo que estaba viviendo era una forma de discriminación. Supuse que me lo merecía porque estaba gorda y punto. Entonces, hace pocos años, me introdujeron en el mundo del activismo contra la gordofobia y la aceptación del cuerpo. Ahí aprendí ... [Read more...]

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Yo, como gorda de toda la vida, he sido el blanco de estigmas sobre el peso y gordofobia desde que tengo uso de razón, solo que no sabía que lo que estaba viviendo era una forma de discriminación. Supuse que me lo merecía porque estaba gorda y punto.

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Her work is infused with anti-racist and racial equity principles, which she addresses, but is deeply focused on the internal work of vulnerability and compassion.

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I've spent twenty years studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy, and I recently completed a seven-year study on brave leadership. The goal of Dare to Lead is to share everything we've learned about taking off the armor and showing up as leaders in a skills-based and actionable playbook. Here are a few of the big ideas that emerged from this research:

You can't get to courage without rumbling with vulnerability. Embrace the suck.

Daring leadership is a collection of four skill sets that are 100% teachable, observable, and measurable. The foundational skill set of courage-building is "rumbling with vulnerability." Once we have built these rumbling skills, we can move on to the other three skill sets: Living into Our Values, Braving Trust, and Learning to Rise. Our ability to be daring leaders will never be greater than our capacity for vulnerability.

Self-awareness and self-love matter. Who we are is how we lead.

The greatest barrier to courageous leadership is not fear-it's how we respond to our fear. Our armor-the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that we use to protect ourselves when we aren't willing and able to rumble with vulnerability-move us out of alignment with our values, corrode trust with our colleagues and teams, and prevent us from being our most courageous selves.

To scale daring leadership and build courage in teams and organizations, we have to cultivate a culture in which brave work, tough conversations, and whole hearts are the expectation, and armor is not necessary or rewarded. We have to be vigilant about creating a culture in which people feel safe, seen, heard, and respected.

The skill sets that make up courage are not new; they've been aspirational leadership skills for as long as there have been leaders. We just haven't had the courage for real talk about courage. But it's time. And if you want to call these "soft skills" after you've tried putting them into practice-go for it. I dare you. Until then, find a home for your armor, and I'll see you in the arena.

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Daring leadership requires brave work, tough conversations, and showing up with our whole hearts.

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Jubilee: RECIPES FROM TWO CENTURIES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN COOKING: A COOKBOOK

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Jubilee: RECIPES FROM TWO CENTURIES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN COOKING: A COOKBOOK

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"Toni Tipton-Martin's Cookbook, Jubilee, Is a Source of Black Joy"

https://www.seriouseats.com/jubilee-toni-tipton-martin-joy-juneteeth

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Jubilee by Toni Tipton-Martin: 9781524761738 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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"A celebration of African American cuisine right now, in all of its abundance and variety."-Tejal Rao, The New York Times JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER * IACP AWARD WINNER * IACP...

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"Southern food is integral to the American culinary tradition, yet the question of who “owns” it is one of the most provocative touch points in our ongoing struggles over race. In this unique memoir, culinary historian Michael W. Twitty takes readers to the white-hot center of this fight, tracing the roots of his own family and the charged politics surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue, and all Southern cuisine."

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Southern food is integral to the American culinary tradition, yet the question of who "owns" it is one of the most provocative touch points in our ongoing struggles over race. In this unique memoir, culinary historian Michael W. Twitty takes readers to the white-hot center of this fight, tracing the roots of his own family and the charged politics surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue, and all Southern cuisine.

Follow The Cooking Gene

Critical Praise

"Fascinating." - New York Times Book Review

"Twitty ably joins past and present, puzzling out culinary mysteries along the way... An exemplary, inviting exploration and an inspiration for cooks and genealogists alike." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Twitty has accomplished something remarkable with The Cooking Gene... It's a book to save, reread, and share until everyone you know has a working understanding of the human stories and pain behind some of America's most foundational and historically significant foods." - Christian Science Monitor

"Should there ever be a competition to determine the most interesting man in the world, Michael W. Twitty would have to be considered a serious contender." - Washington Post

"Slavery made the world of our ancestors incredibly remote to us. Thankfully, the work of Michael W. Twitty helps restore our awareness of their struggles and successes bite by bite, giving us a true taste of the past." - Dr. Henry Louis Gates, host of PBS' Many Rivers to Cross and Finding Your Roots

"Written in Michael W. Twitty's no-nonsense style and interlaced with moments of levity, The Cooking Gene is gritty, compelling, and enlightening - a mix of personal narrative and the history of race, politics, economics and enslavement that will broaden notions of African-American culinary identity." - Toni Tipton-Martin, James Beard Award-winning author of The Jemima Code

"Fascinating.... A valuable addition to culinary and Old South historiography with lip-smacking period recipes." - Library Journal (starred review)

Product Details

ISBN: 9780062379290

ISBN 10: 0062379291

Imprint: Amistad

On Sale: 08/01/2017

Trimsize: 6 in x 9 in (h) x 1.427 in (d)

Pages: 464

List Price: 28.99 USD

BISAC1: COOKING / History

BISAC2: COOKING / Regional & Ethnic / American / Southern States

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2018 WINNER OF THE JAMES BEARD AWARD FOR BEST FOOD WRITING AND BOOK OF THE YEAR A renowned culinary historian offers a fresh perspective on our most divisive cultural issue, race, in this illuminating memoir of Southern cuisine and food culture that traces his ancestry-both black and white-through food, from Africa to America and slavery...

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Black, Disabled and at Risk: The Overlooked Problem of Police Violence Against Americans with Disabilities

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Black, Disabled and at Risk: The Overlooked Problem of Police Violence Against Americans with Disabilities

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Black and Disabled People at Risk in Police Encounters

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Encountering police during a mental-health crisis should not be ‘a death sentence,’ advocates say

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The Overlooked History of Black Disabled People

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The Overlooked History of Black Disabled People

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What do Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Mary Davidson have in common? They were all important Black historical figures who made incredible strides in our nation's ongoing struggle for human and civil rights, and they were all disabled.

If you were surprised to learn that these women were disabled, you are not alone. Many Black historical figures, innovators, and activists have had their disabilities erased when their stories are taught in schools and covered during Black history and women's history observances-by educators and advocates alike.

This erasure speaks volumes about how our society recounts stories of disabled people and the narrow lens through which stories are told, particularly those involving disability. Our history is forever incomplete if we fail to highlight and respect the identities of Black and disabled heroes and trailblazers.

On February 28, I co-hosted the #BlackDisabilityHistory Twitter chat with Imani Barbarin and Neal Carter, along with support from Alice Wong of Disability Visibility Project. We decided to do this chat because it was long overdue; our voices and experiences deserved to be heard.

The response was astounding-Black disabled people shared their truths and realities of what it means to be multiply marginalized.

Being a Black disabled millennial who minored in African-American studies in college, I did not learn that many of the pioneers I respected were disabled like me until I became a disabled activist. It baffled me that their disabilities were downplayed or eliminated altogether; those disabilities are instrumental to their complete narratives and could provide a mirror for Black disabled people to see themselves.

Within my activism work, I have made it an objective to spotlight the progress made by Black disabled people during Black History Month. Since 2015, I have highlighted the accomplishments and work of Black disabled activists. The most poignant feature occurred last year, when I shined a light on the activists who were influential to the development of the Independent Living (IL) movement in Berkeley, California. The IL movement proclaims that disabled people are entitled to the same civil rights as nondisabled people, are the experts in stating their needs, and should be in control of how they live their lives.

What resulted was a four-part series that centered around Joyce Jackson, Johnnie Lacy, Black Panther Party member Brad Lomax, and Donald Galloway. Learning of their involvement and telling their stories was my way to right the wrongs of them being reduced to a footnote within both Black history and the history of the IL movement, where the activism of disabled people of color has not beengiven the same attention as that of disabled white people.

Every time I learn of a new Black disabled person who created a path that has influenced our lives, I think, "How can I make others care?" Black history is about embracing the richness, resilience, and tenacity of our people. If we do not care to make an effort to empower all of us by including every aspect of Blackness in our storytelling and collective pride, it will always be short of true inclusion.

This year, I wrote a piece the day before the chat, titled " Why Black Disability History Matters." I decided to take a different approach and ask my fellow Black disabled peers to share why our particular history is significant to recognize beyond the28 days of February.

Heather Watkins, a writer and disabled mom, had this to say about where our history fits and why it cannot be ignored:

Black Disability History matters to me a great deal because so many of our cultural icons have had disabilities, apparent and/or non-apparent as I've discovered. It more than likely factored in self-awareness, decision-making, and how they governed their lives. It's an important factor that is often downplayed or gets erased in the retelling of their stories, if/when their stories get told at all. Black disability history is part of Black history which is American history. It needs to be chronicled and respected in the same manner we archive forebears who've richly contributed to the tapestry of our history and held with the same gleam and esteem. I didn't learn about many disabled Black history-makers until I was well into adulthood and involved in advocacy. I imagine how it might've beneficially impacted my budding adolescent self-awareness knowing disability was part of their lived experience.

"Black disability history is part of Black history which is American history."
That line from Heather perfectly describes disability history's significance. We as Black disabled people have always been here. We have steadfastly proclaimed our rights and humanity to the communities that chronically overlook us, and yet we still rise to do the work needed to free us all. Black disability history matters because without us putting our voices and very bodies on the line, the political and societal strides many of us take for granted would not have occurred. Our communities are forever indebted to the achievements made and the fights won by past and present Black disabled figures.

It is critical for each of us to educate ourselves on Black disability history. This March, during Women's History Month, take the time to uplift the voices of Black disabled women and femmes who are leading the charge in their respective fields. I did this last year for my #BlackDisabledGirlMagic series, where I interviewed Black disabled activists like writer and journalist Keah Brown, activist Keri Gray, and fashion designer Kathy Woods.

Black disability history should be observed and celebrated year round. I charge everyone to learn and share one Black disabled figure in history so that our people are no longer a secret to anyone, especially to ourselves.

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The Overlooked History of Black Disabled People - Rewire News Group

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What do Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Mary Davidson have in common? They were all important Black historical figures who made incredible strides in our nation's ongoing struggle for human and civil rights, and they were all disabled. If you were surprised to learn that these women were disabled, you are not alone.

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Systematic Inequality and Economic Opportunity

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Systematic Inequality and Economic Opportunity

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Here is an evolving collection of anti-racism resources.

History of Racism

13th, Netflix

The 1619 Project, podcast and New York Times Magazine

Code Switch, National Public Radio

How to Be an Anti-Racist, Ibram X. Kendi

Slavery in America, Equal Justice Initiative

Economic Security

The Racist History of Tipping, Politico

Out of the Shadows: The New Labor Movement Fighting for Domestic Workers' Rights, New York Times Magazine

How Racism Has Shaped Welfare Policy in America Since 1935, The Conversation

Systematic Inequality and Economic Opportunity, Center for American Progress

The Black-White Wage Gap Is as Big as It Was in 1950, The New York Times

Applying Racial Equity to U.S. Federal Nutrition Assistance Programs: SNAP. WIC, and Child Nutrition, Bread for the World Institute

Strong Communities

We Need to Talk About an Injustice, Bryan Stevenson, TED Talk

Abolishing Policing Also Means Abolishing Family Regulation, The Chronicle of Social Change

Black Families Matter: How the Child Welfare System Punishes Poor Families of Color, Dorothy Roberts & Lisa Sangoi, The Appeal

Toward the Abolition of the Foster System, Erin Miles Cloud, The Scholar & Feminist Online

National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, Blog

Reform vs. Abolition, Critical Resistance

The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander

Healthcare

Disparities in Health and Health Care: Five Key Questions and Answers, Kaiser Family Foundation

The US medical system is still haunted by slavery, Vox

Race and Medicine: The Harm That Comes From Mistrust, New York Times

Housing

The Case for Reparations, Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic

Systemic Inequality: Displacement, Exclusion, and Segregation: How America's Housing System Undermines Wealth Building in Communities of Color, Center for American Progress

A 'Forgotten History' Of How The U.S. Government Segregated America, National Public Radio

Organizational Change

The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture, Showing Up for Racial Justice (from Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups)

Law Schools' Complicity on Racism Must Be Challenged, The Appeal

How to Be Anti-Racist: A Social Worker's Perspective, The MSW@USC, the online Master of Social Work program at the University of Southern California

Philanthropy

America Is Burning, Vanessa Daniel, Groundswell Fund

It's time we fundraise in a way that doesn't uphold white moderation and white supremacy, Vu Le, Nonprofit AF

Resources for White People

How To Be A Strong White Ally, Maxwell Boise

White Anti-Racism: Living the Legacy, Teaching Tolerance

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, PhD

Intersectionality

The Urgency of Intersectionality, Kimberlé Crenshaw, TED Talk

The Intersectionality Wars, Jane Coaston

Women, Race and Class, Angela Davis

Wayward Lives in LA Review of books, Saidiya Hartman

Borderlands/La Frontera, Gloria Anzaldúa

Sister Outsider, Audre Lorde

The Overlooked History of Black Disabled People, Rewire News

If you have a resource that you think should be added to this list, please submit it through this form.

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Anti-Racism Resources - Shriver Center on Poverty Law

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Here is an evolving collection of anti-racism resources. History of Racism 13th, Netflix The 1619 Project, podcast and New York Times Magazine Code Switch, National Public Radio How to Be an Anti-Racist , Ibram X.

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Here are some resources that illuminate systems of race, privilege, and power as well as how to enact change in ourselves and our institutions.(Created May 2020)

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Structural Racism and Disparate Impacts in the United States

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Structural Racism and Disparate Impacts in the United States

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Structural Racism and Housing (King County) 

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Structural Racism and Housing (King County) 

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On Thursday, January 16, Professor powell gave a keynote in King County (Seattle) for Martin Luther King Jr. Day event focused on King County's equity and racial justice priorities. The audience included community members, King County elected leaders and employees. Professor powell discussed the anxiety and tension that leads to breaking, causes of polarization and the need for specific interventions and Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy of belonging.
Download a copy of Professor powell's slide deck.

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Video: john a. powell on structural racism and housing (King County)

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On Thursday, January 16, Professor powell gave a keynote in King County (Seattle) for Martin Luther King Jr. Day event focused on King County's equity and racial justice priorities. The audience included community members, King County elected leaders and employees.

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They Can't Kill Us All: The Story of the Struggle for Black Lives

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They Can't Kill Us All: The Story of the Struggle for Black Lives

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"Lowery's book is electric, because it is so well reported, so plainly told and so evidently the work of a man who has not grown a callus on his heart.... Lowery's book is valuable for many reasons. He circles slowly and warily around the question of why, during Obama's presidency, so little has happened to improve on the racial front."--Dwight Garner, "Lowery's dispatches from the front lines of this new era in racial justice movement building have proven indispensable, and with They Can't Kill Us All, he further shows just how vital his reporting has become. Part early history of a still growing movement, as well as part critique of the media charged with covering this movement, Lowery also offers a peek into the process of reporting--the structural challenges, unfortunate failures, and personal successes in accurately capturing the politics and personalities involved in the biggest domestic story of the Obama presidency. They Can't Kill Us All proves itself a necessary read for anyone in need of greater understanding of why and how a new generation of young black activists have taken to the streets to demand justice from their country.-Mychal Denzel Smith, New York Times bestselling author of Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching

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"Lowery's book is electric, because it is so well reported, so plainly told and so evidently the work of a man who has not grown a callus on his heart.... Lowery's book is valuable for many reasons.

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Here's a link to a equity mapping index of seattle. You can use this map to:
*Explore you community
*Gain insight on advantaged and disadvantaged neighborhoods in seattle.