Dismantling Anti-Blackness

“Nice White Parents” is a new podcast from Serial Productions, a New York Times Company, about the 60-year relationship between white parents and the public school down the block. 

If you, like many of us, are finding it hard to articulate how to discuss issues of racism, injustice, discrimination and privilege, we’d like to encourage you to take some time to learn and listen.

Take some time to watch some (or all) of these important documentaries about race, racial prejudices and privilege within our society.

POST TRAUMATIC SLAVE SYNDROME

 Nationally and internationally renowned researcher, educator and author of "Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome", Dr. Joy Degruy lectures on the insensitivity and disregard for basic human rights towards Black people throughout the history of racism in America. 

Here are a few links to Dr. Joy DeGruy's work on helping white people understand the depths of history of trauma and how systemic it was and still is in preventing racial justice and healing.

Dr. DeGruy at Portland State University

Join her on Wellness Wednesday on Facebook

A white Baha'i couple's journey into racial America who traveled in an RV for 15 years,  and what they learned. This link is to a video of a talk they gave.   What happens when the warm connection between a black woman and a white woman is broken by insensitivity and unconscious white privilege? 

Are courage, honesty, forgiveness and hope enough to heal the separation? This true story is based on the chapter "The Promise" in the book Longing: Stories of Racial Healing by Phyllis and Eugene Unterschuetz, © Bahá'í Publishing 2010.  To learn about the Race Story ReWrite Project and to schedule a workshop for your organization, please visit www.RaceStoryRewrite.org. 

 How to Be Less Stupid About Race is your essential guide to breaking through the half-truths and ridiculous misconceptions that have thoroughly corrupted the way race is represented in the classroom, pop culture, media, and politics. Centuries after our nation was founded on genocide, settler colonialism, and slavery, many Americans are kinda-sorta-maybe waking up to the reality that our racial politics are (still) garbage. But in the midst of this reckoning, widespread denial and misunderstandings about race persist, even as white supremacy and racial injustice are more visible than ever before. 

 Searing, sobering, and urgently needed, How to Be Less Stupid About Race is a truth bomb for your racist relative, friend, or boss, and a call to action for everyone who wants to challenge white supremacy and intersectional oppression. If you like Issa Rae, Justin Simien, Angela Davis, and Morgan Jerkins, then this deeply relevant, bold, and incisive book is for you.
 

University of Washington professor Dr. Robin DiAngelo reads from her book "White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism," explains the phenomenon, and discusses how white people can develop their capacity to engage more constructively across race. 

Dr. DiAngelo is the author of "What Does it Mean to Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy" and has been an anti-racist educator, and has heard justifications of racism by white men and women in her workshops for over two decades. This justification, which she calls “white fragility,” 

The link below is to a talk by Dr. Robin DiAngelo during Highline College's MLK Week, January, 2016. .

 "Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove grew up in the Bible Belt in the American South as a faithful church-going Christian. 

But he gradually came to realize that the gospel his Christianity proclaimed was not good news for everybody. 

The same Christianity that sang, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound" also perpetuated racial injustice and white supremacy in the name of Jesus. 

His Christianity, he discovered, was the religion of the slaveholder. Just as Reconstruction after the Civil War worked to repair a desperately broken society, our compromised Christianity requires a spiritual reconstruction that undoes the injustices of the past." Here we share Jonathan's talk with us on this topic."

For those fellow friends who want to support the pupil of the eye, but don't know what to do or where to start.  Here are the first one of seventy-five.:

1.  Google whether your local police department currently outfits all on-duty police officers with a body-worn camera and requires that the body-worn camera be turned on immediately when officers respond to a police call. If they don’t, write to your city or town government representative and police chief to advocate for it. The racial make-up of your town doesn’t matter — This needs to be standard everywhere. Multiply your voice by soliciting others to advocate as well, writing on social media about it, writing op-eds, etc.

 2.  Google whether your city or town currently employs evidence-based police de-escalation trainings. The racial make-up of your town doesn’t matter — This needs to be standard everywhere. Write to your city or town government representative and police chief and advocate for it. Multiply your voice by soliciting others to advocate as well, writing on social media about it, writing op-eds, etc. 

38.  Decolonize your bookshelf.

39.  Listen without ego and defensiveness to people of color. Truly listen. Don’t scroll past articles written by people of color — Read them.

 Maggie and John Anderson were successful African American professionals raising two daughters in a tony suburb of Chicago. But they felt uneasy over their good fortune. Most African Americans live in economically starved neighborhoods. Black wealth is about one tenth of white wealth, and black businesses lag behind businesses of all other racial groups in every measure of success. 

One problem is that black consumers--unlike consumers of other ethnicities-- choose not to support black-owned businesses. At the same time, most of the businesses in their communities are owned by outsiders.

On January 1, 2009 the Andersons embarked on a year-long public pledge to "buy black." They thought that by taking a stand, the black community would be mobilized to exert its economic might. They thought that by exposing the issues, Americans of all races would see that economically empowering black neighborhoods benefits society as a whole. Instead, blacks refused to support their own, and others condemned their experiment. 

Drawing on economic research and social history as well as her personal story, Maggie Anderson shows why the black economy continues to suffer and issues a call to action to all of us to do our part to reverse this trend.

Stage of White Identity Development (Helms) and their corresponding beliefs/thoughts/actions

“I don’t see color.”

• “Talking about race brings disunity.”
• Belief that racism is caused by talking about race.
• Belief that you aren’t racist if you don’t purposely or consciously act in racist ways.

How folks move from this stage: by being confronted with active racism, real-world experiences that highlight their whiteness.

Activities:

1. White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (Peggy McIntonsh)

Podcasts:

1. NPR episode about Whistling Vivaldi

Videos:

1. Interview about White Awake
2. Interview about I’m Still Here

Articles:

1. Walking While Black (Garnette Cadogan)

Books:

1. White Awake (Daniel Hill)  
2. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria (Beverly Tatum)
3. I’m Still Here (Austin Channing Brown)
4. Whistling Vivaldi (Claude Steel)

Dear SOTE Friends,

In reflecting on the struggles we are all having in understanding and openly and honestly examining our barriers in overcoming how we have been poisoned by institutional racism, overtly and covertly, consciously and unconsciously, willingly and unwillingly, we are presenting this survey.

The purpose is to be able to objectively gain insights into what we experience when dealing with the “most vital and challenging issue”. Some of the barriers may fit you and some may not. This is not about identifying any individual but being able to step back first, then reflect on what I personally have to work on, and finally, what are steps to overcome the barrier(s).

We are a team and can do this together because we care. Otherwise, we would not be a part of this amazing experiment in this Baha’i inspired university.  The Concourse on High is surrounding us and supporting us.

Thank you in advance for your participation. The results will be compiled and no individual will be identified. We are excited about taking our consultation to a new and deeper level!

Allah’u’Abha!

 Rod Smith (Shared by Ladjama Green)

 Amazing Grace(Original, With All 13 verses) - Hymn / Song Lyrics with Instrumental backing music.  

LYRICS:  Amazing Grace(Full verses ) Lyrics: John Newton Scripture:Romans 5:15; Psalm 66:16; John 9:25 Meter: 8.6.8.6 

This version includes an encapsulated story of JNs conversion testimony - pity we don't hear it more often. 

 1. Amazing grace! How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; Was blind, but now I see.  

2. In evil long I took delight Un-awed by shame or fear; ‘Til a new object met my sight And stopped my wild career.  

3. I saw One hanging on a tree, In agonies and blood Who fixed His languid eyes on me As near His cross I stood. 

 4. Sure, never ‘til my latest breath Can I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with His death Though not a word He spoke.  

5. My conscience owned and felt the guilt, And plunged me in despair; I saw my sins His blood had shed, And helped to nail Him there.

  6. Alas, I knew not what I did, But all my tears were vain; Where could my trembling soul be hid, For I the Lord had slain.   

7. A second look he gave which said, “I freely all forgive! “This blood is for thy ransom paid, “I die that thou mayest live.” 

 8. 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved; How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed.  

9. Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; 'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.  

10. The Lord has promised good to me, His Word my hope secures; He will my Shield and Portion be, As long as life endures. 

 11. Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail, And mortal life shall cease, I shall possess, within the veil, A life of joy and peace.  

12. The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, The sun forbear to shine; But God, who called me here below, Will be forever mine.  

13. When we've been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing God's praise Than when we'd first begun.