Wednesday, October 23, 2024
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racism

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Confluence

Learning to Bridge Human Difference 101 – Part 2

Reading Time: 4 minutes When you walk down the street, or you are at the mall, or when you watch TV and see a black female news anchor delivering the news next to her white male counterpart, remember, she makes less than two-thirds of that white man. Not because she is not good at her job, but because of the color of her skin and her gender.

What’s worse….. You have contributed to this by not speaking up against it and by not demanding transparency about such things where you work.

What are some baby steps, right where you are, that you can take, that will begin to even the playing field?

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Informed
Confluence

Dear Angry White Woman: Four Things To Do Instead of Dialing 911

Reading Time: 4 minutes Let us be very clear on one central point here. People of color are at risk of being killed by the police at a much higher rate per capita than white people. That’s not an opinion. It’s a fact. The ONLY way a person of color can one hundred percent be assured they will not be shot by a cop is to not encounter one. Black and brown people know that.
Yes, dear angry white woman, when you decide to make your world right by forcing the cops into an encounter with a person of color, you are putting that person’s life at risk. While you might not have thought about that, now you know. So, before you dig your phone out of the nether regions of your purse to make that call, count to 1000 and get yourself in check.

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Informed
Confluence

Learning to Engage in Human Difference 101

Reading Time: 5 minutes I believe all white people are racists. Hold on. Don’t switch off. Hear me out. When I say all, and I mean “ALL” white people are racist, I am saying each of you have benefitted from the ill-gotten gains of racism, because you have benefited from the system being designed by y’all, for y’all and to y’alls benefit. No matter how bad you feel about this, your tears do not put me on an equal footing with you culturally or systematically. 

And I am going to need to you to process this and get your life together because we are in this together. Get over your personal guilt and the attack you feel. It is not about you. Kinda sorta. But no. Those feelings you are experiencing are your soul saying you have a role in getting this together and healing this wound that is in your orbit. Therefore, learn. Dig deep. Process guilt. Do not let white women’s tears derail this process. Tap into your power. 

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Engage
Confluence

A White Person’s Guide to Doing the Right Thing When You Witness a Racist Shakedown

Reading Time: 4 minutes I recently talked to a lovely white woman who stood by quietly watching another white woman being very nasty with a black man who was walking his dog through their neighborhood. While she didn’t call the police she threatened to do just that.

This man was clearly shaken. He explained to her he lived in the neighborhood and he walked his dog there frequently. However, it escalated quickly when he wouldn’t provide her his address.

My friend stood there. She wanted to interject. She wanted to speak up, but she was terrified. However, she didn’t and the guilt was killing her. She actually crossed the street to get away from the drama and watch from a safe distance. She was seriously considering combing the neighborhood looking for this man so she could apologize – but she was afraid to do that too.

So, what is a white person to do when they witness a racist shakedown?
Crossing the street and staying silent is NOT the thing to do.

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Informed
Confluence

The Power of Unlearning

Reading Time: 8 minutes We must revisit our assumptions and explore what our prejudices mean when we deny those seeking survival the opportunity to live. My language might sound extreme, but I do believe that this is about basic survival and life. These folks are not trying to come into this country to live luxurious lives. I believe they are seeking refuge in this country because the option is literal death for them.
 
The sense of superiority I see all around me is learned and we must unlearn it if we want to solve complex problems and become aware of our own role in it. We must lay down this sense of superiority that we have that, in America, we are entitled to what we have and that we worked hard for it and therefore, we must protect it from others.

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Informed
Confluence

Prison, Justice, and Abuse by Power

Reading Time: 5 minutes What came to my mind was a definition I read earlier this week by Ijeoma Oluo in “So You Want to Talk About Race.” She says how we are unable to talk about race in this country. She says one definition is: “Any prejudice against someone because of their race. Or any prejudice against someone because of their race, when those views are reinforced by systems of power” (pg. 26.) This second definition is how I define racism and how I invite you to define it as well.

My friend was a black immigrant and the judge represented the system of power. The disdain the judge had for this person was palpable in the courtroom. You may say that the judge’s disdain had nothing to do with race. Maybe not. But I know that the punishment did not fit the crime.

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Informed
Confluence

Confessions of a Woman of Color at an Ordinary Summer Cookout

Reading Time: 9 minutes Then I realized that I felt vulnerable. I felt overly vulnerable and not “safe” around the men who held very different views from mine in the world but that was not the issue. The issue was that their worldview did not have space for someone like me and my worldview held space for them. I did not shame them for believing differently from me. But they said, “O, that is just naive. That is just ignorant.” I believe the white male shut me down because he is not used to listening to a woman talk for 15 minutes, and a black, immigrant, and articulate one at that. Finally, they walked away. Not because they were not heard because I was sure to make sure I invited their perspective into the conversation, but they left, probably because they could not dominate the conversation or engage in a different viewpoint. They put their stake in the ground and it did not matter what anyone else thought. 

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Informed
Confluence

The 5th Stryker Brigade Proves the Language of Dehumanization Isn’t a Just a Historical Issue

Reading Time: 6 minutes Words matter because they carry meaning and sometimes that meaning isn’t clear to everyone. We hear the words “dog whistle” politics more and more frequently for a reason. Figuratively, a ‘dog whistle’ is a coded message communicated through words or phrases commonly understood by a particular group of people, but not by others.

Some of us hear the word animal in the context Trump used it and we are alarmed. Others hear it as a rallying cry. There is no clearer dog whistle for racists than the language of dehumanization. When the President of the United States of America blows a dog whistle like that, people hear it and it has consequences.

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Engage
Confluence

What To Do With That Privilege Everyone is Telling You You’ve Got: An Essay on Privilege, Shame and Racism

Reading Time: 13 minutes Given that racism holds our collective shame, each of us have an obligation to work towards healing it as we are all part of the collective. You have the obligation to engage in healing as healing is life-giving. If you are breathing, you have an obligation to life to regenerate life. You do not bring healing, growth, transformation, light to the situation by shaming, raging, name calling and yelling at those that don’t get it right. You will not always get it right and yelling at yourself does not bring growth, or life.

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