Black Lives Matter and Anti-Racism Resources: Overviews and Definitions

• From “What Is White Privilege?” By Christine Emba:

It’s the level of societal advantage that comes with being seen as the norm in America, automatically conferred irrespective of wealth, gender or other factors. It makes life smoother, but it’s something you would barely notice unless it were suddenly taken away — or unless it had never applied to you in the first place.

For example:

• Taking it for granted that when you’re shopping alone, you probably won’t be followed or harassed.
• Knowing that if you ask to speak to “the person in charge,” you’ll almost certainly be facing someone of your own race.
• Being able to think about different social, political or professional options without asking whether someone of your race would be accepted or allowed to do what you want to do.
• Assuming that if you buy a house in a nice neighborhood, your neighbors will be pleasant or neutral toward you.
• Feeling welcomed and “normal” in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.
• From Layla Saad:

You can’t see yourself as perpetuating white supremacy because you have been conditioned to believe that the way you see the world is the way that everyone else sees the world too. But that just isn’t true. White supremacy centers and serves whiteness, while de-centering and oppressing people of colour (POC). You as a white person are seen as normal, and non-white people are seen as ‘other’. White-centric programs/summits/conferences are seen as being for everyone. Non-white centric programs/summits/conferences are seen as being exclusively for POC.

It is not as simple as not using racial slurs. We are socialised into white supremacy from the moment we are born. So it’s not enough to say ‘But I love black people!’. It is about completely dismantling how you see yourself and how you see the world, so that you can dismantle how white supremacy functions as an institutional and ideological system of oppression.

• Article: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, by Peggy McIntosh

Adapted from antiracismforbeginners.com 

• From “What Exactly is a Microaggression?”:

An Asian-American student is complimented by a professor for speaking perfect English, but it's actually his first language.  A black man notices that a white woman flinches and clutches her bag as she sees him in the elevator she's about to enter, and is painfully reminded of racial stereotypes. A woman speaks up in an important meeting, but she can barely get a word in without being interrupted by her male colleagues.

There's a name for what's happening in these situations, when people's biases against marginalized groups reveal themselves in a way that leaves their victims feeling uncomfortable or insulted: microaggressions.

Microaggressions are more than just insults, insensitive comments, or generalized jerky behavior.

They're something very specific: the kinds of remarks, questions, or actions that are painful because they have to do with a person's membership in a group that's discriminated against or subject to stereotypes. And a key part of what makes them so disconcerting is that they happen casually, frequently, and often without any harm intended, in everyday life.

• From “Microaggressions don’t just ‘hurt your feelings’”:

"It isn’t about having your feelings hurt. It’s about how being repeatedly dismissed and alienated and insulted and invalidated reinforces the differences in power and privilege, and how this perpetuates racism and discrimination," said Roberto Montenegro.

Each time Montenegro experiences one of these subtle slights, his body reacts. Anger and anxiety produce a stress response, and he argues that, over time, chronic exposure turns these microaggressions into "micro-traumas."

"Experiencing this kind of discrimination prematurely ages the body," he said. "And that’s a pretty scary concept."

Racial discrimination accelerates aging at the cellular level, according to a 2014 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Although the disparity in death rates between blacks and whites narrowed from 1999 to 2015, it still remains, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many African Americans in their 20s to 40s experience conditions that white people suffer from when they're older, such as heart disease and stroke.

Adapted from antiracismforbeginners.com

• “Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue.” - Robin DiAngelo
• “Accountability feels like an attack when you're not ready to acknowledge how your behaviour harms others.” - Tamara Renaye
• YouTube video of Robin DiAngelo discussing White Fragility
  • Robin DiAngelo’s book, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism

Adapted from antiracismforbeginners.com

• Article: How to Tell Someone You Love They’re Being Racist
• How to Communicate With Racist Family Members
• Article: How to Talk to Your Family About Racism
• Article: Here’s What to Say to Racist Family Members During the Holidays

Adapted from antiracismforbeginners.com

• “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” - Desmond Tutu

• “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

• From Patrice C. Washington: Video, “Dear White Friend: You Need to Take a Side”

Adapted from antiracismforbeginners.com

• Article: How White Feminists Oppress Black Women: When Feminism Functions as White Supremacy

• Guide by Rachel Cargle explaining the relationship between white feminism and black women

Adapted from antiracismforbeginners.com

• Article: How to Talk to Kids About Racial Violence and Police Brutality

• Article: We Need More White Parents to Talk to Their Kids About Race. Especially Now.

• Resources from The Conscious Kid

• “Are Your Kids Too Young to Talk About Race?”

• Children’s Books About Race / White Privilege:

• Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness, by Anastasia Higginbotham

Adapted from antiracismforbeginners.com