Undoing racism in spite of White Supremacy

1. Undoing racism in spite of White Supremacy Community Action MN July 23, 2019

2. Introductions Name Where you live Your present occupation

3. I. racism

4. Brief One-on-One Conversation Discuss: what is racism?

5. Racism = Individual acts? “Given the dominant conceptualization of racism as individual acts of cruelty, it follows that only terrible people who consciously don’t like people of color can enact racism.” “Though this conceptualization is misinformed, it is not benign. In fact, it functions beautifully to make it nearly impossible to engage in the necessary dialogue and self-reflection that can lead to change.” (DiAngelo, 2018, p. 123) Dr. Robin DiAngelo

6. Four Levels of Racism Internalized: private beliefs about race that reside inside our minds. Interpersonal: When our private beliefs about race influence our interactions with each other. Institutional: Discriminatory treatment, unfair policies and practices, inequitable opportunities and impacts based on race. Institutional racism preserves and fuels the racial gaps in wealth, education, and social status, and serves to perpetuate white supremacy and privilege. Structural: Structural racism is the ongoing, historical, and long-term reproduction of the racialized structure of our society through a combination of all of the above forms. Structural racism results in large-scale, society-wide inequalities on the basis of race. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 for failing to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus.

7. Compact Definition of Racism Racism = a prejudice against someone based on race, when those prejudices are reinforced by systems of power. (Oluo, p. 26, 2018) Ijeoma Oluo

8. Understanding theConcept of Race Race is not biological. It is a social construct. Very little genetic difference between all humans. We are all African. “There are greater genetic differences between individuals of the same racial group than between individuals of different groups.” (Kendi, p. 476, 2015).

10. II. White Supremacy

11. White supremacy “…white supremacy is not merely the work of hotheaded demagogues, or a matter of false consciousness, but a force so fundamental to America that it is difficult to imagine the country without it.” (Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2017 p. 202) Ta-Nehisi Coates

12. Our National Anthem Francis Scott Key – major slaveholder America to be slaveholder republic for free white men only Third verse – death to African Americans seeking freedom with British.

13. Verse 3 Our National Anthem And where is that band who so vauntingly sworeThat the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,A home and a country, should leave us no more?Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.No refuge could save the hireling and slaveFrom the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

14. Racism & White Supremacy Racism is a structure; not an event! White Supremacy is part of that structure; White Supremacy is the unnamed political system that has made the modern world what it is today. It has shaped Western political thought for hundreds of years – it is never named! It’s an economic system that has been structured around the racial exploitation of others. Definition of White Supremacy: White Supremacy is a sociopolitical economic system of domination based on racial categories that benefits those defined and perceived as white. (DiAngelo, 2018)

15. Naming white supremacy Changes the conversation in two important ways: • It makes the system visible • It shifts the locus of change onto white people, where it belongs. it points us in the direction of lifelong work that is uniquely for white people.

16. White Supremacy • Ten Richest Americans are all white • US Congress is 85% white • US governors are 96% white • Top US military advisors are 100% white • Current US presidential cabinet is 91% white • People who decide what TV shows we watch are 93% white • People who decide what news is covered are 85% white • Directors of the 100 top-grossing films are 95% white • Full time college professors are 84% white • Of the 2400 elected prosecutors in the U.S. 95% are white.

17. The White racial frame The white racial frame: is what is used to rationalize systemic racism, white privilege, power, and white supremacy. The White Racial Frame: “Seen comprehensively, all the mental images, prejudiced attitudes, stereotypes, sincere fictions, emotions, racist explanations, and rationalizations that link to systemic racism make up a white racial frame.” The White Racial Frame sees white people as superior, harder working, as more intelligent, and deserving more; and people of color as inferior and deserving less. (Feagin, 2014, p. 95)

18. White fragility • Whites unable to deal with racism: response “I’m not a racist.” • Defensive; attacking my personal morality. “Let me be clear that the term “white fragility” is intended to describe a specific white phenomenon. White fragility is much more than mere defensiveness or whining. It may be conceptualized as the sociology of dominance: an outcome of white people’s socialization into white supremacy and a means to protect, maintain, and reproduce white supremacy.” (DiAngelo, 2018, p. 113)

20. Discussion in groups of 3 or 4 What do you see as signs of White Supremacy in your workplace, in your city, or in the country?

21. iII. What to do Some ideas to help undo racism

22. What To Do? From a Personal Perspective: • Integrate as much as possible. Find out what it means to be an Ally. • Learn as much as you can about these complex issues of racism and White Supremacy. • Be open to a person of color when you are called out on a racist act. When confronted with racism, being good or bad isn’t the issue. Listen, don’t argue, be grateful. From a Communal/Corporate Perspective: • With friends, co-workers, other people, learn as much as you can about these complex issues. • Challenge White Supremacy at your place of work, your school, your church, mosque, or synagogue. Ask questions, raise concerns. (Good resource: Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice, by Paul Kivel.)

23. One of the purposes of listing characteristics of white supremacy culture is to point out how organizations which unconsciously use these characteristics as their norms and standards make it difficult, if not impossible, to open the door to other cultural norms and standards. As a result, many of our organizations, while saying we want to be multicultural, really only allow other people and cultures to come in if they adapt or conform to already existing cultural norms. Being able to identify and name the cultural norms and standards you want is a first step to making room for a truly multi-cultural organization. Tema Okun Paternalism: decision-making is clear to those with power and unclear to those without it. All of our systems in all of our major institutions have been created by whites for the benefit of whites. This is White Supremacy!The systems are racist; if you are white you are racist!

24. References for this Workshop • Battalora, Jacqueline. (2013). Birth of awhite nation: the invention of white people and its relevance today (pp. 28-48). Houston, TX. Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co. • Coates, Ta-Nehisi. (2017). We were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy. New York, N.Y. One World Publishing. • DiAngelo, Robin. (2018). White Fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism. Boston. Beacon Press. • Feagin, Joe R. (2014) 3rd ed. Ch. 3. The white racial frame: A social force. In Racist America: roots, current realities, and future reparations (pp. 63-100).New York. Routledge. • Kendi, Ibram X. (2016). Stamped from the Beginning: the definitive history of racist ideas inAmerica. New York: Nation Books. • Kivel, Paul. (2011) 3rd Ed. Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice. New Society Publishers. • Okun, Tema. (2010). The Emperor Has No Clothes: Teaching About Race and Racism to People Who Don’t Want to Know. Charlotte, NC. IAP, Inc. • Oluo, Ijeoma. (2018). So you want to talk about race. New York, N.Y. Seal Press. • Painter, Nell Irvin. (2010) The History of White People. New York. W.W. Norton & Company. • https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html