Brief Report Back Atlanta ND zoom gathering 10/13 "What Will White Womyn Do To End Racism?"

This week's gathering began with the observations of two events that are combining church and state: one coming up in Atlanta and one in Jackson, MS. The event in Jackson is referred to as a “Faith and Blue” happening in churches with police to “address increase in crime”; the other in Atlanta as a speaking opportunity for protestors, church folks, and police that did not involve discussion.

This led to an analysis of the premise or lie promoted in our constitution and understanding of the alleged separation of church & state: “in god we trust” added to the pledge of allegiance as well as to our money in the 1950’s thanks to capitulation to mcarthyism and now being voted on as an addition to the Mississippi flag; blaming or crediting this white christian ‘god’ for our lack of or abundance of belief in ‘him’ causing pain, suffering, inferiority, or reward, superiority, status; thru now white christian support of the fascist in the white house, the white male youth who murdered Black Lives Matter activists, the impunity of white police officers who murder.

Yet the great influence and leadership of the Black church during the civil rights movement, and today the Poor People’s campaign.

(Plus building on what we know from past gatherings: the 1400s pope penning of the “Discovery Doctrine”, white men building churches on top of the underground pits they dug to cruelly imprison womyn and men before selling them across the ocean; white u.sa. christians who enslaved people creating a separate bible for Black people, and then intentionally transforming into segregated churches, laws, institutions, neighborhoods to ensure white christian superiority and everyone else’s inferiority and sub-humanity.)

This grew into a discussion of acceptance and rejection, how terribly different we are made to feel (as a negative thing when it could/should be a positive thing), how ostracized and alienated from the group with power – or even murdered if we’ve gained that much influence, as Malcolm X, MLK, etc. How we’ve even been taught to slander and negate those voices who spoke/speak truth to power. The double edge sword of the internet to be able to read the truth if/when we can suffer through the lies.

Specifically relating to racism/anti-racism: the m.o. of white people to stifle even talk of racism, let alone responsibility for smashing racism especially white privilege and superiority, isolating and rejecting anti-racist white people, casting out those who dare to challenge whiteness. Then the hurt from, the rejection and ostracization by Black people of Black people impacted by/reeling from oppression, believing in if not embracing power of white institutions wherever possible, making the ‘choice’ to give in to the tidal ‘wave’.

Again we had to revisit the interaction between a white womon and a Black ‘service’ worker: does the white customer have the right to demand to be treated with what she deems ‘respect’ from a Black clerk? In first, beyond race privilege (if possible), we analyzed the dynamics of and spoke about compassion for the low-paid service worker, having to work a dead-end job that doesn’t allow her to make ends meet, let alone feed her children – all the injustice of this ‘job’ and then having to make ‘nice’ for a customer that has sooooo many more advantages than her and not just financial but can then demand that the worker treat her a certain 'polite' way. Let alone adding the double impact of racism and sexism on top: do you know what racist slur or sexist insult this worker, in addition to her systemic status, had to endure before you approached her?

Continuing and growing our understanding that ALL white people are racist, pass along racism, whether we intend to or not. And that even if whites have personally taken up the anti-racism journey, feel some level of humanity in their hearts, there is systemic racism that we can never discount, deny, or avoid: we can only recognize it, spread that recognition among other whites, and change our behavior in order to be responsible for smashing it.

Is it racism for white people to seek out Black people to confirm or deny a position that other white people have said is racist? Or is it racist not to seek confirmation?

We also continued to speak of crime: the crime of poverty; the power of being able to define what ‘crime’ is and what isn’t, let alone determining the punishments or rewards for ‘crime’; the crime of hoarding wealth that causes poverty on top of the crime of systemic racism ensuring poverty; the crime of a system that at the very least, does not care for or take care of all human beings within that society; the great and cruel crimes of the prison industrial complex including the purpose of prison to destroy one’s humanity, the 33,000 plus agencies and businesses that profit from imprisoning people, the $100 billion dollars the state of California spent on building prisons these past ten years. We touched on restorative justice, defunding police, setting up other agencies to provide for people’s needs and not based on punishment, the Breathe Act put before congress January 2019.

Some things on the screen for next Tuesday, October 20^th:

Is it really a reaction to all white people that elicited a rude response to the individual white person, or was it something specific that the individual white person exuded that elicited that response? If it is a general hatred, what response is triggered in white people? What issues, feelings do white people have to a general response by Black or brown people that is deemed ‘unacceptable’ by whites? What is the racism in this scenario if any?

There was another ‘issue’ but I’m sorry, I’m forgetting – maybe someone else remembers and will add?