Brief Reportback Atlanta ND Zoom Gathering Tuesday 10/20/2020 “What Will White Womyn Do To End Racism?

Some white womyn talked about their difficulties in connecting with Black and brown people, replacing the “inclusion” goal with a goal to identify the ways in which racism is operating to exclude Black and brow people – in our lives, our neighborhoods, jobs, etc. We spoke of having that ‘token’ Black friend, the price Black womyn pay to be that ‘token’ in a white person’s life and the benefit white people get from having a ‘token’ friend instead of addressing whiteness and working to dismantle white supremacy and privilege. 

We also worked at seeing the racism in our chosen language use, when the “white” is understood; and when white people call ourselves “minority” or “poor” – where is the power when we think we’re a ‘minority’, and who are we comparing ourselves when we declare ourselves ‘poor’? And when “white” is understood in the nouns we use.

White fear, anger, naiveté (is it???) was discussed including the context of demanding “safe” space to even just talk about racism and how Black and brown people NEVER get to demand “safe” space to deal with racism.  

Healthcare and the gross egregious inequities in both the quality of healthcare and the delivery of healthcare along racial and sexual lines dominated most of our remaining conversation. Where as most people believe healthcare is a human right and that quality healthcare is something we ALL deserve yet in the u.s. it’s only a white person’s right, further amplified if you are english-speaking and living above the poverty line.

The injustices (un)intentionally perpetrated against Black females seeking services by white individuals in that delivery of healthcare at emergency room were delineated during this gathering; and a strategy for dismantling individual racism is to accompany the patient thru the healthcare maze designed to enable a white individual’s prejudices as well as systemic racism. Especially the stereotypes impacting Black womyn as being seen as either super-strong, withstanding inordinate pain, or super-crazy – although racism is definitely a pandemic-level disease in this country, when is that a diagnosis for illness?

Two resources put out today: Andrew Joseph Duffer, a white gay man does short youtube videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiDfuo88D1A that addresses ‘difficult’ subjects with humor, truth, and absurdity. The other resources is the Anti-Racism Daily coordinated by Nicole Cardoza which can be delivered daily into your email account, which not only educates white people but has daily actions to dismantle white supremacy centered around the particular ‘education’ for that day. https://www.antiracismdaily.com/archives/dont-do-digital-blackface-anti-racism-daily?rq=blackface