Brief Report Back: "NOW What Will White Womxxn Do To End Racism?" Sunday June 20th
We began our check in tonite by answering two questions: 1) since it’s been almost four months since we zoomed, what action did you take since the last time we met that enabled you to dismantle white supremacy and/or support Black/brown lives? And 2) What is most pressing currently, foremost on your mind/action concerning dismantling racism?
Most of us talked about becoming much clearer on exactly how we have personally benefitted from racism, mostly through self-education, reading, documentaries – continuing to educate ourselves and working with the various grass-roots and community organizations locally in our places of residence.
Most
pressing on the table was:
1)
The
attack on voting rights
2)
The
attack on Critical Race Theory
3) The continuing fight to release those imprisioned under marijuana drug charges
Several of us live in states where the attack on voting rights has already been solidified in law or proposed in the legislature. Those of us not living in those states talked about still attempting to influence legislatures, writing letters to politicians and media, seeking out, being aware and supporting of local actions.
We talked about how blatantly the white male power establishment is not even attempting to disguise their attacks on one of the most touted and embraced tenets of democracy, the right to vote, in their rush to legalize more voter suppression.
We spent a few moments talking about the very slow release of those people imprisoned under old drug laws that are now no longer illegal, how racist those laws were in the first place, and even how racist the ‘recent’ push to legalize marijuana use due to the increase in white people using and wanting to use without threat of imprisonment – and how that movement to legalize marijuana could/should have been to legalize ALL drugs and release ALL those imprisoned for ‘illegal’ drug use.
But mostly we discussed the continuing and growing uproar resulting in actual legislation concerning the teaching of truth, historical and present-day truths, of Critical Race Theory – including the misnomer ‘theory’ should be ‘fact’ instead.
8 states have already passed legislation banning CRT from public education, 25 states have proposed some form of banning CRT. tRump already targeted the teaching of the 1619 Project and signed an executive order to continue the racist, sexist lies and myths about the historical and present-day status of the u.s.
We talked about how perhaps, with this uproar, something must be changing – as the CRT was developed in the early 70’s, starting with lawyers and the legal community challenging the racism inherent in u.s. ‘law’, which is supposed to be so fair and just. The theory expanded to identify every other u.s. institution and society laden with racism, continuing today – even without the support of individuals.
Getting white people to just admit we are racist clears the way for examining how we benefit/ted from racism and what we can do about it. Once that hurdle is cleared, dialogue can ensue as well as actions. The white uproar against CRT is just another form of blatant racism protecting white superiority and privilege. Embracing the racist mantra silencing the mere discussion, when white people claim “talking about racism is divisive” so we don’t have to look at how racism is the divisive thing.
We expressed our frustration with and tensions between both 1) talking is not enough; and 2) talking with white people is vitally important. The ‘sudden’ and increased attack against CRT is yet another attempt to make the conversation about racism and identifying the myths and lies of our country missing from education while continuing to perpetuate those lies and myths.
We attempted a short role play re:how to address the overt racist denying the existence of slavery to the maybe not so overt racist objecting to CRT. Asking them to be specific, questioning exactly what they mean. The times to merely say “you’re wrong and you know it” while striding away, or to continue putting energy into impacting behavior.
Recognizing part of white privilege IS we don’t have to continue engaging re:racism if we decide not to; we can choose when we decide to deal with racism or not.
We
talked briefly about different ways to address the “white tears” person and the white person who takes the ‘religious’ or ‘spiritual’
path, talking about just love everyone, etc. – and how this enables her to
avoid facing white privilege and benefits brought to us by racism – that antiracism
calls “spiritual bypassing”. We will put these and more on the table to role
play options for addressing this kind of racism for next week.
Anya is offering a google doc she made so we can put all our resources onto one document - see under below!
Resources:
Antiracism daily: https://www.antiracismdaily.com/search?q=critical%20race%20theory&f_collectionId=5eefdb531611f52157c8d688
Heather McGhee “The Sum of Us” – and being interviewed by
Kendi in podcast:
Anya: Link to Google Doc for everyone to
add anti-racism resources to:
https://docs.google.com/
posted by Xan @ 1:50 PM
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