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Work 4 Peace,Hold All Life Sacred,Eliminate Violence! I am on my mobile version of the door-to-door, going town-to-town holding readings/gatherings/discussions of my book "But What Can I Do?" This is my often neglected blog mostly about my travels since 9/11 as I engage in dialogue and actions. It is steaming with my opinions, insights, analyses toward that end of holding all life sacred, dismantling the empire and eliminating violence while creating the society we want ALL to thrive in

Thursday, February 04, 2021

Brief Report Back Wednesday 2/3 What Will White Wombn Do To End Racism?

We had an intense discussion centering mostly on the white male racist violence perpetrated upon two young girls this past week: a 9 year old child and a young teenager. 

We talked about how Black and brown girls and wombn are more than doubly impacted as sexism and racism ‘intersect’. In this case, allowing white police to see a nine year old child as much older, much more of a threat, needing so much more force than if she was white. 

The same racist/sexist violence on steroids against the young teen. 

 We talked about Mark Charles and his bid for presidency, bucking the power of white men. 

“Don’t see race” as part of white prejudice and ‘fragility’. 

We discussed the tendency of white people to turn the horror of witnessing police violence into a white narrative where we find 'acceptable' in the attempt to justify and 'understand' if not condone police behavior: blaming lack of training, or failed attempts to implement training that ‘just’ didn’t work. Or mentioning how information is missing: like what happened before to lead up to these cops’ decision to use excessive force against a child and youth.  How this attempt is a white-washing of racism, not wanting to and being able to minimize if not dismiss racism/sexism as his motivation. The it's racist "BUT"...

We didn’t all agree so will be continuing this discussion next week. 

We also role played and dissected white guilt: absolution by one prominent economist and what that means, how to address that with other white people. What do white people have to feel guilty about? How should we feel about the horrors of racism that began and are continued today? Can we/should we shut down guilt or use it to examine our participation in racism feeding white guilt and what do we have to feel guilty about? Why white guilt is so provocative and how we use that to be in our anti-racism tool box, turning guilt into responsibility in order to combat racism, and also thereby minimizing ‘guilt’.

Resources: 13th Documentary by Ava DuVernay 

“One Night in Miami” film by Regina King

"Ain't I A Woman" by bell hooks

"The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master's House" by Audre Lorde