Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Alternative Facts #2

“This is all to say that when things get real — really murderous, really tragic, really violent or aggressive — my white, liberal, educated friends already know what to do. What they do is read. And talk about their reading. What they do is listen. And talk about how they listened.” Tre Johnson

You cannot read your way out of racism.

If you are going to read, read something of substance. Consider:

-If you are White, you circle up with other White people to read a book on race written by a White author?

-To be clear, White Fragility is not about race, it is about the feelings of White people, which centers the lived experience of racial hate, & systemic oppression around White feelings. It is centered around Whiteness.

-Other than the recursive logic and the book being highly flawed, the two things that are most problematic are:

1. It sets White people up to fail. It stalls action, and it recenters racism on White feelings. Everyone is stuck at the hand-wringing stage.

2. People of colour are rendered as broken, so broken because of the impact of racism that we are made weak and vulnerable and nothing should be expected of us. This is condescending.

*** Readings of substance:

Books:

Glen Sean Coulthard: Red Skin, White Masks

Bob Joseph: 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act

Ibram X. Kendi: Stamped From the Beginning

Michelle Alexander: The New Jim Crow

Articles:

Tre Johnson: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/white-antiracist-allyship-book-clubs/2020/06/11/9edcc766-abf5-11ea-94d2-d7bc43b26bf9_story.html

Carlos Lozada: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/18/white-fragility-is-real-white-fragility-is-flawed/

John McWhorter: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/dehumanizing-condescension-white-fragility/614146/