Grief has settled all around me. Looking in on my sons as I rushed out the door this morning paralysed me with fear and anger bone deep. Just beyond the threshold of our door, I am unable to protect my two beautiful children who are quickly growing into men. At 12 and 11 they are already a threat. My husband and I can arm them with “the talk”, we can coach them on what they will encounter in the presence of schools, teachers, peers, employees who use whiteness to confirm privilege and superiority, to deny solidarity.
We need courage here. We need a collective call. We need a shared claim– to acknowledge that whiteness IS a social and political category with a power to dominate the bodies of our sons and daughters.
“White America” is a syndicate arrayed to protect its exclusive power to dominate and control our bodies. Sometimes this power is direct (lynching) and sometimes it is insidious (redlining). But however it appears, the power of domination and exclusion is central to the belief in being white and without it, “white people” would cease to exist for want of reasons.- Ta’Nehsi Coates
As a white women raising white children, racism is my problem. Racism is white people’s problem. Not because we are bad. It is our problem because we benefit from the structure of white supremacy every damn day. It is our structure and up to us to dismantle it. Part of dismantling it is raising a new generation of humanity. And part of the burden is on us to talk to our kids. Ad nauseum. Talk to them about the history of racism in America. Talk to them about their privilege. Talk to them about standing up against injustice when they see it. Talk to them, in age appropriate ways, about the news. Take them to marches and rallies. I promise it’s easier than it sounds. We have put together a great group of essay’s on the work we have to do and how to talk to your kids about it.
It is 1863
It is 1965
It is 2008
It is 2015
It is 2016
And still we wait
For the bodies
To stop
Falling
It is Staten Island, New York… Ferguson, Missouri, Minnesota, Baton Rouge
5 gun shots
14 gun shots
shot in the car
hung in a jail cell
the list goes on
Amadou Diallos mother in the vestibule where he was murdered, crying out his name—Amadou, Amadou, over and over
Emmet Till’s mother insisting on an open coffin
Mothers and Fathers Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile
We still can’t breathe.
In solidarity! Sarah Sophie and Nicole
It is 1863
It is 1965
It is 2008
It is 2015
It is 2016
And still we wait
For the bodies
To stop
Falling
It is Staten Island, New York… Ferguson, Missouri, Minnesota, Baton Rouge
5 gun shots
14 gun shots
shot in the car
hung in a jail cell
the list goes on
Amadou Diallos mother in the vestibule where he was murdered, crying out his name—Amadou, Amadou, over and over
Emmet Till’s mother insisting on an open coffin
Mothers and Fathers Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile
We still can’t breathe.
What You Can Do Right Now About Police Brutality
Racism is your problem, not because white people are uniquely predisposed to racial bigotry (it’s a horrible trait we all share), but because the power structure of White Supremacy upholds it. It’s your system and whether or not you personally built it, you live in it, maintain it, and benefit from it. It is your house, and you need to clean it.
Read the Full article: HERE
It’s My Job to Raise Children Who Are Not Only Not Racist But Actively Anti-Racist
It is not enough. While we must absolutely listen to and try to understand and love our black brothers and sisters, while we must absolutely bear witness to the pain that is the black experience in America, while we must absolutely stand in solidarity with black people, racism is a white problem. It was created by white people, and it must be solved by white people. It is not the responsibility of our black brothers and sisters to teach us how not to be racist, to educate us about racism, to explain white privilege to us, to tell us where to begin. It is our job as white people to do that work. It is our job to raise the generation of white children who will end racism in this country.
Read the full article, HERE
How silence can breed prejudice: A child development professor explains how and why to talk to kids about race
So in the absence of conversation, children are apt to make assumptions that may not be true, but these assumptions often reflect the biases the children are exposed to in the world around them. In other words, the silence can breed prejudice.
Silence about race removes the opportunity for children to learn about diversity from their parents and puts it in the hands of media and misinformed peers. Television, moves, and video games are full of stereotypes, and over time children pick up on these. They see blacks portrayed as criminals, Hispanics as uneducated service workers, Asians as unassimilated foreigners, and whites as powerful CEOs.
Without discussion about the errors in these portrayals and a conscious effort to expose them to counter-stereotypical examples, children will unwittingly adopt these images as pieces of evidence of how the world is supposed to be, and these pieces become a breeding ground for prejudice.
Read the full article, HERE
15 Things Your City Can Do Right Now to End Police Brutality
the Center for Popular Democracy and Policy Link, two nonprofit advocacy organizations, have partnered with various protesters and street-level organizers to find some concrete solutions to this problem. The result is a 15-point report, titled Building From the Ground Up: A Toolkit for Promoting Justice in Policing, which Mic has synthesized below to identify the concrete steps citizens and local governments can take to affect change.
“[This report] is the result of dozens of interviews … and work we’ve done on the ground,” Marbre Stahly-Butts, a policy advocate with CPD and co-author of the toolkit, told reporters in a press call earlier this month. “Its goal was really to reflect the aspirations of these on-the-ground organizations.”
Each point can be molded to shape your municipality’s particular needs, and most are doable through a focused and sustained bit of pressure on local elected officials.
Here are 15 things your city can do right now to better promote justice in policing.
Read the full article: HERE
