Join me as I explore having conversations about white privilege in white spaces. This is part of a new series on Tackling My White Privilege. Resources mentioned in this episode are:
- Barack Obama Writes Essay On Effecting Real Change After George Floyd’s Killing
- Black People Need Stronger White Allies — Here’s How You Can Be One
- Samuel Sinyangwe’s Research-Based Solutions to Stop Police Violence
- Leslie Mac
- If You Are White
Highlights include:
3:52 – “The more specific we can make demands for criminal justice and police reform, the harder it will be for elected officials to just offer lip service to the cause and then fall back into business as usual once protests have gone away.” – Source: Barack Obama Writes Essay On Effecting Real Change After George Floyd’s Killing
9:00 – “A few examples of good white allyship are pushing your PTA to require anti-racism and anti-oppression training for all parents in a school system, a direct white outreach campaign to support bailing Black mothers out of jail, creation of a list of Black women to hire for everything from resume help to graphic design. All these examples are rooted in two things: 1) they are actions white people are able to take without Black labor and 2) they have direct benefit to Black people. Effective, accountable action is the goal.” – Source: Leslie Mac in Black People Need Stronger White Allies — Here’s How You Can Be One
10:20 – JM: “I am not the expert in any of this. I am learning as I go. And I’m just sharing that with you.”
15:46 – JM: “There’s got to be a way where we can talk with the people in our lives who are at the far end of the political spectrum from where we are and who do not see any of the white supremacy that they live in or any of the white privilege that they have, and get them to start seeing it. That’s what I think we need to do because who else can do it?”
19:10 – JM: “We need to put ourselves in a position of learning from the people who have experienced it, because we don’t know what it’s like, and we’re not going to be able to know what it’s like if we don’t listen to their words and what they’re telling us. If we don’t respect that and take that back, then we’re not going to be able to help. And then it’s just lip service.”
20:00 – JM: “It’s not enough to just tell Black people what they have to do to avoid problems with the police. It’s not enough for Black people to just tell their children all the different ways to avoid it. That’s not the way it works because the system is targeting them. Just like women are targeted for rape.”
20:35 – JM: “We have to educate our children about what their role is in this, just by nature of their skin. As white children, they also have to learn about this because we all have to work on stopping it.”
Photo by Koshu Kunii on Unsplash