Every day, I get glimpses of the erasure of Americans of color. My May 8 New York Times arts section (“For a Great Escape, Try a 1940s Musical”) describes the era when white movie stars like Fred Astaire and Shirley Temple danced in blackface to tap and jazz, trained by African American dancers, allowed to appear in […]
Apology to my Husband re: his racial justice activism In the final session of the White People Challenging Racism workshop I co-lead, I shared my appreciation for a couple who attended together and could support each other in carrying out the action plans they co-created and committed to. To heighten my appreciation, I added: “I’ve […]
Everyday Racism: Questions & Quandaries – 3rd in What Was I Thinking? essay series (2015) Table of Contents Who’s Beautiful? Who’s Not? Who is attractive? And who decides? A news article about “jolie laide” still grates on me. What’s Behind the Power of a Stare? When is a “long look” okay, simply rude, or even racist? Why […]
Jennifer J. Yanco’s Misremembering Dr. King – Revisiting the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. is out from Indiana University Press. Don’t be scared off by her academic publisher: Yanco writes in clear, non-jargon language how “we” (she includes herself) so easily forget Dr. King’s core beliefs. It’s easy for us, she says, to remember […]
If you’ve been enlightened by Tim Wise’s White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, or intrigued by my white privilege-related essays, do read Debby Irving’s memoir, Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race, just out in 2014. The book’s cover is of a happy little girl at dinner, […]
I bring an array of books to the People Challenging Racism class I co-lead, offering to loan them during the semester. These books include memoirs by formerly enslaved men and women. But that none of the students – young, old, white or of color – asks to borrow any of these personal accounts of bondage. […]
My 2nd booklet of personal essays, Was I Thinking? Digging Deeper into Everyday Racism is just out and available from my distributor. The racial justice publisher Crandall, Dostie and Douglass Books sells it for $8.95 at www.cddbooks.com. Same price for my first booklet, What Was I Thinking? Reflecting on Everyday Racism (2010). Here’s the Table […]
Several years ago, when I sat on the diversity committee of the National Writers Union, we asked anyone attending our caucus to introduce him or herself as either a “person of color,” an LGBT person, a person with a disability — or an ally of one or all of the above. I happily introduced myself […]
Here I am, trying to move past my white-bread mindset, in hope of being able to listen with an open mind to the perspectives of people of color. At the same time, I think of Shakespeare’s “To thine own self be true, and thou canst not be false to any man” and I wonder: how […]
When I became determined to free myself of group stereotypes based on ignorance, I first tried a shortcut, reading book with titles like Everything You Need to Know About Latino History, Everything You Need to Know About Asian American History, 100 Things Everyone Should Know about African Americans, or The Arab-American Handbook. As for Native […]
