This is not the water we want to give our kids to drink. It’s not the condition of the Earth we want to leave them to try and inhabit. This is greed and addiction and too many of us who are still too weak to face the oil dependencies we have and not yet courageous or creative enough to stand up to this monstrous industry and all the politicians who are being fed by its existence. I know we can do better, humans… but will we?
Solutions from Young People
“To me it’s like … if we don’t try and go make that change, who’s going to do it?” – Denis Estimon
White Supremacy is a Racial Hierarchy
Quotes from Desiree Adaway:
“White supremacy refers to a racial hierarchy in which whiteness sits at the very tippy top. This country was founded and built upon this system—legally, culturally, economically, and politically—of white male upper class supremacy. We want to believe that it only reflects extreme images of terrorist organizations like KKK members or the modern day Nazi movement.
- This hierarchy manifests itself legally when the government finally admits that the war on drugs was created to bring down leaders and destroy communities of color- so they created sentencing guidelines to support this narrative.
- This hierarchy manifests itself culturally through internal bias, assumptions and norms that teaches Black cultural is “bad” and white cultural is “good’. A black boy in a hoodie is a thug but a white boy in a hoodie is the next Mark Zuckerberg.
- This hierarchy manifests itself economically by maintaining class inequalities by determining which neighborhoods are “good” or “bad” and determining which of these communities have access to housing loans and capital.
- This hierarchy manifests politically when every President but one in our history has been white, male and upper-class.
The word “racism” waters down this structural reality. Let’s call a thang, a thang. So call it what it is- white supremacy”
….
“Fear of onflict helps keep the status quo. The need to equate raising a difficult issue like white supremacy with being impolite or rude or out of line helps keep white supremacy securely in place. When people on the margins don’t speak in a language or tone that the dominant group finds acceptable they use that as an excuse to not address the issue at all. You have been fed the lie that you have the right to emotional and psychological comfort over my freedom from an oppressive system.”
Segregated Schools and Inequality in Funding Is Destroying Us
From The Conversation I’m Tired of Not Having by 2016 National Teacher of the Year Finalist
“As a nation, we’re nibbling around the edges with accountability measures and other reforms, but we’re ignoring the immutable core issue: much of white and wealthy America is perfectly happy with segregated schools and inequity in funding. We have the schools we have, because people who can afford better get better. And sadly, people who can’t afford better just get less–less experienced teachers, inadequate funding and inferior facilities.
Middle class America would never allow the conditions that have become normalized in poor and brown America to stand for their kids.
The images coming out of Detroit Public Schools: buckled floors, toilets without seats, roaches, mold and even mushrooms growing in damp, disgusting, mildewy classrooms. Like the images of American torture and abuse last decade in Abu Ghraib, these images should have shocked the nation. Instead, they elicited a collective national shrug, stretch and yawn.
The View from the Burbs is Sweet. Through white flight and suburbanization, wealthy and middle class families have completely insulated themselves from educational inequality. They send their kids to homogeneous schools and they do what it takes, politically at the local level, to ensure they’re well-funded, well-staffed, with opportunities for enrichment and exploration.
I spoke to a veteran teacher (17 years in the classroom) from Maryland. Her school is located five miles from the nation’s capitol and in her career, she has never taught a white student. Never. Her county and its schools are completely segregated. We aren’t in this together.
“61% of Blacks, 55% of Hispanics support gov’t intervention to address school segregation. Vast majority of whites (72%) say nope!” They’re perfectly satisfied with situation as is.
Our most needy students need our best teachers, yet our highest need schools have the least experienced teachers, the most turnover and are becoming burnout factories for those who remain. All the existing structural incentives for effective educators push them toward work in suburban schools, where they’ll be better supported and the workload is sustainable. Nobody wants to talk about this.”
Addressing Institutional Racism Or Not…
I highly encourage you to read this article by Korbett Mosesly. Especially if you work at a non-profit or organization that has a majority White leadership and cares about addressing racism.
10 Ways to Practice Institutional Racism at Your Non-Profit Organization
- Maintain White Leadership
- Frame the issues & lead the strategies for people of color.
- Limit partnerships with (and Feedback from) communities of color.
- Ignore complaints of bias and racism from workers and clients.
- Value credentials vs. the skills needed to serve diverse populations.
- Do not involve people directly impacted.
- White wash the diversity language.
- Maintain the social dynamic of white non-profit affinity groups.
- Exploit black clients in poverty.
- Offer cultural competency training every few years.
Lovin on the Daddies Today
Don’t let anyone keep us from loving each other in this F.U.W.