Monday, July 20, 2020

Book Talk | Dismantling White Supremacy Day 23

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I began this book last week and would love to have discussions based on the prompts provided within the book. The book is set up so that after each day's reading, there are a handful of prompts to respond to. Feel free to respond to as many or as few as you like. I would love for this to be a discussion and a place where we can learn and grow together. Please be honest, because that is the only way anything will change.

Additionally, I have been compiling a list of books under the #BlackLivesMatter Reading List tab. I am usually adding books daily that I find, or are recommended by others. Please leave a comment on that page if you have titles to add. I hope you can find titles on this list that you will learn from as well.

Day Twenty-Three Prompts

1. Knowing what you now know about white supremacist behaviors across Days 1-22, how do you respond when you witness white leaders behaving in these white supremacist ways:
  • When white leaders tone police BIPOC?
  • When white leaders claim color blindness?
  • When white leaders use anti-Black tropes or racist stereotypes?
  • When white leaders practice cultural appropriations?
  • When white leaders practice optical allyship and white saviorism?
2. When you have witnessed white leaders practicing these behaviors, how do you own your white fragility and white silence get in the way of you asking them to do better?

3. How does your fear of loss of privilege and comfort hold you back from asking white leaders to do better?

4. How aware have you been of whether white leaders you follow are doing deeper antiracist work? How much of a priority has it been for you to push them to go beyond the visual effect of diversity?

5. If you are in a leadership position, how do you plan to respond to your own behaviors going forward? How do you plan to hold yourself accountable to doing better?

Let's talk!
Sarah

2 comments:

  1. These are great questions to ponder over.
    White feminism has always bothered me. I minored in Women's Studies when I was an undergrad. The majority of my WS classes were white women centered. If they did speak about minorities, they would touch on the black woman experience the majority of the time. It was more like tokenism.

    Though I learned a lot in my courses and I agreed with many of their theories, I could not fully connect with the WS agenda. As a Mexican immigrant raised in California most of my life, my struggles were not the same as the white woman. I always felt cheated when the Latina experience was always skipped when WS tried to focus on feminism in minority groups. I could go on and on, but I'll leave it for another time.

    1. I feel angry. I end up having lengthy discussions with my husband and start donating to organizations that support people of color.

    For questions 2-4, I have to ponder more on.

    5. I'm not in a leadership position, but I am a teacher. I have always taught my students about injustices to people of color. Now, I need up my game and really transform my classroom library to have more books by people of color.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for joining the conversation and sharing your experience and perspective based on your own areas of study and education. This part was especially eye-opening for me because up until a few years ago, I knew almost no Black women at all, and few women in general who could speak of their own experiences with this negative side of feminism and how it is overwhelmingly white feminism, to be exact.

      I too am a teacher, though I work with students in resource and do not have my own classroom. Even so, I am doing the same as you, and making a point to seek out more books by BIPOC authors, with the majority of the characters being BIPOC as well.

      I will be trying to catch up tonight and tomorrow on the days I have not yet recorded my answers to, so please come back around if you have time so we can talk some more!

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Thanks for visiting my little book nook. I love talking books so leave a comment and let's chat!