Anti-Bias Anti-Racism
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Terms
Racism: Prejudice + power. Racism is often understood as an individual state of being, as in someone is or isn’t racist. Racism, however, is not merely a personal attitude, it is a racialized system of power maintained by violence. In North America, an individual can be perpetuating this system without even being conscious of their actions (Source: Simmons College Anti-Oppression Guide: http://simmons.libguides.com/anti-oppression).
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Anyone can hold racial prejudice.
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People of any race can commit acts of mistreatment based on their racial prejudices.
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People of color can have prejudices, but they cannot be racist because they don't have the institutional power.
Systemic /Structural Racism: Developed by sociologist Joe Feagin, a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity. It identifies dimensions of our history and culture that have allowed privileges associated with “whiteness” and disadvantages associated with “color” to endure and adapt over time. Structural racism is not something that a few people or institutions choose to practice. Instead, it has been a feature of the social, economic and political systems in which we all exist. Reverse-Racism: DOES NOT EXIST. There are assumptions and stereotypes about white people. However, such assumptions and stereotypes are examples of racial prejudice. Remember, racism = prejudice + power.
Terms adapted from:
A Growth Mindset
Hate on Display™ Hate Symbols Database-BE AWARE
Organizations
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The whiteness project: Whiteness Project is an interactive investigation into how Americans who identify as white, or partially white, understand and experience their race.
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Southern poverty law center: The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation.
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Colorlines: Daily news site where race matters, featuring award-winning investigative reporting and news analysis. Published by Race Forward, a national organization that advances racial justice through research, media, and practice.
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ACLU: The American Civil Liberty Union works in the courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
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Mapping police violence: This organization provides statistics about police violence towards communities of color in the United States.
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Equal justice initiative: An interactive experience of lynching in the United States powered by Google.
What Does Racism Look Like?
Racial Microaggressions are commonplace verbal or behavioral indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights and insults in relation to race. They are structurally based and invoke oppressive systems of racial hierarchy. Racial Microinvalidations, Microinsults, Microassaults are specific types of microaggressions.
Note: The prefix “micro” is used because these are invocations of racial hierarchy at the individual level (person to person), where as the "macro" level refers to aggressions committed by structures as a whole (e.g. an organizational policy). "Micro" in no way minimalizes or otherwise evaluates the impact or seriousness of the aggressions.
Further Reading:
- 21 Racial Microaggressions You Hear On A Daily Basis
- No, You’re Not Imagining It: 3 Ways Racial Microaggressions Sneak into Our Lives
- I, Too, Am Harvard
- The Harmful History of “Gypsy”
- Living with Racial Battle Fatigue: Why Fighting Microaggressions Can Feel Like Treading Water
- What If White People Had to Deal with Racist Microaggressions?
- If Native Americans Said the Stuff White People Say (Video)
- How to Be An Ally to Someone Experiencing Microaggressions
- Common Words and Phrases That Have Seriously Racist Roots
Colorblindness is the racial ideology that posits the best way to end discrimination is by treating individuals as equally as possible, without regard to race, culture, or ethnicity. This not only amounts to a dismissal of the lived experiences of people of color, but also suggests that racism does not exist so long as one ignores it
I don't see color.
I just see people.
We're all just people.
I don't care if you're black, white, green, or purple-polka-dotted!
#AllLivesMatter
At face value, colorblindness seems like a good thing — actually living up to Dr. King's ideal of judging people on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. However, colorblindness alone is not sufficient to combat racism or heal racial wounds on a national or personal level. It is only a half-measure that, in the end, operates as a form of racism. (from PsychologyToday.com)
Further reading:
- Colorblind Ideology is a Form of Racism
- 5 Signs Your Idea of ‘Intersectionality’ Is Anti-Black Racism In Disguise
- 7 Reasons Why 'Colorblindness' Contributes to Racism Instead of Solving It
- The Top 10 Phrases Used by People Who Claim They Are Not Racist
- When you say 'you don't see race,' you're ignoring racism, not helping to solve it
- 3 Facts You May Not Know About the Racist Origins of ‘Colorblindness’
- It's Time You Realize #AllLivesMatter Is Racist
- #AllLivesDidntMatter
- If People Applied “All Lives Matter” Logic To Everyday Life
- 'Every Single Word' Reveals The Alarmingly Low Amount Of Lines Spoken By PoC In The Biggest Films
- 25 Times White Actors Played People Of Color And No One Really Gave A S**t
- The Racial Bias Built Into Photography
Tokenism is presence without meaningful participation. For example, a superficial invitation for participation without ongoing dialogue and support, handpicked representatives who are expected to speak for the whole (socially oppressed) group (e.g. ‘tell us how women experience this issue’). Tokenism is often used as a band-aid solution to help the group improve its image (e.g. ‘we’re not racist, look there’s a person of colour on the panel.’). (from Sustainable Campuses)
Similarly, this attitude of "one is enough/they're all the same" contributes to the mindset that one person of color or one Native person can stand in for all people of color and Native people respectively. Not only is it problematic and illogical to assume that one individual's perspective and experiences can be generalized to millions of other people, it also promotes to the idea that a friendship, relationship, or just exposure to one or a few people of color or Native people negates racist thoughts, ideas, or behavior toward others (i.e. "I'm not a racist, my boyfriend is black" or "My costume isn't racist--my best friend is First Nation and she thinks it's hilarious").
Further Reading:
- Stereotype Threat, Tokenism, and Implicit Racism
- Inclusivity or Tokenism
- The Real Cost of Being the POC 'In the Room' Required to Shut Down Obviously Racist Products
- Erasure hurts. #RepresentationMatters. (video)
- Let Her Learn from the National Women's Law Center (video)
- Framed: The Politics of Stereotypes in News (video)
- The myth about smart black kids and “acting white” that won’t die
- Black Twitter recalls the times they were mistaken for the help #IDontWorkHere
- Demythologizing Diversity in Higher Education
- Tokenism, Racial Stereotypes & Why We Need More Directors of Color
- 4 Reasons Why the Lack of Asian Americans in Hollywood Is Completely Absurd
Support Resources
- If you need a little pick-me-up...
- An Important Reminder
- Types of Self-Care
- Here’s What To Do If You Can’t Afford Therapy
- If you're unable to see a therapist or mental health pro...
- Self-Care DIY: A How-To Just For You
- Surviving & Resisting Hate: A Toolkit For People of Color (pdf)
- Self Care For People of Color After Psychological Trauma
- Self-Care in the Native American Communities (Video)
- Self-Care and Black Intellectual Labor
- If You're Black, Rest Is Power
- Strong Black Women Need Therapy Too
- Filling our Cups: 4 Ways People of Color can Foster Mental Health
- Study Shows Belief That Black Women Are Innately Strong Is Linked To Depression
- Test Used to Diagnose Depression Was Designed for White People
- 11 Black Queer and Trans Women Discuss Self-Care
- Selena’s Reflection: Self Care Among Leaders of Color
- Native-American Know-How: How To Take Care of Yourself First
- Why We Need Self-Care in the Face of Race-Based Trauma
- Why Self-Compassion Works Better Than Self-Esteem
- The Radical Politics of Self-Love and Self-Care
- Audre Lorde Thought of Self-Care as an "Act of Policital Warfare."
- How to Cope with Perfectionism as a Black Student at a Mostly White Institution
- How Being the Only Black Student Taught Me What Internalized Racism Is Really About
- Not Alone: Talking Through Impostor Syndrome
- 9 Ways to Practice Self-Care When Dealing with Street Harassment
- What I Learned From an Elder About Coping With Racism
- 4 Reasons Black People Can Feel Responsible for White Feelings (And Why We’re Not)
- 3 Reasons We Cannot Cater to White Friends Who Say ‘I’m Not Racist’
- The Mental Health Zines Filling the Gap That Therapy Doesn’t
- Students’ Coping Strategies Against Racial Microaggressions
- Rest for Resistance: QTPoC Mental Health
- Coping with Race-Related Stress as a Student
- Surviving Institutions That Weren’t Created For You
- This BLM Meditation Can Help People Cope With The Tiring Cycle Of Oppression
- How to Deal with Racist People
- 6 Ways Women of Color Can Overcome Imposter Syndrome
- Being Educated Won’t Save Me (Or You) From Racism
- Book Recommendations for Woke Brown Girls
- Mixed Doesn’t Always Mean Part White: Uplifting Non-White Mixed Race Identities
- How to Tackle Anti-Blackness as a Non-Black POC
- 7 Ways Non-Black POC Perpetuate Anti-Blackness in their Communities
- When Defending Your Writing Becomes Defending Yourself
- 4 Reasons ‘People of Color’ Isn’t Always the Best Choice of Words
- What’s Wrong With the Term ‘Person of Color’
- We are not "people of color"
- Why Racial Justice Work Needs to Address Settler Colonialism and Native Rights
- Settler Fragility: Why Settler Privilege Is So Hard to Talk About
- I'm an Oglala Lakota Woman and I Won't Be Labeled as "White-Passing"
- The Declaration of Independence. It’s Not What You Think.
- 3 Upsetting Examples of Anti-Native Racism in Pop Culture (And What To Do About It)
- 13 Struggles for Native People Beyond Mascots and Casinos
- A Love Letter to Two Spirit and Native LGBTQIA+ Survivors of Corrective Assault
- I Am a Native American Woman With White Privilege
- Why Defending Your Cultural Appropriation is Dangerous
- 4 #BlackLivesMatter Myths Debunked (Video)
- I Tried to Fight Racism by Being a "Model Minority" — and Then It Backfired
- Colorism in the Black Community: Perspectives on Light-Skinned Privilege
- Talking about mental illness in the Black community (video)
- Racism and the Invisible Struggle of Mental Health in the Black Community
- Diaspora Blackness in the Caribbean: A Radical Resource
- Activists Hang Highway Banner BLASTING Black Men for Not Fighting for Women in Black Lives Matter
- 3 Important Reminders to Help Black Activists Keep Our Movements Intersectional
- The Woke Black Person’s Guide to Talking About Oppression with Family
- #Lemonade: A Black Feminist Resource List
- I Hate Cultural Appropriation – But Have I Appropriated African Cultures as a Black American?
- Define: BLACK (Video Series)
- Famous Afro-Latinos On What Their Identity Means To Them
- Your Guide On How to Support Black People After Incidents of Police Violence
Short Reads
- 10 Ways I Have Perpetuated Anti-Blackness as a Non-Black POC (and How I Intend to Do Better)
- 12 things to do before calling the cops
- 1619 project, pdf
- Being educated won't save you (or me) from racism
- Be less racist: 12 tips for white dudes by a white dude
- The Difference between Latino and Hispanic in one comic
- The end of Black Harlem
- The history white people need to learn
- How to be an anti-racist ally
- Minding the gap
- No, You’re Not Imagining It: 3 Ways Racial Microaggressions Sneak into Our Lives
- Speak up: Responding to everyday bigotry
- There is no post racial America
- Understanding White Privilege
- We need Co-conspirators-not allies
- Where are you really from?
- White allies: Here's a basic list of do's and don'ts to help you with your helplessness
- The whiteness project
- We Are All Excludeds’ - Ethnic Media Panel Discuss New Exhibit on Japanese Internment
(From New York Tech Library)
With Thanks
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This Libguide began was adapted from the American School of Madrid, which was adapted from the Simmons University Libguide, and has grown to include sources from our ASU resources and community. It is a work in progress with news, resources and links to actionable information.