Working Towards Ending Racism

  Dorothy Roberts’ KILLING THE BLACK BODY:   Race Reproduction and the Meaning of Liberty is a deep, challenging, excellent book, particularly for white men (and secondarily for white women).    For me it taps into the denial which I go into (thankfully less and less frequently over time) as a privileged white man, where racism, sexism and homo/lesbian/trans phobias don’t penetrate me deeply and I relax, seemingly oblivious to what others face in their daily lives. But the movement   to expand women’s reproductive options was marked by racism from its very inception in the early part of this century (note: 20 th century) .   The spread of contraception to American women hinged partly on its appeal to eugenicists bent on curtailing the birthrates of the “unfit” including Negroes.   For several decades, peaking in the 1970’s, government-sponsored family planning programs not only encouraged Black women to use birth control but coerced them into being sterilized. (p.56) Roberts is d

Shelly Tochluk and Christine Saxman in BEING WHITE TODAY: A Roadmap for a Positive Antiracist Life have written an excellent “basics” book for a wide variety of white people who care about racism, as well as for others who aren’t “there” yet!    (As the author’s explain at the beginning of the book, the book may be useful for People of Color primarily where they work with white people on racism related issues.)   The book personalizes our (their) personal journeys (as white people), as well as providing pointed examples of what we, as white people, go through becoming deeply Anti-Racist, or finding the far simpler path of accepting racism. “ I’m so sick of this school making me feel guilty for being White.   I’m ready to join the alt-right and I’m Jewish” …   I take a deep breath prompted by the gasp.   I move closer.   “Tell me more about the school making you feel guilty” (p.1) “ We have successfully frozen their brand - ‘critical race theory’ - into the public conversation and

  I’ve only read a portion of Dorothy Roberts’ (Twentieth Anniversary Edition) challenging - Killing The Black Body: Race, Reproduction and the Meaning of Liberty .    Many of the things she spoke of prior to the books’ publication in 2017 have been greatly amplified by the multiplicity of murders and aggressions since then which have targeted Black People, particularly women and transgender People. I can’t write a relevant “review” of this book, until I complete my reading of it, and that likely will be delayed.    It is challenging to know where to begin!    The impacts of slavery upon Black People are immense.     Rarely do we - white men - let go of our “personal safety” and really emotionally open up to what has been, and unfortunately continues to be done in the name of “government”,   “society”, or even us as individuals. I can not imagine emotionally what it could have been like to kill one’s young baby, feeling that one doesn’t want to force that child to live in a world

MARSE:  A Psychological Portrait Of The Southern Slavemaster And His Legacy Of White Supremacy  - By: H.D. Kirkpatrick  (Prometheus Books, 2022) This is an amazing book!     It brings in a whole new layer (or way of explaining it) into understanding racism - especially for white people - and even more so for white men.    It is scary reading!     It is a “good” kind of scary!    It helps me open up my heart - more and more to ponder the intersections of the power of elites.   It shows how they play off the “little people” - against each other.   It shows how, by our essential relative silence, we (,who think we are “better” than those “other “ white people,) acquiesce to their power. The book until its concluding chapter focuses historically on the Racist and horrifically pathological, criminal nature of slavery.    It shows how relatively few major slaveowners deeply impacted the U.S. and the other major world powers.     It paints a picture of “normalcy” that is highly disturbing

  In 1822 the Denmark Vesey slave insurrection was planned in Charleston but was thwarted.   Nearly three dozen people were executed.   Erskine informed us that “thirty-five Blacks were hanged and more than forty sent to the Caribbean or to Africa.” (40)   Historian Lacy K. Ford added that the Vesey insurrection revitalized the “colonization movement” among Southern whites, as a possible means of colonizing free Blacks and troublesome slaves as a way to enhance white security. (41) The net effect of the Vesey revolt changed many white Charlestonians views of management of the enslaved.   As Stampp said “After the Vesey conspiracy, Charlestonians expressed disillusionment with the idea that by generous treatment their enslaved ‘would become more satisfied with their conditions and more attached to whites.”’ (42)   In other words, enslavers ramped up greater repressive actions dropping the paternalistic pretense that slaves were family.    Berlin noted that “white supremacy manifested i

  Jeffrey Haas’s: The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How The FBI and The Chicago Police MURDERED A BLACK PANTHER (Updated Edition) - is most appropriate today in 2023!   The lies that “ruled” for at least 13 years beginning in 1969 - with a major assassination were significantly concealed and relied upon the biases of white Americans. Strangely, today we live in a world - most similar in significant ways.    In both cases the “bigger truth” - that was put forth was/is total deception intended to continue a Racist System that pushes to build and extend the power of wealthy white men.    “Strangely” - their desires - are selfishly intended to help themselves, not the needs and preferences of those who lack privilege, and power - often BIPOC. Haas effectively shows how Fred Hampton was an amazing individual who cared about others.    He clearly would have become both an incredible leader of Black People working positively to build a non-racist, “fair” world, as well as an example of