Working Towards Ending Racism

Growing up in West Lafayette, Indiana, I lived in a very white world.   People of color were almost exclusively Purdue foreign graduate students and their families.   I remember one black person who lived in West Lafayette, a professor, whose wife was white.   During my freshman year in high school there was one black student, a sophomore, whose family had moved I think from Gary.   I heard that they moved back to Gary, after one year in West Lafayette because she couldn't handle being the sole black student at our high school. One summer during high school, there was an Upward Bound Program for academically promising "inner city" kids at Purdue.   I went to a meal there, hoping to meet and talk with Leroy Spikener: Leroy Spikener (Gary Froebel 1966-1968) who was known as ‘Cap Man’ because he wore a baseball cap and tossed it to the infield as he began his vicious kick down the backstretch.  Leroy was shot to death in Gary on August 24, 1998, but the positive side of

In Conclusion (final paragraph) Interrupting racism takes courage and intentionality; the interruption is by definition not passive or complacent.   So in answer to the question “Where do we go from here?,” I offer that we must never consider ourselves finished with our learning.   Even if challenging all the racism and superiority we have internalized was quick and easy to do, our racism would be reinforced all over again just by virtue of living in the culture.   I have been engaged in this work in a range of forms for many years, and I continue to receive feedback on my stubborn patterns and unexamined assumptions.   It is a messy, lifelong process, but one that is necessary to align my professed values with my real actions.   It is also deeply compelling and transformative. p.153-4, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism –    Robin DiAngelo Recognize Bias and Privilege Acknowledge your privilege. Before having conversations about race

NOTE:  On February 6, 2022 - a new - listing - including all that is below entitled: " Resources (Again) " was begun:   http://www.workingtowardsendingracism.org/2022/02/resources-again.html Resources - added beyond 2/6/2022 - are not listed below ----     BOOKS    ---- At the Dark End of the Street – Danielle McGuire Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom - Derecka Purnell The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America - Richard Rothstein - Incredible Incredible book Florynce "Flor" Kennedy: The Life of a Black Feminist Radical - Sherie M Randolph How to Argue With a Racist: What Our Genes Do (and Don't) Say About Human Difference - Adam Rutherford How to be an Anti-Racist - Ibram X Kendi LOVING: Interracial Intimacy in America and the Threat to White Supremacy - Sheryll Cashing My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies - Resma Men