In How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.
Read MoreThere is no such thing as being "not racist," says author and historian Ibram X. Kendi. In this vital conversation, he defines the transformative concept of antiracism to help us more clearly recognize, take responsibility for and reject prejudices in our public policies, workplaces and personal beliefs. Learn how you can actively use this awareness to uproot injustice and inequality in the world -- and replace it with love.
Read MoreIn the iceberg model, the piece of the structure that appears above the surface represents a single “event.” Just below the surface, a deeper level of examination reveals patterns of events, or “trends.”
Racism and particularly Anti-Black Racism works in the same way as the iceberg model - what appears on the surface can be dramatic and shocking, but what happens beneath is deep and damaging.
Read MoreOur lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding. We also miss the plethora of possibilities that that is obscured by a single lens. This is an important understanding for all anti-racism work.
Read MorePeggy McIntosh, founder of the National SEED Project on Inclusive Curriculum, which seeks Educational Equity & Diversity in the USA, writing way back in 1989 observed: “I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions. . . ”
Read MoreRobin DiAngelo’s bestselling book White Fragility has provoked an uncomfortable but vital conversation about what it means to be white. As protests organized by the Black Lives Matter movement continue around the world, she explains why white people should stop avoiding conversations about race because of their own discomfort, and how 'white fragility' plays a key role in upholding systemic racism.
Read MoreA lot of bias circles around race. But what is race? What is ethnicity? Aren’t they the same? Race and ethnicity are often used interchangeably, but have different meanings. Race is an externally-imposed categorization based on certain physical features such as skin color and hair texture, a common ancestry, and cultural and moral attributes. Ethnicity is a self-defined group identity based on shared kinship, history, and culture.
Read MoreOne of the basic concepts that needs exploring in anti-racism is implicit or inherent bias. If you have a brain, you have bias. Bias shapes the way we see the world but it doesn’t have to take over. Implicit bias exists when people unconsciously hold attitudes toward others or associate stereotypes with them.
Read MoreIn a new book, “White Fragility,” Dr. Robin DiAngelo attempts to explicate the phenomenon of white people’s paper-thin skin. She argues that our largely segregated society is set up to insulate whites from racial discomfort, so that they fall to pieces at the first application of stress—such as, for instance, when someone suggests that “flesh-toned” may not be an appropriate name for a beige crayon.
Read MoreABC News takes a look back at the Black Lives Matter movement. The phrase "Black Lives Matter" was born in a Facebook post by Alicia Garza in response to the July 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, who fatally shot Martin. The movement emerged as a reaction to the perceived violence and systemic racism by police toward African-American communities.
#BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc. is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. (BLM Website Statement)
Read MoreThere is a major conversation happening globally between those affected by racism and those with the privilege not to be affected. The latter have an opportunity and a responsibility to learn about it.
If you’re white, this work might feel uncomfortable. It’s supposed to. Canada is not immune to racism.
Read MoreWhat is an ally? An ally is any person that actively promotes and aspires to advance the culture of inclusion through intentional, positive and conscious efforts that benefit people as a whole. Sheree Atcheson, author of "Demanding More : Why Diversity & Inclusion Aren't Happening & what you can do about it", writes about why being an ally is so important to anti-racism.
Read MoreWarner Sallman's 1940 oil painting "The Head of Christ" is believed to be the most reproduced religious work of art. It's been copied a billion times, if you include lamps, clocks and calendars. It came to define Christianity for generations of Christians in the United States and beyond.
When Emily McFarlan Millergrew up and began to study the Bible on her own, she started to wonder about that painting and the message it sent.
Read MoreBlack Lives Matter co-founder and artist Patrisse Cullors presents a luminous vision of the spiritual core of Black Lives Matter and a resilient world in the making. She joins Dr. Robert Ross, a physician and philanthropist on the cutting edge of learning how trauma can be healed in bodies and communities. A cross-generational reflection on evolving social change in this wonderful interview with Krista Tippett at The On Being Project.
Read MoreMany Canadians view slavery as something that happened in the United States of America from the arrival of the first slave ships in 1619 until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, but fail to understand that the buying, selling, and enslavement of Black and Indigenous people went on for about 200 years in our own country (beginning with the arrival of Olivier le Jeune in 1628 to New France and ending with the Slavery Abolition Act, August 1, 1834).
Read MoreKrista Tippett begins - “The show we released with Minneapolis trauma specialist Resmaa Menakem in the weeks after George Floyd’s killing has touched listeners, and galvanized searching, with an extraordinary reach. So I said yes when he proposed that he join me in conversation again, this time together with Robin DiAngelo. She is perhaps the foremost voice in our civilizational grappling with whiteness; her book, White Fragility, is one of the most widely read books in the world right now. Hearing the two of them together is electric — the deepest of dives into the calling of our lifetimes.”
Read MoreResmaa Menakem is a healer, therapist, trainer, and speaker, and the author of the New York Times bestseller My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Healing Our Hearts and Bodies. Here are four blogs he has written for Psychology today concerning Somatic Abolitionism, how it affects our bodies and the way we think.
Read MoreResmaa Menakem describes Somatic Abolitionism as a living, embodied anti-racist practice and cultural building —a way of being in the world. It is a return to the age-old wisdom of human bodies respecting, honoring, and resonating with other human bodies. It is not a exclusively a goal, an attitude, a belief, an idea, a strategy, a movement, a plan, a system, a political position, or a step forward.
Somatic Abolitionism is not a human invention. It is the resourcing of energies that are always present in your body, in the collective body, and in the world. Somatic Abolitionism is an emergent process.
Read MoreIt has become clear that in regards to anti-racism, the best laws and diversity training have not gotten us anywhere near where we want to go. Therapist and trauma specialist Resmaa Menakem is working with old wisdom and very new science about our bodies and nervous systems, and all we condense into the word “race.” Krista Tippet, The On Being Project, sat down with him in Minneapolis, where they both live and work, before the pandemic lockdown began. In this heartbreaking moment, after the killing of George Floyd and the history it carries, Resmaa Menakem’s practices offer us the beginning to change at a cellular level.
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