The Case for Reparations (June 2014)
Ta-Nehisi Coates
“Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.”
Op-Ed: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Don’t understand the protests? What you’re seeing is people pushed to the edge (May 2020)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
A discussion of the protests and what they mean to the Black community.
To White Parents Who Want to Be Allies at This Time (June 2020)
Michele Benoit-Wilson, MD
Article discusses that what an ally will look like is someone who is aware that their children will walk through life differently due to the color of their skin.
75 Things White People Can do for Racial Justice (August 2017)
Corinne Shutack
List of actionable steps to take in pursuit of racial justice.
The Law Isn’t Neutral (June 2020)
Dahlia Lithwick
Dahlia Lithwick spoke with Angela Onwuachi-Willig, the dean of Boston University School of Law, who is a renowned legal scholar and an expert in critical race theory, employment discrimination, and family law.
The American Nightmare (June 2020)
Ibram X. Kendi
To be black and conscious of anti-black racism is to stare into the mirror of your own extinction.
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (1988)
Peggy McIntosh
The author begins to ask what it is like to have white privilege. She has come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that she 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, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks. Describing white privilege makes one newly accountable. As we in women’s studies work to reveal male privilege and ask men to give up some of their power, so one who writes about having white privilege must ask, “having described it, what will I do to lessen or end it?”
How White Women Use Strategic Tears to Silence Women of Colour (May 2018)
Ruby Hamad
The legitimate grievances of brown and black women are no match for the accusations of a white damsel in distress
About the Weary Weaponizing of White Women Tears (Apr. 2018)
Luvvie Ajayi Jones
Picture it: a white woman feels challenged or uncomfortable about something a Black person said or did. Instead of using her words, she cries. Instantly, no matter what the initial catalyst of the situation is, she ends up being appeased, pacified and pampered. Lawd knows we’ve all seen virtual white woman tears shut down conversation, even if she was the instigator of conflict. The other person? Ends up being scolded. Or fired. Or arrested. Or killed. When Lorelei cries, heads roll.
Another Day, Another Hashtag. White People, You Gotta Get to Work NOW (Sept. 2016)
Luvvie Ajayi Jones
White people. Yes, you. Even you nice ones. These things that are happening? These horrifying things that are happening to my people? They are because people who look like you, have set up a system of supremacy that flourishes. It is one that says people who look like me are violent, threats. It doesn’t matter if they’re holding books, wallets, bags of skittles. It is one that allows people to be killed by cops while sitting in their cars. It allows people to be killed while they lay on the ground with their hands showing. It allows people to be killed while walking away. And their murderers are employees of the state. These killings are state-sanctioned.
The Stages of What Happens When There’s Injustice Against Black People (Dec. 2014)
Luvvie Ajayi Jones
Ten stages that have been remarkably consistent.
It Could Have Been Me: Black Attorneys Reflect on George Floyd’s Death and What Comes Next (June 2020)
Dylan Jackson
Black attorneys and legal industry leaders recounted their own experiences with racism and their hopes for the future.
Five Ways an Anti-Racist White Caucus Supports Diversity and Inclusion (December 2019)
Ilsa Govan
Any organization that truly wants to create a diverse and welcoming environment should get as comfortable cultivating White people as allies to People of Color as we are men as allies to women. One way to do this is to form a White anti-racist resource group or caucus. The White caucus meets regularly to become more self-aware, increase our knowledge of the dynamics of race, and practice skills for allyship.