Skip to main content

ON RACISM

By


Art Blair shared Bev Collier's note: On Racism.
Bev Collier wrote a new note: ON RACISM.
Because racism does not affect us white folk in the same way as it does people of color, it is easy to underestimate the pain and suffering that they endure on a daily basis. Our white privilege allows us to place it back on a remote shelf at anytime and ignore it. White folks don't have to talk about racism. It does not directly affect us. We don't have to fear that our sons will be arrested, sent to prison or even killed for a minor action. Our character is not judged by the color of our skin.
White people need to look beyond our privilege and learn to listen to and strive to understand those most affected by racism. We have no business judging or instructing people of color on racism. They know full well what racism is and how it affects their lives and the lives of their children and grandchildren! If we sincerely care about racism in this country we need to accept that our place as white people is to listen with the intent to learn. That is the first step toward taking the responsibility of ending this affliction. It is after all, a white affliction!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PHYLLIS LINDA HYMAN (July 6, 1949 – June 30, 1995)

By
Phyllis Hyman was born in  Philadelphia ,  Pennsylvania , and grew up in  St. Clair Village , the  South Hills  section of  Pittsburgh . Born to an Italian mother, (Louise), and African-American father, (Phillip),  Hyman was the eldest of seven children. Through her paternal great-grandparents Ishmael and Cassandra (Cross) Hyman, she was also the first cousin once removed of actor  Earle Hyman  (best known for his recurring role on  The Cosby Show  as Cliff's father, Russell Huxtable). After leaving Pittsburgh, her music training started at a music school. On graduation, she performed on a national tour with the group New Direction in 1971. After the group disbanded, she joined All the People and worked with another local group, The Hondo Beat. At this time, she appeared in the film  Lenny  (1974). She also did a two-year stint leading a band called "Phyllis Hyman and the P/H Factor". She was discovered in 1975 by music industry veteran Sid Maurer, and former  Epic Re
Post a Comment
Read more

Queen Philippa: England's First Black Queen

By
England's First Black Queen, Mother of the Black Prince Philippa was the daughter of William of Hainault, a lord in part of what is now Belgium. When she was nine the King of England, Edward II, decided that he would marry his son, the future Edward III, to her, and sent one of his bishops, a Bishop Stapeldon, to look at her. He described her thus: "The lady whom we saw has not uncomely hair, betwixt blue-black and brown. Her head is cleaned shaped; her forehead high and broad, and standing somewhat forward. Her face narrows between the eyes, and the lower part of her face is still more narrow and slender than the forehead. Her eyes are blackish brown and deep. Her nose is fairly smooth and even, save that is somewhat broad at the tip and flattened, yet it is no snub nose. Her nostrils are also broad, her mouth fairly wide. Her lips somewhat full and especially the lower lip…a
8 comments
Read more

Elizabeth Key Grinstead (b. 1630 - d. c. after 1665)

By
Elizabeth Grimstead was one of the first women of  African  ancestry in the North American colonies to sue for her freedom from  slavery  and win. Elizabeth Key won her freedom and that of her infant son John Grinstead on July 21, 1656 in the colony of Virginia. She sued based on the fact that her father was an Englishman and that she was a  baptized   Christian . Based on these two factors, her English attorney and common-law husband William Grinstead argued successfully that she should be freed. The lawsuit in 1655 was one of the earliest " freedom suits " by a person of African ancestry in the English colonies. In response to Key's suit and other challenges, in 1662 the  Virginia House of Burgesses  passed a law that the status of children born in the colony would follow the status of the mother, "bond or free", rather than the father, as had been the precedent in English  common law  and was the case in England. This was the principle of  partus seq
Post a Comment
Read more