What Can I Do to Help End Racism?

This blog entry is for those who say they are disgusted by this country's treatment of African Americans and want to help do something about it. Their hesitation is that they don't know how they can help.

I believe the first step toward understanding how to become an ally in this struggle African Americans have been engaged in for centuries, is to do your homework and learn more about it. 

Many people of all colors/ethnic groups/"races" operate on a subconscious acceptance of white supremacy because that is the culture of this country and always has been. To not operate that way, you first have to be aware of how these cultural assumptions play out in daily life. To help create that awareness, I recommend reading/watching a few of the items on the following list of books and DVDs.

Whatever genre you prefer--biography, comedy, documentary, essay, history, film, novel, short story, television--there's something here for you, including material from real life as well as works of imagination. This list is not meant to be exhaustive or comprehensive; it is personal, consisting of items I am familiar with and that I think will be helpful. And since it is personal, I've included my own books. 

(I apologize for this blog program that has a mind of its own regarding spacing, formatting and fonts.)

HISTORIES

Bennett, Lerone Jr., Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America, Johnson Publishing Co./Penguin Books, 1986. Johnson Publishing Company’s (Ebony and Jet magazines) resident historian teaches us just how long ago Africans were brought to this land. Updated many times, it was originally published in 1961.

Franklin, John Hope and Alfred A. Moss Jr., From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans, 6th edition, Knopf, 1988. Now in its 8th edition, considered the definitive history of African Americans. Originally published in 1947.

Giddings, Paula, When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America, William Morrow & Co., 1984.

Hine, Darlene Clark and Kathleen Thompson, A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in America, Broadway Books, 1998.

McKissack,Patricia and Fredrick, Scholastic books for young readers.

Van Sertima, Ivan, They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America, Random House, 1976.

BIOGRAPHIES/MEMOIRS

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Bantam Books, 1993.

Angelou writes movingly about her childhood with her grandmother in Arkansas.

Days of Grace: A Memoir by Arthur Ashe and Arnold Rampersad, Knopf, 1993. Ashe, a tennis player, wrote about his experiences playing a predominantly white sport.

Ella Baker: Freedom Bound by Joanne Grant, John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

Baker was active in the civil rights movement and founding adviser to Snick, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

The Time and Place That Gave Me Life by Janet Cheatham Bell, Indiana University Press, 2007. The story of an “ordinary” black family in the heartland (Indianapolis) coping with race in their daily lives.

Maggie’s American Dream: The Life and Times of a Black Family by James P. Comer, New American Library, 1988. Comer is a physician and the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine's Child Study Center.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, Boston Anti-Slavery Office, 1845; Dolphin Books, 1963. A brilliant man tells the story of how he overcame the humiliation and depravity of those who “owned” him.

Watch Me Fly: What I Learned on the Way to Becoming the Woman I Was Meant to Be by Myrlie Evers-Williams with Melinda Blau, Little, Brown & Co., 1999. The widow of Medgar Evers, the assassinated civil rights leader who was murdered in Mississippi in 1963, writes about that experience and her life subsequently.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. Jacobs, edited by Jean Fagan Yellin, Harvard University Press,1987. An account of what it was like for a woman to be someone else’s property.

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (1878-1946) by Geoffrey C. Ward, Knopf, 2004. The experiences of the first black heavyweight boxing champion; also see the PBS Ken Burns documentary of the same title.

Vernon Can Read: A Memoir by Vernon E. Jordan Jr. with Annette Gordon-Reed, Public Affairs, 2001. The life story of a former president of the National Urban League and adviser to President Bill Clinton.

Born to Rebel: An Autobiography by Benjamin E. Mays, The University of Georgia Press, 1971. The late Dr. Mays was president of Atlanta’s historically black Morehouse College and an adviser to his student, Martin Luther King Jr.

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride, Riverhead Books, 1996. This memoir is a well-written account of what it was like growing up in Brooklyn with his white mom.

Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America by Nathan McCall, Random House, 1994. A completely different kind of story by a Washington Post reporter who came of age in Portsmouth, Virginia.  

On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker by A'Lelia Bundles, Scribner, 2001. The life of the first female American millionaire who earned rather than inherited her money.

A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, by David W. Blight, Harcourt, 2007. The individual life stories of John Washington and Wallace Turnage who managed to free themselves from bondage.

NOVELS & SHORT STORIES

Campbell, Bebe Moore, Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine, Random House, 1993. This captivating story follows the lives of two families, one white, one black after a racist incident. Set in Mississippi in the 1950s.

Ellison, Ralph, Invisible Man, Random House, 1952. Classic, prize-winning novel about the journey of blacks in America.

Faulkner, William, Light in August, Vintage Books, 1991. A classic southern Gothic novel set in Mississippi with quirky characters including Joe Christmas who isn’t sure if he’s black or white. Originally published in 1931.

Hughes, Langston, The Ways of White Folks: Stories, Knopf, 1969. Individual stories about a variety of encounters between blacks and whites. Originally published in 1934.

Jones, Edward P., The Known World, Amistad, 2006. The story of the anomaly of a black man who owned slaves.

Morrison, Toni, The Bluest Eye, Plume, 1994. Morrison’s first novel is a story of how living in an environment where appearance, especially skin color, determines worth, can distort a child’s perception and esteem. Originally published in 1970.

Petry, Ann, The Street, Pyramid Books, 1966. A hard look at  a young black woman struggling to live and raise a son in Harlem in the late 1940s. Originally published 1946.

Tademy, Lalita, Cane River, Grand Central Publishing, 2002. Engrossing story of four generations of French-speaking black women in Louisiana based on the author’s own family.

Walker, Margaret, Jubilee, Bantam, 1966. The author imagines how her family survived in the years after slavery was abolished.

Williams, John A., The Man Who Cried I Am, New American Library, 1967. A novel about a secret assassin who kills every police officer who has killed a black person.

ESSAYS & BOOKS ON BEING BLACK IN AMERICA

Baldwin, James, The Fire Next Time, Dell Publishing, 1963.

Baldwin, James, Notes of a Native Son, Bantam Books, 1955. 

Baldwin, James, Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son, Dial Press, 1961.

Baraka, Amiri (LeRoi Jones), Blues People: The NegroExperience in White America and the Music that Developed From It, William Morrow & Co., 1968.

Bell, Janet Cheatham, Victory of the Spirit:Reflections on My Journey, Sabayt Publications, 2011.

Bell, Janet Cheatham, Not All Poor People Are Black:and other things we need to think more about, Sabayt Publications, 2015.

Carter, Stephen L., Reflections of an Affirmative ActionBaby, Basic Books, 1991.

Cose, Ellis, The Rage of a Privileged Class, Harper Collins, 1993. A former columnist and writer for Newsweek, on the racism experienced by well-paid professionals.

Edwards, Audrey & Dr. Craig K. Polite, Children of the Dream: The Psychology of Black Success, Doubleday, 1992.

DeGruy, Joy, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, Uptone Press, 2005.

Golden, Marita, Saving Our Sons: Raising Black Children in a Turbulent World, Anchor Books, 1995.

Monroe, Sylvester and Peter Goldman, Brothers: Black and Poor—A True Story of Courage and Survival, William Morrow & Co., 1988.

Muhammad, Khalil Gibran, The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America, Harvard University Press, 2010.

Ogbu, John U., Minority Education and Caste: The American System in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Academic Press, 1978.

Painter, Nell Irvin, Creating Black Americans: African-American History and Its Meanings 1619 to the Present, Oxford University Press, 2006.

Phelts, Marsha Dean, An American Beach for African Americans, The University Press of Florida, 1997.

Robinson, Randall, The Debt: What America Owes toBlacks, Dutton, 2000.

Thandeka, Learning to Be White: Money, Race, and God in America, Continuum, 1999.

Walker, Alice, The Way Forward is With a Broken Heart, Random House, 2000.

West, Cornel, Race Matters, Beacon Press, 1993.

Wilkerson, Isabel, The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, Vintage Books, 2011. (Beautifully written, Pulitzer Prize-winning stories of the decades-long migration of black citizens fleeing the South in search of a better life.)

Williams, Patricia J., Seeing a Color-Blind Future: The Paradox of Race, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1997.

Woodson, Carter G., Mis-education of the Negro, Associated Publishers, 1969. Originally published in 1933.

 DVDs

TheAbolitionists  Dramatization of the movement to abolish slavery. (pbs.org documentary)

The Book of Negroes (Black Entertainment Television [BET] original movie; story of a woman captured in Africa and enslaved prior to America's Revolutionary War.) 

Deacons for Defense (political drama of blacks defending themselves against the KKK, set in Bogalusa, Louisiana in 1965) 

Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement 1954-1985 (pbs.org documentary)

The Feast of All Saints (a TV miniseries based on the Anne Rice novel of the same title) looks at the Louisiana custom of placage where wealthy white men and a few light-skinned free blacks select mixed-race women as mistresses.

Fruitvale Station (a dramatization of the life and murder of Oscar Grant who was killed in Oakland, CA.)

Huey P. Newton: Prelude to a Revolution (documentary)

Lackawanna Blues (a play by Ruben Santiago-Hudson makes a compelling drama about a rooming house in Lackawanna, NY)

Many Rivers to Cross: African American History with Henry Louis Gates Jr. (pbs.org documentary)

Marcus Garvey: American Experience (pbs.org documentary)

Mooz-Lum, (dramatization of post-9/11 suspicion and distrust of blacks who are Muslims.) 

Paul Mooney: Analyzing White America (a comedic analysis) 

Paul Robeson: Here I Stand (YouTube video on the life of Robeson, Sr., a successful actor, singer, football player, and lawyer, vilified for his uncompromising advocacy of equality.) 

Race: The Power of an Illusion (California Newsreel film carefully explains and documents the artifice of racial categorizations.)

Scottsboro: An American Tragedy (documentary about young black men falsely accused of raping two white women) 

Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell (a revolutionary [now cancelled] television series that took a comedic look at topical issues, including racism.)

Twelve Years a Slave (PBS dramatization of the book of the same title.)

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (Ken Burns documentary of the first black heavyweight boxing champion)

Waiting for "Superman" (documentary on America's failing school system)

Why We Laugh (documentary on history of black comedy)

 

A Call for White Responsibility from a White Man

Following is the most succinct and precise description of white privilege I've ever read, written by a dear friend, in fact our families are friends. It is must reading for all whites who don't understand all the attention and outrage over the murders of unarmed black men by the police.  Enjoy!

White Privilege Equals White Responsibility

by Jeremy Townsend

When I was 12, I was arrested for popping hood ornaments off of Mercedes and Cadillacs to hang on my fake gold chains. When I was 15, I was arrested for shoplifting a scrimshaw tobacco pipe from a shop at the mall. When I was 20, I was arrested for shoplifting a cordless phone from a department store. These are the times I got caught.

When I was 34, I applied for a job and stated with confidence that I’d never been convicted of any crime. I’m white, and even though I smoked weed, shoplifted, ran red-lights and littered, society saw more value in me than if I had been black. I’m not proud of it; I’m just lucky.

If I had been black, I would have never gotten a pre-trial diversion, a deferred adjudication or any type of leniency from the system. I would have had a record, and I would have had far less opportunity, and I would have never gotten that job that asked if I had been convicted of a crime, and my life would be wildly different today.

I’m white, and I’m terrified of cops. I know what it feels like to have my physical freedom arrested by a police officer. I know what it’s like to be bullied, harassed and put up against a wall by a cop, but I have no idea what it’s like to be black.

I get tense if I pass a cop on the sidewalk, I get flooded with adrenaline and anger when I get pulled over. I know they can do anything to me. In spite of whatever personal rights I might be guaranteed by law, I know they can exercise their authority on my freedom, they can and will intimidate me, and I will operate from a position of fear.

The difference is that while I fear and distrust cops, I live with the confidence that in the eyes of society, for no other reason than the color of my skin, my life is considered more valuable than if I were black.

Let’s imagine that cop is having a bad day, let’s imagine I don’t wanna be fucked with. The cop wants to put me in my place, and I don’t wanna be put in that place. Things escalate, and something happens to me like what has happened to Eric Garner or Mike Brown or Oscar Grant.

I’m white, and I know that in the unlikely event that I am a victim of police brutality, society in general and my “community” will demand that someone be held accountable, that changes be made and that it never happens again.

The painful and terrifying truth is that American society considers my white body and my white life as more valuable than if I were black.

There is a moment in the Eric Garner video when Officer Pantaleo starts to grab Eric Garner in a way that he would never feel entitled to grab me, and that is the moment that has to change in America. The moment the officer felt entitled to exercise force on Eric Garner’s body is unacceptable and pervasive throughout the Black American experience, and it has to change.

When the other officer is pressing Eric Garner’s face into the sidewalk, when the EMTs don’t try to help, when it takes 36 hours to get an official statement from Darren Wilson, when there are no batteries in the camera to document the crime scene, when no one is held responsible, when there is nothing that could be done, when all we have are condolences, when they are all just sad, unfortunate, tragic and isolated events, when politicians, civic leaders, police commissioners, and average white American citizens don’t demand that someone be held accountable, the truth that black lives don’t matter in America is proven and perpetuated.

Maybe we can’t get an indictment, but these incidents expose a far greater systemic racism that we have to address, and white people must demand that it be addressed.

White people in power who are responsible for these cops and these policies and these tragic accidents must GO TO JAIL. They must be reprimanded, they must be shamed, they must be fired, they must be exposed as the most immediate place where we can do better.

The systemic fear of large unarmed black men, the poor decisions, the ongoing use of excessive force must be deemed completely reprehensible, unacceptable, and we as grossly over-privileged white people must give notice to the police forces and public officials of America that we will not stand for it anymore.

Call your local police chiefs, your local district attorney, your local politicians, and let them know that you are giving them notice, that if they allow another tragic accident like what has been happening to unarmed black men across America, you will be in the street, knocking on their door and demanding their resignations.

"If black folks weren't breathing, we wouldn't have to kill them."

That's the message I got today from former NY Police Commissioner Ray Kelly as he participated on Katie Couric's Yahoo News show. I was watching the show for the first time ever because my son W. Kamau Bell was part of a panel along with Dion Rabouin, a writer for The Root and Kelly discussing the non-indictments of police officers who kill unarmed black males. Except Kelly's recurring theme, as has been the case for all apologists for these travesties, is that these police murders are our own fault, meaning blacks, of course. He was quite satisfied "explaining" these police murders by perpetuating the myth that there are "more crimes in the black community." That's why the police have to do a lot of stopping and frisking in black neighborhoods which sometimes leads to the need to kill somebody. Oh well....

For those of you who may not understand, please know that crime does not occur when the police aren't looking. However, when the police are around ALL THE TIME, they see every little thing, like Michael Brown's jay-walking, for example. Or, they make a thing out of something like Eric Garner standing quietly on the sidewalk. I live in a town and a neighborhood that is predominately white. I have lived on this street for twelve years and seen a police car here TWO TIMES in 12 years. They were called in because of domestic situations. The police do not patrol. I suppose this means no crimes are committed in this vicinity. I've seen evidence of someone trying to jimmy coins from the laundromat, heard of bicycles and other property being stolen, but the police didn't see it, so no crime was committed.

When these same things happen in predominately black neighborhoods, the police are there--ALWAYS patrolling, watching, picking up and locking up young black boys who look suspicious. And they all look suspicious with their hoodies, sagging pants and dark skins. Sometimes, when these boys don't go quietly because they are not doing anything wrong, they have to be killed. After all they should know better than to talk back to the police! Or, sometimes they are not even given the opportunity to talk back because they are killed on sight, like Tamir Rice. He was killed instantly by a police officer who had previously been ruled "unfit for duty."

The police and other law enforcement officials also did not "see" the crimes committed by banks and other financial institutions that led to the calamitous economic crisis of 2007-08 and ruined the lives of tens of thousands of people. And since law enforcement didn't see them doing it, that means no crimes were committed. 


It is this glaring and hypocritical disparity in the FOCUS of the police and the PERSPECTIVE of other authorities that many people refer to as "white privilege." We are under surveillance. Whites are not. And even when whites commit crimes in the presence of police, the response is often, "Aw shucks."

I believe there are people in many police departments who actually want to protect and serve. However, I also believe that because of the above-the-law culture cultivated in police departments and upheld by justice systems around the country, that ALL police of every color and inclination are infected by that culture. Some officers may refuse to actually participate in killing and brutalizing citizens, but they stand by and quietly back up those who do.

The police are hired and trained by those in power to do their dirty work--maintain order, break up labor strikes, intimidate and brutalize protestors, maintain the oppression of the poor so they don't forget their place and organize for a higher minimum wage. In black neighborhoods they are indeed, as the Black Panthers described them in the Sixties, an Occupying Army. An army that now has military uniforms, equipment and weapons.

This kind of dirty work attracts certain types of people; bitter angry folks with grievances. Attracts those who feel stronger and more secure with a gun on their hip and a baton swinging from their belt. Those who join the force to protect and serve, if they are truly self-possessed, will resist the prevailing culture, but then they usually stand by in quiet support of those who don't resist.

Kelly kept telling us what black people need to do to stop crime in their communities. (I guess whites are really good at stopping crime in their communities so that's why the police aren't needed there.) Kelly believes the only responsibility of police is to hire more "diverse" officers. (He's learned that the only color that matters within that culture is blue.) We all know that's not the solution, and Rabouin, the writer from The Root said so explicitly, citing the Atlanta police force. Bell said, "This is not something to be resolved between the black community and the police. This affects the entire country."

He is absolutely correct. The police are the most lethal and brutal of America's expression of systemic racism, but the racism can be found anywhere as evidenced in this situation by Kelly's refusal to listen to what a couple of black men were saying directly to him. 

Members of our highest body of elected officials, the U.S. Congress, openly flaunt their racism (and sexism) and their lead is followed by media pundits and many others spewing explicit racist venom. Murdering blacks (and the indigenous "Indians" and Hispanics, especially in the part of this country that used to be Mexico) with impunity is an integral and intimate part of American history. It has always been thus. Blacks were deliberately criminalized in the "north" as they always had been in the south, to facilitate reconciliation between the two sides after the Civil War.

The lack of consequences for the murderers of black men is nothing new. What is new, and I am grateful for this, is that the outrage is no longer confined to immediate family members and to black people. A significant number of people all over the country and of all colors are saying: "ENOUGH!"

For more of my opinions on America's racial issues and other topics, see my new collection of essays, Not All Poor People Are Black and other things we need to think more about. Copies are available here and on Amazon.

YERTLE THE TURTLE by Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss wrote this in 1950, but it is a vivid description of
our current situation. It also indicates the absurdity of the
obedience of all the other turtles doing the bidding of 
Yertle (the 1%). Fortunately, some of the turtles on whom
the 1% rely are beginning to burp.

On the far-away island of Sala-ma-Sond, Yertle the Turtle was king of the pond. A nice little pond. It was clean. It was neat. The water was warm. There was plenty to eat. 

The turtles had everything turtles might need. And they were all happy. Quite happy indeed. They were... until Yertle, the king of them all, 
Decided the kingdom he ruled was too small. 

"I'm ruler", said Yertle, "of all that I see. But I don't see enough. That's the trouble with me. With this stone for a throne, I look down on my pond 
But I cannot look down on the places beyond.

This throne that I sit on is too, too low down. It ought to be higher!" he said with a frown. "If I could sit high, how much greater I'd be! What a king! I'd be ruler of all that I see!" 

So Yertle, the Turtle King, lifted his hand And Yertle, the Turtle King, gave a command.

He ordered nine turtles to swim to his stone And, using these turtles, he built a new throne. 

He made each turtle stand on another one's back And he piled them all up in a nine-turtle stack. And then Yertle climbed up. He sat down on the pile. What a wonderful view! He could see 'most a mile!

"All mine!" Yertle cried. "Oh, the things I now rule! I'm the king of a cow! And I'm the king of a mule! I'm the king of a house! And, what's more, beyond that I'm the king of a blueberry bush and a cat!

"I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me! For I am the ruler of all that I see!" And all through the morning, he sat up there high Saying over and over, "A great king am I!" 

Until 'long about noon. Then he heard a faint sigh. "What's that?" snapped the king And he looked down the stack. And he saw, at the bottom, a turtle named Mack. Just a part of his throne. And this plain little turtle Looked up and he said,

"Beg your pardon, King Yertle. I've pains in my back and my shoulders and knees. How long must we stand here, Your Majesty, please?" 

"SILENCE!" the King of the Turtles barked back. "I'm king, and you're only a turtle named Mack." "You stay in your place while I sit here and rule. 

"I'm the king of a cow! And I'm the king of a mule! I'm the king of a house! And a bush! And a cat! But that isn't all. I'll do better than that! My throne shall be higher!" his royal voice thundered, "So pile up more turtles! I want 'bout two hundred!" 

"Turtles! More turtles!" he bellowed and brayed. And the turtles 'way down in the pond were afraid. They trembled. They shook. But they came. They obeyed.

From all over the pond, they came swimming by dozens. Whole families of turtles, with uncles and cousins. And all of them stepped on the head of poor Mack. One after another, they climbed up the stack. Then Yertle the Turtle was perched up so high, He could see forty miles from his throne in the sky!

"Hooray!" shouted Yertle. "I'm the king of the trees! I'm king of the birds! And I'm king of the bees! I'm king of the butterflies! King of the air! Ah, me! What a throne! What a wonderful chair! I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me! For I am the ruler of all that I see!" 

Then again, from below, in the great heavy stack, Came a groan from that plain little turtle named Mack. "Your Majesty, please... I don't like to complain, But down here below, we are feeling great pain. 

"I know, up on top you are seeing great sights, But down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights. We turtles can't stand it. Our shells will all crack! Besides, we need food. We are starving!" groaned Mack. 

"You hush up your mouth!" howled the mighty King Yertle. "You've no right to talk to the world's highest turtle. I rule from the clouds! Over land! Over sea! There's nothing, no, NOTHING, that's higher than me!" But, while he was shouting, he saw with surprise That the moon of the evening was starting to rise Up over his head in the darkening skies. 

"What's THAT?" snorted Yertle. "Say, what IS that thing That dares to be higher than Yertle the King? I shall not allow it! I'll go higher still! I'll build my throne higher! I can and I will! I'll call some more turtles. I'll stack 'em to heaven! I need 'bout five thousand, six hundred and seven!" 

But, as Yertle, the Turtle King, lifted his hand And started to order and give the command, 

That plain little turtle below in the stack, That plain little turtle whose name was just Mack, Decided he'd taken enough. And he had. And that plain little lad got a bit mad. And that plain little Mack did a plain little thing. 

He burped! And his burp shook the throne of the king! And Yertle the Turtle, the king of the trees, The king of the air and the birds and the bees, The king of a house and a cow and a mule... Well, that was the end of the Turtle King's rule!

For Yertle, the King of all Sala-ma-Sond, Fell off his high throne and fell Plunk! in the pond! And to say the great Yertle, that Marvelous he, Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see. And the turtles, of course... all the turtles are free 

As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.