Anti-Racism Reading List February 2023

“while it's fair for a White person to say, "I didn't intend for my behaviors or response to come off as racist," it's absurd to claim your statement "is not racist" because White people are not the barometer of Black lived experiences. For example, in an abusive marriage, no one would tell a woman to wait until the man considers a kick or a punch "abuse" before acknowledging she's in pain.”

“The glass cliff is especially precarious for women from historically marginalized and excluded communities — namely Black women. Often moved into roles in times of chaos or crisis, these leaders are not equipped with adequate resources, staff, training, or support. Having broken through the ceiling, they are thrust into positions teetering on the brink of failure and into organizations committed to misunderstanding them.”

“They used to simply kill black leaders

Set an example to other potential leaders and followers alike

Now the trees they hang from are metaphorical but they try to kill them all the same”

“too many leaders view diversity simply as the inclusion of identities. The truth is, simply being included will not get us the outcomes we need, like equitable pay, sponsorship into C-Suite roles, succession plans with a timeline we can count on and more.

In other words, representation is not the whole solution.”

“Every one of us has a right to our humanity and intrinsic worth, and that requires that our organizations value and respect our identity categories in any way we choose to express ourselves. We have a right to be our authentic selves in the workplace without being culturally or professionally penalized through judgment, gaze, gossip, or ostracization.”

“White supremacy culture is not urgent about racial justice; white supremacy culture is urgent in the name of short-term power and profit. And white supremacy culture likes to engender a culture of urgency in those of us who are working to dismantle it because it knows that living with a constant sense that everything is urgent is a recipe for the abuse of power and burnout.”

“the fact that ChatGPT is able to present racist content with the right prompting means that the underlying issue – that engineers behind the project have been unable to prevent the AI recreating the biases present in the data it is trained on – still exists.”

“Studies have found that it is common practice for Black women to be second guessed, micromanaged, questioned, and watched. This has resulted in others invalidating their beliefs and experiences. Recent studies find those claiming to be allies, claiming to act as champions for Black women, in practice are actually perpetuating the same underline oppressive beliefs and systems they want to help dismantle.”

“With James Cameron's recent insensitive remarks towards Indigenous people maybe it's time to look at they movies they've made instead of his.”

“What is wypipoing? Wypipoing is calling oneself a “patriot” while waving a confederate flag. Wypipoing is whining about widespread voter fraud while rubber-stamping gerrymandering, voter suppression and felon disenfranchisement. Wypipoing is screaming about freedom of speech while outlawing critical race theory.”