Anti-Racism Reading List November 2023

“Almost all the ladies in the group had received some type of comment from their direct managers or colleagues, and the message was a clear one: our white colleagues did not feel comfortable with us black ladies congregating. In the group, we didn’t discuss the matter much, but one thing was for sure, we needed our jobs and weren’t willing to upset the white colleagues that we worked with. Shortly after, we stopped our monthly lunches.”

“The model of anti-racist allyship that we hastily defined in 2020 is no longer fit for purpose. Maybe it never was. There are no amount of reading lists, black squares on Instagram or learning about microaggressions that can make a difference in the face of such insidious, government-sanctioned racism and anti-immigrant rhetoric.”

“colonization and imperialism put conflict in humanity’s path. Yes, standards of living elevated swiftly and exponentially for those who benefitted from unbridled capitalism. Self-enrichment for a few came in exchange for the labors, resources, talents, deaths, and despair of far too many, however.”

“it’s so important to be in community with multiple people from as many different identity groups as possible, because it strongly dilutes the impact and impression of the bad apples amongst any community. And we all have our bad apples.”

“What does whiteness as the default look like in the workplace? It could be the hair discrimination that people with afro-textured hair experience. It could also be the accent discrimination experienced by people from racially and ethnically marginalized backgrounds. Whiteness as the default could explain the phenomenon of highly-qualified candidates from racially and ethnically marginalized backgrounds being passed over for promotions.”

“In essence, allyship is about being your best self in service to others. That does not mean one has to be “perfect,” which implies without flaw or fault. The inferred meaning is that if you want to advocate for others, you would be well-served to engage the true you—the parts of you that have encountered life’s bumps and bruises and learned some truths along the way.”

“By the time the Civil War ended in 1865, nearly 4 million African Americans were still imprisoned in forced-labor concentration camps (also known as plantations), which dated as far back as 1619.”

“even as people claim to be advocates for anti-racism, their selective acceptance of narratives from Black individuals reveals a problematic bias. By willingly engaging with only certain facets of Black thought — most commonly those they find convenient or in alignment with their preconceived ideas — they inadvertently tokenize and compartmentalize the Black experience.”

“that yearning for approval is something a lot of us experience as we move from a mindset of mastery to one of humility, vulnerability, and lifelong learning.

…But even that sounds too elegant. What I mean is a mindset of experiencing occasional humiliation, owning up to your mistakes even when it's painful, and being wrong more than you are right. It's not easy, when you are used to being right.”

“Black people, stolen from their homelands and shackled on the bottom of ships, forced to abandon their original languages and cultural practices, kept in unsanitary conditions, and forced to endlessly labor until death were the true victims of the chattel slavery system, and anyone who says otherwise is either feigning ignorance or the real McCoy.”