Jemel Roberson

It’s not an accident or a mistake that Illinois police shot security guard #JemelRoberson, who risked his life to protect others as he apprehended a drunk, violent gunman. It’s systemic racism. Black, indigenous, people of color die/get shot when white people ignore, deny or are blind to our racial bias. It takes continuous work to…

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Tone Policing

If you feel the need to say “Not all white people,” you should watch this video. It’s not only aggravating to the very people you are opening your mouth to say that you are down with, it’s also counter-productive, unnecessary, and an exhibit of white privilege to believe that you have the right to demand…

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Me & White Leaders

Thinking about leadership in terms of white leaders, I notice that I’ve more often clarified the race of a leader if they are not white and that is part of my white supremacist conditioning to assume that leaders are white unless otherwise specified. The impact that white, often male, leaders have had on my life…

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Me & White Feminism

I’ve learned that what I understood feminism to be was actually white feminism. White feminism has been fighting for equality and justice for white women first, but never coming back to fight for or recognize the needs of BIWOC. Nothing included in my education ever mentioned non-white feminism. I have read Alice Walker, bell hooks,…

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Me & White Supremacy • Post Week 3

This week I’ve become aware that my brand of white supremacy is ignorance. Not being in spaces to hear BIPOC communicating with each other about current events. I haven’t sought out, heard or listened to the outrage, pain and devastation about the black & brown lives that are lost and how exhausted BIPOC are from…

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Me & Optical Allyship

My internal dialogue when approaching or speaking to BIPOC is often, “Whatever you do, don’t fuck this up by saying the wrong thing! Act natural! Be cool!” That script is far from helpful and usually creates anxiety that makes me stick my foot in my mouth anyway. I thought that doing my work meant not…

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Me & Tokenism

I’ve tried to create and maintain relationships with BIPOC to benefit from their perspectives and as a way to change the fact that most of the people I know are white. I am guilty of trying too hard to build these friendships too quickly and aggressively rather than allowing a natural progression so I can…

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Me & White Centering

I’ve seen my white perspective as the most normal, comfortable and desirable. This is exactly how the patriarchy and white supremacy want white people to walk through the world, so many of our systems support this belief. I felt justified in upholding white-centered values without deeply considering how suffocating/harmful this must be for BIPOC. Despite…

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Me & White Apathy

The biggest gut punch when it comes to me and white apathy is that I didn’t previously see any personal benefit to looking very closely at my own racism. To be brutally honest, I didn’t care enough to make it a priority. What motivated me to start caring was that I agreed to do a…

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Witnessing Whiteness

This is a commentary on what I’ve witnessed happening in the community of people involved with the #meandwhitesupremacy challenge on Instagram. If you don’t know what that is and want to know, follow the hashtag, it’s easy to learn about. You can also use google to get to know Layla Saad, there is much to…

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