Whites Challenging Racism Syllabus-2007
This study group was organized by Noah Lewis, Say Burgin and one other person whose name I TOTALLy and shamefully forget. Thank you all for your sharing of resources and leading these 2 years of groups. While some of the links may be hollow you can search the web for the article if you are really interested.
Week 1: Historical Understanding
Readings:
- Understanding Racism: An Historical Introduction by Sharon Martinas, a white anti-racist organizer with the Challenging White Supremacy Workshop.
- What is White Supremacy? by Elizabeth Martínez who has taught Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies in the California State
University system part-time since 1989 and lectures around the country. She is the author of six books, including two on Chicano/a history. She has been an anti-racist activist since 1960. Her best-known work is the bilingual book 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, used by teachers, community groups, and youth since 1976. - Optional, supplemental: the first two chapters of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.
Discussion on defining terms such as racism and white supremacy
Week 2: Privilege, Barriers & Fears
Readings on white privilege and barriers to anti-racist organizing
- White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh
- Racist Activism 101 [or “How to be a Completely Clueless and Aggravating White Activist”, or again “How to Get on Nadine’s Personal Shit List”] by Nadine
- Barriers to Organization Between Anti-Racist White People by Joanie Mayer from the Challenging White Supremacy Workshop.
Week 3: Continuing to Implicate Ourselves
- Chapter 1, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics by George Lipsitz
- The Meritocracy Myth: A Dollars & Sense interview with Lani Guinier
Week 4: Intersections between racism, classism, colonialism, and patriarchy
- White Trash Blues: Class Privilege v. White Privilege by BetaCandy
- Selections from Dying While Black by Vernellia Randall
- “Sexual Violence as a Tool of Genocide,” Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide by Andrea Smith
Week 5: Family histories
- Sharing & discussing our family histories
- The Color of Supremacy: Beyond the discourse of “white privilege” by Zeus Leonardo, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 36(2), 137-152 (2004).
Week 6: Backlash & Cultural Appropriation
- Chapters 9-11, A Race is a Nice Thing to Have by Janet Helms (1992).
- “Moving from Cultural Appropriation Toward Ethical Cultural Connections,” Thinking Class: Sketches from a Cultural Worker by Joanna Kadi (1996).
- “For All Those Who Were Indian In A Former Life” by Andrea Smith (1991).
- Optional, supplemental: From White Racist to White Anti-Racist: the Life-long Journey Tema Okun
- Optional, supplemental: Cultural Appropriation != Outlaw Culture by MaxZine Weinstein
Week 7: Experiencing and Responding to Racism
- “La Guera,” by Cherrie Moraga in This Bridge Called My Back (1979).
- “Killing Rage,” Killing Rage: Ending Racism by bell hooks (1995).
- “Where Are You From?” by Geeta Kothari in Under Western Eyes: Personal Essays from Asian America (1995).
- Optional, supplemental: “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism,” Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde (1984).
Week 8: Gentrification, Casinos & More
- Selections from Angry Brown Butch
- Conversation with Mark Harvey Smith
- Articles on casino & Arena
- If possible, attend Dr. Goddess Goes To Jail on Sunday, August 26
- Articles on Bakery Square (in handouts are stapled behind the casino readings)
- On-line components:
- East of Liberty clips (please watch both)
- Bakery Square site (note overview, borchure, renderings)
- Supplemental: Anti-Gentrification Across the US Rustbelt Radio 20 Aug 2007 (story starts at 23:25 min)
- Supplemental: Sometimes I Feel Like I’m The Only One Trying To Gentrify This Neighborhood
- Supplemental: request Flag Wars from the library
Week 9: Prison Industrial Complex
Guest speaker: Dr. Barbara Johnson, Associate Dean and Director of Diversity Initiatives at Carlow University speaks on racism in Pittsburgh
- Abolishing the Prison Industrial Complex Rachel Herzing in conversation with Trevor Paglen
- Selections from Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis (2003)
- Articles on Pamela Lawton’s case
Week 10: Being an effective anti-racist ally
- With Allies Like These, You Don’t Need Enemies: Michael Moore and the Racism of the White Left by Ewuare Osayande
- Coalition-Building between Natives and Non-Natives by Haunani-Kay Trask, Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1197-1213 (1991)
- The Work Is Not The Workshop: Talking and Doing, Visibility and Accountability in the White Anti-Racist Community by Catherine Jones
- Supplemental: I Can Fix It! by damali ayo
Spring 2008- While many articles are same, some topics are different:
Week 1 (Feb 21): Making Whiteness Visible
Week 2 (Feb 28): White Privilege | Experiencing & Responding to Racism
- White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh
- “Killing Rage,” Killing Rage: Ending Racism by bell hooks (1995).
- Supplemental: the first two chapters of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.
- Supplemental: The Twelve White Steps by damali ayo
- Supplemental: I Can Fix It! by damali ayo
Week 3 (Mar 6): Intersectionality | The Racial Wealth Divide
- “Sexual Violence as a Tool of Genocide,” Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide by Andrea Smith (2005).
- Selections from The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide by Meizhu Lui, et al. (2006).
- The Meritocracy Myth: A Dollars & Sense interview with Lani Guinier
- Begin to prepare your family story: Tips on preparing your family story
Week 4 (Mar 13): White Identity Development
- Chapters 9-11, A Race is a Nice Thing to Have by Janet Helms (1992).
- Selection from How To Rent A Negro by damali ayo
- White Supremacy Culture by Tema Okun
- Video: A Girl Like Me
- Supplemental: “My Class Didn’t Trump My Race: Using Oppression to Face Privilege,” Robin J. DiAngelo Multicultural Perspectives 8(1), 52-26 (2006).
- Optional: From White Racist to White Anti-Racist: the Life-long Journey by Tema Okun
- Sharing of family stores, group I
Week 5 (March 20): White Identity Development Continued
- “Defining Racism,” Beverly Daniel Tatum, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race (1997).
- What is White Supremacy? by Elizabeth Martinez
- “The Color of Supremacy: Beyond the discourse of ‘white privilege‘” by Zeus Leonardo, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 36(2), 137-152 (2004).
- Sharing of family stores, group II
Week 6 (Mar 27): The System of White Supremacy
- “Defining Racism,” Beverly Daniel Tatum, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race (1997).
- What is White Supremacy? by Elizabeth Martinez
- “The Color of Supremacy: Beyond the discourse of ‘white privilege‘” by Zeus Leonardo, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 36(2), 137-152 (2004).
Week 7 (Apr 3): Case Study: Anti-Arab Racism
- “Introduction: The Evolution of White Supremacy,” Steven Salaita, Anti-Arab Racism in the USA: Where It Comes from and What It Means for Politics Today (2006).
- “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy” Andrea Smith in Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology edited by Incite! Women of Color Against Violence (2006).
- “Moving from Cultural Appropriation Toward Ethical Cultural Connections,” Joanna Kadi Thinking Class: Sketches from a Cultural Worker (1996).
- Supplemental: “Shouting Across the Divide,” This American Life (if pressed for time, Act One: Which One of These Is Not Like the Others? is the main thing to listen to)
- Supplemental: The Splended Table May 19. Start listening at 34:20
- Supplemental cultural appropriation resources:
- “For All Those Who Were Indian In A Former Life” by Andrea Smith (1991).
- Cultural Appropriation != Outlaw Culture by MaxZine Weinstein
Week 8 (April 10): Racism in Social Justice Movements
- Racist Activism 101 [or “How to be a Completely Clueless and Aggravating White Activist”, or again “How to Get on Nadine’s Personal Shit List”] by Nadine
- “Is Gay Marriage Racist?” Marlon M. Bailey, Priya Kandaswamy, and Mattie Udora Richardson in That’s Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation edited by Mattilda, aka Matt Bernstein Sycamore
- With Allies Like These, You Don’t Need Enemies: Michael Moore and the Racism of the White Left by Ewuare Osayande
- Recommended: Coalition-Building between Natives and Non-Natives by Haunani-Kay Trask, Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1197-1213 (1991)
Week 9 (April 17): Prison Industrial Complex | Public Transportation Inequity
- Chapters 1 & 2, pages 9 – 39 from Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis (2003)
- Color of the Keystone: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in the Use of Incarceration in Pennsylvania
- Supplemental: How Pennsylvania teens end up put away for life
- Supplemental: Abolishing the Prison Industrial Complex Rachel Herzing in conversation with Trevor Paglen
- “Transit Activism in Steel Town, USA” Brian Nogrady and Ayanna King in Highway Robbery: Transportation Racism & New Routes to Equity (2004).
Week 10 (April 24): Gentrification | Engaging in anti-racist work
- Selections from Angry Brown Butch
- Staying Put and Staying Punk Dan Eldridge City Paper 24 March 2005
- Supplemental: Conversation with Mark Harvey Smith Bill O’Driscoll Pittsburgh City Paper 25 August 2005
- Supplemental: Articles on Bakery Square
- Supplemental: Bakery Square site (note overview, borchure, renderings)
- Supplemental: Anti-Gentrification Across the US Rustbelt Radio 20 Aug 2007 (story starts at 23:25 min)
- Supplemental: Sometimes I Feel Like I’m The Only One Trying To Gentrify This Neighborhood The Onion
- Supplemental: request Flag Wars from the library
- Supplemental: Articles on casino & Arena
- “What Happens When White People Change,” Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope by bell hooks (2003)
- The Work Is Not The Workshop: Talking and Doing, Visibility and Accountability in the White Anti-Racist Community by Catherine Jones
- Excerpt from: The Politics of Solidarity: Six Nations, Leadership, and the Settler Left by Tom Keefer
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