Week 1 – Monday, November 10 at 7 pm
At this meeting, we’ll spend a lot of time getting to know each other and talking about logistics of the study group. We’re looking forward to meeting you!
1. “What is White Supremacy?” Betita Martinez
2. “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh
3. “Why We Need Mandatory Anti-Racist Education” by Ron Whyte
4. Wikipedia about Intersectionality Theory – based on work by Kimberlé Crenshaw
Optional More about Intersectionality: “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color” by Kimberlé Crenshaw
Week 2 – Monday, November 24
History: Colonial Legacies & Reparations
1. The Many-Headed Hydra by Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker
(This pdf is an entire book, but just pay special attention to chapter 2)
2. “The White Problem” by Quinn Norton
3. “How White People Got Made” by Quinn Norton
4. “Italian Americans: Say Basta to Columbus” by Juliet Ucelli from Forward Motion: Taking the Glory out of Racism and Genocide
5. “What is Settler Colonialism?” by Maya Mikdashi
6. “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Optional: “Decolonization is not a metaphor” by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang from Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society
Optional: video to accompany “The Case for Reparations”
Week 3 – Monday, December 8
Personal Transformation 1: Whiteness and White Identity
Please prioritize reading the articles in bold, as these are the ones we’d like to focus on at our meeting.
1. “On Being White and Other Lies” by James Baldwin
2. “White Supremacy on My Mind: Learning to Undermine Racism” by Chris Crass
3.“From White Racist to White Anti-Racist” and “White Supremacy Culture” by Tema Okun from Dismantling Racism Works
2.“Patrimony” by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz from the book Red Dirt: Growing Up Okie
4. “Jews In the US: The Rising Costs of Whiteness” by Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz
Week 4 – Monday, December 15
Personal Transformation 2: Family History
1. “Time and Distance Overcome” by Eula Biss
2. Traces of the Trade, a film by Katrina Browne (access coming at ya soon!)
3. Love Letter from Ariel Lucky
4. “Legacies of White Privilege” by Lisa Berndt
5. Family History research questions
Week 5 – Monday, January 12
The Class Class
1. “Climbing the Up Escalator: White Advantages in Wealth Accumulation” from the book The Color of Wealth
2. “Tips from Working Class Activists” from the book Class Matters
3. “Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person…” by Gina Crosley-Corcoran
4. “High hopes shot down: We still dream big for our kids, even as they die in the streets” by Cheryl Hall-Russell
5. Homework: Class Characteristics and Homework from the Anne Braden program
Optional: “Looking at the White Working Class Historically” by David Gilbert
Week 6 – Monday, January 26
How Race Intersects with Gender, Sexuality & Desire
1. Chapter on Race and Gender from Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks
2. “Whose Feminism is it Anyway: The Unspoken Racism of the Trans Inclusion Debate” by Emi Koyama
3. “Jumping Beyond the Broom – Why Black Gay and Transgender Americans Need More Than Marriage Equality” by Aisha C. Moodie-Mills
4. “Desirability: Or, Why That White Ally Who Dates All the Brown Queers Needs To Stop It” by Mia McKenzie
5. “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” from Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
6. Three poems about Teaira Whitehead “Can’t see em coming down my eyes”; “autopsy- Teaira Whitehead (draft 2)”; “thoughts about Teaira (poem 3)” by Joy KMT
Week 7 – Monday, February 9
Fieldtrip: Jesmyn Ward – The Men We Reaped
Week 8 – Monday, February 23
Policing, Criminalization, & Incarceration
1. “The Origins of American Policing” by Kristian Williams from the book Our Enemies in Blue
2. An American Seduction: Portrait of a Prisoner Town by Joelle Fraser from the book Prisoner Nation
These were added after the session:
3. “Cops See It Differently Part One”, This American Life, February 5, 2015
4. “Cops See It Differently Part Two”, This American Life, February 13, 2015
5. A Letter from Black America: Yes We Fear the Police. Here’s Why. by Nikole Hannah-Jones
Week 9 – Monday, March 9
Solidarity in Practice and Action
1. “Powerful Partnerships: Transformative Alliance Building” by Shelly Tochluk and Cameron Levin, AWARE-LA
2. Tools for White Anti-Racist Organizers
3. “No More Allies” by Mia McKenzie of Black Girl Dangerous
4. “The Problem with Privilege” by Andrea Smith
5. “On Allyship, Abuse, Identity, and Solidarity – and How to Make a Damn Difference” Mid Sentence Revelation Blog
6. “Being an Ally” from If I Can’t Dance Am I Still My Revolution? Explores critique of term ally from disability justice perspective.
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