What I've learnt recently
- Michelle
- Jul 20, 2020
- 5 min read
Some things regarding race and injustice I was previously unaware of and learnt about in the last few months:
BIPOC Solidarity
BIPOC: Black, Indigenous and People of Color
Solidarity: Standing in unity with a group for a common interest
BIPOC Solidarity: People of color standing up against anti-blackness, native invisibility and white supremacy.
Asian Americans and Australians experience racism as a result of white supremacy, for sure. But we also buy into white supremacy at the same time. Being a “model minority” means that we behave in ways that don’t bring discomfort to the “white majority”, while also simultaneously perpetuating the stereotype that Black people are not “model citizens’. It connects to respectability politics, the idea that if only Black people behaved well, they could earn the respect of white people and avoid racial injustice. It puts the onus on Black people to justify why they should be treated as humans.
Campaigning against affirmative action, particularly in the sphere of university admissions, is one way Asian people can perpetuate white supremacy. Sure we study hard to get high test scores and work hard to get good extracurricular references, but we also have to acknowledge the privileges we have in being able to attend good schools and go to unpaid internships without any significant distractions. I’m talking about working extra jobs to afford rent, experiencing homelessness, and worrying about student debt. Video games, romance, tiger parents and Subtle Asian Traits don’t count as significant distractions.
Learn more about BIPOC Solidarity:
Follow @MichelleKimKim on Instagram
Sophia Leung’s webinar on disrupting White Supremacy through BIPOC solidarity.
What Does BIPOC Mean? By Constance Grady
Defunding
Defunding is the redistribution of funds away from police budgets and into community services that prevent people from entering into crime in the first place. This is especially important in cities that have a drastically overfunded police department. In Evanston, 17.6% of the city budget is allocated to the police, more than the total amount allocated to parks and recreation, community development, health and library combined.
This would probably be justified if Evanston had a high crime rate, but my Not For Tourists Guide to Chicago and its surrounds specifically instructs visitors to avoid illegal parking in Evanston because Evanstonian police have nothing better to do than assign parking tickets.
Defunding is linked to the Police Abolition movement, which sees policing as inherently flawed. Policing in the United States has its roots in the slave trade, where the role of police was to catch runaway slaves. (I think the relationship between Australian police and Indigenous Australians is pretty similar.) Culture can be extremely hard to eradicate*, and so the effects of this relationship persist.
What’s more, police in America do not have a duty to protect people or serve communities. (In reality, it’s to protect property and serve those that hold wealth.)
So like, what’s the point of police in America then.
*In my previous career, I had the dubious responsibility of encouraging an entire organisation of stressed out government workers to adopt innovative practices. While researching for an innovation strategy, I came across a HBR article on how one CEO revamped the culture at their company. How they did it? They moved the company office to another city and didn’t provide relocation support, so all the employees were forced to quit. This enabled the CEO to hire an entirely new set of staff and start the culture up from scratch. Fascinating to learn, and utterly utterly useless for my organisation’s circumstances, but possibly applicable elsewhere.
Learn more about Defunding Police:
Follow Evanston Fight for Black Lives - a movement run by an amazing group of young women who are busy convincing the city’s aldermen, one by one, to support defunding.
The insufficiency of reparations
Did you know that white families have a median net worth that is 10 times higher than Black families? I didn’t know that until recently either. It’s a pretty drastic gap. Income disparity doesn’t even begin to explain the difference.
40 Acres and a Mule - freed slaves were promised 40 acres of land and a mule with which they could begin their lives anew - until this order was reversed and the land was seized and given to their White oppressors. This meant a much longer race to run.
The Tulsa Race Massacre - The Greenwood District in Tulsa was known as “Black Wall Street” - where the wealth of successful Black Americans was concentrated. This was not an acceptable situation in 20th century America. In 1921, white rioters looted Greenwood. National Guard Troops were called, and they proceeded to arrest Black business owners. 35 entire city blocks were burnt down, leaving 10,000 people homeless. The full death toll is still unknown, as is the full financial loss.
Redlining - Majority Black neighbourhoods were outlined with red on a map, and deemed to be poor investments, preventing Black families from accessing government loans from the Home Owners Loan Corporation and preventing Black veterans from accessing the benefits promised in the G.I Bill. At the same time, President Roosevelt’s New Deal excluded agricultural workers and domestic workers from being eligible for Social Security and the minimum wage - jobs that were primarily filled by Black workers.
Add on currency inflation to all the money that has been either extracted from or denied to Black Americans and you’ll most likely end up with an incomprehensibly large number. America’s failure to patch the tear when it first appeared has led to the hole growing until the entire country is actively disintegrating.
Learn more about reparations:
Juneteenth
Juneteenth is an annual celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. June 19th 1865 was the date on which African Americans in Galveston, Texas were informed of their freedom, two months after the Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered and two whole years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The Federal government has not declared Juneteenth a national holiday.
This year, Evanston celebrated Juneteenth with a virtual parade and social justice merchandise (and also by fending off a Karen who turned up at a merch stall solely to declare that all lives matter).
Learn more about Juneteenth:
So you want to learn about Juneteenth?, by Derrick Bryson Taylor
Why Juneteenth Matters, by Jamelle Bouie
What racism within me looks like
Last year I made a day trip to Oak Park and River Forest to explore the Frank Lloyd Wright houses, Thatcher Woods and to pick up a Facebook marketplace purchase I had made. Oak Park and River Forest are very nice neighbourhoods. “Family friendly”, said the Reddit thread I perused on the morning CTA ride.
On my walk to Thatcher Woods, two young teenagers on bicycles rode by. I consciously walked a bit faster, and took a slightly more circuitous route. Nothing happened to me. Obviously.
What especially bothers me is that I saw this same scenario play out last summer in Evanston. A white woman accused a black boy on a bike of being a criminal. I recognised that as being racism. That event occurred outside of my sphere of influence - I could examine it as an external player. But I was the core player in my own experiences in Oak Park, and I didn’t realise what influences I was leaning into until it was too late.
“There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps... then turn around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”
― Rev. Jesse Jackson
More to learn about racism:
My colleague Ly has put together this excellent pdf (linked below) full of links to articles, books, documentaries and other resources to peruse. It’s full of information that I have yet to learn, so they’re now on my to do list.
Comments