So yesterday, I posted a little Facebook status update very concerned for some of my white friends who would be with extended family for the holiday. Just by looking at the comment section of their own pages, it was clear there might be some contention over recent events in the news. After posting the following update, my own comment section brought me great joy! Check it out!
Austin: Ooowwweee. Some of you are going to have some interesting conversations at the dinner table tomorrow. And by interesting I mean *terrible*. Christ be with you. (And maybe you should bring some books and powerpoint presentation on systemic injustice).
Abi: Someone needs to create a Systemic Injustice for Relatives slideshow, quick.
Austin What should it include, Abi? Oh, this could be fun...
Austin: Slide 1: slavery and capitalism
Abby: I have one on my teacher computer that is like "power who has it" that I use. .. should have brought it! (Who has the power is a question we ask fit lots of books
Abi: Slide 2: Slavery and Evangelicalism
Austin: Slide 3: Jim Crow and how you grandparents *really* gained wealth
Abi: Slide 4: History of the Police Force
Austin: Slide 5: The fallacy of "black on black" crime
Austin: Abi, I think we may be on to something lol
Abi: Seriously, if someone makes this I will start bringing an overhead projector everywhere I go
Austin: Ha! I love it.
Abi: Slides 6-22: White Privilege
Jason: I like your Pedagogy for the Christmas Sweaters, y'all
Austin: Slides 23-25: defining whiteness, white superiority and anti blackness edited for more space
Abi: Slide 24: "Post-Racial" America, or, How Can There Still Be Racism If We Have a Black President?
Jessica: Slide 25: "Dominant culture narratives"
Austin: Slide 26: No more monoliths- not all black people are the same. Plus another slide on the difference between loving black culture and loving black people
Abi: Slide 27: But I Don't Hate Black People! Racism as practice, not emotion
Austin: *slow clap*
Austin: Slide 28: looking beyond your one black friend
Justin: slide 29: How Progressive Christianity is often still racist, and what it means to be Intersectional
Austin: oh, no you didn't add intersectionality at the family dinner! lol
Justin: yeah that might be asking too much of people that are still understanding systemic racism
Jessica: I think we need to revisit slides 6-22 and name each subcategory
Austin: Hmmm. Yes. You are right. Lets do it.
Austin: Slide 6: White privilege and education
Austin: Slide 7: white privilege and rioting
Austin: Slide 8: White privilege and stop/frisk
Jessica: Slide 9: White privilege and career choices/ job interviews
Austin: Slide 10: white privilege and names
Abi: Slide 11: White Privilege and "Neutrality"
Jessica: Slide 5.5: White privilege and you. "Who, me?!" Yes, you.
Austin: Slide 12: White privilege and 'objectivity"
Austin: Yes! Jessica, Yes!
Abi: Slide 13: White Privilege and Media Representation
Timothy: Slide 30: MLK was peaceful, and they still killed him... In a suit.
Austin: We might give that 2 slides, Timothy
Jessica: Slide 14: Privilege and the politics of respectability
Timothy: Slide 31: Reverse Racism... Nah.
Abi: Slide 32: Not All White People... Nah
Timothy: Slide 32: MLK was not the only black leader...
Timothy: Slide 33:... He was the only black leader that made white people feel comfortable.
Marcus: Slide 34: Malcolm X wasn't the devil and Rosa Parks wasn't the first to sit on the bus
Marcus: Slide 35: why facts are never neutral
Austin: you all are brilliant and wonderful
Brandy: These are brilliant! Each time I thought of a new one, someone had already included it.
Timothy: Slide 36: If Mike Brown had shot up a school, he'd be alive. Examples provided.
Marcus: Slide 37: why nothing is as bad as slavery and jim crow except actual slavery and jim crow.
Marcus: Slide 38: why you need more black friends
Timothy: Slide 39: How to separate thug black from regular black at a quick glance.
Marcus: Slide 40: the differences between racism and anti-blackness
Austin: Sigh. You all make me so happy.
Timothy: Slide 41: The duality of being the villain and the victim.
Marcus: slide 42: the cultural-theological-physical and sexual obsessions with blackness.
Austin: Marcus, please make this slide for us.
Abi: Slide 15: White Privilege and Housing/Districting
Abi: Slide 16: White Privilege and Voting
Abi: or whatever number we were on up there, heh
Austin: Abi, we have a lot of slide left for white privilege. Fill em up!
Timothy: Slide 43: Affirmative Action balanced out white privilege. Thank you.
Abi: 17: White Privilege and Theology
Abi: 18: White Privilege and the War on Drugs
Marcus: Slide 44: Almost no one mentioned in the bible, including God and Jesus, are white.
Marcus: Slide 45: Mythbusters: The actual decedents of the Neanderthals....
Abby: Standardized tests and the school to prison pipe line.
Austin: Love our list. But I think no one would stay for the turkey. lol
Amber: I'm so sad I can't share this
Shara: I'm so mad I missed all this but can I squeeze one or two in the middle?
Shara: Slide 46: Why people who claim to be "colorblind" are lying
Shara: Slide 47: Why it's ridiculous to want to be "colorblind"... Accepting that different does not equal bad
Jewel: Slide 48: Why buildings will never be worth more than black lives or nah
Jewel: Slide 49: Have you thought about having a conversation with your one black friend or nah
Shara: Slide 50: Why society values animals more than black men
Jewel: Slide 50: How not to put your one black friend in the magical negro category or nah
Kathi: I need one to explain why there are so few poc in Oregon. Answer number 1: they were written out of the constitution until almost 1930
Jewel: Slide 51: The history of biased media toward people of color
Jewel: Slide 52: How to have empathy and compassion for populations that have no privilege because you took it.
Jewel: Slide 53: How to see people of color as equally human as you see yourself
Jewel: Slide 54: How to not share racist sentiment in social media if you don't want to be called racist
Austin: You all are on a roll! I LIKE it. I like all of it!
Jewel: Slide 55: How you would feel if someone told you to just get over the unjustified killing of your child
Jewel: Austin, I think I can go all night lol
Jewel: Slide 56: How it is not endearing to tell someone of another race just how much you fetishize them.
Velynn: Girrrllllll for real!!! Lol!!!
Jewel: Slide 57: How Jesus never taught you to be racist
Jewel: Slide 58: It is never okay to touch a POC's hair, skin, any body part without permission
Austin: Slide 57 made me laugh for real tho, Jewel
Jewel: Slide 59: How your all white congregation will never be what heaven looks like
Jewel: Slide 60: How holding contempt in your heart for poc while adopting poc children won't get you extra crowns in glory
Jewel: Slide 61: You just might be racist if you forbid your children to date or marry interracially
Jewel: Slide 62: How going on a short term mission trip does not mean you aren't racist
Jewel Slide 63: How the very same people you view as animals could be angels in disguise
Jewel: Slide 64: This is probably why you don't want to have me over for Thanksgiving
Shara: Lol umm this is no longer a slideshow over holiday dinner this is at least a semester long course for undergraduate students lol
Jewel: Undergraduate, Graduate, Doctoral everyone can get educated
Amber: This is amazing. Omg
Amber: Slide 65 - Black Culture: Was it Appropriated or Nah?
Jenny: Austin, this is making me so happy. Slide 66 - Why it's not reverse racism for white people to not say the N word.
Jenny: Slide 67 - see previous slide about reverse racism not being real.
Jewel: Jenny, amen to all of that!
Jenny: Slide 68 - if you are tired of talking about race/racism, that is your privilege oozing out.
Jenny: Slide 69 - movie ratings and the absence of complex poc roles. And why that matters immensely.
Austin: Slide 70- TED Talk: Danger of a single story
Jewel: Slide 71: How not to speak for people of color
Jewel: Slide 72: Why slaves were not happy on your family's plantation
Jenny: Slide 73 - how not to ask poc to speak for all poc
*As you can see I removed pictures, hyperlinks, and last names. I also removed any personal comments. This list brought me great joy. It was oddly cathartic to see a list of everything we wish we could address in this moment in time.
Do you have more to add? Place them in the comments section!