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There's so much I took away from tonight, but especially this from Dr. Kendi: "For many white people, there is a belief that empathy is sympathy." #antiracistteachin https://twitter.com/DrIbram/status/1295050921559416834
(Using initials from now on) K: We're living in a time of unprecedented resistance, but many are asking, what now? What should each and every one of us be doing right now? #antiracistteachin
That's what the events this week are about. First, breaking down myths about African Americans. Whew. #antiracistteachin
W: "African Americans are a working people. There's a stereotype that African Americans do not work." Cites statistics that even when unemployment rates are high, African Americans still work. #antiracistteachin
W: "The occupations that African Americans have been relegated to, historically, are often at the bottom of the hierarchy." What does this mean now? More at risk for covid since less likely than white people to be able to work from home. #antiracistteachin
K: "This is the racial pandemic within the viral pandemic." Also a myth that African Americans weren't taking it seriously. Talks about how that narrative has shifted to how African Americans w/ pre-existing conditions. “None of that was the issue." #antiracistteachin
K: Trauma deserts are also an issue, as are Black people in general being more likely to live in neighborhoods with higher rates of pollution/environment issues. "We're always taught that the problem must always be the people." #antiracistteachin
K: Instead of asking if we're not racist, we should be asking, are we being antiracist? Are we being complicit? It's not enough to simply be aware. #antiracistteachin
W: We need to look at things that are difficult and challenging if we want to heal. Metaphor of living in an old house, and there is always something to fix. "Ignorance is no protection." #antiracistteachin
W: Caste is the bones, race is the skin. Race has been the signifier that identifies where people have been placed in the hierarchy. "If you inherit something, you don't choose what you inherit. We don’t choose the caste system we were born into." #antiracistteachin
W: Calls for radical empathy: truly understanding the lived experience of another. "It's not about looking at what you would do in a position that you will likely never be in, but understanding what someone is doing in a situation." #antiracistteachin
I'm not going to lie, I had to sit with that sentence for a minute because, whew.
W: Not being allowed to show emotions is a form of dehumanization. References children not being allowed to show emotions [on auction blocks] when being taken from their families since traders didn't want to slow down the process. #antiracistteachin
K: "There's a straight line from that to the policing of Black emotions in this moment. Even when we're demonstrating our pain, people are still questioning our emotions." #antiracistteachin
That just completely wrecked me. #antiracistteachin
Q: Why do working class narratives often focus on white people? W says it goes back to who is considered deserving, upstanding, contributing to society. "It's cruel to say that people who worked 16 hours/day during slavery are not working people." #antiracistteachin
Q: How does caste play out today? W says dehumanization is hardest to push past, the removal of humanity of people we've been told are different from us. References gutting of civil rights and voting rights in recent years. #antiracistteachin
K: "You can't just declare that you're antiracist. You were born into a nation that is constantly dehumanizing people. First, you have to stop denying. Then you have to realize you'll never be fully cured. But it's easier for people to claim that they’re cured. #antiracistteachin
W: Most people aren't aware of caste because it's by definition subconscious. The shadow of the 19th and 20th centuries still pervades. #antiracistteachin
Q: What would a world be like without caste? W says, among other things, it would start by wanting people who have previously been marginalized to succeed. #antiracistteachin
That's it for tonight, but I plan on covering other events later in the week. #antiracistteachin
Starting my recap of the second day of #whatnow (and switching to the official hashtag), which is Kendi in conversation with Bryan Stevenson. https://twitter.com/DrIbram/status/1295387487796228097
Similar to yesterday, I'm using initials from here on out. #whatnow
S: "We need to acknowledge that learning is an action item. We need to learn what it means to be shaped by white society." #whatnow
S: We are a post-genocide society, but we haven't acknowledged that. We created a narrative that Indigenous people are different because of their race. Learning to acknowledge history is the beginning of how to get to where we need to go. #whatnow
S calls on us to no longer be ignorant of history. He describes his work as truth-telling so we learn the history, which could lead to justice and repair. #whatnow
He describes four issues with our current criminal justice system (also touches on legal system)... #whatnow
1. Our system has operated for a long time with no accountability. Prosecutors and SCOTUS have operated with discretion. Accountability is the beginning. He calls for a commitment to eliminating discrimination and bias based on race. #whatnow
2. Indifference to bigotry has to stop. A tolerance for racism has to stop. There are so many places where disparities based on race have to stop. (This was a word.) #whatnow
3. We have to commit to a difference approach to accountability and punishment. #whatnow
4. We have to make commitments to end over-incarceration. "We have to comment on these things that we've been silent about for far too long." #whatnow
K says we think about the need for power, policies, and ideas to change. "Policymakers must be committed to antiracist policies. Then we have to ensure they see equity as normal in the way people see inequity as normal today." #whatnow
S:" We have allowed people in this country to be silent. We have allowed them to embrace any narrative that makes them feel better about the history of America." #whatnow
S: We have this long history of exceptional Black people in history doing extraordinary things, making us cheer for them (like Jackie Robinson)...and we confuse that with the history of racism. #whatnow
S: People think that when slavery ended, all the problems ended...You can't terrorize Black people for centuries, create laws that people aren't worthy, and then expect that the legacy of this history will just evaporate. #whatnow
Both agree that we have to confront the idea that the Black body is dangerous. S says, "the presumption of dangerous and guilt is something we have to confront." #whatnow
S: "When you have to keep navigating these presumptions of dangerous and guilt, you get tired. It's exhausting. So many of us are just tired of having to live in these spaces where we have to overcome these presumptions." #whatnow
If you're wondering which part wrecked me, it was this part. #whatnow
S: "We are insisting that this not be a moment, but a movement. We need to shake these institutions. I'm not talking about history because I want to punish, I'm talking about it because I want to liberate." #whatnow
He references South Africa and Germany, and their history of truth-telling and reckoning with their past. #whatnow
Q: What roles do law schools play in promoting equality/inequity? S responds that we act neutral when courts say racist things. We have to begin to challenge that. We act as if there was something inevitable, unavoidable. That has to change. #whatnow
K: "The heartbeat of racism is denial. The heartbeat of antiracist is confession." #whatnow
S: "Our policy makers have the authority to begin deconstructing the system, but they haven't done it since they haven't been accountable. Too many people don't know who their district attorney or state representative is. We have to become informed." #whatnow
S: "We have to vote. To not vote is to have privilege. My clients cannot vote, but their life depends on what happens in November." #whatnow
This session was 
and I would have totally listened to them talk for another hour or more. #whatnow
and I would have totally listened to them talk for another hour or more. #whatnow
Starting my recap of last night's session, which was Kendi in conversation with Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Similar to past couple days, using initials from here on out. #whatnow https://twitter.com/DrIbram/status/1295724536663605254
G, paraphrasing Baldwin: Many people refuse to believe we’re living in a horrible time. What is most terrible is that American white men are not prepared to believe my version of the story. #whatnow
G: "In this county, we have refused to tell ourselves the truth about what we've done. In our refusal, we have generated a wide array of myths and illusions to protect our innocence. We pretend that we're an example of democracy achieved." #whatnow
K: It's a land of denials. It's slaveholding nation that claims it values liberty. It's an unequal nation that claims it values freedom. #whatnow
G: "At the root of it is a moral and ethical complication. Who do we aspire to be? You have to do it to protect your innocence to maintain the illusion of safety." #whatnow
G: There's a fear of being exposed. That this isn't really an example of democracy achieved. And then the question is, who are we? #whatnow
G: "If racial equality is seen as a zeo-sum game, loss is already built into the project. There's a refusal to be vulnerable. It's a refusal to see what's around the corner. It's a refusal to risk oneself." #whatnow
K: "If you think about the time when we're most vulnerable, that's when we were able to turn a corner in our lives. This concept of loss is so built into white American psyche. When white Americans think about change, they think about loss." #whatnow
G: "If the fear of losing one's status is motivating white people, we need to interrogate what are people invested in. We need to evaluate our relationship to other human beings. Does it presume that other people need to be disposed? Does it require hierarchies?" #whatnow
This is where I was completely gutted, btw. #whatnow
K, paraphrasing Baldwin: If I can describe racism in one word, it's death. To run away from racism is to choose life. We have to run towards the trouble that makes us afraid of life. #whatnow
K, paraphrasing Baldwin: If we need to deal with the messiness of the world, we need to deal with the messiness of our lives. What does it mean that we don't want to confront what we've done? #whatnow
K: "Danger is real. Fear is a choice. We've been cowards. The nation has been cowards. To be courageous is to be able to gather the strength to do what's right in the face of fear." #whatnow
I had to take a minute to sit with that. #whatnow
G: "We look to our fantasies of what courage is. Every time we try to give birth to a new America, the umbilical cord of white supremacy is wrapped around it. And we don't always have the energy to remove it, because of our own self-interests, fears, etc…" #whatnow
K: "I don't think many Americans can imagine their political selves without an enemy: immigrants, Muslims terrorists, Black criminals, powerful women. If we create a self without enemy, then we're not going to be so easily manipulated." #whatnow
And this is where I'm completely wrecked. #whatnow
G: "Fear becomes the source of a certain type of manipulation. Black folk know the cost of white fear." #whatnow
K: "As much as white people fear black people, they don't understand how much their fear causes us to fear." *church clap* #whatnow
Q: Where to start with Baldwin? G: Start at the beginning, Notes of a Native Son. You'll see the themes that Baldwin was thinking about under different conditions. #whatnow
Q: What will repair look like? G: Repairing, protecting, and rebuilding institutions. "We enter into the space we have. The question is, will we have the courage to be bold in our transformational practices." #whatnow
G: "During slavery, you had to see the world beyond the capacity of our condition. The insidious thing about this moment is that they don't want us to see the world beyond our condition." #whatnow
G: "Imagination is one of the key battlegrounds, the ability to see ourselves differently. Then we can do serious work about imaging a democracy untethered to the idea that white people matter more than others." #whatnow
G: When white people say, that's not me, I say, we're all interrogating how our beliefs and visions have been shaped by white supremacy. #whatnow
K: We need to overcome this conditioning. We're constantly taught that there's something wrong with us. It's hard not to believe that. (There's so much internalized self-hatred among Black folk, for sure). #whatnow
K: "It is unfathomable for people to see that all of the inequalities in society are the result of racist policies. It's that simple, yet that complex." #whatnow
G: The problem is in us. But that problem is not us. That's a truth that's hard to bear. #whatnow
Q: Preventing Black burnout? G: 1. I've made a decision that hope is invented every day. 2. I've given up trying to convince people who hold noxious views that they shouldn't hold them. 3. All of us can't be poets, but we all have to bear witness. #whatnow
I've enjoyed each session so far, but this one was especially helpful in making me reconsider the complexities (and glories) of Blackness. #whatnow
Starting my recap of last night's session, which was Kendi in conversation with Brit Bennett. Similar to before, using initials from here on out. #whatnow https://twitter.com/DrIbram/status/1296539157800652807
For context, the session is mostly referring to Bennett's latest book, The Vanishing Half, which I recently read and loved. #whatnow
B didn't want to write a book where passing felt moralizing, where a character would be punished at the end. She wanted to write a book that allows that identity itself is fluid. #whatnow
Q: Why celebrate these stories through fiction? B: "When you're living through history, you still have to think about how people are living every day. How are characters experiencing these moments of history?" #whatnow
B: "The first story I read on passing was Fannie Hurst's Imitation of Life. Passing literature often treats the passing person as worthy of punishment. That didn't sit well with me. I didn't want to determine who's right and who's wrong." #whatnow
B, on her character Stella: "What are the implications of her passing? How does it change her family?" She was interested in the idea that race is something that is constructed, but has tangible effects the lives of people." #whatnow
B: "This is something so filmy; that you could walk into a room and be read as something different." She was interested in the tension between the flimsiness of the categories and the ease of which they can be performed since it can have life or death consequences. #whatnow
B also wanted to talk about gender and the performance of it. People have told her, they thought this book was about race, but it's about gender. "I don't see those categories as separate. These categories are going on a transformation, and I wanted to follow that." #whanow
K: "Almost every identity is a performative…When happens with whiteness, masculinity, heterosexuality no longer become the standard?" #whatnow
B: "One of the things I liked about Stella is that she is always performing whiteness incorrectly. She's performing whiteness in a way that she has never experienced, that is even off-putting to other white people." #whatnow
B: "She's trying to replicate the role as the role changes. There's something so human about that: trying to perform a role correctly as a role is constantly being molded around you." #whatnow
I had to sit with that for a minute. #whatnow
K: "The book reminded me of how exhausting it is to be Black in the U.S. When you run away from white people, they hate you. When you run up to white people, they hate you." It's exhausting to try to follow these standards that are constantly changing. #whatnow
B: "It's this idea of white people changing the rules whenever they feel like it, and the exhaustiveness of trying to follow these rules." In her words, TVH takes the idea of colorism, makes it concrete, and pushes it to the extremes. #whatnow
B: "Colorism can be a difficult thing to talk about. There's a divisiveness to even mention it. There's a lot of shame. It speaks to how you feel about being in your body. Shame can be the hardest emotion to try to capture. You cannot look at it directly." #whatnow
With the character of Jude, she wanted to explore a character who knows this ideology is wrong, but is still subjected to it and haunted by it. "How can we free ourselves as Black people of this ideology that has taught us to be ashamed of our very bodies?" #whatnow
K admits his own shame for colorism. "I grew up thinking there was something wrong with Black women, poor Black people, dark Black people. There was something wrong with me for thinking there was something wrong with them." #whatnow
K also admits he wasn't thinking about gender when first writing HTBAA. He's had to reflect on his privilege as a straight, cis, man. Now he wants to use his privileges as a starting point for further research. #whatnow
Q: How to teach colorism? B: "My entry point is always story. I didn't want to talk about it as something that was abstract; but something that is concrete and real. How do we ground it beyond the abstract?" #whatnow
Q: What does the title of TVH mean for you? B wanted the title to have varied meanings: "Stella is half of her twin sister, half of her Black past; there is that sense of vanishing. There are a lot of characters who transform and leave behind their past." #whatnow
She adds that there is something unsettling about it; it felt visceral. #whatnow
Q: Research for TVH? B read books like A Chosen Exile by Allison Hobbs. "We often think about what people stand to gain, and we don't think about what they lose." For Stella, she wanted to talk about loss. #whatnow
She also read about the history of race and colorism in Louisiana, and research on Creole communities: "What would it be like to be part of these communities, and to be an outsider like Jude?" #whatnow
Q: Influences? As an aspiring writer, B was influenced by Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Terry McMillan. She realized Black women could achieve success and popularity. She's been reading Yaa Gyasi lately. #whatnow
K: "It's critically important for us to read fiction. It's critical to imagine how things could be different. Novelists don't get enough credit for transforming how we see the world." #whatnow
B: "It's not that these characters really existed, but they might as well have." #whatnow
Q: Why now? B: "The talent has always been there. The audience is there. Was the publishing industry ready to see that this talent was out there? It's good to see writers celebrated while they're still living and working." #whatnow
I enjoyed this session, and appreciated the open conversation about how ingrained colorism and even anti-Blackness is within Black communities. Like, we often aspire to have fairer skin, but at what cost? #whatnow
