RACIAL JUSTICE How you might be feeling: I FEEL GUILTY: “I could be doing more.” I FEEL ANGRY: “I don’t like to feel like I’m wrong.” I FEEL DEFENSIVE: “Why blame me? I do enough already.” I FEEL TURNED OFF: “I have other priorities in life.” I FEEL HELPLESS: “The problem is too big…what can I do?” I FEEL AFRAID: “I am going to do something…I don’t know what will happen.” Racism the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another. Acronyms to know BIPOC - Black, Indigenous, and People of Color POC - People of Color WOC - Women of Color PWI - Predominantly White Institution Prejudice an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason. an unjustified or incorrect attitude (usually negative) towards an individual based solely on the individual’s membership of a social group. Oppression the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. an act or instance of oppressing or subjecting to cruel or unjust impositions or restraints. Stereotypes The beliefs that individuals hold about members of a group based on generalizations about characteristics of all members of that group. Microaggressions “brief and commonplace daily verbal or behavioral and environmental indignities whether intentional or unintentional that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults to the target person or group” that potentially have a harmful or unpleasant psychological impact (Sue, Capodilupo, Torino, Bucceri, Holder, Nadal, & Esquilin, 2007, p. 273) Discrimination treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit the behavior or actions, usually negative, towards an individual or group of people, especially on the basis of sex/race/social class, etc. White Supremacy is the racist belief that white people are superior to people of other races and therefore should be dominant over them. is used to describe a political ideology that perpetuates and maintains the social, political, historical, or institutional domination by white people (as evidenced by historical and contemporary sociopolitical structures such as the Atlantic slave trade, Jim Crow laws in the United States, the set of "White Australia" policies from the 1890s until the mid-1970s, and apartheid in South Africa) is used in some academic studies of racial power to denote a system of structural or societal racism which privileges white people over others, regardless of the presence or the absence of racial hatred. White racial advantages occur at both a collective and an individual level. Colorblind The idea that people don’t see the color of someone else’s skin, but rather their actions; the idea that ignoring or overlooking racial and ethnic differences promotes racial harmony “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” -Martin Luther King, Jr. “I Have a Dream Speech,” 1963 Black Lives Matter An organization, a hashtag, and a movement that brings to light the experiences of black lives across the globe and especially in America. It was born out of the killing of Trayvon Martin within our own backyard of Sanford, FL. The organization describes themselves as a “global network that builds power to bring justice, healing, and freedom to Black people across the globe.” Privilege a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group. https://drive.google.com/file/d/16h97TwkGH2n4iHIz10kfkkSkw5MPqR8W/view?usp=sharing Discussion Questions: How have you experienced, seen, or participated in racism, prejudice, privilege, colorblindness, microaggression or other words we have defined today? How did you react? How could you have reacted or how would you change your interaction? Action steps 1. Find an accountability buddy 2. Schedule when you keep learning and acting 3. Write out your questions and explore them one at a time a. Add the questions you already have to the chat so we can discuss them together at the next Education to Action RACIAL JUSTICE RACIAL JUSTICE.