systemic racism

But what about the rest of the barrel?

A plague is being visited on all of us, but not evenly.

The story of James Thompson and David Simpson is one of many that cry out for an acknowledgment of wrongs done.

HR 40 is about more than money. It’s about grappling with history.

It took public pressure to convict Jason Van Dyke. It will take more pressure to reform the police.

I can choose to be in situations where I feel uncomfortable. My students of color can't.

The campaign is confronting four interlocking issues: systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, and ecological devastation.

On Sunday, after a tragic week of race-related killings in Dallas, Minneapolis, and Baton Rouge, I took a seat in my white evangelical middle-class megachurch in central Pennsylvania. I didn’t know what to expect, but as the sermon began I found myself pleasantly surprised.

My pastor used his scheduled sermon on the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37) to address the issue of race in America.

I used to lead activities like the "Privilege Walk" and "Cross the Line." I couldn't shake the feeling that they were not taking us very far.

It’s important to understand the dysfunctions at church as systems. We know this. Most of us learn this in seminary. But then we get caught up in things, and it all feels so personal. So it’s good to remind ourselves of the reasons why systemic thinking makes sense.

Putting up signs is great. Talking about racism together is even better.

Most white people now say race relations are bad and getting worse. Black people overwhelmingly agree. Will we stop talking and do something?

Marie Gottschalk describes an American penal system that has all but abandoned any real attempt to rehabilitate its inmates.

Merely speaking about this incident and mentioning racism resulted in the common backlash accusation of playing this mythical item. It is used over and over again by some white people instead of engaging in dialogue through sharing and listening, the choice is made to stigmatize and scapegoat those that disagree that America is mostly a colorblind post-racial nation. There are certain scripts that the white majority learns and rehearses through subtle socialization in dominant culture. Rather than doing the hard work of careful in-depth investigation of the matter, quick cliché dismissals are used to uphold the status quo. The status quo is silence about racism other than pointing out the overt cases, as well as getting into extensive conversation about reverse racism. While I have often gotten frustrated by these little remarks that dismiss black experiences without doing the hard work of listening and wrestling with another perspective, I decided that from now on I was going to “play along” with their game.