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Support black-owned businesses.
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Happy Thursday!
Today is our first conversation that looks at the economics of racism – and how black businesses have been disproportionately impacted by systemic oppression. Today we'll review a little about the history and significance of Tulsa and how you can support black businesses as part of your practice.
I'll be testing our texts today, so if you want alerts, text ARD to my cell: 718-715-4359. And as always, contributions are greatly appreciated! You can give one-time on PayPal, start a subscription on Patreon, or send Venmo to @nicoleacardoza.
Nicole
TAKE ACTION
1. Sign the 15% Percent Pledge Petition to encourage major companies to pledge 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses.
2. Choose something you've bought in the past week. Find a black-owned business that offers a similar product / service. Plan to buy that product again (or something else) from this retailer.
GET EDUCATED
Why is it critical to support black-owned businesses right now?
It's not easy being a Black business owner in the U.S. With limited access to capital and connections for their work to be seen and celebrated, Black businesses are just as impacted by racism as black people, making it difficult for their products / services, employees and communities to thrive.
And because of COVID-19, black-owned businesses have been particularly struggling this year. A recent report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that “the number of African-American business owners plummeted from 1.1 million in February 2020 to 640,000 in April," a 41% decrease. Overall, the United States lost only 22% of total business owners over the same period, showing a disproportionate impact on African-American individuals. Center for Responsible Lending Study
Part of this was fueled by the inequitable Payroll Protection Program, which aimed to support small-business owners through the pandemic. However, its structure illuminated some of the larger systemic disadvantages people of color, especially Black people, face in business. It initially prioritized people with existing relationships to commercial lenders, but Black people are twice as likely to be turned down for business loans than their White counterparts. It also prioritized those with employees, but "businesses headed by people of color are less likely to have employees, have fewer employees when they do, have less revenue, and have a smaller share of revenue compared to white-owned businesses". Center for Responsible Lending Study
Although Black people account for 15% of the population, there are few Black-owned brands carried by major retailers. Today's call-to-action is a small practice to counteract generations of harm against Black business owners through individual action and calling for collective change.
To fully understand the impact of systemic oppression on Black owned businesses, we have to talk about Tulsa.
“It’s so important to support black-owned businesses right now, because we are doing the work. It’s supporting the actual communities where injustice occurs.”
― Danielle Mullen, owner of Semicolon Bookstore & Gallery in CNBC
The Tulsa Race Massacre
Trump recently announced that he is hosting his first presidential rally post-COVID-19 in Tulsa, OK. He's also hosting it on Juneteenth, which we'll be discussing in full next week, but you can read about its significance here. And people (including myself) are not happy.
Tulsa, OK has deep cultural significance to the civil rights movement. In 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Greenwood District, known as Black Wall Street, was "one of the most prosperous African-American communities in the United States". O.W. Gurley, a wealthy African-American from Arkansas, moved to Tulsa and purchased land that he only gave to other African-Americans, leveling the playing field in a deeply segregated community for his community to thrive. Black businesses were thriving, a sustainable community that did not need dominant culture.
According to this article in JSTOR, "the average income of black families in the area exceeded 'what minimum wage is today.' As a result of segregation, a 'dollar circulated 36 to 100 times' and remained in Greenwood 'almost a year before leaving.'"
But this all changed when a black man was accused of assaulting a white woman in a neighboring town. The white community nearby attacked the community – on foot and by plane. Over two days, thirty-five city blocks went up in flames, 300 people died, and 800 were injured. Reports showed that local police actively participated in the rioting. The entire event was omitted from history records for decades, and will be included in Oklahoma state school curriculum for the first time this fall. Reported property damages estimate the total destruction at $1.8 million in 1921, a $25 million loss for the community in today's dollars.
With this type of outrage on the growth and development of Black wealth in our history, paired with consistently named barriers for our community to access funding and opportunities as businesspeople, it's critical we all do our part to support Black-owned businesses however we can.
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT
Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.
Subscribe on Patreon | Give one-time on PayPal | Venmo @nicoleacardoza
Defund the police.
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Hi,
The protests over the past couple weeks have made some of the most significant progress in the civil rights movement in decades. Now it's time for sweeping policy reform – and today, we'll review why it's so important to support defunding the police.
Next week I will also be sending these daily actions via text! Text ARD to 718-715-4359 to sign up.
If you can give one-time or monthly for this community to grow, I'd really appreciate it. I already have two companies, and a team behind this work will be incredibly helpful. Thank you for everyone that's supported so far!
Nicole
TAKE ACTION
1. Sign the ACLU petition to drastically reduce funding to law enforcement and to reinvest in the communities they harm. Sign the petition >
2. Learn about conversations that may be happening around defunding the police in your local community.
GET EDUCATED
A FAQ on defunding the police
What does defund the police even mean?
The rally to defund the police is a call to action for communities to change the law enforcement system from the ground up. Some common desires include abolishing no-knock search warrants (which is how Brionna Taylor was murdered), military-style raids on the homes of suspects, restricting the flow of military gear to police departments and banning the use of military equipment on protesters. (NYTimes)
Is that the same as divesting?
Overall, yes. Most people are calling for defunding the police by divesting money away from law enforcement, and invest that money back into other necessary infrastructure, including violence prevention programs, public housing, health care and mental health care, and education. Learn more >
"It’s not just about taking away money from the police, it’s about reinvesting those dollars into black communities. Communities that have been deeply divested from, communities that, some have never felt the impact of having true resources. And so we have to reconsider what we’re resourcing. I've been saying we have an economy of punishment over an economy of care."
― Patrisse Cullors in a conversation on WBUR Here & Now
What does abolishing the police mean?
This is a more long-term and radical call for not just shifting our investment in law enforcement, but completing re-imagining the entire criminal justice system. Abolitionists are calling for more than just cutting budgets in the short-term. This article from The Nation from 2015 is a good overview.
Does defunding the police mean getting rid of police officers entirely?
No. Defunding the police means "shrinking the scope of police responsibilities and shifting most of what government does to keep us safe to entities that are better equipped to meet that need", says Christy E. Lopez, a Georgetown Law professor and co-director of the school’s Innovative Policing Program.
MPD150, a Minneapolis-based initiative by organizers aiming to bring "meaningful structural change" to police in the city, are focusing on who responds when someone calls 911. Instead of sending a police officer, they're advocating that instead we could send social workers, mental health care providers and victim or survivor advocates, among others.
This decreases the burden placed on police officers, who are currently tasked to respond to a wide range of requests from their community. Learn more on this in this USA Today article.
But not all police are bad! Why change everything over bad apples?
Yes, not every police officer is racist. Not all police officers kill black people. But this is not the argument. This isn't a conversation about bad apples, but a poisoned orchard. Remember that the police system has systemically hurt black communities throughout time because it's built on a system of racism and white supremacy. Consider:
1 in every 1,000 black men can expect to be killed by police (PNAS)
Minneapolis Police Use Force Against Black People at 7 Times the Rate of Whites (NYTimes)
Policing in southern slave-holding states had roots in slave patrols – groups of white volunteers empowered to use vigilante tactics to enforce laws related to slavery (The Conversation)
The "bad apples" argument is an incredibly harmful refrain. Not only does it prevent conversations from moving forward, it protects white supremacy and systemic oppression and completely discredits the pain, suffering and grief these "bad apples" have caused to individual families and entire communities impacted by their actions.
But won't there be more crime if there's less law enforcement?
Unlikely. Many citizens are concerned that a decrease in law enforcement will increase crime. But by investing in other systems of support, advocates of defunding the police find this unlikely. In addition, studies have shown that more police doesn't equal less crime, either. Some police chiefs, including Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham in DC have warned that decreasing police budgets can create inadequate resources for training, which can increase bad policing (read more at DCist), which is a key consideration in how communities should move forward with defunding – ensuring it doesn't impact effectiveness.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Defunding the police allows communities to re-invest in other forms of community support
The police system is inherently inequitable, and deeply rooted in racism and white supremacy
These initiatives unburden police officers from responding to a wide range of community calls
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT
Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.
Subscribe on Patreon | Give one-time on PayPal | Venmo @nicoleacardoza
Reflect before reaching out to your Black colleagues.
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Happy Monday,
As social distancing restrictions ease across the U.S. more people are going back to work today than weeks prior. Many subscribers have asked how they can support Black colleagues and friends through this, so here's a collection of resources.
For some subscribers, there was an incorrect link in yesterday's email. The comprehensive list of resources to continue your anti-racism learning created by Tasha K can be found here.
If you haven't already, consider investing one-time or monthly for this community to grow. Please note that I'm not responding to emails asking for individual support or guidance at this time.
Nicole
TAKE ACTION
Reflect and respond to these questions below before you reach out to a Black friend / colleague:
What prompted me to reach out to this person?
What do I know about this person's emotional state right now?
What assumptions am I making?*
What burden am I putting on this friend I care about?*
Would I normally ask this question?*
Did I, say, wish this person a happy birthday?*
What would I do if they really aren’t okay?*
*These prompts are from Priska Neely's article Please Stop ‘Checking In to See If I’m Okay in The Cut.
GET EDUCATED
To understand a bit more about how thoughtful, empathetic check-ins (or none at all) are important right now, we're going to learn a bit about intent vs. impact, a concept critical to social justice work.
Intent vs. impact is a practice of decoupling our words and actions from how they impact other people. Oftentimes when addressing race, our words and actions don't land the way we intend, especially in times of deep emotional pain and trauma. And regardless of what we think we're doing, there's still harm in what we do. Or, as Rebekah aptly said in a blog post from January 2018, "if I punch you in the face on accident—you still got punched in the face".
Watch this 2:30m video by Diverse City by Dr. Cheryl Ingram on the importance of intent vs. impact in diversity, equity and inclusion.
Although we can never be fully responsible for how someone responds, we need to get critical on our impact can cause harm to people, especially when they are already in pain, and our intention is to acknowledge that pain without causing more.
The questions in today's action should help you do two things. The first is to get clear on what your actual intention is for reaching out. Are you actively willing and able to support your Black colleagues? Or are you instead looking alleviate some guilt that you're feeling with the weight of this moment.
The second is to understand what the impact of your outreach will be. Does your outreach add burden, or feel disingenuous? Are you in a position to actually support this person?
As long as we continue to engage with societal issues in which there is an agent with intentions and a patient receiving the consequences of those actions, we must all struggle to tease apart these issues of intent and impact. We must all focus on how actions that harm others -- regardless of intent -- need to be addressed, not pushed under the rug because the agent "didn't mean" to do anything wrong.
― Melanie Tannenbaum, “But I didn’t mean it!” Why it’s so hard to prioritize impacts over intents in Scientific America
Read these perspectives on how or if to reach out.
"So please, stop sending #love. Stop sending positive vibes. Stop sending your thoughts. Here are three suggestions on more immediately impactful things to offer instead."
Chad Sanders, I Don’t Need ‘Love’ Texts From My White Friends in the NYTimes
"So if this is the first time you’re asking me how I am, if this is the first time we’ve talked about my existence as a black person in America, you are definitely not the person I’m going to call if I’m not okay. And that is okay! It’s also the reason I don’t need you to check on me now."
Priska Neely, Please Stop ‘Checking In to See If I’m Okay in The Cut.
"If you're a white person, you want to try to understand how you might be feeling if you were in the kind of crisis that your black colleague or friend is in right now," she explains. "What would I want to hear?" Dr. Breland-Noble also points out that if they were really our friends — if they were really coworkers that we valued — we would always be coming from a space of trying to understand, whether in a crisis or not."
Elizabeth Gulio, Before You Check In On Your Black Friend, in Refinery29
"She wanted to make sure she was not creating an emotional burden for her friends, she said, but also that she was not missing an important moment to help if they needed anything. She settled on a simple rule: She would only check in with people of color she already interacted with on a daily basis before the protests, those who she felt would receive her message with a sense of relief and not as an additional burden."
Jose A. Del Real, White people are pouring out their hearts - and sending money - to their black friends in the Washington Post
"So what should I do?! Reach out or not?!"
You may start to notice through these emails that there's no easy answer. And that's because this work isn't easy. Reflect on a traumatic experience on your life and consider: how would you want your friends to help you? How about your coworker? A person you haven't talked to in four years? How would that change if you happen to be on holiday? If they reached out a day after it just happened? Or ten years, because something popped up in the news? What if your trauma didn't happen in a moment, but through a lifetime of consistent negative experiences?
Is there a simple response that fits all the nuances above?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Although we can never be fully responsible for how someone responds, we need to get critical on our impact can cause harm to people, especially when they are already in pain, and our intention is to acknowledge that pain without causing more.
Read perspectives from black people and others in different relationships
Don't look for one best way to answer this, because it doesn't exist
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT
Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.
Subscribe on Patreon | Give one-time on PayPal | Venmo @nicoleacardoza
Give to bail funds – and abolish cash bail.
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Today's practice looks at one of the many systems in our society that protect and perpetuate racism. With increased attention on bail funds in the wake of this week's protests, there's a powerful opportunity to rally around criminal justice reform. Here's a brief overview on the importance of bail funds and how cash bail influences mass incarceration.
As always, your one-time or monthly contributions make this grow. I'm hiring a dedicated staff member and introducing a text option next week!
- Nicole
TAKE ACTION
1. Sign the petition to #EndMoneyBail.
2. Use the National Bail Fund Network's list of List of Protest Bail Funds to support protestors in your state. Some may have raised enough funds, but subscribe to their work regardless so you can support when they need help again.
REFLECT
How much did I know about cash bail before reading this?
What privileges do I have that prevent me from understanding how incarceration works?
GET EDUCATED
"Why is everyone giving to bail funds?"
Charitable bail funds are community-based organizations that raise money to post bail for others. They've raised a ton of money over the past couple weeks from supporters of the national unrest after the death of George Floyd, which shows that we are committed to protecting protestors from the dangers of our criminal justice system.
But bail funds weren't created for this protest. They've been around for a very long time. And they're necessary because cash bail is a major reason why people – particularly Black people, are incarcerated. Cash bail fund donations are important today, but cash bail reform is important for tomorrow.
"Affirming that black lives matter on Instagram is one thing, but challenging millions of your followers to support Black people engaging in civil disobedience is a far bolder stance."
Hannah Giorgis in Why It Matters That So Many People Are Donating to Bail Funds in The Atlantic
Here's how bail works.
When someone is arrested, they are taken into police custody. They have to wait until they are charged, which, in this climate, can take days. Then, depending on the severity of the crime, they are required to pail bay to be released until their trial. Otherwise, they remain in jail. Usually, the bail funds aren’t returned until the court case is completed, which can take forever – or not happen at all. Read more here.
It goes without saying that this process is disproportionately impacting people of color generally – and Black people during these protests. Not only are Black people and other people of color targeted for arrests, many do not have the financial capacity to offer cash bail immediately (remember that most Americans in the U.S. don’t have $1,000 for an emergency). So this process can cause significant financial constraint. There are, of course, bondsmen that can loan the money with interest, which only exacerbates the strain.
This is a very simplistic overview. Cash bail laws differ greatly by state and region, and some have already abolished cash bail. Google “bail laws in [insert your state]” to start learning more.
Via @financesnacks on Instagram
Also remember that we’re protesting in the midst of a global pandemic. Extended time in jail increases the likelihood of contracting COVID-19, exacerbating the financial and health strains of being detained.
Lastly, and most significantly, people experience incredible stress and trauma when they are arrested and detained, especially if unlawfully. This conversation is always a conversation about public health, regardless of the pandemic.
"There are typically more than 700,000 people in U.S. jails, and about two-thirds of them have not yet been convicted of a crime and are there mostly because they couldn’t make bail."
The Marshall Project
"But cities with bail reform and all these bail funds are letting looters back on the streets! They’re keeping us unsafe!"
There’s a slight chance that making bail more attainable (or eliminating it) can send harmful offenders back on the street. But considering our history, it’s otherwise GUARANTEED we will unfairly detain someone and cause them significant trauma and financial burden.
Remember the story of Kalief Browder, who was held at Rikers Island in New York City without trial for three years for allegedly stealing a backpack after his family was unable to make bail. He was in solitary confinement for two of those three years. The trial was eventually dismissed based on lack of evidence. He died by suicide two years after being released. His bail was set at $3,000.
Remember the story of Sandra Bland, who was detained after being pulled over by a state trooper for "failing to signal a lane change". She was found dead in her cell three days later as her family tried to post her $5,000 bail.
We can’t ignore that race is usually at the center of this narrative. Proponents against cash bail reform and bail funds are centering the protection of white people over the consistent harm against Black people and other people of color.
In this conversation and ALL conversations we need to center the people most vulnerable to harm. And in America, that's protecting people from the worst of our systems. We will talk more about what centering means in an upcoming issue.
"But alternatives to cash bail aren't perfect, either!"
There's been lots of conversations on how algorithmic assessments of risk are also racially-biased, and I think we need to do a lot of work to find a more just alternative. But I don't think the answer to "there's not other perfect solution" is to stop trying. We see this a lot in anti-racism conversations, and it often doesn't actively contribute to the work moving forward.
Learn more about cash bail and the racial lines of mass incarceration.
Time: The Kalief Browder Story on Netflix
Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland on Netflix
13th available for free on YouTube
How Does Bail Work, and Why Do People Want to Get Rid of It? NYTimes
The Fight to End Cash Bail in the Standard Social Innovation Review
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The outpouring of bail funds during these protests show that our community is committed to systemic change
Cash bail is a main contributor to the mass incarceration we see in America
We need to donate to bail funds but also advocate for cash bail reform in our communities
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT
Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.
Subscribe on Patreon | Give one-time on PayPal | Venmo @nicoleacardoza
Breonna Taylor. Say her name. And remember it.
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Today another black woman should be celebrating her 27th birthday. But three months ago, she was murdered by the cops. Her killers are still free. The story of Breonna Taylor demonstrates how anti-racism needs to be intersectional to provide an equitable future for all of us.
Speaking of all of us, this is only possible because of each and every donation from the community. You can invest one-time or monthly so I can pay staff and capacity for this work. Companies can also make a contribution if they're using this as a group.
- Nicole
TAKE ACTION
Honor Breonna Taylor today by completing the action steps on the #BirthdayforBreonna campaign, created by Cate Young. Please do as many as possible.
REFLECT
Using the examples of intersectionality below, ask yourself:
Who in my life is more marginalized than me based on their identity?
How can I use my privilege to advocate for their rights?
GET EDUCATED
Breonna Taylor deserves justice.
"Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was in her home in Louisville, KY on March 13th when officers from the Louisville Metro Police Department barged in without a warning nor announcement and broke through her door, fired off more than 20 bullets, and ultimately took Breonna’s life.
Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, thought someone was burglarizing their home and fired his gun to defend himself. But in turn, the officers responded with a hail of bullets and turned an average morning into a tragedy. The police were at the wrong house. There was no search warrant that gave them the right to be there in the first place.
Despite the clear and egregious misconduct of the police officers, Kenneth Walker is being charged with attempted murder and the murderers who killed Breonna Taylor are walking free without any consequences."
This is quoted directly from the Color of Change petition I'm asking you to sign in the daily action.
"How did I not hear about this?!"
This was an egregious misuse of power. And, although Breonna Taylor needs no accolades or professional career to be celebrated, she was also an award-winning EMT worker on the frontlines as COVID-19 unfolded across the globe. Why wasn't her story heard?
This is because our understanding of police brutality against black people is centered on black male victims. And understandably so – the murders of Trayvon Martin, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, George Floyd and many other men garnered national attention and outrage. In fact, black men have been centered as the symbol of Black liberation since the anti-slavery movement. But this leaves injustice and outrage reserved for men, and minimizes the response to the same violence against black women. Brittany Cooper, author, teacher, activist, and cultural critic, explains this thoroughly in her recent Time magazine article and in this analysis on Twitter.
We have even further minimized the voices of Black transgender women in this conversation, who are disproportionately targeted and victimized by the police.
To understand why elevating black women in this social justice narrative is important, you must understand intersectionality. Keep reading to learn more.
"How does gender, sexual orientation, etc. play into racial discrimination?"
Intersectionality is defined as the "complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, or intersect, especially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups". We touched on this briefly when discussing white privilege.
This term was created by lawyer, civil rights advocate, philosopher, and scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw* to describe how gender, race, class, and other aspects of our identity come together to inform how we walk through life.
Intersectionality helps us acknowledge that identifying as a "white woman," for example, comes with race privilege and also with gender inequality. Someone that identifies as a "gay man" means, based on the term, that they are likely to be oppressed by their sexual orientation and receive privilege based on their gender.
There are many white women that will try to equate or minimize race discrimination with their own gender discrimination. Don't do this. There is no such thing as an adequate comparison between racial discrimination and gender discrimination. Besides, remember that there is space for all of us. Race equity does not take away from your gender equity. In fact, centering those most marginalized within the feminist movement is critical for it to move forward.
*Follow Kimberlé Crenshaw on Twitter and support her organization The African American Policy Forum (AAPF), which "acts as an innovative think tank that connects academics, activists and policy-makers to promote efforts to dismantle structural inequality".
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Intersectionality looks at how multiple factors of one person's identity can further marginalize them from access, opportunity and equity
We must center those most marginalized in all movements. We do that today by honoring Breonna Taylor's 27th birthday
White women, should not try to equate or minimize another person's racial discrimination through their own gender identity
"Intersectionality operates as both the observance and analysis of power imbalances, and the tool by which those power imbalances could be eliminated altogether."
Jane Coaston, in The Intersectionality Wars on Vox
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT
Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.
Subscribe on Patreon | Give one-time on PayPal | Venmo @nicoleacardoza
Don't tell Black people how to respond.
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As mentioned in yesterday's email, the next few days of action will center the black experience as we protest for our freedom. Today's prompt is urgent – AND is a practice to remember when acknowledge the pain and wounding of any person of color (or any person, quite frankly).
If you haven't already, consider investing one-time or monthly so I can pay staff and capacity for this work. Companies can also make a contribution if they're using this as a group.
- Nicole
TAKE ACTION
If you identify as non-black:
Find someone that's actively policing a Black person on social media and tell them why it's harmful. Feel free to copy and paste the web version of this email. And, obviously, don't tell black people how to respond.
If you identify as Black:
Take care of yourself today. Do what you need.
GET EDUCATED
What is policing black behavior?
Policing black behavior is when black people are unjustifiably judged, shamed, questioned, detained, physically harmed, murdered, etc. because their actions were deemed suspicious or threatening by whiteness. Usually policing black behavior follows racial profiling, or, using a person’s race or ethnicity to create suspicion or wariness of how they take up space.
Policing doesn't have to involve law enforcement. Obviously, policing by law enforcement is at the center of our nation's conversation right now. But it happens in micro-ways too, like admonishing Black people for not speaking up OR speaking up too much, or questioning why people in protests have to "yell so loud" (these are real examples, ya'll. I'm tired).
Policing black behavior has been normalized since Black people were in slavery. Some of the earliest colonial laws about slavery allowed white people to stop, question, capture and kill Black people. In fact, many white people worked alongside law enforcement as free agents to gain social power, or called in law enforcement to do their work for them. Read about this history in this powerful Washington Post article.
This is all about power. Remember our conversation about white privilege and the power of normal? When Black people start practicing normalized activities alongside white people, it feels like a threat to their power.
So we see countless examples of Black people objectively being policed for doing normal things. Read this Vox article for an analysis of Living While Black.
Case Study: Amy Cooper
And let's not forget one of the most recent and public examples: Amy Cooper, a white woman, called the cops on Christian Cooper while he was birdwatching. She was the one breaking the rules – walking her dog without a leash, which is prohibited in the Ramble – and yet she called the cops on him.
She knew exactly what she was doing when she called them, using the term African-American. It was a threat. She knew he could be harmed. And she knew, as a white woman, what has been normalized in this society and what her white privilege would grant her. She knew exactly how police have been treating Black people.
She tapped into centuries of policing Black behavior to invoke harm instead of putting her dog on a leash.
Remember, all that happened was that a man asked her to put her dog on a leash. If he was a white man...
Would she have responded to him in the same way?
Could she have used law enforcement to bolster her policing?
Would she have been as "worried about her safety" (which is NOT an excuse)?
What would an anti-racist response have looked like?
Why is this important?
Because first and foremost it's RACIST. It causes harm. It's no one's business how black people – or anyone – want to respond right now. Period.
AND we have to remember that individual racist actions allow for the same injustices to play out on a societal level. Remember that, as Sonya Renee Taylor spoke to eloquently in an interview for The Wellness of We conference, the system isn't some foreign man lurking in the shadows. It's a culmination of individual choices and decisions that have become normalized over time. When we unravel our individual actions, we shift the collective (although there is, in addition, some deep dismantling we need to do too).
Let's unpack some basic responses you may hear when you do today's action:
"But I'm not calling the cops! I just posted on Facebook that I don't like the protests happening on my street".
Even if you yourself don't bring in police you are still policing through statements like this, and you're also encouraging others to do so. Besides, the right to protest is protected by both the U.S. Constitution, so people with this response are usually asking to revoke free speech from Black people.
"I just wish Black people would watch their language when sharing about this!"
This is also policing. I can assure you that society is not policing the anger or frustration of non-Black people during times of crises. Also you are incredibly privileged if you watch the consistent murder and injustice against black people and always have a "composed" response.
But why are Black people so mad at me?! I didn't do anything!
There's a very specific and insidious policing of black behavior about anger. You can read about it in this article by The Lily on how people have policed Serena Williams through her entire career. Black people are mad at the system and the people that protect it. And if you are sharing / posting content that upholds the system you are complicit even if you are not, for example, the police officer who had his knee in George Floyd's neck.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Policing black behavior is judging and punishing black people for behavior protected by white privilege
When we normalize micro-actions of policing, we normalize and uphold systems that do the same
Our society has normalized this since slavery and there's millions of examples at all levels of injustice
We see this happen on a major stage quite often, but need to recognize how we practice this on a micro level
“These conversations are always so tense, so painful. People are defensive. We want to believe we are good. To face the racisms and prejudices we carry forces us to recognize the ways in which we are imperfect. We have to be willing to accept our imperfections and we have to be willing to accept the imperfections of others. Is that possible on the scale required for change?”
Roxane Gay, in an article for The Toast
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT
Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.
Subscribe on Patreon | Give one-time on PayPal | Venmo @nicoleacardoza