News flash: If a new proposed law passes, police may detain people they reasonably suspect are white to check their legal status to find out if they really are American citizens. If they stop you (in the grocery store, after church, with your kids, driving down the street, walking your dog) and you can produce papers that certify you are allowed to be in this country, everything will be fine. If not, then you will be arrested. Details on how police will determine what constitutes “reasonable suspicion” have not yet been defined. White people are anxious about what this profiling will mean to their everyday lives and nervous about being around the police.
Archive for April, 2010
When laughing is not funny
April 14, 2010I just returned from the White Privilege Conference where nearly 1,700 people of color and white people came to explore privilege and the way it manifests in our individual lives and societal institutions. A riveting moment was listening to Dr. De Gruy describe how a post traumatic slave syndrome impacts us all. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome Some stories were familiar painful ones; some held new and shocking information for me and others. Why, then, was there laughter in the room?
What’s happening on the backstage?
April 7, 2010A 2007 research study of 600 white students from 28 colleges and universities across the U.S. revealed that while racist behaviors and comments appear to have lessened in settings where races were mixed, they are plentiful in white-only settings. The researchers called this the backstage.
White matters 