What can I do?
September 30, 2021
In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Trumpet of Conscience, Steeler Lecture,
November 1967.
To continue reproducing racial inequality, the system only needs white people to be really nice and carry on, smile at people of color, be friendly across race, and go to lunch together on occasion. I am not saying that you shouldn't be nice. I suppose it's better than being mean. But niceness is not courageous. Niceness will not get racism on the table.
Robin DiAngelo
White Fragility: Why It's so Hard for White People to Talk about Racism (2018)
Our primary reading this week will be from the final section of Letters to My White Male Friends (2021) by Dax-Devlon Ross.
The section is titled ACT. Excerpts we will discuss may be accessed HERE
Listen to the author and read short reviews of the book below.
(17:17)
“A compelling blend of memoir and call to action, Dax-Devlon Ross invites readers to reflect on their own racial socialization as he reflects on his and challenges them not to turn away from the reality of systemic racism but to listen, learn and take action for meaningful social change in their spheres of influence. Not one of those “White Male Friends”? Read it anyway. You’ll be glad you did.” —Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D., Author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations About Race
Click on the book graphic on the right for a Kirkus review
Supplemental Material
A longer interview with Ross and a bit of background in support of Ross's historical warnings
If you'd like to hear more from Dax-Devlon Ross, click the graphic on the right.
David Leonard, President of the Boston Public Library speaks with Ross about Letters to My White Male Friends on July 7, 2021
(1:24:13)
A Warning Ignored _ by Jelani Cobb _ The New York Review of Books.pdf