Wednesday 6 August 2008

Stuff White People Can Do (And Why Sometimes We Can't)

For International Blog Against Racism Week, I'm linking to a couple sites and articles which might help well-meaning anti-racist white people sharpen their (our) ideas and learn - keep on learning - to decenter the ways we see and think about ourselves, our 'race', and 'race' in general.

A fantastic essay by Sarah Ahmed on the 'non-performativity' (thank you) 'of anti-racism';

Rent-a-Negro, which takes a bit of translation for non-Americans but is unsettling and interesting;

and the website of its creator, Damali Ayo (check out her pdf I Can Fix It: 2000 people were asked for 5 things individual people can do to end
racism. Here are the solutions in our own words.
).

And finally, of course, a Peggy Macintosh lolcat.

2 comments:

Beppie said...

Thanks for those links. I found the Ahmed article particularly interesting-- I've only had time to scan over it, but I'll definitely come back to it and read it more thoroughly.

It took me a long time to realise that when one occupies a privileged/hegemonic position (such as whiteness), part of recognising your privilege is recognising that that privilege can be reinforced even when you attempt to subvert it (but at the same time, we should not stop trying to subvert it).

Jennifer said...

here from IBARW

that lolcat is brilliant!! I'm saving it myself. I'll look at your links when I have more time but thanks for posting them