White People Make Everything About Race

Season 2, Episode 9: "Nobody wins unless everybody wins"

When we hear the word privilege, many of us envision a worry free life of sunshine and leisure, to many of us it implies coasting through life having our every need attended to. And, to most of us, it bears little resemblance to the daily challenges, worries, frustrations, and struggles that we know all too well.  Since the early days of colonial America, in order to maintain the capitalist system that we are under, in order to have enough willing accomplices to keep the social, political, and economic gears churning, and to keep the real benefits accruing upward, token rewards have been placed on offer for those who don’t challenge the system. We are told that the privileges that we and others are afforded don’t exist, but they lurk constantly at the edges of all of our conversations and interactions, they lurk at the edge of our consciousness. They are phantoms, present but unacknowledged, felt but uncomfortable.  But if we don’t challenge this system that is predicated on arbitrary advantage and disadvantage, we must accept the unnecessary and cruel disparities that exist in our communities —  disparities that damage our values, our beliefs, and our spirituality — disparities that do irreparable damage to our own humanity on an individual and collective scale. While it is true that white privilege exists, white privilege is a lie -- it is wrapped up in an unholy bargain that hurts us all. See show notes and more at whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com [http://www.whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com/]

Season 2, Episode 8: The Five Phantoms - Sense of Self

The Fifth Phantom of While Privilege is embedded deep within us, it is baked into our Sense of Self.  Those of us who are characterized and treated as white have the privilege of not thinking about race, how it impacts those around us, and the impact is has within us.  We are afforded the luxury of seeing ourselves as individuals, not as a part of a racialized group, and this creates the mental space for us to develop and claim an individual identity, to believe deeply that we are one certain way, to see the injustices and indignities carried out by a white-dominated society but separate ourselves from them.  Not only do we not have to think about race generally, we don’t have to think about our own whiteness and how our own actions are inherently racialized.  Show Notes (listed chronologically): The Souls of Black Folk. W.E. DuBois 1903. All right, “color-blind” colleagues, we need to have a talk. Vu Le. Nonprofit AF. April 24, 2017. nonprofitaf.com/2017/04/all-right-color-blind-colleagues-we-need-to-have-a-talk/ [https://nonprofitaf.com/2017/04/all-right-color-blind-colleagues-we-need-to-have-a-talk/] Between the World and Me. Ta-Nehisi Coates. 2015. Spiegel & Grau [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiegel_&_Grau]. The Costs of Code-Switching. Courtney L. McCluney [https://hbr.org/search?term=Courtney%2520L.%2520McCluney], Kathrina Robotham [https://hbr.org/search?term=Kathrina%2520Robotham], Serenity Lee [https://hbr.org/search?term=Serenity%2520Lee], Richard Smith [https://hbr.org/search?term=Richard%2520Smith] & Myles Durkee [https://hbr.org/search?term=Myles%2520Durkee]. Harvard Business Review. November 15, 2019. hbr.org/2019/11/the-costs-of-codeswitching [https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-costs-of-codeswitching] For Black parents, 'the talk' binds generations and reflects changes in America. Gustavo Solis. 2021,March 10. https://phys.org/news/2021-03-black-parents-america.html Let’s Reconceptualize “Imposter Syndrome” for People of Color What It Means, How It Affects Our Students, and What Higher Ed Institutions Can Do About It. Cokley, Kevin. August 15, 2024. Harvard Business Publishing Education. hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/lets-reconceptualize-imposter-syndrome-for-people-of-color [https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/lets-reconceptualize-imposter-syndrome-for-people-of-color] White Supremacy Culture – Still Here. Tema Okun | May 2021. whitesupremacyculture.info From White Racist to White Anti-­Racist: The Lifelong Journey. Tema Okun, dRworks. 2006. Notes of a Native Son. James Baldwin. Beacon Press. 1955. Requiem for a Nun. William Faulker. Random House. 1951. Is Declining Mental Health in the U.S. a White Phenomenon? Racial Disparities in Mental Health from 1997 to 2018. IPUMS Center for Data Integration. ipums.org/sites/www.ipums.org/files/peele.pdf [https://ipums.org/sites/www.ipums.org/files/peele.pdf] Suicide by mass murder: Masculinity, aggrieved entitlement, and rampage school shootings. Rachel Kalish, Michael Kimmel. SUNY at Stony Brook, NY. Health Sociology Review (2010) 19(4): 451–464. The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. Heather McGhee. Penguin Random House. 2021. Racing to Justice: Transforming Our Conceptions of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society; john a. powell. Indiana University Press. 2012.  The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction 1948-1985. James Baldwin. St. Martin’s Press. 1985. See show notes and more at whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com [http://www.whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com/]

Season 2, Episode 7: The Five Phantoms - Acceptance & the Benefit of the Doubt

We can go about our day-to-day lives as people who are treated as white, and easily fail to recognize the subtle ways that bias and prejudice show up when others face it, when we unintentionally perpetrate it, and and when our own path may be cleared through its absence.  White privilege delivers us the assumption that we will be accepted wherever we may go, that we have a right to be wherever we are and wherever we want to be. It is the assumption that we are well intentioned and capable, with allowances to not be perfect all the time. It is the assumption that what we say matters, and it is being given the time, space, and attention to say those things.  Show Notes: Listed of works quoted listed chronologically below. For a full list of works consulted, see https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VYpwO5EE3-yGfT1LI_8FTp_viVBTPe22/view?usp=sharing [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VYpwO5EE3-yGfT1LI_8FTp_viVBTPe22/view?usp=sharing]) Nour S. Kteily, Alexander P. Landry, Dehumanization: trends, insights, and challenges, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Volume 26, Issue 3, 2022, Pages 222-240, ISSN 1364-6613. Leyens, J.-P., Paladino, P. M., Rodriguez-Torres, R., Vaes, J., Demoulin, S., Rodriguez-Perez, A., & Gaunt, R. (2000). The Emotional Side of Prejudice: The Attribution of Secondary Emotions to Ingroups and Outgroups. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4(2), 186-197.  Racial and ethnic disparities in the management of acute pain in US emergency departments: Meta-analysis and systematic review. Paulyne Lee, Maxine Le Saux, Rebecca Siegel, Monika Goyal, Chen Chen, Yan Ma, Andrew C. Meltzer. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, Volume 37, Issue 9, 2019, Pages 1770-1777, ISSN 0735-6757. Racing to Justice: Transforming Our Conceptions of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society. John a. powell. Indiana University Press. 2012. P. 76.  Anderson, Elijah. “The White Space”. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 2015, Vol. 1(1) 10–21 © American Sociological Association 2014.  DOI: 10.1177/2332649214561306 Phipps, A. (2021). White tears, white rage: Victimhood and (as) violence in mainstream feminism. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 24(1), 81-93.  Racing to Justice: Transforming Our Conceptions of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society. john a. powell. Indiana University Press. 2012. Thomas MMC, Waldfogel J, Williams OF. Inequities in Child Protective Services Contact Between Black and White Children. Child Maltreat. 2023 Feb;28(1):42-54. “The Racial Equity Dividend: Buffalo’s Great Opportunity.” University at Buffalo Regional Institute, State University of New York at Buffalo, School of Architecture and Planning, and Make Communities. 2016.  Okun, Tema. White Supremacy Culture. dRworks . www.dismantlingracism.org Motro, D., Evans, J. B., Ellis, A. P. J., & Benson, L., III (2021, April 1). Race and Reactions to Women’s Expressions of Anger at Work: Examining the Effects of the “Angry Black Woman” Stereotype. Journal of Applied Psychology.  Day-to-Day Experiences of Emotional Tax Among Women and Men of Color in the Workplace. Dnika J. Travis, PhD [https://www.catalyst.org/search/all?q=Dnika%20J.%20Travis,%20PhD]& Jennifer Thorpe-Moscon, PhD [https://www.catalyst.org/search/all?q=Jennifer%20Thorpe-Moscon,%20PhD].15 February 2018.  Seeing Race and Seeming Racist? Evaluating Strategic Colorblindness in Social Interaction. Evan P. Apfelbaum and Samuel R. Sommers, Tufts University; Michael I. Norton. Harvard Business School.  See show notes and more at whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com [http://www.whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com/]

Season 2, Episode 6: The Five Phantoms - Access to Systems and Structures

Despite the bootstraps myth. We all rely on society’s systems and structures in some way to access opportunity. Our social systems — from health care to education to banking and transportation — are not natural or organic. The have been designed. And the design of those systems produces the outcomes that we get.  And, by any measure, the outcomes we see in today’s America are deeply out of step with our stated American values. They are deeply out of step with freedom and liberty for everyone, deeply out of step creating communities of belonging and opportunity. And those outcomes that these systems produced are racialized.  In this episode, we’re going to discuss the third or our five phantoms of white privilege: access. The ways that the systems and structure of our society the provide disproportionate opportunity to folks who are white identified: 1) by giving us greater access to doors of opportunity not open to folks of color; 2) by allowing us expectations of access to the public sphere, public spaces and public responsiveness, in ways that folks of color can not assume; 3) by providing us access to choices that are closed of to folks of color. Show Notes: Boosts and Blocks Timeline. United For a Fair Economy. https://www.faireconomy.org/boostsandblocks [https://www.faireconomy.org/boostsandblocks]  Black Americans Have a Clear Vision for Reducing Racism but Little Hope It Will Happen: Many say key U.S. institutions should be rebuilt to ensure fair treatment. By Kiana Cox and Khadijah Edwards.  August 30, 2022. https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2022/08/30/black-americans-have-a-clear-vision-for-reducing-racism-but-little-hope-it-will-happen/ https://daily.jstor.org/calling-the-police-without-trusting-the-police/ [https://daily.jstor.org/calling-the-police-without-trusting-the-police/]  The New Jim Crow. Michelle Alexander. https://newjimcrow.com/  [https://newjimcrow.com/ ] 13th. Ava DuVernay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8  [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8 ] More than Prejudice: Restatement, Reflections, and New Directions in Critical Race Theory. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.  2015, Vol. 1(1) 75­ –89.  American Sociological Association 2014 DOI: 10.1177/2332649214557042 p.80. This Supreme Court Case Made School District Lines A Tool For Segregation. July 25, 20195:00 AM ET. Heard on Morning Edition. By Elissa Nadworny, Cory Turner, https://www.npr.org/2019/07/25/739493839/this-supreme-court-case-made-school-district-lines-a-tool-for-segregation The Racist History Of “School Choice”. Forbes. Raymond Pierce, May 06, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/raymondpierce/2021/05/06/the-racist-history-of-school-choice/ Legacy and Athlete Preferences at Harvard. Peter Arcidiacono, Josh Kinsler, Tyler Ransom, Working Paper 26316. http://www.nber.org/papers/w26316 National Bureau of Economic Research.   The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. Heather McGhee. https://heathermcghee.com [https://heathermcghee.com] Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland. Jonathan Metzl. https://www.jonathanmetzl.com/ [https://www.jonathanmetzl.com/] See show notes and more at whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com [http://www.whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com/]

Season 2, Episode 5: The Five Phantoms - Centered in the Story

This episode we’re going to take a deep dive on the second of our Five Phantoms of White Privilege, and that phantom is the way that whiteness has been continually centered in the story of America. It’s the way whiteness is core to the story we tell about our world: past, present, and future.  This is about cultural representation, how it is controlled and how it shapes expectations, and then how it excludes or punishes those who don’t meet them. Whether in popular fiction, news media, or our lived experiences, the ways that whiteness, and the white experience is centered is and has been self-reinforcing.  Sources and notes: From servants to outlaws: 100 years of Black representation in Hollywood films. Althea Manasan and Mary O'Connell. CBC Radio · Posted: Mar 18, 2021 2:29 PM EDT | Last Updated: March 1, 2023 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/from-servants-to-outlaws-100-years-of-black-representation-in-hollywood-films-1.5953758 [https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/from-servants-to-outlaws-100-years-of-black-representation-in-hollywood-films-1.5953758] Black representation in film and TV: The challenges and impact of increasing diversity. March 11, 2021. McKinsey. Jonathan Dunn, Sheldon Lyn. Nony Onyeador, Emmanuel Zegeye. https://www.mckinsey.com/Featured-Insights/Diversity-and-Inclusion/Black-representation-in-film-and-TV-The-challenges-and-impact-of-increasing-diversity [https://www.mckinsey.com/Featured-Insights/Diversity-and-Inclusion/Black-representation-in-film-and-TV-The-challenges-and-impact-of-increasing-diversity]  Just How White Is the Book Industry?. Richard Jean So and Gus Wezerek. Nytimes  Dec. 11, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/11/opinion/culture/diversity-publishing-industry.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/11/opinion/culture/diversity-publishing-industry.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage] retrieved 11 March 2025.  Bickmore, S. T., Xu, Y., & Sheridan, M. I. (2017). Where Are the People of Color?: Representation of Cultural Diversity in the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and Advocating for Diverse Books in a Non-Post Racial Society. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and E ducation, 16 (1). https://doi.org/10.31390/taboo.16.1.06 [https://doi.org/10.31390/taboo.16.1.06]  Anjali Adukia, Alex Eble, Emileigh Harrison, Hakizumwami Birali Runesha, Teodora Szasz, What We Teach About Race and Gender: Representation in Images and Text of Children’s Books, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 138, Issue 4, November 2023, Pages 2225–2285, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjad028 [https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjad028]  New Study Looks at Race, Gender Representation in Award-Winning Children’s Books. Kara Yorio [https://www.slj.com/author?query=Kara%20Yorio]. Apr 16, 2021. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/story/new-study-looks-race-gender-representation-in-award-winning-childrens-books [https://www.slj.com/story/new-study-looks-race-gender-representation-in-award-winning-childrens-books]  The Music Industry Was Built On Racism. Changing It Will Take More Than Donations.  ELIAS LEIGHT [https://www.rollingstone.com/author/elias-leight/]. JUNE 5, 2020. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/music-industry-racism-1010001/ [https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/music-industry-racism-1010001/]  ‘Black in Space’ looks at final frontier of civil ri See show notes and more at whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com [http://www.whitepeoplemakeeverythingaboutrace.com/]