Before 1661, the idea of “white people” as a foundational “truth” did not exist. The Barbados Slave Code, officially known as An Act for the Better Ordaining and Governing of Negroes, announced the beginning of a legal system in which race and racism were codified into law, and is where our understanding of “White” and “Negro”—as separate and distinct “races”—finds its earliest expression.’ One of my hopes with the book is, I want people to join the dots and see connections between things that they might not have seen previously. I want different people experiencing different forms of oppression connecting. All these people joining those dots together and forming a coalition instead of being pitted against one another. That's what excites me and what my work is trying to do.” Deftly and wittily deconstructs allyship and white saviour tropes to give an unblinkered takedown of what needs to happen next.”— Stylist (UK) History is now. We are living it. If we can’t accept the past and how it affects wealth and opportunity and knowledge production and value systems, we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.” a b Dabiri, Emma (27 April 2019). "I'm Irish but not white. Why is that still a problem 100 years after the Easter Rising?". Irish Times . Retrieved 29 April 2019.

Call or write to your federal legislators in support of the First Step Implementation Act (S. 1014). This legislation (1) makes major sentencing reforms created by The First Step Act of 2018 retroactive and (2) gives judges increased discretion to give sentences below mandatory minimums. Regarding the first part about sentencing reforms, it permits requests for a retroactive sentence reduction to be filed for sentences received before December 21, 2018 (The First Step Act of 2018 currently only apples to sentences given after Dec 21, 2018, the day it became law). The major parts of The First Step Act of 2018 that will be retroactive are: The mandatory penalty for a third drug offense was reduced from life imprisonment to 25 years; the mandatory minimum for a second drug offense was reduced from 20 to 15 years; and prior convictions that trigger “enhanced” mandatory sentences were limited to serious violent felonies and serious drug felonies that occurred within 15 years (previously any drug offense could trigger an enhanced mandatory sentence). Regarding the second part of the legislation about discretion for judges, it allows judges to give sentences below the mandatory minimum in federal drug cases if certain criteria are met and allows courts to reduce sentences imposed for offenses committed under the age of 18 if certain criteria are met. In truth, what the year of the pandemic, more so than any other, has taught me is that I have no expectations of any 'racial' group. How could millions of heterogeneous people live up to any one singular expectation of mine?"Write to your state representative and senator to end qualified immunity like Colorado recently did. Qualified immunity permits government officials performing discretionary functions to be immune from civil suits unless the official violated “clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” In recent years, qualified immunity has been successfully used to defend the use of excessive or deadly force by police, like in the Johnny Leija case. Thank you to Claudia S. Murray for the suggestion. To reduce mandatory minimum sentences on a federal level, call or write your federal legislators in support of another great criminal justice reform bill, the Second Look Act, which would allow courts to reevaluate a person’s sentence after a significant period of time served in prison and determine if that sentence is still necessary. I can’t stress enough how much impact this book’s had on me, I’ll definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more on how race has shaped our lives and what to do to change it. This was a refreshing and necessary book to read. Refreshing because so much of the discourse on race is driven by the USA’s cultural hegemony – whereas this book is rooted firmly in Ireland and the UK. While it does cover some of the US experience, it isn’t exclusively focussed there. Frankly, there’s a huge gap in terms of what comes next. While we need to identify what to do, it’s important not to fixate on an endpoint or a final destination; such thinking is part of the problem. Rather we have to understand our lives as a dynamic flowing of positions. "

Emma’s interrogation of whiteness explores how racism (and other subsequent results of isolative measures including colourism, featurism and texturism) is deeply rooted in capitalist agendas aimed at wealth creation and retention. Participate in reparations. One way is through this Facebook group. Remember reparations isn’t just monetary — share your time, skills, knowledge, connections, etc. Thank you to Clyanna Blyanna for suggesting this addition. I found the first half of this book to read very academic and formal, enough that I considered setting it aside, but I’m glad I didn’t. I don’t think the tone shifted in the second half as much as I just found the content itself more engaging. Vital and empowering What White People Can Do Next teaches each of us how to be agents of change in the fight against racism and the establishment of a more just and equitable world. In this affecting and inspiring collection of essays, Emma Dabiri draws on both academic discipline and lived experience to probe the ways many of us are complacent and complicit—and can therefore combat—white supremacy. She outlines the actions we must take, Stop the Denial I felt it lent an accessibility to the topics that put the reader somewhat at ease and more open to contemplating the questions she is posing.

Racialized Thinking and "White Guilt" Are Holding Us Back From Progress

Emma Dabiri ist in ihrem Essay ein Balanceakt gelungen: Sie kritisiert Formen des Aktivismus, spricht ihnen aber nicht ihren Wert ab, sondern macht vielmehr deutlich, dass eine Konzentration auf kleine Rädchen ohne Bekämpfung des Systems an sich nicht zum gewünschten Ziel, der Lösung von repressiven und klassistischen Denksystemen und einer besseren Welt für alle Menschen, führen kann. In mir hat das Buch sehr viel angestoßen, und mir zahlreiche neue Denkansätze geboten. Besonders toll fand ich zudem das Kapitel über Schwarze Literatur, in dem die Autorin eine Leseliste Schwarzer Schreibender an die Hand gibt. She also argues that simply “calling people out” is not as helpful as taking action in movements against those actions, but adds ‘ do both if you must, but certainly don’t let the latter distract you from the former.’ Much is to be said about the ways we play into capitalism algorithms that market our ideas for profit by participating in them, and she expands on this in interesting ways. Don’t buy from companies that use prison labor. Find a good list here. While Whole Foods is on that list, but pledged to stop using prison labor in 2016, they haven’t made amends for that abuse. You can’t pour gas on a burning building, decide to stop pouring the gas, then walk away like everything is fine. Until Whole Foods pays reparations, they stay on the boycott list. Call or write to your federal legislators in support of The Democracy Restoration Act (s. 481), which would enact a simple rule: Americans who are out of prison and living in the community get to vote in federal elections. If someone has completed their sentence, they should be free to fully participate in elections. Don’t gentrify neighborhoods. If you’re selling your home, sell to someone who is historically marginalized at a low price point (I know of a place to post the listing — DM me for more info). If you rent out space, rent to someone who is historically marginalized at a low price point. Us white folks have gotten so many breaks and passes that we can name and others that we can’t. It’s time to pass those breaks on to others.

Dabiri uses a similar term,“Dúthchas”, which she explains as an “ancient Scottish Gaelic ecological principle of interconnectedness between people, the land and non-human beings. Dúthchas speaks to the type of coexistence that we are now perhaps too late recognising the utter necessity of if we are going to survive.” Creamer, Ella (12 July 2023). "Royal Society of Literature aims to broaden representation as it announces 62 new fellows". The Guardian. If we're talking about it being opportunities and resources, then that's something that can't occur on an individual level, it has to be created through the cultivation of more equal societies. And that requires this analysis of class and capitalism that no one's engaging with.” What makes you hopeful that allyship will grow into a coalition of change? So what is next? How do we form this sense of collective empathy? Dabiri explains that allyship functions on favours, and favours can be taken away based on the whims of the individual, so we need something stronger. I'm reminded of how the multibillion-dollar company Deliveroo, instead of paying their employees properly, or considering them employees, has added a little mechanism at the end of a delivery asking us, the individual consumer, to tip their riders based on their performance. Corporate and governmental responsibility projected on to the charitable sentiments of the individual.a b c d e Haynes, Suyin (22 June 2021). "Why Coalition, Not Allyship, Is the Necessary Next Step in the Racial Justice Movement". Time . Retrieved 11 September 2022. The nature of social media is such that the performance of saying something often trumps doing anything, the tendency to police language, to shame and to say the right thing, often outweighs more substantive efforts. "