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This month, I've curated articles looking at both the US and the UK, but have also included perspectives from authors from a wider cultural background. Power, privilege, civility, reparations. It's all here, and then some. Dive in when you're ready ...
1. Cringe or comfort? Why some Black people ‘code switch’ their accents by Nesrine Malik
As I read the quote below, all I could think was: "same". Having navigated the blend of my own cultural background with the linguistic norms wherever I happened to be living at the time, this article really resonated. Not for nothing do I call myself a linguistic chameleon:
“A lot of people I meet for the first time give up on trying to identify my accent and straight-up ask me where it’s from, a sort of frequency scrambling that underlines how important accents are in helping us place who we’re speaking to. What I never quite realised until our Long Wave chat is how much of that accent is not just an organic mixture of influences but a way of expression unconsciously adjusted in certain situations.”
2. The White Civility Council by Kevin Kruse
This writer draws some historical parallels between the whitewashing of Charlie Kirk and the White Citizens' Councils which fought desegregation - it's an interesting read, and confirms that we've been here before.
“The Councils presented themselves as serious and sober-minded citizens who just happened to be white supremacists. While some correctly called them out as just the "white collar Klan," many media outlets decided to treat them as something decidedly different, platforming their complaints as legitimate in ways they never would have with the Klan.”
3. Using Power and Privilege For Good: Annelie Wambeek on Taking Responsibility by Global Inclusion in Practice
I've had the good fortune to be on a couple of panels and in a DEI community with Annelie Wambeek. This podcast recap was a great chance to learn more of how her personal story plays into her work, and to gain some useful insights for practitiioners:
“How do you share the power? And how do variable levels of power dynamics come into play here? For Annelie, it's important to help people come to the realization that what this means is a redistribution of power, while coming away engaged and curious about what it is that we don't know.”
4. The Washington Post Fired Me — But My Voice Will Not Be Silenced. by Karen Attiah
Isn't it funny not funny how some white presenters and pundits can be fired and get their jobs back, but that doesn't seem to happen for Black folks in the same situation? But Karen Attiah isn't giving up - I love the absolute defiance of this piece.
“My journalistic and moral values for balance compelled me to condemn violence and murder without engaging in excessive, false mourning for a man who routinely attacked Black women as a group, put academics in danger by putting them on watch lists, claimed falsely that Black people were better off in the era of Jim Crow, said that the Civil Rights Act was a mistake, and favorably reviewed a book that called liberals “Unhumans”. In a since-deleted post, a user accused me of supporting violence and fascism. I made clear that not performing over-the-top grief for white men who espouse violence was not the same as endorsing violence against them.”
5. The Big Payback by Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder review – the case for reparations by Dianne Abbott
You'll see talk of reparations popping up in SARN because I believe it's only right that descendants of the enslaved should be compensated for the multi-generational trauma and colonial extraction. I haven't read the book yet, but I will. In the meantime, the quote below illustrates some of the rationale.
“On one hand, they explain how much of the reality of racism today can be traced back to the economic and psychological consequences of the slave trade: chronic educational underachievement; an increased likelihood of falling foul of the criminal justice system; higher rates of psychosis. On the other, they set out how profits from the slave trade continue to make money today – for instance, by having helped make the UK a global financial centre.”
6. Why Call It Racial Harm by Dr. Shereen Daniels
The author of The Anti-Racist Organization makes a case for seeing, naming and addressing racial harm in the workplace. In this quote, she explains why she believes this should be added to the anti-racist lexicon.
“Systemic racism describes the “what”, the structures, policies, behaviours and practices that produce unequal experiences, opportunities and ultimately outcomes. But racial harm names the consequence and centres the impact.”