Book: Antiracism as daily practice by Jennifer Harvey
Antiracism as daily practice: refuse shame, change white communities, and help create a just world by Jennifer Harvey
I'm still reading this book, and I love it. Its the first book I've read specifically about being antiracist. You learn about being antiracist by learning from her personal experiences, family life, and connections she's made with others.
She grew up in a white christian evangelical family, so it was a culture shock for her when she went to a diverse college and had many of her first experiences around black people. She made a fool of herself many times, but learned and grew.
Reading her stories and thoughts inspires me to speak more confidently about race in my life, not to shy away from uncomfortable topics around family. She talks about how white supremacy is supported by white silence.
At the end of each chapter, she has specific suggestions about actions you can take to be antiracist in your life, such as consuming diverse content, like reading black journalists.
My family was given farmland as part of federal land grants around the 1850s. This book inspired me to ask my dad and grandma the history of the land before the U.S. Government took it. Neither one of them knew if there were native people there. This book gave me the courage to bring up these questions. I really am curious.
And it is important that we understand that our family's wealth is literally built upon stolen land. And that this land was not made available to black families. I am enriched by this history of imperialism and white supremacy. While we've talked about our history of our farmland, we'd never broached the messy history that came before.
So I'm glad for this book, making me think about these things, and inspiring me to bring this up with family.
One young loved one mentioned to me that they don't like politics, in a discussion about race. When do black kids start learning about and talking about race? (probably pretty young) White kids largely can get away with not thinking about or learning about race. For us it's a matter of trying to be better in the world. For black kids its a matter of survival and overcoming oppression. I guess it is for us too, but it's somebody else's oppression that we absolutely should be playing a part in.