Since we all grew up in a racialized society, we all have racist ways of thinking. I’m not saying we are all white supremacists, but we have all lived in a society that considers white to be the standard and others to be substandard, in so many different ways. This has a very negative affect
Racism
How to respond to “if you aren’t doing anything wrong, you won’t be stopped in the first place.”
The whole point of the protests is that Black people *do* get stopped by police for doing nothing wrong. And when they do get stopped, regardless of whether they have done anything wrong or not, they tend to get treated with more brutality, and tend to be subject to extrajudicial killing by the police more
It’s All of Us
I had lunch with one of my mentors yesterday. She has worked in education for her whole career and is soon to retire. She grew up in Ibaraki and then went to Tokyo for university. She was originally planning to find a job in Tokyo after she graduated. However, she was not able to because
Square Dancing and Racism
So, here’s the thing. I am about as white as it gets, with my Dutch and Scottish heritage in a Canadian package. Under normal conditions, I would not ever experience racism, so it might be hard for me to really understand what it means, and how it feels, to be judged based on the colour
My Understanding of the Black Lives Matter Movement
One of my Facebook friends asked some questions about the Black Lives Matter movement. Here are my answers. Is Black Lives Matter (BLM) any different from the KKK or Neo Nazi groups — racist hate groups? BLM is not a hate group, nor is it racist. It is a group that is trying to get
Why Do I Argue with Racist, Sexist, Gun-Loving People?
Almost every time I have a day off with no pressing work to do (so, roughly, two times a year!), I end up getting into arguments with racist, sexist, climate change denying, and/or gun-loving square dancers (*see note below) on Facebook. Normally, I would never encounter people with such vastly different views from my own,