Reddit reviews So You Want to Talk About Race

Dude. I'm trying to help you and provide some information but you seem really dug into the "I'm not a racist" knee-jerk defensiveness. I might suggest a couple of books if you really care about learning about this stuff. These should get you started.

https://www.amazon.com/You-Want-Talk-About-Race/dp/1580056776

https://www.amazon.com/White-Fragility-People-About-Racism/dp/B07D6XQQRY

Buy and read this book. Then read your posts here again and you'll understand what people are getting at. It's not that people don't want you to do your best to be an ally. It's that you're kind of coming into a black space to tell black people about how not-racist you are. It's good that you're speaking out against racism, but coming to the black section of reddit is kind of preaching to the choir. Reddit in general has a racism problem, so it's best to spread these types of messages in those spaces.

Even just reading the first few chapters will give you an idea of what people here are saying.

I can't speak for BBES, but respectful allies are usually welcome.

If you want learn more than you'll get out of a Reddit thread, I find So You Want to Talk About Race? is a great primer for people who want to understand, and are looking for a place to start.

The Pew Research Center found that a significant majority of whites voted for Trump, regardless of their education level or economic status. To paraphrase Ijeoma Oluo, the election wasn't just about race, but race was a factor.

I'm having some issues finding information on desegregation experiences in schools (USA, particularly private schools in the north-east).

This article is the best one I've found so far. As far as books go, I read Going to School in Black & White but it wasn't really what I was expecting. So You Want To Talk About Race was an excellent (if not always enjoyable) read though. I've also read a few general books on the civil rights movement, and more articles/blog posts than I can name.

Also looking for books about "The Stanley Plan" in Virginia.

Would anyone be able to point me towards some more resources? I'll take anything really: timelines, anecdotes, books/biographies or speculation (just label it as such). I'm also looking for information from both perspectives (white vs PoC)... and I'm aiming for realism, not happy go-lucky unicorns that fart rainbows. There is a reason that (it seems like) a lot of the first PoC admitted to previously white schools transferred out after all, and while I can make some guesses about the reasoning that's all it would be.

For background -

>!This is for a Harry Potter -ish story set at Ilvermorny during the 60s, with the assumption that Rappaport's Law essentially banned muggle-borns from the school until it's repeal in '65, and discrimination is a pretty big theme. A lot of it revolves around the whole blood purity thing, the racism that those muggle-born kids learned from society/parents and how those things interact. Also: the squib marches, voldemort's rise and first wizarding war from a foreign perspective, the civil rights movement and how that effects MACUSA's policies, and so on. Yes, the story spans a few years :D!<

• Only defining characteristic is Black skin color (skinny Black guy looks nothing like the deeply muscular athlete)
  
• Caption's central idea is a status argument
  
• Black guy is serving white people
  
  If your comment was genuine, you have a civic responsibility to read this 5-star, easy to understand book so you can learn how to not be an accidental racism apologist.

I think you might appreciate this book: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1580056776/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_XjDzCb2ZYMA9J

Of course you don’t see or feel the privilege. And this is absolutely no fault of your own. You’ve had it your whole life. To you it’s perfectly normal, expected, it’s the status quo and it is invisible to you.

I had this very discussion with my uncle-in-law a little while back. He couldn’t understand how people of color and people in poverty can’t live “the American Dream” simply by working hard (ie “pull yourself up by your bootstraps). He kept pointing out the challenges in his own upbringing and how he had overcome them “all on his own.” He just could not see how his upper middle class upbringing which included a working father and stay at home mom both of whom were college educated, four bedroom house in a good neighborhood, and private schooling with after school tutoring had afforded him a level of privilege not available to people in poverty.

So here is my challenge to you. Go and find a black man any black man and ask them about how they have experienced racism and discrimination in their own lives; ask him how he responds to being pulled over by a cop. Find a poor family of color using government assistance and ask them about how they are talked to by everyday people while they work two full time jobs and go without food to make sure their kids have dinner. Go and find a person who speaks with a Spanish accent and ask them how often they are told to “go back where they came from.” Go and find a woman working in the same position as you do and ask her what her salary is. Go and ask a woman what she does to protect herself when she has to go out alone at night.

Then ask yourself why YOU have never experienced those things. The answer is because you are a white male. Still don’t believe me. Then pull out a book and read. Here are some great books that will educate you to the condition of people of color:

• Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal
  
• Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing
  
• So You Want to Talk About Race
  
• The Hate U Give
  
  These are just a few examples. There are Oh so many more. Before you discount the idea of privilege make sure you educate yourself about the condition of the people under your feet.
  
  YOU may not be putting people down to pull yourself up, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t start higher up the ladder than they did.