President Obama and Race(ism): The Case for a Color-Conscious Agenda Helen A. Neville University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

President Obama and Race(ism): The Case for a Color-Conscious Agenda

Helen A. NevilleUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that thiscould have been my son. Another way of saying that is TrayvonMartin could have been me 35 years ago. . . I think it’s importantto recognize that the African-American community is looking atthis issue through a set of experiences and a history that — thatdoesn’t go away. There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me. And there are very few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator. There are very few African-Americans who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often. And you know, I don’t want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African-Americancommunity interprets what happened one night in Florida.

Barack Obama

#SayHerName:

#NativeLivesMatter

AND IT’S A DIFFERENT KIND OF HURT AND ANGER THAT DRIVES OUR NARRATIVE BECAUSE THE MINDSET ON THE VALUE OF NATIVE LIVES HAS NOT CHANGED MUCH IN THE LAST FIVE CENTURIES. OUR LIVES AND LAND ARE STILL SEEN AND TREATED AS EXPENDABLE CASUALTIES OF COLONIAL PROGRESS. HENCE THE REASON THAT WE ARE STILL TALKED ABOUT IN PAST TENSE AND PORTRAYED AS A PEOPLE ON THE VERGE OF EXTINCTION, DESPITE OUR GROWING PREVALENCE IN MAINSTREAMED SOCIETY.

Project Implicit: White American’s Implicit Bias • Create a common understanding of

the definition of racism• Identify and describe the “types” of

racism and their manifestations in US society

• Identify the consequences of racism on individuals’ lives

• Cover the key findings from Swim et al. article on everyday racism

Color-B

lind Racial Ideology

Color-B

lind Racial

Ideology

Color-Consciousness: Telling on and Acting Against Racism

Bell (2010; 2015) identified 4 relevant stories:• Stock stories• Concealed stories• Resistance stories• Emerging/transforming stories

Establishing a Color-Conscious Agenda

• Recognize and name stock stories• Develop racial literacy skills• Identify and embrace concealed

stories• Trace historical root of the problem• Promote “activism” efficacy

Celebrate Ally Stories

Helen A. Neville: [email protected]