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So You Want to Talk About Race
Affirmative action teaches people of color and women that they don’t have to work as hard as white men. Sigh. Here’s the basic truth: the vast majority of affirmative action goals aim for a representative number of people of color and women. This means that if there are 10 percent black people in the area, the ultimate goal (not quota) would be aro
... See moreIjeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
So representation Equality not pure equality
Originally coined in 1966 by sociologist William Peterson to profile the socioeconomic success of Japanese Americans, the myth of the “model minority” has become a collection of stereotypes about Asian Americans, presenting them as an “ideal minority group” in the eyes of White Supremacy. Included in these stereotypes are presumptions of academic a
... See moreIjeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
no matter how woke you think you are—and someone will be telling you to check your privilege while you try to battle your own defensiveness as you figure out what the hell they are talking about.
Ijeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
I may well have been the most qualified person for the job. But it wasn’t a fair competition, and in acting like it was fair, and accepting my prize without question, I helped ensure that it would stay unfair.
Ijeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
If I hit you but do not intend to hit you, that is not a misunderstanding about whether or not I hit you.
Ijeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
shadeism (a byproduct of racism creating a hierarchy within minority races based on skin tone)
Ijeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
Systemic racism is a machine that runs whether we pull the levers or not, and by just letting it be, we are responsible for what it produces. We have to actually dismantle the machine if we want to make change.
Ijeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
I don’t know how to describe what those two days were like for me except to say that I hadn’t known before then that there was so much air to breathe.
Ijeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
Even if we were to flip a switch today and end all racism and racial oppression, millions of people of color would still be disadvantaged by racial oppression of yesterday, and that would need to be addressed with policies like affirmative action that seek to replace opportunities previously denied unless we feel like leaving an entire generation i
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