So You Want to Talk About Race
the standards put forth by white supremacist patriarchy, and you are lucky, you will most likely just barely get by. There’s nothing inspirational about that.
Ijeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
It’s the system, and our complacency in that system, that gives racism its power, not
Ijeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
When we identify where our privilege intersects with somebody else’s oppression, we’ll find our opportunities to make real change.
Ijeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
Cultural appropriation is the product of a society that prefers its culture cloaked in whiteness.
Ijeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
To refuse to listen to someone’s cries for justice and equality until the request comes in a language you feel comfortable with is a way of asserting your dominance over them in the situation.
Ijeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
The art form that black Americans have relied upon for generations is no longer theirs.
Ijeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
Our police forces were born from Night Patrols, who had the principal task of controlling black and Native American populations in New England, and Slave Patrols, who had the principal task of catching escaped black slaves and sending them back to slave masters.8
Ijeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
Tone policing prioritizes the comfort of the privileged person in the situation over the oppression of the disadvantaged person.
Ijeoma Oluo • So You Want to Talk About Race
It is our role not to shape the future, but to not fuck things up so badly that our kids will be too busy correcting the past to focus on the future.