Antiracism: Black History Month 2024

"Antiracism" was going to be a book category for this anyway, but having just done the spotlight on Stamped, I realized that I should really get around to reading Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist.

So I did.

"Antiracism" was already going to be a category because there were three other books on that topic for this round of reading and blogging. There have been another five that I have written about previously, and there are at least two on my reading list that I have not gotten to yet. 

I could say that some are better than others. It might even be quantitatively true where you could look at how well-written each book is and how well-resourced, but that would be largely beside the point.

Even on the same topic, they come from different viewpoints and different areas of expertise. Some of those may be more resonant for you because of your own experiences or interests, and some might do a better job of filling in the gaps in your own knowledge.

Therefore, the most useful thing I can do is probably just to cover the niche of each book, and then readers can choose which book sounds most appropriate for them.

I have not ruled out writing an overall summary when I finish those last two, but by then there will almost certainly be new books available (unless we get racism fixed by then).

Regardless, here is my most recent reading:

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

I loved Stamped, but it was long and detailed in a way that could be intimidating for some readers. This book is much more approachable.

Kendi starts right off with his own racism and continues to give personal examples. I won't say that makes the reading process comfortable, necessarily, but I think it does help the reader not feel judged. 

What it also does is make the book intensely personal, as we get all of the points and influences along his journey, right up until the necessity of writing this book. 

I recommend it.

Nice White Ladies: The Truth About White Supremacy, Our Role In It, and How We Can Help Dismantle It by Jessie Daniels

This is another one that is really accessible, despite the academic rigor behind it. 

The title describes the focus perfectly, so this is a good one for white women who do not think they are "Karens" -- maybe even find that term offensive -- yet still might benefit from looking into it a little more.

Dear White Peacemakers: Dismantling Racism with Grit and Grace by Osheta Moore

This one is pretty faith-based. I appreciated that in Austin Channing Brown's I'm Still Here, but not quite as much in this one. I still gave it four stars, but I have given a lot of these five stars. It may still fill an important role, and the focus on making peace and building community is admirable.

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee

This is well done, and a strikingly different approach in that it examines the literal cost of racism through an economic lens. 

Even while I doubted if that would move people (because people ignore their self-interests in favor of racism pretty frequently), I was still impressed with information.

Shame

It's not easy casting off shame.

Even now, where I am fairly advanced with it, I still feel a certain defensiveness writing about it. It tempts me to add all of these justifications and clarifications to prove that I am not just in denial.

I suppose that is why I wrote about the various employers screwing me over rather than some other topics, including how interest -- and therefore debt -- drives the economy, so is encouraged and reinforced, even though individuals will have their debt attributed to bad choices.

As it is, I have seen and elucidated clear examples of racism and sexism creating problems, and then people who were invested in the status quo continued to deny and downplay. There is often a limit to how much that type of engagement helps, though you don't always know that going in.

Therefore, I know as I write these things I am leaving myself open to judgment, but I also know that the people most likely to discount what I say are also the least likely to read what I write. I guess that works out.

What I am driving at is that some of what I write about is so baked into societal beliefs that if the initial response is denial that is not even weird. Keep an open mind, and reach out if you have questions.

Getting back to those three employers, the first one did not end up making much of a difference, but the other two really set me back. There were other factors in that (a worldwide financial crash, my mother's dementia), but I lost ground that I never regained.

This is pretty normal. If you have more resources, even setbacks can work in your favor. For example, that worldwide financial crash did affect the stock balances of rich people, but if they didn't need to sell so were able to hold out, there was a big rebound coming. 

That was not how it worked for us.

That could be a reason to be skeptical about those arguing for the privatization of social security, but I am mentioning it more to get to the other area where I needed to let go of shame...

I am no longer ashamed I am fat.

I admit this is not the same as being happy about it.

I recently told a friend (who had been fat-shamed by her doctor) that if I had never dieted I would probably be about sixty pounds lighter.

That's only an estimate, and I would definitely still be considered fat (otherwise there wouldn't have been all of the dieting attempts along the way). It still would have been better. It would have made clothes shopping easier (though I hated clothes shopping back then too).

This is a thing that is remarkably well-known: 95% of dieting attempts fail, with the dieter gaining back anything lost, plus a little extra. Since even people who know that are desperately hopeful of making that 5%, the diet industry makes billions annually. Not millions; billions.

There are so many problems with that I can't even get into it now, but my point is how brilliantly this fits into dominator culture, and why people have such a hard time letting go of it. 

You can see if someone is fat -- though not if they are healthy -- by looking at them. Judging people by color has developed a bit of a stigma, but judging by body size is still A-okay. That is strong motivation to change, but in reality you just end up getting farther behind, probably poorer, probably less healthy from the strain, and almost certainly with a bit more heft to be judged by. Then no amount of science will convince hordes of people that it is not because you are just a slug who doesn't even try, and you don't deserve to ever taste anything good or ride on an airplane.

Incidentally, I have read that when it became common to judge people by their weight, assuming the sin of gluttony, it was partly because it was becoming too unpopular to criticize the greed of capitalists.

It tracks, doesn't it?

I think the order that makes sense here is to return to financial issues next Tuesday, but I am going to leave one thought here first:

The primary purpose of emphasizing personal responsibility is to weaken collective power.

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/04/changed.html 

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/05/anger.html

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2023/07/reparations.html

Spotlight on STAMPED -- Black History Month 2024

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi, was published in 2016.

True to it's title, it goes over the history of racism and its influence on the United States, preceding the formation of the country with racialized justifications for a shift in the slave trade from Slavs to Africans under Prince Henry the Navigator in Portugal, including the first introduction of Black slaves to the American colonies in 1619 and the legal changes in response to Bacon's Rebellion a few decades later. It then goes all the way through to the presidency of Barack Obama.

For those who read a lot of Black history, a lot of the names will be familiar, but there will still be some new information, and a lot of good analysis. For those less familiar, it is a good and thorough course.

I first added Stamped to my reading list in 2017, not too long after it was published. I just finished it this week.

That wouldn't necessarily merit its own post, except for all the other versions read before.

The first version I read was Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You, an adaptation (actually a remix) by Jason Reynolds. 

This was published in 2020, and I was gifted it shortly thereafter. I have some fondness for Reynolds anyway, and I thought it was really well done. 

I would say the target audience is teens. Shortly after reading it I passed it on to some teens who also liked it.

I always knew I would still read the original, but then I came upon two things I wasn't expecting:

Stamped from the Beginning: A Graphic History of Racist Ideas in America

This graphic novel was adapted and drawn by Joel Christian Gill, published in 2023. Of course I had to read that, but it still didn't change any plans.

2023 also saw a movie on Netflix: 

Stamped from the Beginning

The feature, directed by Roger Ross Williams, combines interviews, animation, and narration to essentially cover the same ground. 

That made me wonder if I was missing anything. It turns out that I was:

Stamped (For Kids): Racism, Anti-Racism, and You

Sonja Cherry-Paul adapted Jason Reynolds' adaptation, with illustrations by Rachelle Baker. It came out in 2021.

I think the fact that people keep finding different ways of getting out the material testifies to its importance. 

There should be a version that works best for you.

Some people would rather watch a movie, but then there are all those people who always believe that the book was better.

I think the graphic novel is the most faithful to Kendi's original structure of following five historic figures through the time periods. I also found it a little crammed and hard on my eyes.

The "For Kids" version is not for small children; more for older kids. I think they might just as well wait for the version for teens, which has more information but is still not overwhelming.

The full, original version gives the most complete picture, and that is worth a lot. However, if you are not ready for just over 500 pages, well, maybe go for the Reynolds adaptation.

And remember that the subject matter is important, and worth seeking out.

Anger

Again, from the sheet...

I am angry that I have had three employers screw me over.

Significantly, I only started allowing myself to feel anger at anyone but myself in January 2018, so this came about 18 months later.

The reason I include it is that this is a big part of me no longer being ashamed of being poor.

Now, I know "poor" is a relative term. There can be a lot to be explored there, but right now I want to focus on digging into those employers, which I will nonetheless do without naming them.

The first one I started working for about a month after I got back from my mission. I went back to her on school breaks, and when I was about to graduate she asked me back and raised my pay. I thought "Great!" 

I went back in June. She started messing with my hours while it was still summer, supposedly due to lack of work. I actually took a temp job while I was technically still working for her, and it didn't interfere at all.

Since I was looking for other things, I did not come out and quit, but that is what she was trying to make happen. One night as I was walking out the door she said that since I was doing a lower class of jobs, without the more complex ones coming in, she would have to lower my wage. I told her I would just look for something else, and not to worry about it.

That was not good enough. She called me while I was on my way to the bus and asked me, "Are you saying you quit?" 

I was so done with her; I said, "Yeah, fine. I quit." 

What I did not realize -- but she understood perfectly -- is that she was guaranteeing I could not collect unemployment.

Shortly after, I got a call. In fact, one of the clients had been desperately trying to get her to take their money, and she kept putting them off. A few of us were shortly reunited on the client's site. It was temporary, but through that contractor I got two other assignments with that client, and was kept busy for over a year.

The explanation I got later was that the boss had a faulty heart valve and was not getting enough oxygen to her brain, making her behave irrationally.

Personally, I think she was trying to work out a business loss for tax reasons. I say that because in retrospect I recognized behavior I had observed with other employees as being really unfair and manipulative. It was uncomfortable at the time, but I was giving her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe these people really were thieving and irresponsible and bad. After all, she was always good to me... until she wasn't. 

She was a small business owner, but the next time it happened with a big corporation. Two, actually. 

The client did kind of set things in motion, with one VP getting a plan to outsource our entire department. They offered retention bonuses to the crew, but not the manager. He found another job by the time the outsourcing vice president was fired and the switch was deemed impractical. We had a succession of weak, disinterested, and corrupt managers after that. 

I needed some extended time off, which would involve one unpaid week. The one corrupt manager knew and was fine with it, but he didn't get it on the books. He was replaced by a different corrupt manager who wanted to teach me a lesson. 

I admit I asked the wrong question to corporate. I asked what I needed to do to get it arranged, but what they really were researching was if they could just not save my job for me. They told me the day before I left, but even then they were lying and thanking me for being so professional and please call when I get back. Once again I was jobless and with no unemployment.

It screwed them up really badly, too, because they had a hard time finding someone, settling for someone incompetent and a little irrational, but at least I learned I wasn't special to them.

Finally, another big corporation did send our jobs to India, but they promised they weren't going to. The training in India was just for the overflow. I don't even think they were deliberately lying; they were probably just like "Wow, this is so much cheaper!"

At least in that case, I was able to get unemployment. Still, some advance notice would have been nice. There were coworkers who saw the writing on the wall, but I was too preoccupied with my mother's decline.

I am not saying that there were not any bad choices on my part. There was certainly naivete, more than once. 

However, circumstances always favored the big guy, and the big guy also was way more likely to be a creep. Also, the big guy was not always making smarter choices or choices that were better for the economy.

That is not coincidental.

(For this last job, no one really screwed me over. The problem there is that health care is collapsing. While that is an important issue and there are economic principles that could have some overlap, that's a whole different subject.)

Back to the '70s: Daily Songs for March and April

I'm taking a quick break in the Black History Month reviews because I just finished two months worth of songs.

It has been an ongoing project, but I had been choosing ten charting songs per year, starting in 1980. 

(I did not blog about the songs in the 80s, but I have the links for the posts on the 90s songs down below.)

The initial impulse partly came from loving the '80s and a lot of the '90s, but also the thought that someday I might want to go on Beat Shazam. It made sense to see if there were hit songs where I didn't remember the title.

Having gone through 1999 on the last round, I fully meant to keep going forward into the 2000s, but then I didn't want to. There were too many unfamiliar songs, and I suspected that a lot of them would suck. Sure, I would probably find some cool things, but it would take so much effort.

I decided to go the other direction: 1979 - 1974.

That's been much groovier.

I will eventually get back to 2000, but currently 1973 is more appealing.

Just in case anyone is wondering how far it can go, Billboard started tracking end of year hit songs in 1946. There are 35 songs, but also going through 41 for that year, which may have been due to different listings for individual sales and jukebox play. The "Hot 100" debuted in 1958. 

I can definitely see myself going back to 1958, and potentially to 1946. 

It would not be impossible to go back further, but then the popularity indicators become harder to define, including it moving away at one point from recordings to live performances and sheet music sales. 

That is not insurmountable, especially since I am choosing popular songs based more on my liking of them than their overall popularity.

For now, I will just keep doing a few years at a time, here and there, for as long as it's interesting.

Wherever the music takes me, kitten.

1979

3/2 “My Sharona” by The Knack
3/3 “Music Box Dancer” by Frank Mills
3/4 “What A Fool Believes” by The Doobie Brothers
3/5 “My Life” by Billy Joel
3/6 “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor
3/7 “Le Freak” by Chic
3/8 “September” by Earth, Wind, & Fire
3/9 “Heart of Glass” by Blondie
3/10 “A Little More Love” by Olivia Newton-John
3/11 “I Was Made For Lovin' You” by KISS

1978

3/12 “Sweet Talkin' Woman” by Electric Light Orchestra
3/13 “Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood” by Santa Esmeralda
3/14 “Blue Bayou” by Linda Ronstadt
3/15 “Come Sail Away” by Styx
3/16 “On Broadway” by George Benson
3/17 “Feels So Good” by Chuck Mangione
3/18 “Love Is in the Air” by John Paul Young
3/19 “Can't Smile Without You” by Barry Manilow
3/20 “Last Dance” by Donna Summer
3/21 “Sometimes When We Touch” by Dan Hill

1977

3/22 “Sir Duke” by Stevie Wonder
3/23 “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” by Leo Sayer
3/24 “On and On” by Stephen Bishop
3/25 “Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffett
3/26 “Don't Give Up On Us” by David Soul
3/27 “I Just Want to Be Your Everything” by Andy Gibb
3/28 “Hotel California: by Eagles
3/29 “Jet Airliner” by Steve Miller Band
3/30 “The Rubber Band Man” by The Spinners
3/31 “Best of My Love” by The Emotions

1976
4/1 “The Boys Are Back In Town” by Thin Lizzy
4/2 “Right Back Where We Started From” by Maxine Nightingale
4/3 “A Fifth of Beethoven” by Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band
4/4 “Boogie Fever” by The Sylvers
4/5 “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen
4/6 “Saturday Night” by Bay City Rollers
4/7 “Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)” by Diana Ross
4/8 “I'd Really Love to See You Tonight” England Dan & John Ford Coley
4/9 “You Sexy Thing” by Hot Chocolate
4/10 “You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine” by Lou Rawls

1975

4/11 “Love Will Keep Us Together” by Captain & Tenille
4/12 “The Ballroom Blitz” by Sweet
4/13 “At Seventeen” by Janis Ian
4/14 “Why Can't We Be Friends” by War
4/15 “The Hustle” by Van McCoy & the Soul City Symphony
4/16 “Dance With Me” by Orleans
4/17 “You're the First, the Last, My Everything” by Barry White
4/18 “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” by Freddy Fender
4/19 “Best Of My Love” by Eagles
4/20 “Sister Golden Hair” by America

1974

4/21 “Love's Theme” by Love Unlimited Orchestra
4/22 “Come And Get Your Love” by Redbone
4/23 “Hooked On A Feeling” by Blue Swede
4/24 “Annie's Song” by John Denver
4/25 “The Joker” by Steve Miller Band
4/26 “Takin' Care of Business” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive
4/27 “Please Come to Boston” by Dave Loggins
4/28 “Time In A Bottle” by Jim Croce
4/29 “Rock the Boat” by Hues Corporation
4/30 “Tell Me Something Good” by Rufus & Chaka Khan 

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2023/05/april-daily-songs-top-songs-1991-1994.html

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2023/09/daily-songs-1995-1999.html