Is BLM a Marxist organisation.

[StephenStephen]

So what do you want me & other people who aren’t racist to do?
History can’t be changed.

Well, a good first step is to get more relaxed about whether we are seen, or see ourselves, as 'racist'.
I know for myself for example, that I was brought up in a white racist culture, including family, school, education etc - it would be quite bizarre for me to claim that I wasn't racist.

...but that's not really the point. It's the present that needs to be changed.

The point is to get interested in, and appreciative of, the experience of those many people who's lives are currently being damaged by racism - here-and-now: daily, weekly monthly racism, today tomorrow (ie; not in the past).

Lots of ways to do this - read books, look at youtube videos, read articles written by a diverse range of writers...

Here are a couple for starters:

Webinars, podcasts and articles

Unsettling Whiteness https://soasradio.org/speech/episodes/studen-union-lecture-series-5-unsettling-whiteness

Resisting Racism in the Academy https://discoversociety.org/2019/07/03/resisting-racism-in-the-academy/

Whiteness, Intimacy and Everyday Antiracism. William R. Frey

https://medium.com/@williamrfrey/sswr2020-brief-brilliant-90067f8ad147

What’s Missing From “White Fragility” https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/09/white-fragility-robin-diangelo-workshop.html

RACE: What is White Supremacy in Education? https://theteacherist.com/2019/02/20/race-what-is-white-supremacy-2/


What does it mean to be white in a society that proclaims race meaningless? Robin DiAngelo

Why healing from internalised Whiteness is a missing link in White people’s anti-Racism work

https://everydayfeminism.com/webinar-replay-hiw/?mc_cid=261adfd5ad&mc_eid=b9a7ca3c5e


Pran Patel's Decolonise the Curriculum Ted Talk

Pran Patel's Decolonise the Curriculum companion article https://theteacherist.com/2019/05/26/decolonise-the-curriculum/

Guide to Allyship: http://www.guidetoallyship.com/

So You Call Yourself an Ally: 10 Things All ‘Allies’ Need to Know: https://everydayfeminism.com/2013/11/things-allies-need-to-know/

Seeing White – explorations of White Supremacy 14 radio broadcasts

https://www.sceneonradio.org/episode-45-transformation-seeing-white-part-14/


Witnessing the wound 20 min video by Eugene Ellis, BAATN. https://vimeo.com/2621948


How I learned to stop worrying and love discussing Race (10 min TED talk)

Colonialism and the origins of skin bleaching https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/XIfdHRAAAKbQ_FWB

4 Ways White People Can Process Their Emotions Without Hijacking the Conversation on Racial Justice. Jennifer Loubriel https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/m...ir-emotions-without-bringing-the-white-tears/

Recent relevant books


Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor Layla F.Saad 2020

How to be an antiracist Ibram X. Kendi 2019

Dying of Whiteness Jonathan M. Metzl 2019

White Privilege Unmasked: how to be part of the solution Judy Ryde 2019

BRIT (ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging Afua Hirsch 2018

White Fragility: why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism

Robin DiAngelo 2018

Natives: race and class in the ruins of empire Akala 2018

My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathways to Mending our Hearts and Bodies Resmaa Menakem 2017

Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race Reni Eddo Lodge 2017


The Isis Papers. The Keys to the Colors Dr. Frances Cress Welsing 1991

A collection of 25 essays examining the neuroses of White Supremacy

 

[StephenStephen]

So what do you want me & other people who aren’t racist to do?
History can’t be changed.

...and then when we've learnt some stuff, there are many things we can do - there are even books about it:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anti-Racis...007985126/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

This article is from America, but still helpful: https://mashable.com/article/how-to-be-antiracist/?europe=true

It's a learning process!

 

[Dangee]

It’s ok, I can just ask my wife. Thanks.

 

[Dangee]

Have you got any examples of countries that have done more that ours to beat racism,
I’m in London & virtually everyday day there are black on black murders & stabbings of which I have more knowledge of than I should have as one happened 50 metres from my house & I was called to give evidence in front of the culprits. Have you got any advice to the black people targeting other blacks? Any literature I can tell them to read do that they don’t keep ruining lives?

 

[Notch7]

Lots of ways to do this - read books, look at youtube videos, read articles written by a diverse range of writers..

Thank you for posting those, I've never really looked to educate myself beyond debating the newsworthy stories TBH.

I shall make the effort to have a look at some of those links etc.


What I don't know is how or what is really truly achievable in ending racism or what approach should be taken.

I perceive the BLM movement to not be inclusive - it seems to speak to black people, not white.....if it comes across as criticism towards white people, it just puts puts people's backs up.

We also have a right wing media that is engaging in a phoney culture war....it gets people angry about trivial,stuff like statues.

 

[Dangee]

Uncomfortable truth that had never been tackled, just blame everyone else.

 

[sxturbo]

Racism exists in the UK, it always will it's human nature that some will take a disliking to others for all sorts of reasons colour being one of them.

Can you stop bullying in the playground? No.

Can you stop racism? No

I have been brought up in a fair and just society, I've never felt myself superior to others of different race or colour. I don't see kuklux clans dragging blacks out into the streets and beating them for their colour, it's a rare thing to happen. And I'm not the only person who thinks like that.

No one denies the past and Britain's once glorious colonialism as it was seen at the time. This colonialism was both good and bad for the countries it happened to, however it was how things were done then. These days we sit round a table and discuss trade deals, back then you landed, fought for control and made your own trade deals, discussion hardly came into it.

The UK has never tried to shy away from this, and when I was at school 20 years ago we were taught both sides of the coin, not just glorification of the good bits.

Our past is not anything to be shamed about, there are people who are celebrated in the UK even though they had links to slave trade, I say celebrate them, they are celebrated for other things they did good for their local area, colston for example. Don't just delete him and rename everything associated with him, leave it there it's part of history, be it good or bad. Without our history we wouldn't be where we are today regardless of skin colour.

History is there to tell us where we came from.

This isn't about white people being scared of recognising the truth, we already do.

They should take heed of the Jews, the most persecuted religion/race the world over, they don't keep bleating on how badly they were treated in medieval times, or how many of them were gassed in ww2, instead they move on and look forward and recognise the sacrifice of their forebears, they don't blame the world over and victimise themselves for things that happened 300 years ago to people they never knew.

However world war 2 was different, and I believe will always be looked at through rose tinted glasses and see ourselves as the world's saviours, completely disregarding the sacrifice of other factions such as the gurhkas (who even to this day are treated like 2nd rate citizens and don't have the same perks as UK troops), or the Indian armies of the time.

 

[noseall]

Have you got any examples of countries that have done more that ours to beat racism,

Depends what your standpoint is.

If you look at countries that are deeply racist, i.e. the Southern states of America and South Africa for example, you could argue that some of the things they have done in terms of racism are monumental and will forever be marked in history.

Importing them and allowing black people to do our shi££y low paid jobs is not exactly earth shattering.

 

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

T
Nationalists like to peddle origin myths to justify their nationalism.

Unionists like to peddle origin myths to justify their unionism.

 

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

He hated the British.

 

[Dangee]

So countries wise, South Africa.
But jobs wise I completely disagree, some civil service jobs, ie- police, non white people will be preferred over white people of equal ability.

 

[Vinty]

Unionists like to peddle origin myths to justify their unionism.

No they don't.

 

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

Are black people more likely to murdered by a black person or white person statistically?
I don’t know the answer but..... if it is black, why is that not a bigger topic?

The bigger topic, the absolute and disgusting tragedy, is that black people are killed disproportionately.
If you are concerned about people being killed, and specifically about the mechanisms and reasons for who is killing people and why - if you consider it a bigger topic - do please do some research and share it. Let us be reminded that we are talking about real people being killed, here now in the UK - this is not a theoretical conversation or historical musing.

Crime and violence is an indirect product of poverty, which is an unequal effect on those groups disproportionately affected by inequality.
It's a viscous circle of cause and effect.
Inequality creates unequal poverty which creates crime and violence, which is exploited to justify inequality, ad infinitum.

Part of the confusion, I think, comes from an antiquated notion of what racism is - the idea that racism is simply prejudice from one group towards another. The crucial thing that is missing from this is recognising power differences.

The dictionaries are starting to catch up...https://www.lexico.com/definition/racism
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...ster-racism-definition-revise-kennedy-mitchum

As StephenStephen explains, what is needed is a recognition of the cause and effects of inequality and crime and violence.

Just saying why just blame white people, I thought you mentioned the words uncomfortable & inconvenient. Is there only one direction you want to approach the subject or is it uncomfortable to look at all directions?

As everyone who is prepare to recognise the cause and effect vicious cycle, is to oppose and confront racism.
And not to pander to its adherents, especially those who wish to promote racism for their own bigoted tendencies, and even more so, to not copy their racist behaviour because you find it humorous.

Let's break the "inequality -> poverty -> crime" cycle. Let's start at the cause of the cycle, to reduce inequality.
Let's not jump on the band wagon of excusing, justifying and encouraging racism because of the visible effects of inequality, i.e. poverty and crime.

So what do you want me & other people who aren’t racist to do? History can’t be changed.

The future can be changed! We can only do that by learning from history and intentionally avoiding the same mistakes.

 

[Vinty]

How else can you explain his behavior while in office.

 

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

I perceive the BLM movement to not be inclusive - it seems to speak to black people, not white.....if it comes across as criticism towards white people, it just puts puts people's backs up.

If you see the BLM slogan as 'only' Black Lives Matter, then it is exclusive.
If you see it as the positive opposite of Black Lives don't Matter, (which history seems to accept), then it is not exclusive anymore, it is a revolutionary approach to Black Lives do Matter just as much as anyone else's life. It then becomes inclusive along with all lives matter.