Still Relevant

[[This is Isaiah Hine’s high school presentation on white fragility. You’re not going to get a simpler explanation, in my opinion, so if you’re white you should really read this. Below are Isaiah’s notes on each slide.]]

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What is White Fragility?

Robin DiAngelo is a professor at Westfield State University and author of What Does it Mean to Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy.

I’m sure you’ve all seen these ‘defensive moves’ in action before. “I didn’t mean anything by it” “I wasn’t trying to be offensive” “I have a black friend” “Not all white people”

People are often more worried about being called a racist than actually doing something racist. In America white people often don’t even have to consider race. They often think of themselves as “raceless” white is conditioned to be the norm and everyone else is considered “raced” or “colored”. White fragility allows white people to govern when and how race is discussed. White people expect to be educated on racism, and in a nice way.

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Why Is It A Bad Thing?

White people never learn as a result and are allowed to continue saying and doing racist things. White people prefer to hear these things from other white people but because other white people don’t know enough about racism, they cycle continues. When people of color do things like the BLACKLIVESMATTER movement, many white peoples responses were “all lives matter” this is white fragility. Proclaiming that black lives matter does not inherently mean that other lives don’t. This statement is made because society continually shows us that black lives don’t matter in america and these are the lives that need the affirming. We already know that white lives matter, it doesn’t need to be stated. White people are very used to being the center of things and when they aren’t it makes them uncomfortable.

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Why Does This Happen?

Most people don’t fully grasp the idea of systemic racism and that we live in a racist society that perpetuates racist ideas. We are socialized into white supremacy.

reddit

r/GetMotivated - [Image] Feeling bad about yourself

9,872 votes and 143 comments so far on Reddit

Fresh perspective (for me, at least) on my loathsome lack of flawlessness

If the Earth was flat, cats would have pushed everything off of it by now.

10 reasons not to vaccinate my kid:

1. I believe in god and don’t understand statistics. 2. I have no idea of chemistry and biology and therefore believe that any association with a harmful element is automatically harmful. Even if the amount is insignificant. 3. I do not understand the difference between correlation and causality. 4. I ignore the most obvious studies and prefer to believe quacks that have been refuted a thousand times, that either have never treated or rightly no longer treat patients. 5. I cannot distinguish serious and scientific sources from lies and false promises and therefore believe that [insert arbitrary facebook/twitter/random page]  is a credible source. 6. I know that there are problems with the pharmaceutical industry, therefore I consistently ignore everything that has to do with science and real medicine. 7. I do not understand the concept of herd immunity. 8. I do not watch news and therefore do not know what is going on in countries and regions lacking adequate vaccination protection. 9. I am not able to think logically and I don’t even realize that a conspiracy of this magnitude (with millions of people involved) could never be kept secret. 10. I want my child to die.

I feel that the mind-boggling enormity of this feat is underappreciated because the diameter of the black hole and its distance from us are such large, incomprehensible numbers. If my math is right, it's like standing on Earth and trying to photograph a single human hair on the moon... keeping in mind that both Earth and Moon are spinning and moving around while you try to do it. For me, that is the truly-amazing part: the technological achievement... not to mention the geopolitical achievement in getting all those countries to work together.

Also, take THAT flat-earthers!

also very fucking tired of this so-often being the case IRL, not just on the silver screen

very fucking tired of female characters having to be younger and smaller than their male counterparts

Too true too often

What Really Happens After the Apocalypse

Right now, the largest and most deadly wildfire in California history is burning. Last year, Hurricane Harvey drowned southeast Texas under punishing, endless rain; a month ago, Hurricane Florence …

The myth that panic, looting, and antisocial behavior increases during the apocalypse (or apocalyptic-like scenarios) is in fact a myth—and has been solidly disproved by multiple scientific studies. The National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program, a research group within the United States Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), has produced research that shows over and over again that “disaster victims are assisted first by others in the immediate vicinity and surrounding area and only later by official public safety personnel […] The spontaneous provision of assistance is facilitated by the fact that when crises occur, they take place in the context of ongoing community life and daily routines—that is, they affect not isolated individuals but rather people who are embedded in networks of social relationships.” (Facing Hazards and Disasters: Understanding Human Dimensions, National Academy of Sciences, 2006). Humans do not, under the pressure of an emergency, socially collapse. Rather, they seem to display higher levels of social cohesion, despite what media or government agents might expect…or portray on TV. Humans, after the apocalypse, band together in collectives to help one another—and they do this spontaneously. Disaster response workers call it ‘spontaneous prosocial helping behavior’, and it saves lives.