- Elizabeth Bluemle's The Elephant in the Room post from back in June
- This account of Mitali Perkins's recent chat with the good people of Random House
- Via Mitali's blog, "A Girl Like Me," a 16-year-old filmmaker's reflection on Black female beauty, including a re-conducting of the Kenneth Clark doll test. If you think that white people are being discriminated against, or that children are immune to cultural cues about race, please watch this video -- starting at the 3:20 mark if you can't take the time to watch the whole thing.
- The wonderful Chimimanda Adichie talk, "The Dangers of a Single Story" (also a video)
- I Didn't Dream of Dragons, the reflections of a fantasy writer of Indian descent on racial and cultural power imbalances in her own thinking
- White People, It Is Not All About You, But for This Post It Is -- her followup to that, responding to some critics and other commenters
- Through that, a List of Links for Clueless White People, with lots of good stuff on white privilege, and from that:
- What I Have Learned Through Conversations About Race -- a white woman's manifesto on, essentially, trying not to be an idiot about race
- Finally, on October 8-9, NYU is hosting "A is for Anansi," a conference on literature for children of African descent. I'll be there.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Some Things I'm Reading, Watching, & Thinking About
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That doll experiment indeed would be sad if htat's the case. Although, I'd like to see a version of the experiment where the children can't see the experimenters, just to make sure they're not picking up any subconscious cues.
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading PUSH by Sapphire (made into the movie Precious) -- I was honestly "blown away" by this book -- it does have graphic sexuality, but should be required reading for all high school seniors ... it is such a strong affirmation of the power of a good teacher, and the sustaining strength of literacy and writing.
ReplyDeleteIt is important to look at white privilege in American culture. Very often it goes under the radar by the collective conscious of the privileged. However, that said some of the people blogging about these issues are coming from an angry place, which essentially is an intellectually watered down version of a salient point and thus not a potent message. It is unfortunate that these issues cannot be discussed in a more democratic matter. Simply looking at a writer's photo and deciding that because they are white, they have no experience other than a privileged one. Come on.
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