This website is intended to provide additional support for Karen Gaffney’s workshop “Dismantling the Racism Machine: Myths Taught to White People that Perpetuate White Supremacy,” given to the Human Services Academy of Somerset County, NJ on July 27, 2020.
Workshop description: Based on her book Dismantling the Racism Machine: A Manual and Toolbox, Dr. Karen Gaffney leads this month’s timely workshop which will focus on two core myths that white people are taught that contribute to the persistence of white supremacy. These myths include the false beliefs that race is biological and that race, including whiteness, has always existed. This workshop will explore: Why are these myths dangerous, and how do they perpetuate systemic racism and racial violence today? What strategies can we use to debunk these myths, and how can we develop an antiracist mindset? Are you ready to create a more just society?
Here are the Powerpoint slides available for you to download: Powerpoint Dismantling the Racism Machine Gaffney Human Services Academy Somerset County July 27 2020
VIDEO: Click here for the link to the recording of the event
Recommended sources to follow up on the material and questions presented
Articles and Books
Karen’s book Dismantling the Racism Machine: A Manual and Toolbox (on sale for month of July) (also available on Amazon)
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad (book)
“The disturbing reason some African American patients may be undertreated for pain”
“Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Race” (from Race: The Power of an Illusion)
“I Don’t Feel Your Pain: A failure of empathy perpetuates racial disparities”
“What Scientists Mean When They Say ‘Race’ Is Not Genetic”
“Race ≠ DNA: If race is a social construct, what’s up with DNA ancestry testing?”
“What’s Killing America’s Black Infants?”
“Why Won’t Society Let Black Girls Be Children?”
“The school to prison pipeline, explained” (Justice Policy Institute)
“The problem is white supremacy”
“White identity in America is ideology, not biology. The history of ‘whiteness’ proves it.”
The 1619 Project (The New York Times)
“Poor whites live in richer neighborhoods than middle-class blacks and Latinos”
“The black-white economic divide is as wide as it was in 1968”
“For those who say, how can we defund the police.” (This is Karen’s 4-part blog series on her website)
“Confronting the U.S. Census as a Weapon of White Supremacy” (Karen’s article)
Superior: The Return of Race Science by Angela Saini (book)
The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter (book)
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (book)
Films, videos, and podcasts
Race: The Power of an Illusion Episode 1 “The Difference Among Us” (PBS documentary) (just under 1 hour) (Note that Episodes 2 and 3 are also worth watching. All three episodes are available on vimeo for $4.99 rental. They are also available on Kanopy, if you have access to that service through a library, like RVCC).
TED Talk with Dorothy Roberts “The Problem with Race-Based Medicine” (15 minutes)
“The Biology of Skin Color,” Nina Jablonski (HHMI Biointeractive) (20 minutes)
“The Origin of Race in the USA,” Danielle Bainbridge (The Origin of Everything series, PBS Digital Studios) (10 minutes)
Adam Ruins Everything: The Disturbing History of the Suburbs
Michelle Alexander’s TED Talk “The future of race in America”
Bryan Stevenson’s TED Talk “We need to talk about an injustice”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story”
A Conversation With Latinos on Race (NY Times video)
A Conversation with Asian-Americans on Race (NY Times video)
A Conversation With Native Americans on Race (NY Times video)
The Surprisingly Racist History of “Caucasian” (5 minute video)
“Seeing White” (14-part podcast series from Scene on Radio that covers the social construction of race, the invention of whiteness, systemic racism, and more)
TED Talks with Titus Kaphar “Can art amend history?” and “Can beauty open our hearts to difficult conversations?”
The Chinese Exclusion Act (PBS film)
Slavery by Another Name (book and PBS film)
13th (film on Netflix)
interview on Fresh Air with Richard Rothstein, the author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan Gonzalez (website for his film Harvest of Empire here) (look on youtube for this film)
Note that additional resources are available on the rest of my website – go to the tab for Resources on Race and Racism as well as the additional Resource pages under that tab.
divided no longer 