writer/historian/distinguished professor/bestselling author of Black Folk/director @UNCSouth / #StudyingSegregation/The Oracle
Jan 21, 2019 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I'm not sure when we all decided that the best way for people to remember Dr. King was to JUST do a service project. I don't mind the service, but when we fail to talk about his work, we are failing the day. King was not the head of service projects for a non-profit org.
At the end of his life, the focus of King's work was transforming the lives of the poor, but by addressing the systemic challenges of race coupled with capitalism. Charity work can sometimes reaffirm those divides, particularly when the question of race is unaddressed.
Jul 21, 2018 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Historically, white supremacy was the idea that white people were inherently superior to black people. Black success, owning a store, living in a wealthy neighborhood, enjoying leisure time, all threatened white superiority. Segregation was the solution to stifle black success.
Legal segregation is gone, but we live in its residue. It’s assumptions. America never did much work to right these wrongs, to undue these notions when these laws were overturned. So here we are with folks unable to fathom that black folks belong in “nice” spaces.
May 2, 2018 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Haven’t watched the whole Kanye event today, working my way up to it. I will say, that a milder version of the “slavery is a choice” argument is made by uninformed people all the time. I’ve had young men in my courses say “they never would have enslaved me.”
People aren’t aware of the alienation of people ripped from their homes, abused, walked hundreds of miles across Africa, sometimes so far they ceased understanding the language spoken around them...
