Have yall read this? It came across my twitter feed a few minutes ago and am reading it now. It already feels like it is going to be a life changing read for me. As someone who often finds herself in the white space, sometimes by choice and other time by necessity....this paper really resonates so far.
This right here is so accurate...wow .... just wow.
When present in the white space, blacks reflexively note the proportion of whites to blacks, or may look around for other blacks with whom to commune if not bond, and then may adjust their comfort level accordingly; when judging a setting as too white, they can feel uneasy and consider it to be informally “off limits.” For whites, however, the same settings are generally regarded as unremarkable, or as normal, taken-for-granted reflections of civil society.
the key to happiness is not being rich; it's doing something arduous and creating something of value and then being able to reflect on the fruits of your labor
2. "another powerful excerpt" In response to Reply # 0 Sat Apr-14-18 03:35 PM by dapitts08
especially in light of the starbucks incident and the 14 year old boy getting shot at for knocking on a door for directions...
For black people in particular, white spaces vary in kind, but their most visible and distinctive feature is their overwhelming presence of white people and their absence of black people. When the anonymous black person enters the white space, others there immediately try to make sense of him or her—to figure out “who that is,” or to gain a sense of the nature of the person’s business and whether they need to be concerned. In the absence of routine social contact between blacks and whites, stereotypes can rule perceptions, creating a situation that estranges blacks. In these circumstances, almost any unknown black person can experience social distance, especially a young black male— not because of his merit as a person but because of the color of his skin and what black skin has come to mean as others in the white space associate it with the iconic ghetto (see Anderson 2011, 2012).
In other words, whites and others often stigmatize anonymous black persons by associating them with the putative danger, crime, and poverty of the iconic ghetto, typically leaving blacks with much to prove before being able to establish trusting relations with them.
the key to happiness is not being rich; it's doing something arduous and creating something of value and then being able to reflect on the fruits of your labor