Did You Know?
Black American men are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white men; black women 1.4 times more likely than white women. A 2018 Bureau of Justice Statistics report shows police officers were twice as likely to use force against people of color than against white people. In 2019, US police officers killed 1,098 people, 24% of whom were black despite African Americans representing only 13% of the US population. (Brittanica Pro-Con.org, Article, June 30, 2020, https://www.procon.org/headlines/defund-the-police-top-3-pros-and-cons/)
What is?
- Racist: One who is supporting a racist policy through their actions or inaction or expressing a racist idea. (Kendi, Ibram X, How to be an Antiracist, One World Publishing, NY, 2019, Chapter 1)
- Assimilationist: One who expresses that a racial group is culturally or behaviorally inferior and supports cultural or behavioral enrichment programs to develop that racial group. Assimilationist ideas are inherently racist ideas because they pit one racial group’s standard, thought to be superior, against another’s. (Kendi, Ibram X, How to be an Antiracist, One World Publishing, NY, 2019, Chapter 2)
- Segregationist: One who expresses the racist idea that a permanently inferior racial group can never be developed and supports policy that isolates that racial group from others outside that racial group. (Kendi, Ibram X, How to be an Antiracist, One World Publishing, NY, 2019, Chapter 2)
- Antiracist: One who expresses the idea that racial groups are equals and none needs developing, and supports policy that reduces racial inequity. (Kendi, Ibram X, How to be an Antiracist, One World Publishing, NY, 2019, Chapter 2)
Food for Thought
Do-nothing climate policy is racist policy since the predominantly non-White global south (Central and South America and Africa), is being victimized by climate change more than the Whiter global north, even while the global north is contributing more to its acceleration. For example, droughts and food scarcity are ravaging areas in Eastern and Southern Africa, a region already containing 25% of the world’s mal-nourished population. (Kendi, Ibram X, How to be an Antiracist, One World Publishing, NY, 2019, Chapter 1)