Part 1 - What it means to be Black in America

Author

Kat C.
January 19, 2025

  • Poll: Black Americans fear more racist attacks after Buffalo shooting, by Silvia Foster-Frau, Arelis R. Hernández, Scott Clement and Emily Guskin, Washington Post, May 21, 2022. ("Two years after George Floyd’s murder, nearly 8 in 10 Black Americans say there has been little or no improvement in how police treat Black people, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll." What they do see is an increase in racist dogma among white people, a greater danger to themselves, and little reason for optimism about the future.)
    Related editorial: Why Black people are afraid of ‘crazy’ white people, by Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post, Jun. 7, 2022.

Experiencing racism in the day-to-day

  • On Being A Black Woman In America, by Sarah Jones-Smith, Your Tango, Jun. 13, 2020. ("Black women are judged for every little thing that we do. From the way we wear our hair to the way that we choose to express ourselves, we are constantly policed.")

  • On Being Not White In America, by Isobel DeBrujah in her What a Witch blog, Mar. 8, 2017. (DeBrujah describes what it's like to walk "a path of coals.")

  • Student 'slave auctions' illustrate the existence of a hidden culture of domination and subjugation in US schools, by Barbara Harris Combs, The Conversation, Dec. 2, 2022. (This is about "auctions" that still occur with some regularity. Under a Yahoo! News repost, the first commenter adds that such "hijinks" are nothing new. The same commenter also draws a comparison with football leagues' annual drafts.)
    TW: This article includes troubling descriptions of recent students' "slave auctions".

  • This White Lady Refused To Be My Assistant; She thought I was below her because I’m Black, by Rebecca Stevens A., Medium.com, Oct. 8, 2022. (A businesswoman relates multiple instances in which white female assistants refused to assist her, even when they were assigned to do so.)

  • Six Freedoms Black People Do Not Have Under a White Supremacy, by Johnny Silvercloud, Medium.com, May 9, 2020. TW: Two photos of lynchings are buried in the middle of this article. (According to the author, the freedoms denied to Black Americans are: freedom of emotion, freedom of space, freedom of memory, freedom of healing, freedom of self-defense, and the freedom to protect the other five. As he explains each of these freedoms — which white Americans take so much for granted that we don't even name them — the difference between Black America and white America becomes deeply, painfully clear.)

  • I’m Trying To Use My Husband’s White Privilege A Little Less, by Rebecca Stevens A., Medium.com, Jul. 13, 2022. (The author is a Black woman living in Paris, but she describes the kind of racial incident which occurs all too often in the U.S. Her thoughts on her husband's white privilege are compelling, but I've included it here because of her reaction to the incident.)

'Racial battle fatigue,' community trauma, and other stress-related issues

On being bi-racial and/or multi-racial

Growing up Black

Internalized racism

Misogynoir

White women's tears

On being a Black woman in America

Voices from the Civil Rights Era

Originally, I gave this section a disheartened title: "Nothing changes," and in many ways, it still seems like that's the case. But as I read further, and as I watched more documentaries from that time, I found inspiration and hope. Black Americans experienced severe — often deadly — hatred and violence during that era. Their courage and determination were immeasurable. We can't let today's racist backlash discourage us. We owe it to those men and women to continue the fight. Otherwise, nothing will change.

  • "In 1944, Jackie Robinson refused to move to the back of a military bus, when told to by a civilian driver. Jackie was arrested, charged with insubordination, and court-martialed." (Source: "Jackie Robinson 1944 Court-Martial," a page of the Thirteen PBS website, Apr. 12, 2016.)
    RELATED: The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson, by Callie Oettinger, The History Reader. (In the most telling way, the word "insolent" drips from the pages of these contemporary report.)
    RELATED: Robinson's handling of the bus incident and his subsequent court martial was a deciding factor in Branch Rickey's decision to recruit him for the Brooklyn Dodgers. ("Robinson was on Rickey’s radar even before he officially scouted him. His background of restrained protest, allowing demonstrations and the court to determine his fate in the Army, appealed to Rickey. In addition to being an Army officer, Rickey was drawn to Robinson because of his collegiate success. Robinson was an educated, talented and determined young man who had demonstrated resolve in volatile situations. He was the type of man that Rickey believed would be successful if given the chance.") Source: When Did Jackie Robinson Integrate Baseball and Why Is It Important, a page from the DailyHistory.org website.

  • American Experience's "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954–1965" begins here, on archive.org. (This is the first half of PBS's award-winning series. It covers the Civil Rights Movement, beginning with the murder of Emmett Till and the Montgomery bus boycotts, continuing through to the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.)
    "Eyes on the Prize" aired first in 1988, and again in 2006. Archive.org has made it permanently available to anyone who wants to watch it . The site offers download options, as well.

  • Eyes on the Prize Part 2: "America at the Racial Crossroads 1965–1985": continues here.
    A PERSONAL NOTE: Far from being a mere collection of dusty archive footage, "Eyes on the Prize" is the compelling story of the Civil Rights Era's early, often violent years — and the men and women who risked everything in their quest for equal rights. I sat down to watch it, thinking I'd only review some of the news footage I watched on my family's black-and-white TV. Hours later, I find myself completely immersed and learning details I never heard before. I have no regrets about what I should have been doing instead. This was far more important.

  • American Experience's "The American Diplomat" is an important addendum to the story of America's civil rights movement. (This is an archive.org upload.)

    For more information about this episode (including a transcript), go here.
    See also 100 Years of Black Diplomats.

  • "Freedom on My Mind", on archive.org. (From the Wikipedia description: This video is "the story of the Mississippi voter registration movement of 1961 to 1964.")

  • "American Experience - The Blinding of Isaac Woodard", WPBS, Watertown, NY. ("How a Horrific Incident of Racial Violence Became a Powerful Catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement." "The Blinding of Isaac Woodard" is a searing look at violence in the Jim Crow South.)
    FOR MORE INFORMATION: "The Blinding of Isaac Woodard" description, including transcript. (Moved by the Woodard case, Judge Julius Waties Waring and Harry Truman both became staunch anti-racists, determined to do what they could for Civil rights — regardless of the personal and professional cost.)

    Judge Julius Waties Waring was a heroic role model for anti-racists.
    Vilified in 1940s, Federal Judge Is Honored As Civil Rights Hero, a page of the United States Courts website, Apr. 14, 2014.

    How The Son Of A Confederate Soldier Became A Civil Rights Hero, by the NPR staff, NPR, Apr. 10, 2014.

  • The Economist's review of my book reveals how white people still refuse to believe black people about being black, by Edward E. Baptist, The Guardian, Sept. 7, 2014. (This is Baptist's scathing rebuttal of The Economist's review of his then-recently published The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism. Unsurprisingly, comments under the linked Good Reads review continue the debate over Baptist's reliance on the contemporary testimony of enslaved persons. I include The Guardian post and comments because to me, the counter-opinions sound like a continuation of broader white reluctance to believe Black statements about pretty much everything. Doctors still refuse to believe Black patients about pain levels and medical symptoms. White people continue to blow off Black stories of microaggressions and outright racist acts. In that vein, historians discount the value of testimony about slavery — given by long-dead Black men and women who were actually enslaved — on grounds that it's merely anecdotal and doesn't represent the broader picture.)
    Full disclosure: I haven't yet read The Half Has Never Been Told. It will be some time before I get a chance to. but it's definitely on my list.

  • This is what ‘whitelash’ looks like, by John Blake, CNN, Nov. 19, 2016. (A comparison of the backlash that followed Barack Obama's presidency and the end of Reconstruction.)

  • James Baldwin: How to Cool It, Esquire, Aug. 2, 2017. (A reprint of Esquire's "landmark 1968 Q&A on race in America. In Esquire's July 1968 issue, published just after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., the magazine talked to James Baldwin about the state of race relations in the country. We've republished the interview in full—and his words are incredibly relevant today." Another copy can be found here, on Portside. ""