Stay Woke. Candis Watts Smith

What if whites were incarcerated at the same rate as Blacks? All things being equal (which they are not), then one in three white men would then have dealings with the criminal justice system. Let that sink in. US policy makers could have already prepared thoughtful, helpful, effective, cost-saving public policies to deal with the issues now faced by an even greater proportion of Americans decades ago when Blacks were the test case, for lack of better words.

      Another thing: remember when we mentioned that if the gap between Black and white mortality closed, eighty-four thousand deaths could have been prevented? The assumption behind this projection is that Blacks’ rate of mortality inches closer to whites’, but what we’re actually seeing is that whites’, especially poor whites’, well-being is declining. A lot of the reason why the United States does not have a better health care system and stronger safety-net policies is because of anti-Black racism—plainly and simply. The legal scholar Ian Haney López tracks the strategic use of anti-Black racism by white, conservative politicians across several decades and reveals a pattern of behavior; by suggesting, or even hinting, that “undeserving” Blacks are likely to benefit from a social policy, politicians are able to convince (poor) whites that we should constrain that policy.75 Remember that fire we talked about? It’s becoming clear that it is already starting to spread.

      The thing about the contemporary Movement for Black Lives is that it provides an imaginative vision of society based on human flourishing. Such a realization requires not just a tweaking of the existing political, social, and economic systems but a major transformation of the way US society works. What would it take to accomplish this? Stay Woke provides a set of tools for its readers to begin to unpack the ways that anti-Black racism prevents the United States from living up to its fullest potential, and it guides them to envision what each of us can do to work toward a more vibrant and egalitarian society.

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      Questions and Debate

      1 1 This chapter begins with an analogy of burning buildings. Is this analogy helpful? If so, what is the next building or buildings that may begin to burn if anti-Black racism isn’t smothered? If not, what is your critique?

      2 2 We’ve provided lots of facts, figures, and statistics about racial inequality in the United States. How would you measure racial progress? What metric would you use?

      3 3 When people hear “Black Lives Matter,” different people take this slogan to mean different things. Why do people interpret this slogan so differently? Why do people have such visceral reactions to this phrase—either positive or negative?

      4 4 The term “postracial” gets bandied about quite a bit in the US news media. What does “postracial” mean? How do you know when the United States has become a “postracial” society? What would that look like? Is it possible? Why isn’t there more talk about a “postracist” society instead?

      5 5 We discuss a variety of laws and policies that contributed to structural racism (e.g., Slave Codes, Homestead Act, redlining, GI Bill). How, if at all, have those policies shaped your life, your family members’ lives, or those of your ancestors?

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      Additional Materials to Consider

      BOOKS

      Barrett, Dawson. The Defiant: Protest Movements in Post-Liberal America. New York: NYU Press, 2018.

      Baumgartner, Frank, Derek A. Epp, and Kelsey Shoub. Suspect Citizens: What 20 Million Traffic Stops Tell Us about Policing and Race. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018.

      Khan-Cullors, Patrisse, and Asha Bandele. When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir. New York: St. Martin’s, 2017.

      Smith, Mychal Denzel. Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man’s Education. New York: Nation Books, 2016.

      Trounstine, Jessica. Segregation by Design: Local Politics and Inequality in American Cities. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018.

      FILMS

      The Pruitt-Igoe Myth. Directed by Chad Freidrichs. First-Run Features, Films Media Group, 2011.

      13th. Directed by Ava DuVernay. Netflix, 2016.

      PODCASTS

      Seeing White. Hosted by John Biewen and Chenjerai Kumanyika. Scene on Radio, Center for Documentary Studies, 2017. www.sceneonradio.org/seeing-white/.

      Undisclosed. Hosted by Rabia Chaudry, Collin Miller, and Susan Simpson. http://undisclosed-podcast.com.

      74 Seconds: The Death of Philando Castile and the Trial of Jeronimo Yanez. MPR News. www.mprnews.org/topic/philandocastile.

      WEBSITES

      Nelson, Robert K., LaDale Winling, Richard Marciano, Nathan Connolly, et al. “Mapping Inequality.” American Panorama, edited by Robert K. Nelson and Edward L. Ayers. Accessed July 27, 2018, https://dsl.richmond.edu.