So You Want to Talk About Race (24 page)

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a writer have such an instant, visceral, electric impact on readers. Ijeoma Oluo’s intellectual clarity and moral sure-footedness make her the kind of unstoppable force that obliterates the very concept of immovable objects.”

—L
INDY
W
EST
,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Shrill

“
So You Want to Talk
About Race
strikes the perfect balance of direct and brutally honest without being preachy or, worse, condescending. Regardless of your comfort level, educational background, or experience when it comes to talking about race, Ijeoma has created a wonderful tool to help broach these conversations and help us work toward a better world for people of color from all walks of life.”

—F
RANCHESCA
R
AMSEY
, host and executive producer of MTV’s
Decoded

“Ijeoma Oluo is armed with words. Her words are daggers that pierce through injustice, while also disarming you with humor and love.”

—H
ARI
K
ONDABOLU
, comedian, writer, and co-host of
Politically Re-Active

“You are not going to find a more user-friendly examination of race in America than Ijeoma Oluo’s fantastic new book. The writing is elegantly
simple, which is a real feat when tackling such a thorny issue. Think of it as Race for the Willing-to-Listen.”

—A
NDY
R
ICHTER
, writer and actor

“When you need a super team to help you make sense of today’s complex conversation on identity and representation, Ijeoma needs to be your number one pick. No one cuts
through the chatter with more humor, insight and clarity. No matter the issue, Ijeoma’s
thinking is always essential reading.”

—J
ENNY
Y
ANG
, comedian, writer, and co-founder and co-producer of Dis/orient/ed Comedy

“Oluo has created a brilliant and thought-provoking work. Seamlessly connecting deeply moving personal stories with practical solutions, readers will leave with inspiration and tools to help create personal and societal transformations. A necessary read for any white person
seriously committed to better understanding race in the United States.”

—M
ATT
M
C
G
ORRY
, actor,
Orange Is the New Black
and
How to Get Away with Murder

“A clear and candid contribution to an essential conversation.”

—
Kirkus

“In a time where more folks are willing to fall-in-line with whatever political or social commentary others are engaging with, Ijeoma Oluo has ripped that norm to shreds.…
While so many people want to become ‘thought leaders,’ ‘bloggers,’ or even just ‘influential,’ Oluo is eons past that.… Oluo is out to help put words to action, which at this day and age, might be exactly what we need.”

—
Forbes

“Everyone should be paying attention to Ijeoma Oluo.”

—
The Root

“Ijeoma Oluo has emerged as one of Seattle’s strongest voices for social justice.… Best of all, she
gets her message across with incisive wit, remarkable humor and an appropriate magnitude of rage.”

—
Seattle
magazine

chapter six: Is police brutality really about race?

1.
Kim Soffen, “The Big Question About Why Police Pull Over So Many Black Drivers,”
Washington Post
, July 8, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/07/08/the-big-question-about-why-police-pull-over-so-many-black-drivers/.

2.
Ibid.

3.
David Montgomery, “Data Dive: Racial Disparities in Minnesota Traffic Stops,” July
8, 2016, http://www.twincities.com/2016/07/08/data-dive-racial-disparities-in-minnesota-traffic-stops/; Sarah Ryley, “Minorities Face Disproportionate ‘Broken Windows’ Enforcement Everywhere—Especially in Predominately White Neighborhoods,” September 8, 2014, http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/broken-windows-disproportionately-enforced-white-neighborhoods-article-1.1931171; Tyler Tynes,
“Black People Ticketed for Not Wearing Seat Belts in Florida Twice As Often As Whites,” January 27, 2016, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/florida-seat-belt-law-racial-disparity_us_56a8f6efe4b0f71799289fb1; Andrew Garber, “Seattle Blacks Twice As Likely to Get Tickets,” June 14, 2000, http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20000614&slug=4026674; Matthew Kauffman, “Blacks, Hispanics
More Likely to Be Ticketed After Traffic Stops,” May 10, 2015, http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-racial-profiling-ticket-no-ticket-p-20150510-story.html.

4.
The Sentencing Project, “Report of The Sentencing Project Regarding Racial Disparities in the United States Criminal Justice System,”
The Sentencing Project
, August 2015, http://sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Race-and-Justice-Shad
owReport-ICCPR.pdf.

5.
Tom Jackman, “Oakland Police, Stopping and Handcuffing Disproportionate Numbers of Blacks, Work to Restore Trust,”
Washington Post
, June 15, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/06/15/oakland-police-stopping-and-handcuffing-disproportionate-numbers-of-blacks-work-to-restore-trust/.

6.
Phillip Atiba Goff, Tracy Lloyd, Amanda Geller, Stephen Raphael,
and Jack Glaser, “The Science of Justice: Race, Arrests, and Police Use of Force,”
Policing Equity
, July 2016, http://policingequity.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/CPE_SoJ_Race-Arrests-UoF_2016-07-08-1130.pdf.

7.
Frank Newport, “Public Opinion Context: Americans, Race and Police,” July 8, 2016, http://www.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/193586/public-opinion-context-americans-race-police.aspx.

8.
Victor E. Kappeler, “A Brief History of Slavery and the Origins of American Policing,” January 7, 2014, http://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/brief-history-slavery-and-origins-american-policing.

9.
Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, “Louisiana State Museum Online Exhibits the Cabildo: Two Centuries of Louisiana History. Reconstruction I: A State Divided,” n.d., http://www.crt.state.la.us/
louisiana-state-museum/online-exhibits/the-cabildo/reconstruction-a-state-divided/.

10.
Tanzina Vega, “Why the Racial Wealth Gap Won’t Go Away,” January 26, 2016, http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/25/news/economy/racial-wealth-gap/.

11.
Meizhu Lui, “Doubly Divided: The Racial Wealth Gap,”
Racial Equity Tools
, n.d., http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/lui.pdf.

chapter seven: How can I talk
about affirmative action?

1.
The Leadership Conference, “Civil Rights 101: Affirmative Action,” n.d., http://www.civilrights.org/resources/civilrights101/affirmaction.html.

2.
Eileen Patten, “Racial, Gender Wage Gaps Persist in U.S. Despite Some Progress,” July 1, 2016, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/01/racial-gender-wage-gaps-persist-in-u-s-despite-some-progress/.

3.
Daniel Losen,
Cheri Hodson, Michael A. Keith II, Katrina Morrison, and Shakti Belway, “Are We Closing the School Discipline Gap?”
The Civil Rights Project
, 2015, https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/federal-reports/are-we-closing-the-school-discipline-gap/losen-are-we-closing-discipline-gap-2015-summary.pdf.

4.
Walter S. Gilliam,
Angela N. Maupin, Chin R. Reyes, Maria Accavitti, and Frederick Shic, “Do Early Educators’ Implicit Biases Regarding Sex and Race Relate to Behavior Expectations and Recommendations of Preschool Expulsions and Suspensions?,”
Yale Child Study Center
, September 28, 2016, http://ziglercenter.yale.edu/publications/Preschool%20Implicit%20Bias%20Policy%20Brief_final_9_26_276766_5379.pdf.

5.
Hua-Yu
Cherng, “Is All Classroom Conduct Equal?: Teacher Contact with Parents of Racial/Ethnic Minority and Immigrant Adolescents,”
Teachers College Record
, 2016, http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=21625.

6.
Grant H. Blume and Mark C. Long, “Changes in Levels of Affirmative Action in College Admissions in Response to Statewide Bans and Judicial Rulings,” June 2014, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.310
2/0162373713508810.

7.
Hayley Munguia, “Here’s What Happens When You Ban Affirmative Action in College Admissions,” December 9, 2015, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/heres-what-happens-when-you-ban-affirmative-action-in-college-admissions/.

chapter eight: What is the school-to-prison pipeline?

1.
Carla Amurao, “Fact Sheet: How Bad Is the School-to-Prison Pipeline?,” 2013, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmil
ey/tsr/education-under-arrest/school-to-prison-pipeline-fact-sheet/; Libby Nelson and Dara Lind, “The School to Prison Pipeline, Explained,” February 24, 2015, http://www.justicepolicy.org/news/8775.

2.
A National Summit on Zero Tolerance, “Opportunities Suspended: The Devastating Consequences of Zero Tolerance and School Discipline,”
The Civil Rights Project
, June 2000, https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/r
esearch/k-12-education/school-discipline/opportunities-suspended-the-devastating-consequences-of-zero-tolerance-and-school-discipline-policies/crp-opportunities-suspended-zero-tolerance-2000.pdf.

3.
Nelson and Lind, “The School to Prison Pipeline, Explained.”

4.
Ibid.

5.
Ibid.

6.
Julianne Hing, “Race, Disability and the School-to-Prison Pipeline,” May 13, 2014, http://www.colorlines.com/articles/race-disabili
ty-and-school-prison-pipeline.

7.
Nelson and Lind, “The School to Prison Pipeline, Explained.”

chapter twelve: What are microaggressions?

1.
Kevin L. Nadal, Katie E. Griffin, Yinglee Wong, Sahran Hamit, and Morgan Rasmus, “The Impact of Racial Microaggressions on Mental Health: Counseling Implications for Clients of Color,”
Wiley Online Library
, January 7, 2014, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.155
6-6676.2014.00130.x/abstract?systemMessage=WOL+Usage+report+download+page+will+be+unavailable+on+Friday+27th+January+2017+at+23%3A00+GMT%2F+18%3A00+EST%2F+07%3A00+SGT+%28Saturday+28th+Jan+for+SGT%29++for+up+.

chapter fourteen: What is the model minority myth

1.
Huizhong Wu, “The ‘Model Minority’ Myth: Why Asian-American Poverty Goes Unseen,” December 14, 2015, http://mashable.com/2015/12/14/asian-american-pover
ty/#.UK4LnHskgqr.

2.
“Students Reject the ‘Model Minority Myth,’” October 15, 2014, http://college.usatoday.com/2014/10/15/students-reject-the-model-minority-myth/.

3.
Guofang Li, “Other People’s Success: Impact of the ‘Model Minority’ Myth on Underachieving Asian Students in North America,” 2005, https://msu.edu/~liguo/file/KEDI%20Journal-Guofang%20Li%202005%5B1%5D.pdf.

4.
Sahra Vang Nguyen,
“The Truth About ‘The Asian Advantage’ and ‘Model Minority Myth,’” October 14, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sahra-vang-nguyen/the-truth-about-the-asian_b_8282830.html.

5.
US Census Bureau, “Educational Attainment of the Population Aged 25 and Older by Age, Sex, Race and Hispanic Origin, and Other Selected Characteristics,” March 2016, http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/dem
o/p20-578.pdf.

6.
Julie Siebens and Camille L. Ryan, “Field of Bachelor’s Degree in the United States: 2009,”
United States Census Bureau
, February 2012, https://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/acs-18.pdf.

7.
Liza Mundy, “Cracking the Bamboo Ceiling,” November 2014, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/11/cracking-the-bamboo-ceiling/380800/.

8.
Jeff Yang, “Tech Industry Needs This Secret
Weapon,” August 27, 2014, http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/27/opinion/yang-tech-diversity/.

9.
The Sikh Coalition, “Fact Sheet on Post-9/11 Discrimination and Violence Against Sikh Americans,”
The Sikh Coalition
, n.d., http://www.sikhcoalition.org/images/documents/fact%20sheet%20on%20hate%20against%20sikhs%20in%20america%20post%209-11%201.pdf.

10.
Amy Van Arsdale, “Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic
Violence Resource Project,”
DVRP
, June 2014, http://dvrp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Project-AWARE-Fact-Sheet.pdf.

chapter sixteen: I just got called racist, what do I do now?

1.
Ken Tucker, “George Bush Really Does Not ‘Appreciate’ Kanye West’s Katrina Criticism: ‘The Worst Moment of My Presidency,’” November 2, 2010, http://www.ew.com/article/2010/11/02/george-bush-kanye-west-lauer-today.