In a world where our children have targets on their backs, there is no room for error
Imagine giving birth to a beautiful, precious little soul who grips your index finger and looks at you with the sweetest, most innocent eyes you’ve ever seen. As you gaze at your miraculous new blessing, his eyes lock with yours as if to communicate his understanding that you are responsible for sustaining his life.
As he grows, he begins to experience separation anxiety when he can’t see or hear you. His mood brightens when you enter a room and once he becomes mobile, he begins to follow you around just to be near you.
The more he develops, the more…
Where dehumanization reigns and White supremacists get the benefit of a doubt
The world is watching the trial of Derek Chavin. We all want to see what will become of the police officer responsible for the vicious and brutal murder of George Floyd.
Millions of us were left traumatized after watching Chavin callously kneel on the neck of Mr. Floyd with his entire body weight in broad daylight while literally sucking the life out of him.
It will live forever in my mind as a modern-day lynching and gave me a sense of dread for what my ancestors had to witness time after time. Seeing his lifeless body lifted onto a stretcher…
Black women must be calm, soothing, and sympathetic to avoid the “Angry Black Woman” trope
“Don’t try and cry! Because if ANYONE should be crying, it should be ME! This is the situation, you tell me where you have heard him [Piers Morgan] say — EDUCATE ME, TELL ME — when you have heard him say racist things! Educate me! TELL ME!” — Sharon Osbourne, speaking to co-host Sheryl Underwood on The Talk, 3/10/21
Sharon Osbourne gave the world an up-close and personal look at white privilege in action.
As her co-hosts, Sheryl Underwood and Elaine Welteroth, calmly and respectfully attempted to explain why her friend Piers Morgan’s relentless attacks…
We are still considered the aggressors when we are under attack
The recent events surrounding ABC’s Bachelor franchise and Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey have successfully shone a bright light on the vicious world of bullying directed at Black women and women of color.
Americans claim to condemn any form of bullying, but that condemnation becomes null and void when Black women are the victims.
The Bachelor Bullying
Controversy overshadowed the season featuring the first Black bachelor, Matt James, due to the questionable activities of one of the front runners. Pictures of Racheal Kirkconnell, 24, attending an antebellum party in 2018 with her sorority sisters surfaced and quickly went viral. …
Breaking down the myth of reverse racism
‘For the revisionists, racism is prejudice plus power leveraged at an institutional level to maintain the privileges of the dominant social group.’ (Hoyt, Jr., C, 2012)
As an anti-racism writer, I’ve been called a racist more times than I can count. There’s something about a Black woman speaking on her personal trauma and telling her story of being Black in America that is highly triggering.
It’s intriguing, but far from surprising, that gutting racism like a fish by using descriptive words to slit it right down the middle and expose the bones that lie beneath its scaley, slimy surface would…
They were human beings with family and friends who loved them. Their memories deserve to be honored with respect.
The lives of eight families were changed forever on March 16, 2021.
Most of us don’t think twice before saying goodbye to a loved one when they leave to go to work. We assume we’ll see them in the evening at dinner to recount the events of our day, or maybe to laugh about something funny that happened. Entertaining thoughts of never seeing a beloved family member again simply because they went to work seems unfathomable for most of us.
Why using this strategy to deflect from Black trauma says more about you than you know
Standing up against racism is not for the faint of heart.
It requires extremely thick skin. It requires the ability to purge hateful rhetoric from your brain to function normally in your daily life with loved ones. And it requires you to become a master wordsmith to shut down the viciously racist commentary about your work or a master at using the “block” feature to preserve your energy quickly.
I’ve been a Medium member for less than a year, but I’ve penned articles and essays on racism for decades. …
The definitive guide to most influential anti-racism writers on Medium whose powerful words are shaking up the status quo
Anti-racism work is a very difficult calling.
Those who devote their lives to securing the freedom, justice, equity and humanization of Black people carry a burden that is almost too much to bear in a country founded on white supremacy.
It is a constant uphill battle against the people who created the horrific conditions that Black people have been subjected to for centuries, and who also turn a deaf ear and blind eye to the disastrous tsunami-like devastation left in its wake.
The amount of heart, mental strength, perseverance, detachment from vicious critics, and endurance it takes to wake up…
Why talking to white people about racist tendencies creates more trauma that we must work to overcome
From the boardroom to the coffee shop, when a Black person makes the decision to discuss race with white people, it becomes an uncomfortable, tense, and often combative interaction.
I made the conscious choice to promote and facilitate anti-racism as part of my life’s work. I can tell you first hand that trying to help white people understand that they may have racist tendencies — particularly people who consider themselves to be liberal — has been almost as troubling as dealing with a blatant, self-proclaimed racist.
The immediate defensiveness of some white people when it comes to exploring racism is…
It’s either white supremacy or active anti-racism work since Black people are no longer the sole target of violence
For centuries it has been easy for white Americans to selectively tune in and out of conversations or strategic planning to combat racism. They tuned in when the brutal murder of George Floyd wouldn’t allow those avoiding the label of “racist” to turn away. But they quickly tuned out when the demands for participation to help build an anti-racist society became too bothersome to continue.
Black people were not surprised by the white flight since the battle for equity has always been delegated to us, even though we’re fighting against a situation that none of us created.
Jeanette C. Espinoza
Mom of 2 amazing humans | Author of 3 books | Speaker | Activist | Creator of Jeanette’s Jewels www.jeanettecespinoza.com
