Counter Voices is an augmentation of the website Diversity-Threads.com. The vision and mission is to provide awareness, insights and understanding of the dimensions of Diversity in order to engage in conversations without fear and apprehension. As with the website, the podcast provides language, references, research, stories, and strategies on how to approach with confidence challenging…
“Poetry humanizes – Poetry gives a human face to a time like this. Poetry gives eyes and a mouth and a voice to a time life this. Poetry records a time like this for future generations who want to know about a time like this in terms of the five senses, and in terms of the soul.”
~ Martin Espada
“Hey, slavery happened long, long ago!” “We were not there!” “We do not own slaves!”
“We no longer lynch anyone!”
“I harbor no ill will towards anyone.” “We are now a color blind society.” “We are a melting pot.”
“I do not believe or support White Supremacy, Domestic Terrorism and Hate Groups!”
“I understand that all lives matter.” “What more do you want from White America?”
One of the most difficult concepts to explain is “aversive racism by the well intentioned.”
Five Part Series on White Critical Studies
Critical White Studies I: White Priviledge
Critical White Studies II: White Knapsack
Critical White Studies III: White Capital
Critical White Studies IV: Aversive Racism by the Well Intentioned
Critical White Studies V: White Loss
Why has it been so hard for human beings historically to admit the TRUTH?
Is it our social-cultural-political-religious ego, our propensity to believe that “right is right and we are always right?”
Is it that the TRUTH reflects and reveals our constructed flawed identities?
Seriously, what is it about us that draws us to deviate from veracity with options, even when the TRUTH is staring back?
Aboriginal Ritual Chant – Anonymous
The spirits of native people endures and lives on.
Heritage and human dignity passed on through centuries of sacrifice, resiliency and perseverance.
Nature – the land guarding its ancestral treasures.
With each chant we hear anguish turned to eloquence and forgiveness.
How human to include those who only knew how to plunder.
What has value and worth in our lives?
What has significance, capital and access to power, control and dominance?
How about the “capital” of our identity and that of others?
Part III of Critical White Studies provides some answers and of course, critical questions that may linger.
Five Part Series on White Critical Studies
Critical White Studies I: White Priviledge
Critical White Studies II: White Knapsack
Critical White Studies III: White Capital
Critical White Studies IV: Aversive Racism by the Well Intentioned
Critical White Studies V: White Loss
“White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks. Describing White privilege makes one newly accountable. As we in Women’s Studies work to reveal male privilege and ask men to give up some of their power, so one who writes abut white privilege must ask – Having described it, what will I do to lessen or end it?”
– Peggy Macintosh
Five Part Series on White Critical Studies
Critical White Studies I: White Priviledge
Critical White Studies II: The Knapsack
Critical White Studies III: White Capital
Critical White Studies IV: Aversive Racism by the Well Intentioned
Critical White Studies VI White Loss
A controversial topic at the table of American discourse is always the construct of “Whiteness.”
The civil discussion requires a semblance of historical knowledge, content, context, language and critical research.
These are the tools that provide veracity, confidence and consideration of different perspectives and perceptions.
These tools also provide emotional intelligence and moral courage to stay the course, continue the conversation and even enhance it.
The discourse can be exhaustive and debilitating for many constituencies.
But to fear critically examining and dissecting the tenets of -isms and phobias only speaks to the desperation of keeping such fallacies alive.
The five part series provides awareness and insights rather than final solutions that remain in our hands.
The choice to engage or not has always been ours.
Five Part Series on White Critical Studies
Critical White Studies I: White Priviledge
Critical White Studies II: The Knapsack
Critical White Studies III: White Capital
Critical White Studies IV: Aversive Racism by the Well Intentioned
Critical White Studies V: White Loss
There are some commonalities among Americans. Some say that taxes and death are two.
My dad provided another that kept me humble – still does.
He simply said, “Just remember that your ‘mierda’ (poop) stinks just as much as anyone else’s.”
By the way, yours does too. But please, don’t make a pie out of it!
“How do I love thee . . . let me count the ways . . . ”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806-1861
“How do I hate thee . . . let us count the ways . . . ”
Domestic Terrorists, White Supremacists, Neo-Nazis, Facists, Hate Groups (2023)
One letters with pen in hand – the other with a gun.
Each is a choice – both taught and learned.
Gen Zers unapologetically answering the call.
MUSIC – perhaps the best way to appreciate its significance is to think of it as being nonexistent or unavailable.
What would our lives be without music? What would our emotional diaries – read like – feel like?
Thank goodness MUSIC lives reminding us of our diversity, inclusivity and humanity.
The Concert of Color is all about that universal harmony.
Check it out and be there.
The summer schedule will soon be available but the 2022 program provides insights as to its annual depth and breadth.