Paul Kivel's Newsletter
Resources for Racial Justice
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A Note from Paul Fall 2019
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Dear People,
This newsletter focuses on gender and race- specifically white men and white women--two groups omnipresent in the news but seldom receiving enough serious analytical attention. Of course, these are not monolithic groups and the diversity within them matters a lot. However, in general, white Christian women and men are the dominant supporters of the current administration and passive in response to its devastating policies and actions. White Christian women and men are the primary supporters of and contributors to anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-Black, and anti-Indigenous policies and practices. They are also the largest group of short-term beneficiaries of these policies.
None of this is to suggest that there are only two genders. White people who are transgender, gender variant, intersex or otherwise non-binary have complex relationships with white supremacy but there is no evidence they are constituencies who consistently support racist policies and practices.
I think that white Christian men are socialized to be scared, angry and entitled and to act out their feelings, their isolation, their diminishing economic opportunities and their pain against those around them. When we identify white Christian men specifically, it is usually to focus attention on poor, rural, and/or working class men and their personal behavior and ignore the actual power that middle, managerial, and ruling class men have in our communities. We must remember that there are now three white Christian men (Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet) who
control more wealth than the bottom 50% of the U.S. population or approximately 160 million people. At the same time we must address the fact that most poor, working and middle class men support the status quo, in collusion with ruling class white men, even though they experience high levels of depression, suicide, male-on male violence and in turn participate in high levels of violence towards women and children in their lives, people of color, people who are gay, gender queer, trans or non-binary, and immigrants. How do we directly confront the ruling class white men who are endlessly exploiting our bodies, our communities, and our environment while calling in large numbers of persuadable white women and men to current struggles for social and environmental justice? Hopefully some of the resources listed below will point us to useful future action.
White Christian women are also a diverse group. They have played roles as staunch supporters of slavery, indigenous genocide, segregation and charitable responses to structural and institutional economic problems. Other white Christian women, including a number from the south, have worked on the front lines to dismantle structures of oppression, white Christian male dominance and exploitation. In fact, white women do the majority share of activism within these circles-- organizing and educating for change, while continuing to do the bulk of paid and non-paid caring work at home and in the community. The resources listed below give new insights into the roles that women have played on both sides of this equation-as mothers, slave-owners, teachers, neighbors, and community activists.
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How White People Can Get Involved
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Showing Up for Racial Justice is a national network of groups and individuals working to undermine white supremacy and to work toward racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves white people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability.
SURJ connects people across the country while supporting and collaborating with local and national racial justice organizing efforts. It provides a space to build relationships, skills and political analysis to act for change.
To learn more about their work click
here or to directly donate to SURJ click
here.
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Resources for White Women
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Mini Series and Video Clips
 When They See Us
An important and riveting mini-series on the trial of five black youth falsely accused of raping a white female jogger Central Park. Director Ava Duvernay told
NPR:
"When you incarcerate one person, you're incarcerating their family, their future, their community,"
First Wave Feminism without White Women
The Women's Suffrage movement was rooted in abolition and the hard work of women of color. Here's that history that you may not have heard of.
Why We Need To Talk About White Feminism
The
w
ay white women experience misogyny isn't always the same in the way all women experience misogyny. Why we white women shouldn't be the face of feminism.
Books
They Were Her Property
: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South
Bridging women's history, the history of the South, and African American history, this book documents how slave-owning women were sophisticated economic actors who directly engaged in and benefited from the South's slave market.
You can read more, hear a publisher's podcast about the book and buy the book
here
.
Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy
Examining racial segregation from 1920s to the 1970s,
Mothers of Massive Resistance reveals the diverse ways white women sustained white supremacist politics and thought well beyond the federal legislation that overturned legal segregation.
You can read more about the book and purchase it
here.
Articles
"White Wars: Western feminisms and the 'War on Terror'" (Feminist Theory) by Thobani Sunera.
[PDF]
"Feminism, the Taliban and Politics of Counter-Insurgency" (Anthropological Quarterly) by Saba Mahmood
[PDF]
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How White Women Can Get Involved
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White Noise Collective works at the intersection of race and gender and
explores how experiences of (cis)(hetero)sexism have impacted white women's work in challenging race privilege and systems of white supremacy.
To learn more about their work click here or to get involved with the White Noise Collective click here.
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Resources for White Men
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Books
Men's Work: How To Stop the Violence That Tears Our Lives Apart
by Paul Kivel
Men's Work helps men understand the roots and consequences of their violent behaviors and gives them the tools to make choices other than violence.
You can learn more here [
PDF
] or buy a copy
here
 For the Love Of Men: A New Vision for Mindful Masculinity by Liz Plank In For the Love of Men, Liz offers a smart, insightful, and deeply-researched guide for what we're all going to do about toxic masculinity. You can find a copy to borrow
here or purchase a copy
here.
 Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny
by Kate Mann This book is an exploration of misogyny in public life and politics. It argues that misogyny is "primarily about controlling, policing, punishing, and exiling the 'bad' women who challenge male dominance. And it's compatible with rewarding 'the good ones,' and singling out other women to serve as warnings to those who are out of order." You can find a copy to borrow
here or purchase a copy
here.
 Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics
by bell hooks "In this engaging and provocative volume, bell hooks introduces a popular theory of feminism rooted in common sense and the wisdom of experience. Hers is a vision of a beloved community that appeals to all those committed to equality, mutual respect, and justice." You can find a copy to borrow
here or purchase a copy
here.
 Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue by Leslie Feinberg "In Trans Liberation, Feinberg has gathered a collection of hir speeches on trans liberation and its essential connection to the liberation of all people." (
Beacon Press). You can find a copy to borrow
here or purchase a copy
here.
 The Man They Wanted Me to Be: Toxic Masculinity and the Crisis of Our Own Making
by Jared Yates Sexton Sexton tells his Midwestern, coming-of-age story about being socialized into toxic masculinity and suggests how masculinity can be detoxified and redefined. You can find a copy to borrow
here or purchase a copy
here.
...And More Books
Dying for Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America's Heartland by Jonathan Metzl Learn more about the book and purchase your own
here.
Turn This World In
side Out: The Emergence of Nurturance Culture
by Nora Saranan
You can find a copy to borrow here and purchase your own book here.
Whose Story Is This? Old Conflicts, New Chapters
by Rebecca Solnit
You can find a copy to borrow here and purchase your own here.
Voice Male: the untold story of the profeminist movement
edited
by Okun Rob
You can find a copy to borrow here and purchase your own here.
The Little #metoo Book for Men
by Mark Greene
You can find a copy to borrow here and purchase your own here.
Against the Tide: Pro-Feminist Men in the United States 1776-1990
by Michael Kimmel and Thomas Mosmiller
You can find a copy to borrow here and purchase a copy here.
Articles
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Organizing White Men for Collective Liberation
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Organizing White Men for Collective Liberation
is a national network mobilizing white men to learn, grow and take action against white supremacy and patriarchy.
To learn more about their work click
here
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Featured Posts From PaulKivel.com
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I am uploading many articles, exercises, and other materials from our books and curricula onto my website and some of these are listed below.
As they are posted they are announced on my
Facebook page so stay tuned to further material. There are also 3 new podcasts featuring interviews with me.
Podcasts
Courageous Currents: Shadow of the Cross Courageous Currents host, Pastor Lyvonne Proverbs, interviews Paul Kivel on Christian Hegemony-how dominant Christianity impacts our beliefs, behaviors, domestic and foreign policy and how Christians can participate in challenging this institution of power, wealth and deep-seated culture dominance. More resources on this topic at
www.christianhegemony.org.
Articles, Exercises and Book Excerpts
Men's Attitudes and Costs Towards Women
At the Oakland's Men's Project, we developed an exercise to help men see the cost of our actions on the women around us. This exercise is a simple set of statements and provides a
very powerful and emotional collective experience for men to know that they share a past of painful and abusive training and to create a space to talk about the past and how to move forward.
Where Are You In The Class System? It is useful to consider where each of us falls in the economic system. Our class position influences how we understand the system and it helps us all if we talk about how class works in our lives. Otherwise it often becomes a barrier to our living or working together.
Take some time to locate yourself in the wealth pyramid both in terms of your family of origin and currently.
Beyond Survival--Getting Together Given the present economic system, we each must find strategies for surviving in the system. But not all strategies lead to the same results. Some strategies may help us survive in the short-term but may be destructive to us or to those around us in the long-term. Let's look at possible survival strategies and see where they lead us.
An Updated Economic Pyramid [PDF] A visual breakdown of how much of the popula
tion controls most of the resources and how much of the population is left to work out the rest.
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A New Report on Islamophobia
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Anti-Muslim oppression continues to proliferate. A new report [PDF]
documents the role of U.S. corporations and other institutions that promote and thrive on Islamophobia. It is a useful tool for tracking these organizations and thinking about strategic interventions.
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