White Dominance: “Domestic Terrorism”
Institute Board Member Calls on Americans to Examine Oppressive History
October 24, 2020– A leader with a national agency aimed at reducing racism called on educators to become more honest about teaching students how white dominance has “inculcated” American culture, fostering black hatred.
“People who identify themselves as white need to hear the truth of what white dominance has done to this country,” said Phyllis Alexander, a board member with the National Coalition Building Institute near Washington, D.C.
“And find their heart and find their soul and find their humanity,” Alexander continued. “And while you’re finding your humanity, begin to see my humanity.”
Alexander made the comments on the weekly Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields, which aired Sunday. Alexander served as the director of the Bureau of Human Relations & Equal Opportunity in Allentown, Pa. where Shields served as a reporter. Shields requested Alexander to bring racial sensitivity training to the newsroom.
Alexander asked reporters and editors to list minority groups across the top of the page, such as African Americans, Asians, Hispanics and Indian Americans, while writing social institutions such as work, school, family and church down the side. Participants were asked to rank – on a scale of 1 to 10 – their interaction with the cultural groups.
Shields stated he scored no higher than a three in any category with Alexander instructing him and the others to raise their racial and cultural awareness numbers by consciously making an effort to read the literature, listen to the music, eat the food and interact with the people of other races and cultures.
“We are set up to be in isolation from one another,” Alexander said. “We live separate lives within the same country.”
Alexander called for the American school system to ensure that minority communities in the country receive the same quality education, schools, books, and technologies as more affluent white schools.
“Children want to learn,” Alexander said. “When they stop wanting to learn, it has been pulled out of them in some way, because we are inherently interested in learning.”
Alexander blamed the recent killings of unarmed black men by white police officers and the overwhelming proportion of black men in prison on the way African Americans are portrayed in American society as lesser citizens. In responding to why black officers are not involved in the killings of unarmed whites, Alexander said:
“Black officers are going to be trained in the way society trains us and gives white people the benefit of the doubt in a way they are not trained to give black people the benefit of the doubt. We receive the same mis-training that everybody else does on what it means to be white and what it means to be black.”
Shields noted that while working in the Maryland prison system, he noticed that almost all inmates – white or black – were poor. More African Americans are in prison because they come from poor communities that are not served as well as white ones, Alexander said.
“There is no black person when they are growing up and are asked by someone ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ saying I want to be poor,” Alexander said. “Something is interrupting their potential and I believe it is white dominance and racism.”
“What people need to do is learn the truth about our U.S. history because that history tells you right to your face that this is a country that has been practicing domestic terrorism,” Alexander said. “I’m not trying to get people to feel guilty, ashamed or embarrassed, but if you don’t face your history, you repeat it.”
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Retail Politics Podcast can be heard at: retailpoliticspodcast.com, on Apple and Spotify.
Gerry Shields is the former Washington correspondent for the New York Post and Baton Rouge Advocate and author of the new book, The Front Row: My Jagged Journey Recording American History from Reagan to Trump.”
For more information, contact: 917-721-8562 or gerardshields7@gmail.com
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