How We Fight White Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance

by Akiba Solomon, Kenrya Rankin

Overview

This celebration of Black resistance, from protests to art to sermons to joy, offers a blueprint for the fight for freedom and justice — and ideas for how each of us can contribute

Many of us are facing unprecedented attacks on our democracy, our privacy, and our hard-won civil rights. If you're Black in the US, this is not new. As Colorlines editors Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin show, Black Americans subvert and resist life-threatening forces as a matter of course. In these pages, leading organizers, artists, journalists, comedians, and filmmakers offer wisdom on how they fight White supremacy. It's a must-read for anyone new to resistance work, and for the next generation of leaders building a better future.

Featuring contributions from:

• Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Tarana Burke
• Harry Belafonte
• Adrienne Maree brown
• Alicia Garza
• Patrisse Khan-Cullors
• Reverend Dr. Valerie Bridgeman
• Kiese Laymon
• Jamilah Lemieux
• Robin DG Kelley
• Damon Young
• Michael Arceneaux
• Hanif Abdurraqib
  
• Dr. Yaba Blay
  
• Diamond Stingily
  
• Amanda Seales
• Imani Perry
  
• Denene Millner
  
• Kierna Mayo
  
• John Jennings
  
• Dr. Joy Harden Bradford
  
• Tongo Eisen-Martin

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781568588490
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	03/26/2019
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	338,970
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Akiba Solomon is senior editorial director of Colorlines and an NABJ Award-winning journalist and editor whose writing on culture, race, gender, and reproductive health has appeared in Essence, Dissent, Glamour, Vibe, and Ebony, among other outlets. She is the co-editor of Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips, and Other Parts. Solomon has spoken about women's and social justice issues at institutions including the Schomburg Center, Stanford, Yale, and Harvard. A graduate of Howard University, she is based in New York.

Kenrya Rankin is an award-winning author, journalist, editorial consultant and the editorial director at Colorlines. Her work has appeared in dozens of national publications, including the New York Times, Glamour, Reader's Digest, and Fast Company. She is the author of four books, including Bet on Black: African-American Women Celebrate Fatherhood in the Age of Barack Obama. A graduate of Howard University and New York University, she is based in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Contributors xi

1 Get in Formation Featuring Patrisse Khan-Cullors Christopher Rashad Green Tarana Burke Bianca Xunise Kareem "Tef Poe" Jackson 1

2 The Struggle Is Real Featuring Constance Malcolm Asali Solomon Quinn Gee John Jennings Marlon Peterson Shane McCrae 29

3 Laugh to Keep from Crying Featuring Damon Young Russ Green Amanda Seales Jamilah-Asali Lemieux Ben Passmore Kiese Laymon 55

4 I'm Not One of Your Little Friends Featuring Niya Kenny Delphine Adama Fawundu Sidney Keys III Saa Rankin Naasel Rickell Howard Smith Denene Millner 87

5 God Is Good, All the Time … Featuring Darnell L. Moore Haylin Belay Pastor Michael McBride Xia Gordon Margari Aziza Hill Rev. Dr. Valerie Bridgeman Bishop Jacquelyn Holland 105

6 You Can't Tell Me Nothin' Featuring Michael Arceneaux Tai Allen Penny Wrenn Beverly "Bevy" Smith Diamond Stingily Hanif Abdurraqib 143

7 Show Them Who We Are Featuring Harry Belafonte Gina Belafonte Mumia Abufamal Haki R. Madhubuti D. Bruce "DJ Junior" Campbell Jr. Kierna Mayo Shawn Dove Ta-Nehisi Coates 161

8 Love Me or Leave Me Alone Featuring Dr. Yaba Blay Adrienne maree brown Dr. Joy Harden Bradford Aja Graydon Ayana Byrd Mahogany L. Browne 183

9 I Make Money Moves Featuring DeShuna Spencer Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler Tiffany Mikell Bakari Kitwana Jay Smooth Tonga Eisen-Martin Stefanie Brown James Quentin James 211

10 Someday We'll All Be Free Featuring Imani Perry Olalekan Jeyifous Maori Karmael Holmes Elissa Blount Moorhead Robin D. G. Kelley Mia Birdsong Jasiri X. Wazi Maret Alicia Garza 239

Acknowledgments 279

Contributor Photo Credits 281

Image Credits 285

Editorial Reviews

05/20/2019

“There are millions of ways to land blows” against white supremacy, according to Colorlines editors Solomon and Rankin, and in this sharp yet celebratory “multidisciplinary... showcase for some of our most powerful thinkers and doers,” they provide readers with a blueprint for protest. The themed chapters (“Laugh to Keep from Crying,” “Someday We’ll All Be Free”) knit together interviews, comics and art, essays, brief profiles of organizers, poems, and quotations. Those featured include organizers such as Alicia Garza and Tarana Burke, comedians, filmmakers, pastors, children, and such writers as Ta-Nehisi Coates, Kiese Laymon, Jamilah Lemieux, and Damon Young. Contributors’ ways of resisting white supremacy are varied, from directing their money toward black-owned businesses and devoting their lives to helping other black people (via, for example, therapy and advocacy) to using their creative careers to draw attention to white supremacy’s manifestations and counter it with positive portrayals of black people. A number of entries discuss the internal, psychological work of countering white supremacy, including adrienne maree brown ’s moving meditation on self- and romantic love, “Touching White Supremacy, Touching Beyond It (Strategy: Intimacy).” This dynamic collection will inspire, energize, and entertain readers. Photos. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"A timely and important work to support, educate, nourish, and sustain us all in resisting the lethal effects of white supremacy."—Kimberlé Crenshaw, Professor Law, Columbia Law School and University of California, Los Angeles

"How We Fight White Supremacy is a brilliant, beautiful, and politically urgent text. This carefully curated collection masterfully explores the nuances, contours, and contradictions of a world in which Whiteness continues to define our social reality. Moving beyond rigid analysis or self-indulgent storytelling, this book offers us an impressive range of academic, political, and personal takes on White supremacy. More importantly, the book gives us permission to dream, think, organize, and struggle for a world outside of it."—Marc Lamont Hill, author of Nobody: Casualties of America's War on The Vulnerable from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond

"How We Fight White Supremacy is the primer America needs right now! White supremacy is hardly new, but each generation needs to be reminded of the strategies of resistance and resilience that have made African American struggle so powerful and effective. Every American who cares about protecting the future of our country against the inhumanity of racist oppression should read this book today!"—Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times bestselling author of What Truth Sounds Like

From the Publisher

03/01/2019

The editors of Colorlines, a website focused on race and politics, offer a collection showcasing black approaches to negotiating life-threatening forces amid political, economic, and cultural systems. Solomon and Rankin draw on more than 60 black contributors to share their coping mechanisms, skills, and strategies. Among the contributors are Black Lives Matter founders Alicia Garza and Patrisse Khan-Cullors, #MeToo founder Tarana Burke, historian Robin D.G. Kelley, and imprisoned political activist and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. The nine chapters document successes rather than mere struggles and focus on how people push back, and push beyond every day and historical obstacles, microaggressions, and race-based trauma. From the raucous to the religious, the selections here supply versions and visions of black activism, agency, and authenticity that emphasize that there is no single manner, method, mode or frontline of black resistance. VERDICT Not simply a onetime read, this collection offers those who wish to be invested in realizing the social justice of collective freedom a reference for daily consideration, discussion, inspiration, or instruction.—Thomas J. Davis, Arizona State Univ., Tempe

Library Journal

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