Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Lighthouse Foundation event explores racism's origins for white allies
by Matt Simonette
2020-06-24

This article shared 2881 times since Wed Jun 24, 2020
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


Lighthouse Foundation presented an online forum June 20 focusing on how white allies in the LGBT community can best focus their energies in struggles against racial inequities.

Lighthouse Foundation, which is associated with Lighthouse Community Church in Lincoln Park, focuses its work on uplifting Black and Brown members of the LGBT community. The June 20 session, titled "Anti-Racism for White Folks," was presented by Rev. Smash on behalf of the Foundation.

Smash, a native of Virginia, emphasized that she was not of the "upper-echelon" of race-equality experts, but was a longtime activist, including doing work in her home state around the time of the Charlottesville protests in 2017.

As racial-equity has come to the fore since the murder of George Floyd, many activists have said that Black and Brown activists should not be expected to do the intellectual and emotional labor needed to educate white allies, which is one reason Smash, who is white, was engaged to conduct the June 20 talk.

Racism, she said, is "not about who we are. [It's] about what we say, what we do, from minute to minute."

Smash traced the historical roots of the white supremacist ideology most white Americans had internalized to the point that, "When we say that something is normal, we typically mean 'white.'" That ideology came about hundreds of years ago as a justification for the economic benefits that white landowners derived from chattel slavery.

Even with chattel slavery long in the past, its effects linger, since most Americans unconsciously engage in the economic, rhetorical and power dynamics which remain in our culture as its legacy. White folks, as one example, are seen as intrinsically stable, family-oriented and hardworking, while people of color are perceived as being lazy and in a state of perpetual poverty.

That perception carries over to explicitly racist fiscal policies, such as redlining of neighborhoods by banks determining whom to lend to. It can be further perpetuated by more implicitly racist policies, such as when state governments tie school funding into property-taxes, thereby ensuring that students in less-prosperous, majority-Black and -Brown neighborhoods receive fewer educational resources.

Smash acknowledged that closely examining racism as a systematic whole, rather than just how one manages interpersonal relationships, will be difficult for many white folks, especially those who would never think of themselves as being racist.

"White supremacy… is much more expansive than overt racism," she said, later adding, "We're not used to the stress of processing our white identities."

Smash was joined in the talk by Rev. Tim Wolfe of the Oak Park-based Gather Church, who has also been involved at length with Lighthouse Foundation. The two discussed how whiteness had become further calcified in institutional settings, including those that had committed to the idea of diversity within their ranks.

Smash added that diversity initiatives quite frequently assume "that the normal ways of doing things are the things we value as white people."

Wolfe said that many allies unfortunately "want to just take up a mantel rather than just making [confronting racism] a part of who we are."

He and Smash discussed how two human traits frequently encoded as being "white"—being averse to both risks and conflict—stand in the way of many allies who are willing to do the activist work. Dismantling racism, they added, involves showing up, listening, knowing when to defer and step down and having a willingness to both fail and be called out for it.

"Most of us have been frozen in this space of not wanting to mess up," Wolfe said.

Nevertheless, Smash added, much of the work has to be figuratively messy.

"Conflict has to happen for change to happen," she said.


This article shared 2881 times since Wed Jun 24, 2020
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

WORLD Israel court, conversion therapy, death sentences, Georgia bill, fashion items
2024-03-29
Israel's Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Population Authority must register female couples as mothers on the birth certificates of their children they have together, The Washington Blade reported. The decision was made following a petition ...


Gay News

Brown Elephant Returns To Northalsted
2024-03-26
Brown Elephant's Lake View location is moving to Northalsted and already accepting donations. Howard Brown Health, the largest LGBTQ+ health center in the midwest, operates three Brown Elephant resale shops in the Chicagoland area to help ...


Gay News

An interstate trans healthcare crisis: Illinois prepares for influx of people seeking gender-affirming care
2024-03-26
With hard-won rights, such as access to hormone replacement therapy or permission to use one's chosen pronouns in school, breaking down in states across the country, trans residents of all ages are left with a choice: ...


Gay News

Planned Parenthood of Illinois expands Orland Park health center
2024-03-26
--From a press release - ORLAND PARK, Ill. - Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) announces the expansion of its existing Orland Park Health Center at 14470 S. LaGrange Rd., Suite 106. The 1,800-square-foot expansion is projected to increase sexual and reproductive ...


Gay News

United Church of Hyde Park hosts LGBTQ+ storytelling event
2024-03-25
About 20 people had gathered around four round tables in the community room of the United Church of Hyde Park, 1448 E. 53rd St., on March 23. They were listening quietly to a man tell the story of how, on a ...


Gay News

Wyoming is latest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors
2024-03-24
On March 22, Wyoming became the latest state to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors, The Hill noted. In doing so, it joined 23 other states that passed laws restricting or banning the treatment. Legislators in both ...


Gay News

Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council sets a new course
2024-03-18
Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council held its first meeting of the calendar year on Feb. 28 at City Hall in the Loop under the leadership of the recently appointed chair Jin-Soo Huh. The LGBTQ+ Advisory Council is ...


Gay News

WORLD Leaked messages, Panama action, author dies at 32, Japan court, out athletes
2024-03-15
Hundreds of messages from an internal chat board for an international group of transgender health professionals were leaked in a report and framed as revealing serious health risks associated with gender-affirming care, including cancer, according to ...


Gay News

UK health service to stop routinely prescribing puberty blockers to minors
2024-03-14
NHS (National Health Service) England confirmed that children will no longer routinely be prescribed puberty blockers at gender-identity clinics, the BBC reported. The decision came after a review found there was "not enough evidence" that they ...


Gay News

One Roof Chicago launches youth-focused workforce development program
2024-03-14
One Roof Chicago (ORC) is set to launch its first training, education and job placement program for LGBTQ+ young adults in late spring. This Community Health Workers and Elder Care program is a part of ORC's ...


Gay News

Howard Brown experts discuss advocacy and allyship for Chicago's trans community
2024-03-14
By Alec Karam - Howard Brown Health's Trans & Gender Diverse People's Rights & Patient Care panel convened March 12 to discuss both resources for—and opportunities to provide allyship to—the city's trans and gender diverse communities. The event hos ...


Gay News

Howard Brown Health faces October trial if settlement isn't reached with union
2024-03-13
Howard Brown Health could go to trial over unfair labor practice allegations if the LGBTQ+ health center doesn't reach a settlement with its agreement soon. Chicago's regional director of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed ...


Gay News

Pro-choice activists protest crisis pregnancy center on International Women's Day
2024-03-11
The rainy weather on March 8 didn't deter a passionate group of pro-choice protesters from gathering in Old Town on International Women's Day. Following the opening of Women's Care Center—a crisis pregnancy center—directly next to Pl ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Altercation, mpox research, Univ. of Fla., George Santos, tech battle
2024-03-08
Video footage uploaded to Facebook showed an altercation between a state trooper and two prominent Philadelphia LGBTQ+ leaders, the Washington Blade reported, republishing an article from Philadelphia Gay News. Celena ...


Gay News

Pride 365 event emphasizes year-round support for LGBTQ+ employees
2024-03-07
Queer employees are queer all year-round. The need for employers to accordingly support and uplift them year-round was the core message at Howard Brown Health and Citywide Pride's Pride 365 "Out of Office to Out in ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.