Who Draws First? A reflection about racial stereotyping by Dr. Ibrahim Sablaban

So, who draws first? Figuratively speaking. In America, someone’s going to draw. Someone’s going to attack and define you by some arbitrary standard. And that someone could be anyone.

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"Chronic Black Excellence," a reflection on the power of poetry to reflect structural racism by Elizabeth Walmsley

The poem compelled us to face the magnitude of ways in which our systems have been designed by white people for white people. It especially highlights the workings of a system that rewards Black people for separating themselves from their own communities; the classic effect of forced assimilation. The poem illustrated to us that structural racism demands so much of Black people—not only to work ten times harder than their white counterparts in order to be seen, but also to separate themselves to gain a moderate level of success and recognition. And yet, as our group considered, was the hard won success all it purported to be?

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