Racial CrossFit Exercise for Black History Month: Study White Racism

― Carter G. Woodson, "The Mis-Education of the Negro"

An Experiment

What White people have to do is try to find out in their hearts why it was necessary to have a n---r in the first place.

Before You Start This Workout, Explore the History of 'Whiteness'

• There is a 99 percent chance you will cry.
• There is a 99 percent chance you will want to quit.
• There is a 99 percent chance you will be angry and want to fight me.

Now you’re ready for Racial CrossFit: Beyond Black History Month Edition!

1. Who were the European tribes that the Romans considered “barbaric?” Choose one modern European country, name its ancient ethnic tribes and describe how and when they became civilized: Denmark, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden. (15 points)
2. When did the term “White race” first appear in colonial laws? Through colonial times and early U.S. history, how was the law used to define and privilege “Whiteness?” (15 points)
3. How and why did the Irish and Scottish, people who were considered non-White in the early Americas, participate in racism and White supremacy? What political, economic and psychological benefits did they receive after a period of oppression? (10 points)
4. Create a timeline of when and where the following people became “White” in America. For extra credit, add a brief summary as to why they were included in White race: Irish, Scots, Russians, Jews, Eastern Europeans. (5 points each)

Whiteness In the 19th and 20th Centuries

1. Describe how the Homestead Act of 1862 was used historically to privilege White people, and how those effects persist today. (10 points)
2. Define who Hitler described as “the superior Aryan race.” Would the White race in America today qualify? Why or why not? (10 points)
3. Research the Marshall Plan. Take the viewpoint of a Black soldier in World War II, and write about the racism in the plan. (10 points)
4. Read Ta-Nehshi Coates' case for reparations in The Atlantic. Describe the FHA racial discriminatory policies and please give a personal example of someone in your family or a White friend that benefited from the racial policy? (Mandatory Question: 25 points)

Whiteness and Racism Today

1. If you live in a community where less than 20 percent of the population includes low-income people of color, please examine the resource gap between your neighborhood and neighborhoods where low-income people of color live, and reflect on how to change it. What are the resources your community has that low-income communities of color do not have? Name three actions you can take now to close the racial resource gap between your community and less-affluent communities of color. (10 points)
2. If your children’s school population is less than 15 percent low-income students of color, please examine the resource gap between your school and nearby schools attended by large numbers of less-affluent students of color, and reflect on how to change it. What are the resources that your local school has access to that nearby low-income communities of color do not have? Name three actions you can take now to close the racial resource gap between your child’s school and schools in less-affluent communities of color. (10 points)
3. Give three examples of racist policies in our criminal justice system that affect Black people but do not affect White people. (10 points)
4. Name three tangible privileges possessed by people who are considered White in 2018 America, that are not available to non-Whites. (5 points each)

EXTRA CREDIT

1. "Stamped from the Beginning"—Ibram X. Kendi
2. "The New Jim Crow"—Michelle Alexander
3. "The Mis-Education of the Negro"- Carter G. Woodson
4. "Between the World and Me"—Ta-Nehisi Coates
5. "How to Slowly Kill Yourself in America"—Kiese Laymon

1. "I am Not Your Negro"
2. "13th"
3. "Selma"