Today we’re going to listen to Franchesca Ramsey ‘splain to a white dudebro why Black history is so important and deserves our attention and respect. This vid (for MTV) is short (3:21), and targeted perfectly for that a$$hole on your social media who whines about why there’s no white history month. Perhaps you can post it to their timeline before you block them?

via MTV Impact (youtube channel):

If you believe that @$$hole in your timeline is serious about learning and becoming a more-informed person, there are obviously much more in-depth resources that they should be seeking out themselves. And not, under any circumstances, asking a random Black person they do not know to do that work for them. You as a white person, however, can and should direct them to Black voices and Black media content to answer their (genuine?) questions and broaden their understanding of structural racism, white privilege and white supremacy.

IT IS THE LEAST WE CAN DO TO LESSEN THE BURDEN ON BLACK PEOPLE BY DOING MORE OF THIS WORK FOR OTHER WHITES.

This is a big part of why I am posting this series.

Here’s one good resource: the host of this very video, Franchesca Ramsey, has an excellent Twitter feed to follow for those who want to STFU and listen: @chescaleigh. And almost any online resource will direct you or link you to many, many more.

UPDATE:

Franchesca Ramsey’s Decoded series for MTV seems intentionally produced as 101-level, “non-threatening” infotainment targeted to MTV’s audience. Not that she doesn’t tackle very serious subjects in it: I’m speaking in terms of tone rather than content. Naturally, she received death threats and had to ratchet up her personal security at live events for engaging in anti-Black racist discourse even in the context of this light-handed and light-hearted approach. And she also received angry pushback from other activists whose criticism was that Decoded was too light-handed and light-hearted, as if there were no point in engaging MTV’s young audience with this work at a basic level.

Well, Franchesca is no basic bitch, people. She has social media platforms through which she discusses and engages with anti-Black racism at other levels that are anything but basic. That is why I recommended following her on Twitter @chescaleigh.

I have since stumbled across one such video post on Facebook she made in 2020. I urge those looking to take a deeper dive into their own anti-Black racism work to watch it. I apologize: I’m having trouble embedding the video here, so the best I can do is link to her FB post so you can view it there. Please do! Even if you find the information and concepts she discusses familiar to you already, think of it as a booster shot.

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Day 1 of Black History Month 2022 (Lori Teresa Yearwood) is here.
Day 2 of Black History Month 2022 (Mallence Bart-Williams) is here.
Day 3 of Black History Month 2022 (Emmett Till) is here.
Day 4 of Black History Month 2022 (A Tale of Two Citizens) is here.
Day 5 of Black History Month 2022 (Trayvon Martin) is here.