Tag: racism

The Civil Rights Movement in Kansas

I wasn’t educated in Kansas, but most of the Civil Rights discussions we had in school focused on the deep South. A book like today’s Book of the Day, Dissent in Wichita: The Civil Rights Movement in the Midwest by Gretchen Cassel Eick, is beneficial to those intrested in what the attitudes towards race and events of the movement looked like right here in Kansas. The focus of this book serves as a reminder that important activities in the prime of the Civil Rights Movement happened well outside of the more prevalently documented cases in places like Alabama or Mississippi.  With interviews of witnesses and activists, this book can bring added demension to race relations and the Civil Rights Movements of the 1950s through 70s.

Thinking Before You Talk

One thing I noticed in the burbs of Chicago amongst older white teenagers and younger college students was a complete ignorance of latent racism in many comments they would make.  Chicago’s not the only guilty suburban area, and I’m not about to predict what area in the country (or beyond) is the worst. Nor am I going to predict if the blatant racism and prejudice I saw in my rural upbringing is any worse than the hidden or oblivious kind. What I can do is direct you towards and expert person who has written an expert book on the subject: The Everyday Language of White Racism by Jane H. Hill. This book helps identify ways in which social exclusion still occurs, and also provides suggestions on how to help eliminate some of the problem.  It is worth a read, and is, as is everything we feature, available in the JCCC Library.