I invited Gunditjmara woman and abolition activist Tabitha Lean to speak to my class The Racial State. I am happy to share the video of her talk with you. The text of my introduction to Tabitha’s talk: It is an honour for me to welcome our…
Category: The Racial State
Is White Privilege a Useful Term?
In class I’ve been asked why people say white people have privilege. So, let’s talk about it. Here’s my TikTok video and the script below: @racialliteracysolidarity ♬ original sound – RacialLiteracySolidarity The concept seems to have come from Peggy McIntosh’s 1989 essay, ‘White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible…
Coded Bias
For the final week of The Racial State, we are going to engage in the relationship between race, digital technology and social media. We shall focus our classroom activity around Joy Buolamwini’s research project Coded Bias which has also been made into a Netflix documentary. We…
The Anti-Islamophobia Bubble Map
In Week 12, we will have a guest lecture from author of Radical Skin, Moderate Masks, Dr Yassir Morsi. Watch Yassir discuss his book together with author of The Muslims Are Coming!, Arun Kundnani here:
Imagining Abolition
Week 11 of The Racial State all involve a discussion of police, prison and detention abolition. I have adapted some tests produced by abolitionist activists and intellectuals Mariame Kaba, Debbie Kilroy (from Sisters Inside) and Tabitha Lean. In preparation for this week’s theme, we will be…
Thinking about Police Violence
Mariame Kaba has some amazing resources on her blog, Prison Culture including the #FergusonSyllabus: Talking and Teaching about police violence. I have adapted one of her techniques, the ‘6 word story’ exercise for us on Week 10 of The Racial State during which we will be…
Institutional Racism Scenarios
I first developed this exercise when I was invited by Professor Lilon Bandler to speak to er medical students at Sydney University! Here I have re-adapted it for use in our The Racial State Week 8 on institutional and systemic racism, as a ‘menu’.
Assimilation Dress-Ups
In Week 7 of The Racial State we will be discussing assimilation, multiculturalism against the backdrop of ‘White Australia’ and the ruse of Indigenous ‘inclusion’. I have got the permission of the brilliant Indigenous run t-shirt company Dark and Disturbing to adopt some of their designs…
Invasion Day exercise
For Week 6 of The Racial State we are going to subvert the idea that there is a debate to be had about ‘Australia Day’, known more correctly as Invasion Day. We are going to be engaging with Professor Irene Watson’s short text, ‘Why celebrate on…
Controlling Images exercise
For Week 5 of The Racial State we are going to be working with a short version of Patricia Hill Collins’ text, Chapter 4 of Black Feminist Thought: ‘Mammies, Matriarchs and other Controlling Images’ from Blackfeminisms.com. We will watch the short video, ‘Mammy, Jezebel and Sapphire’…