The Anti-Racist Glossary

By Mel Harkrader Pine

Last winter, I was as clueless as you probably are about the specialized anti-racist lingo that now dominates the hierarchy of the Unitarian Universalist Association and, I’m told, the United Church of Christ and other liberal religions. But I’m a fast learner. So — with an assist from this blog’s co-founder, Rev. Kate Braestrup — I’m offering, as a public service, this handy glossary.

Feel free to attach these definitions to your refrigerators, or as we privileged persons of Jewish heritage say:

And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. — Deuteronomy 6: 8-9

Beloved Community — A religious sect in which white persons may speak only to quote, to praise, or to introduce black persons.

Civil Rights Era — An insignificant period in the 1960’s when laws were passed but nothing changed. [See Voting Rights]

Black — Depends on skin tone and politics. Barack Obama is; Clarence Thomas is not. African-American police officers are not. If you need a definition, then you’re not.

Defensiveness — Replying to personal insults, or disagreeing with any analysis of one’s character, if the insults or analysis come from a person of color.

Harm — The devastating result of ideas counter to one’s own, if one is a POCI or a white liberal who knows what’s best for POCI.

Micro-Aggression — A very subtle expression of white supremacy that is nonetheless excruciating and debilitating to its object. Examples: mispronouncing a name or asking someone with a strong accent where they are originally from.

Of Color — Persons who are not white, or who are white with family histories in Mexico, Central or South America and whom black activists have declared victims of oppression. [See POCI]

POCI — It redundantly stands for “people of color and indigenous peoples.” NOTE #1: White people with family histories in Mexico, Central or South America may qualify for inclusion in POCI, but see restriction in Of Color. NOTE #2: Black persons may sometimes include themselves in POCI but always get deference as more oppressed than other POCI, with the possible exception of the indigenous peoples. Note #3: Prior to  April 1, 2017, UUA Past President Peter Morales was a person of color. Now he is not, and never has been.

Police — Murderous agents of white supremacy. They are presumed guilty, even before charges are filed.

Tone Policing — Objecting to personal insults made by persons of color.

Voter Suppression — Laws written with the racist expectation that POCI are as capable as white persons of acquiring a driver’s license or state ID.

Voting Rights — What good are they if the people we like don’t get elected? [See Civil Rights Era]

White — Persons who are neither black nor of color. All such persons are racists and contribute to the White Supremacy Culture. [Note: Only white persons may be racist because all white persons have more power than all POCI.]

White Centering — Occurs when one or more white person(s) do or say anything.

White Fragility — A failure on the part of a white person to agree that he/she/xhe  is retroactively completely responsible for slavery, the Jim Crow era, stop-and-frisk, black imprisonment, and any or all racial oppression throughout history and around the globe.

White Privilege — Term that brings newly woke white persons to tears.

White Supremacy Culture — The root cause of everything that a woke progressive of color does not like.

$5.3 Million — Hey, why not? If it makes you feel good, do it. Especially if it’s other people’s money.

Copyright 2017 © Mel Harkrader Pine