You’d have to be pretty self-absorbed and living in an insulated bubble to not notice the “conversation” about race, privilege, police violence, and institutional bias going on this country. And what’s less self-absorbed and un-bubble-like than an online journal devoted to one’s own home renovation and decorating projects?

But what do race and privilege have to do with a DIY blog, you ask?  Simply that it exists!  It is a big expression of our privilege as white, cis-gendered women from well-resourced households that, if we choose, we can totally ignore all that is happening and go on prattling about cement vases, kitchen remodels, and dinosaur decor, of all things. During the week when Alton Sterling and Philando Castille were shot and killed by police and then five police officers were killed by a sniper while standing duty during a protest against those shootings, we were laboring over a post about removing dollhouse wallpaper. Don’t get us wrong, this is still a DIY blog and we’ll go back to those ever-important topics, but we think it is important to talk about this, too.

We look at what is happening today — the fact that unarmed black men are 7 times more likely to be killed by police than unarmed white men, the fact that median net worth for white households is $116,8oo and for black households is $1,700, with the gap only widening — and feel incredibly angry and helpless. If you feel the same, the first step is to educate yourself about what is going on, both in the news and in the unseen forces (like unconscious bias) that lurk behind our daily world and shape it in immense and terrifying ways. The “educate yourself” in this is incredibly important — we cannot ask people of color to take on this work of educating us about privilege and racism on top of the burden they bear just trying to exist in a world centered around whiteness.

Since we’re certainly not experts in this, we wanted to use this space to share a handful of articles that we’ve read recently and found interesting, informative, or helpful.  Whether you’ve read and thought widely on this or just followed the conversation in the news, we hope at least one will be interesting or thought-provoking!

First off, we need to acknowledge that this can be a bit of a hard topic to get started on, particularly if you’re white and have *tried* to live a moral, un-racist life.  Start by breaking the assumption that you are automatically a bad person if you have ever acted in a way that is biased.  This post (from which we shamelessly lifted today’s post-title) with embedded TED Talk on the same topic, is helpful because it asks us to move to a “dental hygiene” model of eliminating bias.  Clean people look inside themselves in the mirror multiple times every day and eliminate bias clean the plaque from their teeth.  And if someone points out that they have something stuck in their teeth, they are obviously mortified but also grateful.

Start off by acknowledging to yourself that just by living in this world you will have plaque build-up and sometimes even a cavity. That isn’t a reason to give up on going to the dentist altogether, and (like Sage this very morning in the actual dentist’s chair) you may come to accept that discomfort is inevitable and acceptable…and is nothing compared to getting killed by the police during a traffic stop.

From that mindset, please enjoy these articles:

On Institutional Racism:

• On how housing policies and practices have made it much harder for black families to build wealth
• A long and incredibly devastating account of how American society has preyed on black people from slavery to the present day – and what we need to do now
• Why white privilege still holds for poor white people, and why understanding intersectonality can help get away from the “but it was hard for me, too” dismissal
• A quick cartoon tale of how privilege (in this case, economic, but I think still helpful) can change the course of your life, without you knowing it

On Black Lives Matter:

• On why there is a need for “Black Lives Matter” rather than “All Lives Matter”
• Because it is that important, another one on why there is a need for “Black Lives Matter” rather than “All Lives Matter”
• One argument for why it makes sense for the Black Lives Matter movement to be focused on police violence (rather than other kinds of violence)

On Whiteness and This Movement:

• On the concept of “white fragility,” or why it can be so hard for white people to talk about race and racism (written by a white person)
• One account of how white people can help
• On why we need to stop celebrating “ice cream cops” because these are dangerous and meaningless stunts

We both felt strongly about sharing some thoughts on this particular topic right now. Not because individual and institutional racism is a new problem (it’s not) and not because it’s the only problem worth caring and talking about (also not). And we may find ourself sharing more about other issues that are important to us other than what paint will stand the test of time on our kitchen cabinets and whether those tiny bloggers will install a second bathroom or not.

In the meantime, we’re taking a little summer vacation (not an actual vacation, just a blogging vacation — we’re both still working like there’s no tomorrow), and we’ll be back with some project progress on August 22!