Nightly Nuance - March 23, 2021

*At Laura's request, I'm sharing this episode with all of our members*  

Hello, my friends. I'm struggling a bit today, and I can imagine that many of you are, too. The shootings in the Atlanta area followed by the shootings in the Boulder area are unbearable and a national shame. 

Today's nightly nuance is a bit different than the normal fare. It's a little shorter and includes more of an overview of a topic than a deep dive. It also includes more of my personal reflections. I've had a number of conversations recently with people who work in public about how difficult it is to talk about the social construct of race, about ethnicity, and about privilege because we all carry this fear of making sure we get it "right." My hope is to lean into that fear instead of away from it. 

So, I'm sharing some of the questions I'm asking and some of what I'm learning about the terms "AAPI," "African American," and "Native American," and how I'm thinking about my place as a white person in the broad story of humanity. I hope something here connects with you.

A few resources: 

Political Science Quarterly 

New York Times 1989  (this is the piece I mention that is dated and difficult to read) 

Native Times  

UMass essay I mention 

NBC News article on multiracial Americans 

Time Magazine on Emma Gee and Yuji Ichioka

Sabriyya blog post - 3 things wrong with the term "African-American"  

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