You cannot have an honest conversation about race and racism (aka "white supremacy") in America unless you FIRST: ▪ Define the words being used
▪ Set goals and ground rules of engagement
▪ Use the appropriate vocabulary and grammar
▪ Include and exclude participants as appropriate
THEN, you must identify
▪ what the real issues are
▪ what is actually happening
▪ why the behavior began and continues to occur
▪ who is actually perpetrating the behavior
▪ when and where it occurs
▪ what is its historical context
▪ what are its present-day manifestations
▪ how and why it serves those in power
▪ what challenges exist to eradicating the problem
THEN, you must learn and practice
▪ how to respond to standard avoidance techniques, and
▪ how to guide a truly honest conversation towards its goal
In other words, a truly honest conversation about race must be historically accurate. An honest conversation about race must be factual. An honest conversation about race must be aware of history. An honest conversation about race must be aware of real and provable genetic and cultural predispositions. It means, to some extent, that an honest conversation about race cannot be had by people who lack the awareness of all the contributing factors of such a conversation. Attempting to engage in a conversation without such an awareness--however well-intentioned--results not in an honest conversation about race, but merely the perpetuation of inter-racial aggression in the form of uninformed opinion, baseless debate, pointless derision, circular reasoning, futile finger-pointing, hostile confrontation, agenda-driven obfuscation, misguided analysis, and useless fault-finding,
Therefore, there needs to be a guide for how to actually initiate, advance, guide and conclude such a conversation. Our hope is that these 52 (one per week) memos be such a guide.
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WHAT DOES "FORKED TONGUE" MEAN?
A forked tongue is a tongue split into two distinct tines at the tip; this is a feature common to many species of reptiles. Reptiles smell using the tip of their tongue, and a forked tongue allows them to sense from which direction a smell is coming.
USAGE
The phrase "speaks with a forked tongue" means to deliberately say one thing and mean another or, to be hypocritical, or act in a duplicitous manner. In the longstanding tradition of many Native American tribes, "speaking with a forked tongue" has meant lying, and a person was no longer considered worthy of trust, once he had been shown to "speak with a forked tongue". This phrase was also adopted by Americans around the time of the Revolution, and may be found in abundant references from the early 19th century — often reporting on American officers who sought to convince the tribal leaders with whom they negotiated that they "spoke with a straight and not with a forked tongue" (as for example, President Andrew Jackson told the Creek Nation in 1829). According to one 1859 account, the native proverb that the "white man spoke with a forked tongue" originated as a result of the French tactic of the 1690s, in their war with the Iroquois, of inviting their enemies to attend a Peace Conference, only to be slaughtered or captured. [Source: Wikipedia]
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