Beware Resurgence of Deadly Diseases, Part 3

by Kathie MM

Out, out damn deadly disease!

We recently began a series on racialopathy and ethnicopathy , deadly social diseases, all too contagious in these virulent times.

How can we stop them?

Many diseases—think of cancer—are very complex, taking different forms, attacking different parts and processes in different ways in different people.

To combat those diseases, it is vital to understand them in all their complexity.

A useful place to begin is by uploading (free!) The Official Study Guide by Mary Pugh Clark.  Written to accompany Deep Denial, The Persistence of White Supremacy in United States History and Life by David Billings, it has considerable merit on its own.

Billings, an anti-racist trainer and organizer with The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (www.pisab.org), is an ordained United Methodist minister and historian. According to civil rights activist Charlayne Hunter-Gault, “No one speaks to racism and its cure better than David Billings, a white Southerner who has seen it all. His is a voice that needs to be heard.”

Clark’s chapter-by-chapter exposition of Deep Denial, like the book itself, is rich in history,  ideas, and  reasons why all of us should challenge the specter of White Supremacy in all its noxious cloaks.

Among the valuable features of the study guide are questions encouraging analysis, reflection, and action related to the material in each chapter.

Here are some examples:

“• What can white people who benefit from gentrification do to mitigate the effects of displacement on families and businesses?

  • What are ways you can engage people who have opinions based on racial stereotyping?
  • If you are involved in non-profit or religious organizations, what are effective ways you can do anti-racist work?

Reading Clark’s Study Guide and Billings’ Deep Denial may get us one step closer to curing one lng-deadly disease.