One hundred years ago, 10,000 state-sponsored White supremacists destroyed a prosperous Black neighborhood in Tulsa, OK. The history of the Tulsa Race Massacre .- when a white mob attacked the thriving Greenwood district, burned it to the ground, killing an estimated 300 of its black residents - was not part of my public school curriculum. In fact I was not taught about any major Black historical events of any kind. To include the full history of Black oppression would hav

I join people everywhere in mourning the victims of last night’s horrific shootings in Atlanta. Condolences to the families of each of the victims. Prayers for everyone touched by this tragedy. Regardless of the killer's motivation, six of the eight victims were Asian American women. These murders come amidst a nationwide rise in violence, discrimination, and xenophobia directed against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. These murders are the most rec

​ Growing up white, and in segregated communities, I didn’t think I even had a race. There was nothing to be questioned, learned about, or studied. I was oblivious, bathed in the safety and comfort I thought everyone was enjoying. I never had to wonder whether or not I “belonged” in the U.S. This experience reifies the reality of whiteness as the dominant culture. To know who I am as a racial being today I firsts had understand my racial past. This is the concept of Sankofa,

The events of three momentous Wednesdays in January 2021 shook us to our core - the insurrection, the impeachment, and the inauguration. And now, in the painful aftermath, comes the important task of connection-making. What do these three events all have in common? The shared quality accompanying each of these three events is a deep political polarization. This divide has been developing ever since the 60s when the two parties split over segregation. The nearly 50/50 national

As we seek to assign blame for the insurrection at our U.S. Capital yesterday, let us stop and really bear witness to the outcome of our mollycoddling White supremacy. Implicit racial bias harms and debilitates the soul of the White community and flies against our deepest moral and civic traditions. Let us reckon that White supremacy is the White community’s to dismantle, for the sake of its own liberation. The responsibility for repairing the racial divide must shift out of

I am the proud daughter of a 33-year career Navy veteran, Lt. Cmdr. Earl Ross Baker. The photo shows the cherished display case with his military medals. In my first book, An Unintentional Accomplice: A Personal Perspective on White Responsibility, I wrote about the pageantry of daily flag ceremonies for the children of the neighborhood led by my father. When I think back on those post-WWII days, I’m reminded of who I am and where I come from. I feel pride when I see the flag

In this national election week, when patience is a virtue, we are witnessing both a societal transformation and a deeply divided country. The question on my heart and mind is, "How do I handle this?" Whatever one's political party may be, we all are finding ourselves at the same juncture this week. What is the road to repair and restoration? For me, it is a commitment to holding myself, my leaders, my lawmakers, and my president accountable. There is no way forward without de

Back in early May, the LA Times Opinion section asked readers to envision life in California after the pandemic and share their thoughts on what COVID-19 health and economic crisis reveals about us as a society, and what transformations may be necessary to the heal the trauma. More than 3700 readers responded, myself included. My response was included in the July 26, 2020, LA Times Sunday Edition: "Carolyn L. Baker was among a handful of readers who wrote before George Floyd

There was a time when Americans, specifically white Americans such as myself, eagerly supported government entitlement programs and had relatively no issue having a social safety net in place. Many of us from the suburbs like to think we got to where we are today by virtue of our merit, hard work, intelligence, pluck, and maybe a little luck. But it was America’s investment after World War II that created FHA home programs and later the Veterans Administration (VA), which bac

The 4th of July - a wonderful time to pause to honor the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. As the daughter of a career Naval officer, and as Girl Scout, I learned from an early age how to post and retire the flag, and do so on every day of remembrance. This year as I fly the colors it seems especially fitting to also pause and reflect on the genocide and racism that are part of our national history. This dissonance is ingrained in the ent

Through the process of finalizing Chapter 5: Womanism of An Unintentional Accomplice I had the opportunity for frank conversations with my publisher Gabrielle David, a black woman, about the divide between white women and black women. Although I had written about ways in which the feminist movement had expected and demanded women of color to be a silent, obedient ally to white women's agenda, I was unaware of the historical and psychological components of this dynamic. Our c

For a while now I’ve been recommending white people to read books written by black authors. As a companion to this, I highly recommend WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE WHITE IN AMERICA? This first of its kind anthology, published by black and brown female led 2Leaf Press, is a collection of 82 deeply personal narratives from white American's speaking frankly and openly about race. The question WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE WHITE IN AMERICA? is deceptively simple. And in answering the questi

A question I am often asked is “What does it mean to ‘do the work’ of inclusivity?” In An Unintentional Accomplice: A Personal Perspective on White Responsibility, I explore this question and include the following Checklist with numerous real-life ways an ordinary person can do something extraordinary – take responsibility for building a community in which all people are valued and equal in the eyes of the law: · Speak up on behalf of those who have it less comfortable than m

In the aftermath of the 1965 Watts Riot it was this The Los Angeles Free Press headline by the late, great Art Kunkin that captured the essence of a complex situation in only a few words. As a young white girl growing up in a segregated Southern California suburb, I saw on our TV how the community erupted after a contentious arrest by the South Central police. I didn’t understand why, why rioters were looting their stores, torching their buildings, and firing at police office

In a recent Huffpost article, “Amy Cooper Knew Exactly What She Was Doing,” Zeba Blay relates Carolyn Bryant’s 1955 false accusation of Emmett Till to Amy Cooper’s fraudulent 911 call falsely accusing Christopher Cooper. “There is, of course, a long history of white women in this country falsely accusing Black people, particularly Black men and boys, of crimes they did not commit. In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was beaten, tortured and killed because Carolyn Bryant claimed

I was all set to do an interview on a radio station in Kentucky to promote my forthcoming book, An Unintentional Accomplice: A Personal Perspective on White Responsibility when the host canceled it. They said they just couldn’t do the interview with me. They had hoped for a useful discussion about Covid-19 and the racial impact, but the more they read about my ideas on white guilt and white privilege in my book, they just didn’t think it was a discussion they were interested

As the ebook version of my book, An Unintentional Accomplice, goes into production this week, COVID-19 is raging around the world. In addition to creating cross-sector, worldwide human suffering, the spread of the coronavirus in America is also exposing the vulnerability of a social safety net supposedly designed to aid and protect all Americans from hunger, poverty, and economic hardship. While the coronavirus is no respecter of socio-economic status, and each and every one

As a white woman, I would be way out of my lane to comment on the power of the black vote. So today I’m sharing a Super Tuesday segment aired this week at KARE-TV Minneapolis. Anchor Adrienne Broaddus did an interview during Black History Month with well known civil rights pioneer Josie Johnson. Now 90 years of age, Johnson risked her life in the 50s and 60s fighting for voting fairness. At the end of the previous BHM interview, Johnson posed a series of questions regarding t

February is Black History Month and the theme for this year is “African Americans and the Vote.” I have a suggested reading for you for Black History Month 2020. It’s a new book that just came out, The Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy Taylor. I attended a book event last night at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, CA and heard Taylor discuss her journey in researching and writing the book, as well as her views on its overarc