Kitabu Publishing

03/21/2021

FB Fam...Check out my new book!

How to Survive the Stress of Still Being Black in America: Recognizing Race-Based and Racism-Related Stress in 21st Century America and Strategies for Active Coping

12/13/2020

New Book Alert!

Teaching With Racial Microaggressions in Mind: How to Recognize and Stop Using Racial Microaggressions in Your K-12 Classroom

01/02/2020

08/29/2019

About five years ago, the National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence recommended (or perhaps more accurately, warned) that “every school in our country should have trauma-informed staff and consultants providing school-based trauma-specific treatment.” Apparently, few schoo...

07/08/2019

I know now that I have never experienced an expectation of racial justice (or the prerequisite end of racial stigma) and, if social inertia is a legitimate phenomenon, neither will my son. Individual instances of racial justice currently seem rare, unusual, unintentional, surprising, abnormal, which would suggest that there is no such thing as coincidental racial justice—a society is either characteristically just or unjust. No dance of the earthquake in our foreseeable future. And that’s devastatingly problematic to me. What is it to you?

-Excerpted from Becoming Bulletproof: Examining the Historical Pattern of Killing Black People in America with Impunity by Joseph R. Gibson, Ed.S. Copyright 2019 by KITABU Publishing.com. Available now for purchase at Amazon.com.

07/07/2019

There’s been a persistent inequity with regard to the protection of Black versus White life implied by the inequality of consequence and public outcry for taking it. Accordingly, there’s never been an adequate level of dread associated with the intention of killing Black people, which if adequate may have prevented this intention from being actualized far too often. African-American lives—our physical and social existence—have long been treated as relatively valueless, disposable, nonessential, obsolete, unnecessary, removable.

-Excerpted from Becoming Bulletproof: Examining the Historical Pattern of Killing Black People in America with Impunity by Joseph R. Gibson, Ed.S. Copyright 2019 by KITABU Publishing.com. Available now for purchase at Amazon.com.

07/06/2019

New Book from Kitabu Publishing Available Now on Amazon.com!

Becoming Bulletproof: Examining the Historical Pattern of Killing Black People in America with Impunity by Joseph R. Gibson, Ed.S.

It is literally scary to be Black in America, always has been. People of all races and ethnicities die every day, but in America there’s something terrifyingly normalized (i.e., made normal, natural, orderly, routine, typical, predictable, unexceptional, allowable, tolerable) about the kil...

07/05/2019

“Even after Emancipation the Black man’s cultural alienation (i.e., deprivation of African culture), reactionary dealings with his oppression, self-concept, his pseudo-imitation of White cultural behavior, internalization of White racist attitudes in regard to himself and his fellows, served as stumbling blocks to his achievement of the type of collective values, behaviors, arrangements and unity which would ultimately empower him to successfully counter White racism and oppression.”

-Amos N. Wilson

07/04/2019

“The conditions of life and resulting state of mind of the Black male under slavery were deliberately constructed and induced in order to secure and maintain his powerlessness, to expropriate the product of his labor, to capitalize on his human and material capital resources so as to make possible the accumulation of capital surplus and social power by his White exploiters.”

-Amos N. Wilson

06/28/2019

It’s simultaneously perplexing, embarrassing, and infuriating to ponder just how normalized the disproportionate murder of Black people (via various murdering entities including other Black people) has been throughout the history of this country—and continues to be. Yes, other racial and ethnic groups have faced episodes of holocaust, attempted genocide, and endemic terrorist attacks (i.e., all lives matter), but nothing as sustained, insidious, socially devaluing, and tolerated as the killing of Black people in America.

-Excerpted from Becoming Bulletproof: Examining the Historical Pattern of Killing Black People in America with Impunity by Joseph R. Gibson, Ed.S. Copyright 2019 by KITABU Publishing.com. Available now for purchase at Amazon.com.

06/26/2019

06/20/2019

02/05/2019

According to Joe Pettit, “racial stigma is the understanding of a group of people as inferior, and membership in this group is signified by the color of one’s skin. Racial stigma” at least in America “causes black people as a group to be understood as inferior to whites.” And if we’re audaciously honest with ourselves, it’s difficult to not acknowledge that somehow we constantly observe this stigma, regardless of our own racial affiliation, and understand to some extent its vital role in shaping our personal life experiences. Even if you only benefit from it passively, it’s difficult to completely ignore racial stigma as a crucial, collective aspect of our American existence.

-Excerpted from Why Nobody Wants to Teach Black Kids by Joseph R. Gibson. Copyright 2017 by Pathways Global Press, LLC. Now available for purchase at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

02/04/2019

Teachers (or would-be teachers) of predominantly African-American classrooms, especially those doubly saddled by the burden of high-poverty, tend to anticipate having to work harder trying to balance the professional responsibility of quality teaching with responding to disruptive behaviors and academic deficiencies because they presume most (not just some) Black students are disruptive and deficient. Consequently, they tend to avoid this presumed burden by not wanting to teach Black kids, especially those from high-poverty backgrounds.

-Excerpted from Why Nobody Wants to Teach Black Kids by Joseph R. Gibson. Copyright 2017 by Pathways Global Press, LLC. Now available for purchase at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

02/03/2019

Stigma, to cite Megan Steinhardt, “carries with it a level of negative expectation.” Teaching stigmatized students is regularly presumed to be harder than teaching other students largely because we, as educators, expect it to be. In other words, racial stigma (of being Black in America) triggers negative expectations of teaching Black students simply because they are Black. The mere stigma associated with Blackness appears to instigate an exaggeration in the perceived disruptiveness (i.e., negative classroom behavior) and academic deficiency of Black students as a group.

-Excerpted from Why Nobody Wants to Teach Black Kids by Joseph R. Gibson. Copyright 2017 by Pathways Global Press, LLC. Now available for purchase at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

02/02/2019

Detroit diners can get facts about prominient Black figures when enjoying shoebox lunches at Beans & Cornbread during Black History Month.

02/01/2019

Three Washington, D.C., brothers, Collin, 13, Ryan, 10, and Austin Gill, 8, wanted to earn some extra cash while helping their community, and collectively they decided to open their own candle company with intentions of giving back. The business, Titled Frères Branchiaux, aims to “help savvy, eco...

01/29/2019

“Hope dictates effort.”
-Michael Irvin

01/28/2019

“For the most part,” wrote Robin Lenhardt, “racially stigmatized individuals have relatively few places where they can go and be assured of not being exposed to racist or racialized conduct or remarks. This reality may leave stigmatized individuals feeling that they must be constantly ‘on’ and vigilant against racialized conduct.” It may also have psychological consequences, explained Devika Choudhuri et al., such as “feeling powerless, invisible, and less valid than Whites and pressure to represent his/her racial group in such a way as to not promote stereotyping.”

-Excerpted from How Racism Has Changed the Human Brain by Joseph R. Gibson. Copyright 2016 by KITABU Publishing.com. Available for purchase at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

01/27/2019

At some point early in life I know I began to anticipate racism, which only aggravated the stress. “Merely the anticipation of racism,” Jason Silverstein explained, “and not necessarily the act, is enough to trigger a stress response. Just the fear of racism alone should switch on the body’s stress-response systems. This makes sense—if we think our environment contains threats, then we will be on guard.”

-Excerpted from How Racism Has Changed the Human Brain by Joseph R. Gibson. Copyright 2016 by KITABU Publishing.com. Available for purchase at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

01/26/2019

“Numerous psychological stress responses may follow perceptions of racism. These responses include anger, paranoia, anxiety, hopelessness-helplessness, frustration, resentment, and fear.” I’ve personally experienced every single one of these responses repeatedly with regard to perceived racism. Not cool. As I mentioned previously, I’ve struggled with stress my entire life. Much of which was probably everyday racism-related; battling microaggressions mostly while also having to “determine on a regular basis if an event is related to [my] race or not.” Not cool at all.

-Excerpted from How Racism Has Changed the Human Brain by Joseph R. Gibson. Copyright 2016 by KITABU Publishing.com. Available for purchase at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

01/25/2019

Right now, white young people have 16 times the wealth of black young people.

01/24/2019

It revealed King’s lifelong obsession.

01/23/2019

The Academy has a history of recognizing race-conscious films that make them more comfortable, rather than ones that honestly reckon with our present and future.

01/21/2019

Christopher Bracey noted that “nearly every aspect of our lives is mediated by race,” which can be continuously stressful (if not traumatic). It’s difficult for African-Americans to deny the significance of race and racism in our daily lives (even when we want to). And simply acknowledging the significance of race and racism in our daily lives (even when we’re not conscious of doing so) can constantly trigger the stress response—this is just as true for White Americans.

-Excerpted from How Racism Has Changed the Human Brain by Joseph R. Gibson. Copyright 2016 by KITABU Publishing.com. Available for purchase at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

01/20/2019

Daily causes of racism-related stress include typically ambiguous (and sometimes overt) incidents of racial harassment or discrimination, in*******al violence (e.g., all those Black men killed by White police officers recently), personal or collective memories of racism, microaggressions, institutionalized racism, structural socioeconomic inequities (and micro-inequities), internalized racism, and the constant anticipation (or threat) of presumed inferiority.

-Excerpted from How Racism Has Changed the Human Brain by Joseph R. Gibson. Copyright 2016 by KITABU Publishing.com. Available for purchase at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

01/19/2019

In fact, it’s the chronicity and accumulation of the stress attributable to everyday racism—not just the fact that racism is stressful—that end up changing our brain the most. Regrettably, as Camara Jones pointed out, “for most people of color, racism isn’t an occasional problem but a subtle, everyday stressor that is added onto all the other stressors in a person’s life.”

-Excerpted from How Racism Has Changed the Human Brain by Joseph R. Gibson. Copyright 2016 by KITABU Publishing.com. Available for purchase at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

01/18/2019

Patterned neuronal activity, as aforementioned, changes the neural structure and functioning of the brain; thus, stimulus-reinforcement associations are in effect consequences of neuroplasticity. The more we think or (re)act in accordance with the racist sociocultural norms of America—consciously, unconsciously, or semiconsciously—the more certain neural circuitry and structures in our brain change and strengthen to produce normalized, automatic reactions to race or racial circumstances.



-Excerpted from How Racism Has Changed the Human Brain by Joseph R. Gibson. Copyright 2016 by KITABU Publishing.com. Available for purchase at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

01/18/2019

Once anxiety occurs on a practically daily basis in response to persistent negative (or stressful) external stimuli such as everyday racism, distinctive neuroplasticity takes place that can cause someone to be primed to constantly anticipate or perceive threat. The more our brain responds to specific stressors by repeatedly activating (consciously or unconsciously) the stress response and releasing stress hormones (e.g., cortisol), the more of a stimulus-reinforcement association is established. These associations are patterned neuronal activity in which certain emotions (or even thoughts) are paired with specific external stimuli (e.g., everyday racism or presumed Black inferiority) in order to increases the probability of a specific response (e.g., stress).

-Excerpted from How Racism Has Changed the Human Brain by Joseph R. Gibson. Copyright 2016 by KITABU Publishing.com. Available for purchase at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.