Learn about the forthcoming book and the project to make it free.
The forthcoming book, White Antiracism Can Be More: Lessons Learned from the Field, is a critical love letter to the antiracist community that shares stories about experiences within antiracism and envisions its future. I felt compelled to write it because I was fortunate to find a home within antiracism, a place of belonging, healing, and affirming growth. Thankfully, many others have also had this experience.
Unfortunately, many more of the antiracist white people I’ve met over the last 20 years have not found the same. Instead, they entered environments that pressed approaches fueled by white guilt and shame. Why? What allowed a broad swath of white antiracism to develop into an off-putting culture anchored to shame? Answering this question is important because it is essential that white antiracists cultivate a more accessible, affirming, empathetic, inclusive, inviting, understanding – and ultimately – more effective antiracist culture.
This is necessary because the far right skillfully exploits antiracism’s failure to attend to white shame and weaponizes it against social justice efforts. Consider that white people’s susceptibility and reaction to guilt and shame laid the groundwork for the various assaults leveled against DEI that began in 2021. The far right claimed not only that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives discriminate against white people, but that DEI shames white people and makes white people feel guilty for historical racism.
That argument may be misleading, but it is not surprising. The far-right has claimed that antiracists are “anti-white” for years. And antiracists have argued, without success, that they are not “anti-white” for just as long. The narrative battle has persisted for complex reasons. A critical one is that dynamics rife among antiracists consistently deliver and reinforce the message that white people can never be antiracist enough. For example, white antiracists are told they should never feel a sense of contentment or self-satisfaction without it triggering cautionary alarm bells.
Foundational to this shame-filled orientation toward white antiracists is the fact that antiracism as a whole does not have a consistent, coherent, easy-to-understand, affirming, and inclusive response to questions about what it means to be a white person. This makes it impossible to successfully counter the argument that antiracism is anti-white. It also leaves white people without a positive, healthful, well-developed sense of their racial selves, one that might otherwise prompt them toward more effective antiracist practices.
What contributes to this overall problem? The majority of writing about white identity paints what it means to be white in a negative light. White people are often charged with an “inherent complicity” that provides no other role for white people except to be an oppressor. This is true even though many DEI practitioners and antiracist organizers work from a more complex and generative model. The result is that although many antiracists describe how white people can play a positive role within racial justice efforts, this promise of potential value does nothing to counter the far-right claim that antiracists believe white people, as a group, are fundamentally flawed and forever tied to their whiteness (as structural oppression) regardless of their intentions or antiracist actions.
This generalized negativity has consequences. Without a more optimistic view of what is possible, too many white antiracists become mired in the “middle zones” of identity development. These middle zone positions are characterized by either/or thinking and powered by unresolved trauma, guilt, or shame. From these positions, antiracists misapply key antiracist principles, turning them into rigid rules and scripts. This occurs not only among newly formed antiracists, but among many DEI practitioners and activists as well. An unfortunate truth is that too many people within antiracism have taken on leadership roles before integrating the emotional resolution necessary to healthfully guide others.
This is not a hopeless situation. Paying attention to racial identity development can help antiracists:
- Recognize the unresolved trauma, guilt, and shame that underlie many of the most destructive dynamics within antiracist efforts.
- Delay unhelpful judgment through understanding the psychological factors at play in any given situation.
- Resist participating in unhealthful dynamics, and instead, turn toward more fruitful options for engagement.
This heady analysis is not intended to be a purely intellectual endeavor. Its deeper purpose is to connect antiracists with a more expansive sense of care, empathy, grace, and love, both for oneself and one another.
There is something fundamentally missing in our antiracist practice if we leave out the love, and so this book asks antiracists to think about who we include in our circle of care and how our racial identity development plays a role in those choices. And that’s the message one of my far-off but deeply valued Black mentors expressed to me the first time I presented some of this book’s material in public. Her first point of feedback was that white people don’t know how to love each other enough, that we need to work more on cultivating a loving community. This book is my best effort to address that point. I offer this book because we need to support more white people into the balanced position of healthy development where we can love one another better. This is one way we can become more helpful in the fight for a liberated culture where no one is disposable.
Should publishing this book be a priority right now? Many will understandably question why I have prioritized writing this book during this all-hands-on-deck time period. I’ve asked myself the same question…repeatedly. Part of why I decided to take on the project is because a few long-standing mentors told me that I could serve the movement best (in terms of its long arc) by paying attention to “my patch of sky” and using my most natural and well-developed skill set to offer what feels like my best contribution. Another consideration is that organizers and activists tend not to prioritize writing their stories to share their lessons learned. This makes sense. When looking at the injustice and trauma occurring before our eyes, it is damn-near impossible for a grassroots activist or organization with limited resources to allocate a significant amount of energy toward documenting its insights for the sake of an unknown future.
Another important factor is that if our stories remain untold and we don’t create a stronger, clearer, and life-giving approach to white identity, it is altogether possible that people claiming antiracists are anti-white will continue to own the narrative. That is unacceptable. We must write our own story and, in doing so, improve our practices and outcomes.
Ultimately, there is a more encouraging and inclusive story to tell, one that helps more white people feel part of the movement and become energized, healthful contributors to the liberatory, multiracial future antiracists envision. It is possible to offer white antiracists a clear-eyed assessment of what (and who) is likely to lead them toward healthful, growth-inducing experiences versus a descent into destructive dynamics. In doing so, we can support people to strive toward a balanced, healthy sense of their racialized selves.
Why support this book to be free for all? This book treats the long-standing confusions and unhealthy dynamics found within antiracist groups more fully than any other work I have encountered.
Part I: The White Self explains what underlies the confounding way antiracists talk about whiteness and white culture. It calls on antiracists to counteract the confusion by explicitly affirming that 1) it is okay to be white and 2) white people do have a culture they can enjoy. Critically, this first part of the book explains how white antiracists often linger in a set of “middle zone” identity development positions that inspire interaction patterns that wreak havoc on antiracist initiatives. The good news is that pointing white antiracists toward a positive, antiracist white identity can help.
Part II: The Dynamics of Racial Identity shares stories and reflections from practitioners, activists, and organizers that illustrate the unhealthy dynamics that arise among antiracists who operate from the “middle zones” of racial identity. The chapters reveal how oft-followed, rigid scripts lead to damaging, rule-based approaches that undermine our ability to work effectively across class, among white allies, and across race. Underlying the explanations is the reality that when underdeveloped identity and unhealed racialized trauma combine, it leads to breakdown among solidarity partners. Importantly, the cherished scripts that cause so much damage can be disarmed with a nuanced, both/and perspective that rescues the core antiracist principles while making room for everyone’s humanity.
Part III: Visionary Leadership amplifies the voices of long-time organizers and practitioners who are dedicated to healing and recognize how cultivating a positive antiracist identity and community is an important part of successful antiracist organizing. The chapters feature Patrisse Cullors (co-founder of Black Lives Matter), Jason David (co-founder of AWARE-LA), and Chris Crass (long-time organizer with the Catalyst Project and SURJ). The cherry on top is a set of reflections and insights from white cisgender men on what is currently helping them draw other white men into justice initiatives. Offering significant modeling and hope, the final chapter in the book amplifies an initiative underway from the Perennial Sunflower Project (PSP), which is working to foster cross-class coalition building among white men. Check out their 5-minute sizzle reel for what they’re up to and then look forward to reading about the identity development-based insights underlying their strategy.
If this all sounds important and you’d like to help make the book free for anyone to download for years to come, donate to the Open Access fund.
To learn more about this project, Open Access, and the effort to cover its costs, click here.