As this book was being written, the United States exploded in outrage
against the murder by police of people of color across the country.
Corporations, branches of state and local government, and educational
institutions all pledged to work for racial justice and the Black Lives
Matters movement moved into the mainstream as people from multiple
racial and class identities pledged their support to its message.
Diversity initiatives abounded, mission statements everywhere were
changed to incorporate references to racial justice, and the rampant
anti-blackness endemic to US culture was brought strikingly to the
surface. Everywhere, it seemed, white people were looking to learn about
race. "What do we do?" "How can we help?" These were the cries the
authors heard most frequently from those whites whose consciousness of
racism was being raised.
This book is their answer to those cries. It's grounded in the idea that
white people need to start with themselves, with understanding that they
have a white racial identity. Once you've learned about what it means to
be white in a white supremacist world, the answer of "what can I do"
becomes clear. Sometimes you work in multiracial alliances, but more
often you work with white colleagues and friends. In this book the
authors explore what it means for whites to move from becoming aware of
the extent of their unwitting collusion in racism, towards developing a
committed antiracist white identity. They create a road map, or series
of paths, that people can consider traveling as they work to develop a
positive white identity centered around enacting antiracism.
The book will be useful to anyone trying to create conversations around
race, teach about white supremacy, arrange staff and development
workshops on racism, and help colleagues explore how to create an
antiracist culture or environment. This work happens in schools,
colleges and universities, and we suspect many readers will be located
in K-12 and higher education. But helping people develop an antiracist
identity is a project that occurs in corporations, congregations,
community groups, health care, state and local government, arts
organizations, and the military as well. Essentially, if you have an
interest in helping the whites you interact with become antiracist, then
this book is written very specifically for you.
Watch our BWAR YouTube playlist, where authors Stephen Brookfield and
Mary Hess chat about some common themes from the book.
