How Often Do You Think About Being “White”?
Recently, I have been asking “white” coaching clients as well as caucus, circle, and workshop participants how many times a day they think about being “white”. I posed this as the Anti-Racist Action in a newsletter a few months back. Responses have been fascinating. This little research undertaking is helping me better understand how to cultivate a practice of attention to "whiteness", and the system of white supremacy culture, in all its wily ways.
I want to explain all the quotation marks, which I’ve used to make a point (& for the most part will stop using). For people who identify as white and were raised in this country (and maybe others, but I'm not qualified to speak to that), we are acculturated to not pay attention to how we are "racialized”. In the same way that African-Americans, Africans in America, Caribbean Islanders, and other dark skinned people in this country have been racialized as Black; and how Latiné, Middle Eastern, South Asians and others have largely been identified as Brown; those of us with the palest skin and ancestry in Europe, have been racialized as white.
Intellectually, we all know there is just one race. There is not a Black race, or a white race, or anything but the human race—which is why I like to refer to people like me as people who identify as white. And why sometimes I use quotations around “white”. This acknowledgment shifts something in me. It opens my perspective on how I see my life, my neighbors, my community, and even my country, and allows me to absorb with more specificity how white dominant culture works.
So when I ask how many times a day you think about being white, I am wanting to expose the exact ways our culture benefits us, while disadvantaging those who increasingly identify as People of the Global Majority. Such as:
When do you note that a person of color has less access than you in a particular situation?
What inspires the thought, “That was a really white thing to do”?
What moves you to reflect on advantages or privileges made possible from the undercompensated or unrecognized labor of others?
When do you look at a choice you’ve made and wonder if people racialized differently can or cannot make that same choice, and why that is?
I would love to hear what your reflections are about this and would love to add your answers to my little data set. Would you be willing to fill out this quick survey? It’s short, anonymous and informal. Happy to share my findings with any of you, just let me know.
May 2023 Back to Blog Home
Early Findings:
People of color know very well that they’ve been racialized. Reflecting on how they may have internalized white oppression can be both elucidating & healing. That’s a different research project, for a different time, in partnership with BIPOC colleagues.
Most white people are inspired to reflect on their whiteness when there is a racially violent, unfair, or unjust action displayed in the news. As the news wanes, so does their attention…until the next tragedy happens.
When reflecting on being white, many people think about the stuff of privilege. While this is an aspect of whiteness, it’s important to see privilege as a desired effect of white supremacy culture, not unsavory choices we or our ancestors made. Being aware of your privilege is an excellent step into this topic. Make sure to follow its trail into understanding how and why this privilege came to be.
I would say 10-15% of people report thinking about being white is a constant practice, a framework, what you could call a lens that they have chosen to view at their entire world through. My work is about getting this number to rise.
Just a couple of folks are in the kind of trusting, honest, vulnerable relationship with people of color where the topic of their whiteness is an established, expected, and regular topic in their relationship
Want support, encouragement, insight or skilled prodding about topics like this? Check out my coaching.