#YWFWB: Week 1

Where Are You?

I'm White. But what does that even mean?

With all the talk about White supremacy and White privilege, you might be thinking:

I've never even thought about my Whiteness.

Or, maybe you've thought about your Whiteness, but now you're thinking:

I know I'm White, but what do you want me to do about it?

Before you begin figuring out what you need to do, it's important to understand what being White really means. So let's begin by defining some words and ideas we'll be using a lot.

#Vocab

How would you define race?

How do you know you're White?

Keep this definition in mind while you watch the video below:

How would your definition of race change based on what you saw in the video?

What do you think it means to be White now?

What does it mean to be White?

Whiteness can be a little slippery to define. You might think you're White because of your ancestry, your appearance, your culture, or your experiences. As the video shows us, Whiteness, like all races, is a socially and politically constructed part of our identity.

So race is a myth, but it's effects are definitely not. Being White means you move through the world without barriers due to your skin color. That means:

You don't lose opportunities due to your skin color
You aren't judged to be inferior due to your skin color
You're not in danger because of your skin color

It also mean, whether you like it or not, you benefit (directly and indirectly) from White supremacy. This can be true sometimes even if you aren't White in culture or ethnicity, but your skin appears white.

What is White Supremacy?

White supremacy is the ways that our society is built to create a hierarchy with White folks on top. It is the ways the laws, norms, and expectations of our society put White people first, while harming Black people , Indigenous people, and People of Color (BIPOC). This has a huge range from KKK members all the way to a main character in a TV show being cast as White so they're more relatable.

What is oppression?

Oppression is unjust treatment and harm over a long time due to your belonging to a group that has less power. Oppression is not just when someone is mean. Oppression is when someone is holding others back or hurting them regularly because of their race, ethnicity, religion, language, citizenship, sexuality, gender, or other parts of their identity they cannot control.

There are lots of types of oppression and they are all connected. This is called intersectionality. Intersectionality is the idea that different kinds of oppression pile onto each other in one person, which means that when we support and protect the most oppressed people, we are helping everyone who is oppressed. We will mostly focus on racial oppression, but much of what we learn can be applied to, and even includes, other types of oppression.

There are two types of harm:

Interpersonal harm is harm done by one person to another.
Systemic oppression is harm done by systems like laws, institutions (education, medicine, prison), and societal norms

Activity Break! Categorize the Harm

In a journal or in conversation with another White person doing this work, try to categorize the scenarios below as interpersonal harm or systemic oppression:

A teacher chooses a student who gets better grades than you to present at a school event
There are only 4 Black students in the honors program at your school, but the school is 30% Black
A friend excludes you from a party and tells your friends they “think you dress badly”
A group of popular kids don’t let anyone outside their friend group sit with them at lunch
The police search the bag of a woman wearing hijab in the airport
A White person asks a Black person if their hair is “weave”
More Black and Latinx students in your school district have been suspended in the last year than any other group
A teacher makes project groups that are same-gender so they can focus better
A teacher makes a joke about how you are always late to class in front of everyone
The DJ at a school dance says “Boys, grab a girl for this slow dance
A White student is surprised to learn that a Pakistani student’s parents are both lawyers
Can you think of more examples of interpersonal harm or systemic oppression?

Were some of these scenarios hard to categorize? That's because some interpersonal harm is part of or caused by larger systemic oppression.

#Start Where You Are

So you have an understanding of racism, systemic oppression, and White supremacy, but does that make you anti-racist? It's not so easy. Anti-racism isn't an identity you become one day and have forever, it's a commitment to continue to work for the equity and safety of all people.

Being anti-racist means making the choice to take action to dismantle (or take apart, destroy) White supremacy every single day.

So, if knowing stuff doesn't make you anti-racist, where do you start? Right where you are!

When was the first time you noticed racism?

When was the first moment you realized you were White?

This understanding of your race is called racial identity.

Check out the phases of White Racial Identity below to think about where you're at in your understanding of Whiteness. On the outside, you'll see examples of things people in this phase might say or think.

Activity Break! Where am I in my Racial Identity?

In a journal or in conversation with another White person doing this work, ask yourself:

- - What phase am I usually in? (We can move in and out of phases up and down the pyramid from day to day!)
  - How has my awareness changed since June 2020?
  - When I get told I made a mistake, which stage do I usually end up in?

Now that you know where your mind is at with anti-racism, it's time to think about where your actions fall. Let's start this thinking with a scenario:

You're sitting in class and two White students next to you are talking about an upcoming basketball game against another school. One student says to the other, "I bet their team is gonna destroy our team! Almost all the kids at that school are Black." The second student replies, "Yeah, but I'm glad the game is at our school. I wouldn't want to go to that neighborhood. It's probably really dangerous."

What would you do?

Your answer might tell you a lot about where you land on the Pyramid of Accountability created by Britt Hawthorne shown below. There are three levels your activism might fit into:

Many White folks start before this continuum begins, with performative allyship (trying to look woke by posting or talking about things, but never actually taking action, learning, or changing). If you're on this page, you've already committed to active allyship because you're trying to learn! The work to become an accomplice or co-conspirator requires giving up time, energy, and power, while learning to leverage your privilege for others by taking big risks. Dr. Bettina Love covers the difference between being an ally and being a co-conspirator powerfully in the video below:

Bettina Love Short.mov

Activity Break! Reflect on Your Stages of Accountability

In a journal or in conversation with another White person doing this work, list some of the anti-racist actions you've taken recently, then ask yourself:

What stage do most of my day-to-day anti-racist actions fall into?
Does my level of action depend on who I'm with or where I am (school, home, out, with friends and family, with strangers)?
If I view myself as a co-conspirator, what have I been risking? If you're struggling to think of risks you're taking, you might not quite be a co-conspirator yet (but you'll get there!).

#Ready to Do the Work

The first step in your anti-racism is to understand where you are. How can you figure out where you need to go if you don't know where you're starting? Many White folks are in a rush to *become* anti-racist immediately so they aren't "part of the problem," but you can't skip past the hard part. Reflecting on your part in White supremacy and thinking about the impact of your actions is an important first step!

#Vocab Review

WEEK 1

White Supremacy: the ways that our society is built to create a hierarchy with White folks on top. It is the ways the laws, norms, and expectations of our society put White people first, while harming Black people , Indigenous people, and People of Color (BIPOC).

Oppression: unjust treatment and harm over a long time due to your belonging to a group that has less power.

Intersectionality: the idea that different kinds of oppression pile onto each other in one person, which means that when we support and protect the most oppressed people, we are helping everyone who is oppressed

Interpersonal Harm: hurt done by one person to another.

Systemic Oppression: harm done by systems like laws, institutions (education, medicine, prison), and societal norms

Anti-Racist: making the choice to take action to dismantle (or take apart, destroy) White supremacy and racism every single day

Active Ally: someone who is against racism, mostly in their thoughts and words

Accomplice: someone who is against racism through their actions and behaviors

Co-conspirator: someone who is actively working with BIPOC communities to end racism by taking risks in their daily lives

This Week's #TLA

Talk: Share something you learned from this week's workbook with someone in your life.

Learn: Research systemic racism to understand it better. You can listen to this Vox podcast, watch this short YouTube video, watch the Racial Wealth Gap episode of Netflix Explained, or watch this TedTalk by two teens about racial literacy.

Act: Find an organization doing anti-racist work that you believe in (if you're stuck, look at the ones I've listed on the main page for the #YWFWB). If you or your family are able to, donate to this organization. Then, share the donation information on social media or with friends and family.

Return to the #YWFWB

Go on to Week 2

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