White Accountability Partners

Racism is white folks’ problem.

In two months, will you still be posting to Instagram about disrupting white supremacy and amplifying the work of #BlackLivesMatter? In two months, will you still be writing to your representatives to defund the police? In two months, will you be hiring folks at your workplace with the same policies and procedures you’ve always used in the past, which discriminate against BIPOC? In two months, will you stop having conversations with your children about race and racism when it’s no longer in the news cycle? In two months, are you still going to be undoing racism, in yourself, your relationships, and your institutions?

Many, many, many Black folks have told us it is not enough to be not racist, but that we must instead be anti-racist. Anti-racism is not a checklist that you do once and never look at again. Anti-racism is not showing up to a protest on a Saturday and then not showing up ever again. Anti-racism is not having one conversation with your children about racism but then never bringing it up again. Anti-racism is repeated reflection and action: habitual, regular, and continuous. We must unlearn the white supremacy we have benefited from and reinforced all our lives and create new habits and behaviors that actively dismantle white supremacy in ourselves, our families, our communities, and our institutions.

So where should you start? There’s no lack of anti-racist reading lists, but are you putting aside time to read those books, uninterrupted? As Lauren Michele Jackson tells us “[That’s] the thing about the reading. It has to be done.” Jessa Crispin offers perspective from the feminist movement: reading lists don't get people out into the streets or making material differences.

And once you’ve done the reading, then what? Are you committed to fighting not just racism, but racists, even within your own family and friend circles? As Elie Mystal tells us, as white folks who want to help, we need to “Fight them in public, where everybody can see you. Fight them in private, where nobody can see you. Fight them at parties where I ain’t invited. Fight them every day, at all times, everywhere.” Mystal is clear: “If you want to help me, be on my side. Not just during ‘protest week’ but also during restaurant week and beach week and finals week and ‘I know a guy who has a yacht’ week and all the weeks in between. Be one-tenth as pissed off about racism two weeks from now as I am every day, and let all your white friends know about it.”

Are you angry enough to confront the white supremacy in yourself and others? When social media posts have gone quiet, will you still be posting? Will you still be showing up to movement meetings? Will you still be calling out racism in your colleagues, your bosses, your friends, your loved ones?

This work takes work--consistent, habitual, and deeply affecting to your worldview and mindset. Habits are what keep us doing what we need to, even and especially when we are low on motivation. Habits are created and made constant in community.

To that end, we offer white accountability partnerships as a way to drive meaningful, lasting work through concrete habits, frameworks, and reflection.

Why white accountability partnerships?

Accountability is a key tenet of white people organizing for racial justice. Accountability partners are peer coaches who support and mentor one another in achieving goals, changing behaviors, and accomplishing tasks. Regular, repeated, long-lasting change happens with reflection, conversation, and effort. A white accountability partner will require you to show up for discussion and action, no excuses allowed. As a white accountability partner, you will challenge and support your peer in developing and unpacking their white identity and hold them accountable to materials actions.

A white accountability partnership is a commitment. Just like any relationship, you get out of it what you put in.

There is no lack of diversity and inclusivity inservice days, anti-bias trainings, or reading groups. However, groups make us passive and complacent. We can stay silent and stew in our feelings rather than engaging in the work. In group meetings, we can think we're on track and stay silent in our belief that we are one of the few white people who "get it" and thus never confront our problematic behaviors. Large groups deliver content but they don't require you to show up and do the work. There's no hiding from the work in an accountability partnership and that's precisely why we are offering this.

What are we offering?

As educators, we are experts at making structures, scaffolding, and routines to coach and guide learning and action. Each month, we will provide a set of paired readings or videos with discussion questions and concrete actions. We will create reminders for scheduling your meetings, and cues for how to stay accountable to show up. We will provide reminders and nudges to stay the course in your partnership.

We are not creating content or building a business. BIPOC have been speaking to us and about us for a long time--their voices are centered in educating us on their terms.

We are not expecting more labor from BIPOC, but instead educating ourselves and holding one another accountable to concretes actions in our lives that support Black liberation and collective liberation, and which create material benefits for BIPOC, here and now.