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In a 2015 interview, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Junot Díaz said of the United States, “We live in a society where default whiteness goes unremarked-no one ever asks it for its passport.” Why does whiteness fly beneath the race radar? The normalization of whiteness and the impenetrable ways it protects itself are cornerstones of the way institutions function in the United States. “Until you get to the thing that’s primary, you can’t really attack racism.”ĭow’s work, among other activism and scholarship focused on whiteness, has the potential to stimulate meaningful conversations about whiteness and move white folks past emotions like defensiveness, denial, guilt and shame (emotions that do nothing to improve conditions for people of color) and toward a place of self-empowerment and social responsibility. “Until you can recognize that you are living a racialized life and you’re having racialized experiences every moment of every day, you can’t actually engage people of other races around the idea of justice,” Dow explains. This fundamental disconnect between the racial self-perceptions of many white people and the realities of racism was part of what motivated documentary filmmaker, director and producer Whitney Dow to create The Whiteness Project. Her statement illustrates why educators, activists and allies doing racial justice work are increasingly focused on the importance of examining whiteness: It’s impossible to see the privilege and dominance associated with white racial identity without acknowledging that whiteness is a racial identity. These are the observations of a white female participant in The Whiteness Project, Part I, an interactive web-based collection of voices and reflections of Americans from diverse walks of life who identify as white. I feel like I’ve accomplished what I’ve accomplished in life because of the person I am, not because of the color of my skin.” I don’t believe there is any benefit of anybody’s particular race or color.
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“I don’t think I’ve ever come across anything that has made me aware of my race. While the material in this story is relevant to all readers, many of the challenges the author poses are directed at white readers, hence the use of “we” and “us” in certain places.
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Editor’s note: The author of “Why Talk About Whiteness? ” is a white anti-bias educator.