How White People Can Create Anti-Racist Culture — Making Change “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” — Buckminster Fuller Sometimes, we coin or resurrect the words we need. My Grandmother’s Hands author Resmaa Menakem’s directive for white people to create anti-racist white culture hit…

Thoughts on My White Privilege and How to Be a Better Asset — Oh, It’s Just Me Sometime after age twelve, I learned about adding “between the sheets” to the end of a fortune cookie message. “You will soon meet an associate who will help you,” became “You will soon meet an associate who will help you…between the sheets.” “Be careful regarding the advice of strangers…between the…

As anti-racist white people, we often cringe and turn away from “other” white people who do and say racist things. With our country continuing to erupt in violence and injustice, one way we can use our white privilege to make a difference is to learn and practice skills for showing…

A Way of Understanding Our Role in U.S. Racism — A relationship family, a group, or an organization functions well roughly proportionate to its capacity to deal with hard truths. When a grouping of humans of any size, including a country, doesn’t metabolize a hard truth well, its members tend to play predictable roles in the aftermath. Basically, it’s like…

What supports me with my fear? Noticing it...breathing with it...being with it...being with it, noticing and relating with it first and foremost as a somatic phenomenon...a flaring in my chest, opening in my belly...as I be with it and accept it as a purely somatic phenomenon outside language (or as far outside as I can muster), it transforms.

The white supremacy myth is the notion that white people represent the apex of all that is good, true, beautiful, worthwhile, trustworthy, meritorious, and so on. It’s reflected in myriad practices, images, beliefs, customs, and media. In short, the WSM says it’s better to be “white” than “black.” However, the…

I love the subtlety of the distinction you make among types of fictions. Some are indeed clearly born of love.

You’ve probably heard of logical fallacies. They’re errors in logic that sound right for various reasons but do not hold up to logical scrutiny. Here are a few of the most well-known logical fallacies: Argumentum ad hominem, or argument “against the man.” This fallacy points out a defect in someone’s…

Recently, in response to an article I wrote about white leadership, a colleague asked, “[H]ow does one de-pathologize and de-shame enough to engage in meaningful work, especially when there is so much shame shade being thrown around?” Here’s my answer. First, step back and realize these things: We’re in a transformative moment. These early stages of white…