FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

WHAT IS WHITENESS?

We believe that whiteness, or the cultural legacy and myth of white racial superiority, is a paradigm that emerges from acculturation to what Resmaa Menakem calls "white-bodied supremacy." It infects white-bodied people primarily, though not exclusively, and is weaponized through the possession of racial advantage and power.  For those of us categorized as white, whiteness fundamentally disconnects us from the body through generational perpetrator trauma and internalized dominance. This disconnection is the source of overt and covert violence towards ourselves and others. We share our personal experiences of whiteness in meetings and member-to-member. Of course, our stories are only part of the collective story. For a brief, but more sound contextual analysis, we would like to direct you to the words of historian, artist, author, and scholar, Nell Irvin Painter on the subject.

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For more on the attributes that define whiteness culture and serve to uphold the myth of white supremacy, we refer to the work of Layla Saad, Me & White Supremacy and the often-quoted findings in Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups, by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun: https://www.whitesupremacyculture.info/

ARE YOU SERIOUSLY SAYING THAT THIS IS EMOTIONAL OR SPIRITUAL?

Yes, we are saying that this work is just as much an inside job as it is outside.  As we say in our Preamble, “In WA, we find that the way that we do the work of anti-racism is as important as the work itself. As Audre Lorde said, ‘the Master’s tools will never dismantle the Master’s house.’ Many of us are here because though we may have tried to dismantle whiteness and racism, our default approach served only to make problems worse. We cannot dismantle whiteness and racism with the tools of whiteness and racism."

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Indeed, there is MUCH work of all kinds to be done. As people who say that they are interested in destroying racism, we need to back it up with doing our share of the dirty, heavy, grueling work of anti-racism. We need to “change the things we cannot accept,” as Angela Davis said, in order to feel whole.

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​If we are in this for the long haul, which is an essential understanding, then we need to aim to "practice these principles with sustainability, in all of our affairs." For us, the "what" is the institutional, cultural, and relational work of anti-racism and the "how" is the Whiteness Anonymous program.

HOW ARE YOU BEING ACCOUNTABLE?

For us, the question of accountability creates a paradox. We understand that white-bodied people meeting behind closed doors has historically been a dangerous thing. We also acknowledge the necessity, as many people have discovered (both BBIPOC and white people alike) that affinity spaces throughout our racial reckoning journey is necessary to gain tools, build skills, and increase capacity so that we do not cause more racial harm in cross-racial interactions or to ourselves. We aim to become trustworthy through becoming fearless and bold in our honesty and transparency.

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Our recovery may begin with Whiteness Anonymous, but it certainly does not end there. The whole reason we do this work is to learn how to de-segregate, de-exceptionalize, and de-center ourselves and to become more fully functioning members of society and effective change agents in the fight against racism.

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We have not yet been able to see how to create accountability structures within WA that does not require the labor of BBIPOC, yet we are open to this discussion. Perhaps there is even a BBIPOC recovery group interested in collaboration. We don't know and until more is revealed, we have opted to create transparency by publishing our blog, Recovery Outloud, and regularly sharing from our membership. We invite you to get in touch with us through email to start a conversation if you'd like.

WHO IS WA FOR?

WA is for anyone seeking recovery from the effects of internalized dominance, racial codependency, whiteness, and dependence on white racial advantage. Each one of us holds different advantages and power within the system and are impacted in different ways and to different degrees. WA members recognize, however, that regardless of our positionality, we all have a personal responsibility to heal ourselves, in community, from the disease of whiteness so that we may stop the cycle of violence to ourselves and others.