Disrupting White Supremacy: From White Identity to Antiracist Response

Abstract

What are the roles of White people in disrupting White supremacy? A long lineage of White, antiracist action exists in solidarity with coalitions of People of Color, in which White people are called to educate and organize other White people as part of challenging White supremacy and building antiracist White identity. What praxes are most effective in such efforts? Might some efforts actually reinforce supremacy? Dominant White identity development models, informed by Western psychology, are prone to individualistic, moralistic, and linear understandings of racial identity development. To understand the praxes that effectively support and sustain antiracist formation, this qualitative case study of an antiracist organization in Los Angeles examines its core leadership as it navigates increased membership during a time of heightened popular consciousness of the national threat of White supremacy. Their work advocates for antiracist identity development to be examined as a relational and behavioral process, rather than a purely ideological process. In their experience, it is marked by rupture, humility, curiosity, increased sensitization, responsiveness, and collective action. This organization makes two contributions to the understanding of effective White, antiracist organizing and praxes. First, personal transformation is the process of developing skills and behaviors within relationships that lead to and support antiracist political action, and second, the risk-taking necessary for transformation is possible within a group culture in which no one is disposable—a culture characterized by belonging, trust, and accessibility.