Cross Cultural Solidarity

History; in the Service of Solidarity

Contemporary White Antiracism

Image: James Ian Tyson being arrested alongside Bree Newsome for taking down the Confederate Flag in front of the South Carolina State House on June 27, 2015.

ORGANIZATIONS

The easiest way to find local White antiracist groups is to look at SURJ’s list, which includes SURJ chapters as well as affiliated White antiracist groups organized by state and city.  SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) is a nationwide network of White antiracist groups, with chapters in over 175 cities.  

See also SURJ’s commitments to building White working-class antiracism; to disability justice within White antiracist spaces; to organizing White faith communities, and SURJ’s mobilizing of White antiracist artists and cultural workers through its affiliated group White Artists for Racial Justice. Also check out Southern Crossroads, an important effort to build a White southern antiracist movement, shift White southern culture, and impact voting in the South.

White antiracist groups, historically and in the present, tend to be predominantly female.  White women and LGBT people are far more likely join antiracist groups than men, and especially straight men. The SURJ-affiliated Organizing White Men for Collective Liberation is the major example of an organization working to bring White men into antiracist work. STAND is another.

For deep-dive trainings in White antiracist organizing, see the Catalyst Project: Anti-Racism for Collective Liberation, and especially their Anne Braden Anti-Racist Organizer Training Program. For other White antiracist organizations, trainings, and workshops, see:

ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Follow dozens of SURJ chapters, White antiracist organizations, and White antiracist organizers on Twitter here. To plug into local White antiracist discussions happening on Facebook, check out SURJ’s list of chapters to see which local groups have Facebook pages.  Follow The White Noise Collective on Facebook here; the Catalyst Project here; White People 4 Black Lives here; SURJ’s main Facebook page here; Organizing White Men for Collective Liberation here; & Southern Crossroads here.

RESOURCE PAGES

Many White antiracist organizations have excellent resource pages: here are those of SURJ; AWARE-LA; the Catalyst Project; Allies for Change; The White Noise Collective, the Challenging White Supremacy Workshop, and White Accomplices. Prominent White antiracists who have resource pages include Paul Kivel (who has been training White antiracists for decades,) Chris Crass (cofounder of the Catalyst Project,) Tema Okun (author of White Supremacy Culture,) and the late Margo Adair’s Tools For Change.  See also Scaffolded Anti-Racist Resources for different levels of engagement. David Campt’s work at the White Ally Toolkit is also an important learning tool for having difficult dialogs about race.

BOOKS, ARTICLES, VIDEOS, & PODCASTS

In memory of Heather Heyer.