I Am (Not) White, Right?

Perhaps I am no longer responsible for helping White people learn about race and racism?

Photo by Nicholas Kwok on Unsplash

Back in 2021, I joined the departmental racial equity planning committee at a nonprofit workforce development organization. After nearly 20 years working in diversity/equity/inclusion (DEI) in higher education, I thought it would be a good way to learn ways to do this work in a different industry. As part of my work on the committee, I was asked to introduce the concept of intersectionality with our colleagues on the Zoom call.

Now, DEI work can operate from several different types of frames, but the racial equity work for this committee began with the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and continued to ask tough questions about the issues of race that impacted us in our work. For the purpose of our department training, we centered conversations around race and how other oppressions show up through a racialized lens.

And as expected, the first comment was predictable. In fact, I have heard a version of this (summarized) comment many, many times:

‘…But why aren’t we talking about X…this is important to me and how I experience the world.’

Today was my first time leading this type of racial equity conversation via Zoom, which meant that the person was able to turn off a camera after making this remark.