This website is a long-time dream finally bearing fruit,
a needed remix of the widely circulated article
WHITE SUPREMACY CULTURE
originally written and published in 1999.
This website is conceived and designed by Tema Okun
with support by and from many genius colleagues and friends.
A note: This website is best viewed on a computer.
The layout is not particularly phone or even tablet friendly.
with support by and from many genius colleagues and friends.
A note: This website is best viewed on a computer.
The layout is not particularly phone or even tablet friendly.
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Stop! Before you go any further, please read this. |
This website is actually a book. What does that mean? This "book" is offered as a website for three reasons.
What else does that mean? Many people come to this website hoping for a "checklist." I've had many requests to make the website easier for readers to get right to the characteristics. I made a deliberate decision to keep the current format because I want and need you to read the material leading up to and placed after the actual characteristics. Many people are using this material wisely and well. Thank you for your thoughtfulness. Many people are misusing this material; the misuse seems to most often take the form of pulling out a characteristic or using all of them as a kind of checklist to target people, to accuse people of colluding with white supremacy culture, to evaluate or assess people, or to avoid accountability and rigor in the workplace. For example, I've heard stories about people claiming that the characteristic of worship of the written word means they shouldn't have to fill out work reports. This is an absurd misreading of the characteristic, which essentially asks us to honor knowledge and wisdom that comes to us in multiple ways. I've heard stories of people objecting to urgency as a characteristic given the urgency of these times; urgency as a white supremacy culture characteristic does not mean we don't face urgent situations; it does mean we should avoid creating a culture of urgency at all times. I've heard stories of people using the article as a checklist to justify a critical work evaluation or a firing. Using this website as a weapon is NOT wise use of this material. If you are using it this way, please stop (and read the caution against weaponizing on the Characteristics Page). You can also read a critique of the article and its use more generally published by The Forge. While I do not agree with much of the critique, I do want people to understand the multiple perspectives and experience people have with this material. Please do use this material as a reflective tool to help us all see how we are getting in our own way. Please do use it to help us vision the culture we want, need, and deserve. Understanding the complexities and nuances of how white supremacy culture works is important. So please take a breath and realize that this is a book. It is dense. We live in a snapshot world and white supremacy culture is not a snapshot idea. You can obviously start reading anywhere you want. And please please read it as a whole - even knowing it takes time to do this. I promise you will get more out of it that way. Thank you. |
I have designed the pages of this website to offer a revised and updated take on the original article, which I intentionally do not link to, as I am attempting to substitute the more current version that you can download on this website. This original article outlining White Supremacy characteristics was written in 1999 when I was working in collaboration with my late colleague and mentor Kenneth Jones. While I wrote the words on the pages that became the White Supremacy Culture article all those years ago in 1999, I do not consider the original article or this website my work. I feel a sense of stewardship rather than ownership. The article was informed by my years of experience facilitating racial equity workshops and work, starting with my original colleague the inestimable James Williams and followed by a 12-year partnership with Kenneth. I was deeply steeped in my own learning curve over the course of that time as a result of my work with these two as well as many other colleagues who are named on the About page. In addition, I was fortunate to be mentored by Sharon Martinas, who was organizing the Challenging White Supremacy workshop at that time; Sharon was the one who advised me to include antidotes. I also attended a Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond workshop (one of many I was lucky to attend). This workshop was co-facilitated by Daniel Buford, a lead trainer at PISAB at the time the original article was written. You will see asterisks next to the sections of the original article (and here as well) informed by his teaching.
I did not know at the time I wrote the article that it would have such relevance over so many years. I never saw it as a free-standing piece; Kenneth and I included it as part of a much longer workbook that we designed and created to support our workshop curriculum and facilitation. People who came to our workshops then copied it and distributed it and put it on this new phenomenon called the internet. The article began to develop its own legs. After the murder of George Floyd, when it became apparent that the article was being distributed ever more widely, I felt a responsibility to update and revise it, with this website the result. I felt then and feel now that any power of the concepts on this site have nothing to do with me as the author (and you will see why I say that on the Characteristics page) and everything to do with our shared desire to both understand and transgress white supremacy culture.
I want to be clear that this website is offering one way of understanding white supremacy culture, not the way. May this be a small contribution to a larger understanding.
Many other people have been and are writing about white supremacy culture; you will find links to many of them on this website. You will also find a list of some of those resources on the What Is It? page.
My hope is that this website offers something useful. Please take whatever wisdom you find here and make it grow, correct whatever mistakes you find, create something deeper, wiser, better, and put it out in the world to help us all.
My goal in offering this website is to contribute to our shared anti-racist racial justice commitment. My hope is that this website is an organizing and justice building tool, one that helps us live into a collective vision of nourishment, resourcing, and cherishing ourselves and each other as we dream, build, stumble, get back up again, and cultivate compassion on our way together.
White supremacy culture is a devastating force in all our lives, used by ruling class power brokers to maintain vast and violent structural inequality (thank you Chris Crass). I will also say, with deep regret, that even those of us who are movement builders get confused about the difference between a tool and a weapon. I ask that we avoid weaponizing this information on the Characteristics page.
If you click on the buttons below or on the Characteristics Page, you will find individual pages that take an in-depth look at some of the characteristics of white supremacy culture, including a few additional characteristics to those named in the original article. I have revised and updated the characteristics to incorporate more of an intersectional lens. I have added stories, poems, art, as well as links to other resources, all in service of a deeper dive and multiple ways to interact with and explore the characteristics' nuances and complexities.
While I describe these characteristics separately or in groups, they never stand alone. I have pulled them apart to help us understand them better and they reinforce each other rather than act in isolation.
I also include a page of Racial Equity Principles developed by DismantlingRacismWorks, along with the And... page that houses many of the different and ingenious ways that people have taken the original article, adapted it to a particular field, illustrated it, added to and revised it. I am so grateful for the creativity and brilliance that so many people and organizations have brought to this project. I close the website with a Joy page, where I include, with your help, all the ways we foster joy with and for each other as we resist, transgress, transform, liberate, and thrive.
I did not know at the time I wrote the article that it would have such relevance over so many years. I never saw it as a free-standing piece; Kenneth and I included it as part of a much longer workbook that we designed and created to support our workshop curriculum and facilitation. People who came to our workshops then copied it and distributed it and put it on this new phenomenon called the internet. The article began to develop its own legs. After the murder of George Floyd, when it became apparent that the article was being distributed ever more widely, I felt a responsibility to update and revise it, with this website the result. I felt then and feel now that any power of the concepts on this site have nothing to do with me as the author (and you will see why I say that on the Characteristics page) and everything to do with our shared desire to both understand and transgress white supremacy culture.
I want to be clear that this website is offering one way of understanding white supremacy culture, not the way. May this be a small contribution to a larger understanding.
Many other people have been and are writing about white supremacy culture; you will find links to many of them on this website. You will also find a list of some of those resources on the What Is It? page.
My hope is that this website offers something useful. Please take whatever wisdom you find here and make it grow, correct whatever mistakes you find, create something deeper, wiser, better, and put it out in the world to help us all.
My goal in offering this website is to contribute to our shared anti-racist racial justice commitment. My hope is that this website is an organizing and justice building tool, one that helps us live into a collective vision of nourishment, resourcing, and cherishing ourselves and each other as we dream, build, stumble, get back up again, and cultivate compassion on our way together.
White supremacy culture is a devastating force in all our lives, used by ruling class power brokers to maintain vast and violent structural inequality (thank you Chris Crass). I will also say, with deep regret, that even those of us who are movement builders get confused about the difference between a tool and a weapon. I ask that we avoid weaponizing this information on the Characteristics page.
If you click on the buttons below or on the Characteristics Page, you will find individual pages that take an in-depth look at some of the characteristics of white supremacy culture, including a few additional characteristics to those named in the original article. I have revised and updated the characteristics to incorporate more of an intersectional lens. I have added stories, poems, art, as well as links to other resources, all in service of a deeper dive and multiple ways to interact with and explore the characteristics' nuances and complexities.
While I describe these characteristics separately or in groups, they never stand alone. I have pulled them apart to help us understand them better and they reinforce each other rather than act in isolation.
I also include a page of Racial Equity Principles developed by DismantlingRacismWorks, along with the And... page that houses many of the different and ingenious ways that people have taken the original article, adapted it to a particular field, illustrated it, added to and revised it. I am so grateful for the creativity and brilliance that so many people and organizations have brought to this project. I close the website with a Joy page, where I include, with your help, all the ways we foster joy with and for each other as we resist, transgress, transform, liberate, and thrive.
Navigating the Website
These pages contain artwork, poetry, quotes, and videos from racial justice activists, ancestors, warriors, and healers. I am hoping to transgress white supremacy culture in the website's design and content in an attempt to acknowledge how we learn in so many different ways. I want to make this a space where you can linger if you want to do that, dig in, consider, reflect, question, go "ah ha" or "oh dear" or "yes."
Because I made the decision to create a website rather than offer this material as a book (see above), I want to offer a suggested path for how to "read" the website. You can, of course, read it however you please; however, I do ask that you read all the material, even if you come back to the introductory pages and the end pages after you read about the characteristics.
A website/book map: My suggestion for how to read it is to start here, on the home page, to get a sense of the whole site/book. Then go to either the What Is It? page or the About page and read those - in any order you like. Then head to the Characteristics page, read that whole page before diving into the specific characteristics that you will find linked at the bottom of that page. You can read the characteristics in any order you please. As you are reading up on some of the characteristics, take a break and go to the Racial Equity Principles page to get a reinforcement to the antidotes. Please do not read about the Characteristics without going at some point to the Racial Equity Principles page. If you are an anti-racist educator or facilitator, make sure to check out the And... page, which offers some ways that people are wisely using the material. I continue to keep adding to that page as well as the Joy page, which frankly needs work because there is a lot more joy to be had than that page offers at this point. Contributions welcome.
Here's an overview of each page.
This home page offers a general overview and serves as one gateway to the pages about the characteristics (see buttons below). Please also take a look at the list of brilliant human beings who offered to read the website and give feedback before and as it launched. You will also find a printable downloadable version of the website at the bottom of this page.
The what is it? page summarizes one take on setting white supremacy culture in its historical context. The intent is to offer a way of understanding what white supremacy culture is, explain the use of the word "source" and of the word "we." The page includes a juicy video conversation with Susan Raffo about white supremacy and belonging.
On the about page, you will find a longer explanation about the why behind the website. I take a quick look at white supremacy's roots as a tool of the Christian ruling class, and I offer a short bio. This page also includes credits to and for those who informed the original article and make up beloved community for and with me now.
The characteristics page is the gateway to the pages about each of the characteristics (as is this home page). The page also offers an explanation of what white supremacy culture characteristics are not, as well as a request to avoid weaponizing the characteristics. You will also find a printable downloadable version of the characteristics.
The racial equity principles page offers ten grounding principles developed by the Dismantling Racism Works collaborative. These principles have, in our experience, proven useful in guiding racial justice practice. I use at least one of them every single day.
On the and... page, you will find some of the many ways that creative people have taken the original list and illustrated it, adapted it, revised it, and improved it.
On the joy page, I have added links to a range of different things that remind us of our ability to cultivate our creativity in the service of our joyful resistance to oppressive dynamics, in the service of joyful energies that keep us going in our commitment to our individual and collective freedom. My hope is that you will send me some version of whatever brings you joy if you would like me to add it to that page.
White Supremacy Culture - Still Here
is a printable and downloadable version of the updated version offered on this website.
is a printable and downloadable version of the updated version offered on this website.
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“You do not have to be me in order for us to fight alongside each other. I do not have to be you to recognize that our wars are the same. What we must do is commit ourselves to some future that can include each other and to work toward that future with the particular strengths of our individual identities. And in order for us to do this, we must allow each other our differences at the same time as we recognize our sameness.” – Audre Lorde |
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Artwork by Tema Okun
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The Marionettes adult and youth choirs perform Lanston Hughes'
I Dream A World by celebrated African-American composer and arranger
Andre J. Thomas at the Chapel of St. Joseph's Convent
(Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, Caribbean).
I Dream A World by celebrated African-American composer and arranger
Andre J. Thomas at the Chapel of St. Joseph's Convent
(Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, Caribbean).
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I offer this website as an expression of my commitment, of our commitment, to a world where we can be free. I long for a world where we can come home to ourselves in all the ways we are meant and want to be, unchained by the toxic conditioning and constant constructions of divide and conquer that those addicted to power and profit prefer. I am enraged and I am heartbroken by my own conditioning, which has become an old friend by now and continues to astonish me with its ever more creative ways of attempting to disconnect me from you, from myself, from all that really matters. I have developed a regular meditation practice as one way (not the only way) to work with my conditioning and face what needs to be changed. During one of my meditations, my mother came to me (she died at age 95 in 2009) and gave me clear instructions: be love(d), pay attention, don't be afraid, and find the others. This website is my attempt to live into those instructions in the service of our mutual liberation. I claim only the intention, not the result. Thank you for visiting. May you take what is useful and leave the rest. |
Artwork by Tema Okun
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(some of) THE CHARACTERISTICS
The original piece and therefore this website builds on the work of the following people as well as so many others, including (but not limited to) Andrea Ayvazian, Bree Carlson, Beverly Daniel Tatum, Eli Dueker, Nancy Emond, Kenneth Jones, Jonn Lunsford, Joan Olsson, David Rogers, James Williams, Sally Yee, as well as the work of Grassroots Leadership, Equity Institute Inc, the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, the Challenging White Supremacy workshop, the Lillie Allen Institute, the Western States Center, and the contributions of hundreds of participants in the DR process.
Sharon Martinas, who at the time was facilitating the Challenging White Supremacy Workshop, suggested I add the antidotes. The characteristics marked with an asterisk* indicate those that Daniel Buford, who at the time was a lead trainer with the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, asked I credit to him when the original article was written.
As noted elsewhere, any wisdom you find here is credit to these people and
all those who informed and influenced the original article and this website. Any fault or shortcoming is mine.
Artwork by Tema Okun
FEAR
White supremacy culture's number one strategy is to make us afraid. When we are afraid, we lose touch with our power and are more easily manipulated by any promise of safety, even and particularly when safety is an illusion. |
ONE RIGHT WAY & PERFECTIONISM*
along with PATERNALISM OBJECTIVITY* QUALIFIED The belief there is one right (white) way to do things and once people are introduced to the right way, they will see the light and adopt it. Connected to the belief that "perfect" is both attainable and desirable. |
EITHER/OR & THE BINARY* Reducing the complexity of life and the nuances of our relationships with each other and all living things into either/or, yes or no, right or wrong, in ways that reinforce toxic power.
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DENIAL & DEFENSIVENESS
The habit of denying and defending against the ways in which white supremacy and racism are (re)produced and our individual or collective participation in that (re)production. |
RIGHT TO COMFORT &
FEAR OF CONFLICT The internalization that I or we have a right to comfort, which means we cannot tolerate conflict, particularly open conflict. A tendency to blame the person or group causing discomfort or conflict rather than addressing the issues being named. |
INDIVIDUALISM*
Individualism is our cultural story that we make it on our own (or should), without help, while pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. A toxic denial of our essential interdependence and the reality that we are all in this, literally, together. |
PROGRESS IS MORE* &
QUANTITY OVER QUALITY* The assumption that the goal is always more and bigger. An emphasis on what we can "objectively" measure as more valuable than the quality of our relationships to all living beings. |
WORSHIP OF THE
WRITTEN WORD Honoring only what is written and only what is written to a narrow standard, even when what is written is full of misinformation and lies. An erasure of the wide range of ways we communicate with each other and all living things. |
URGENCY
Applying the urgency of racial and social justice to our every day lives in ways that perpetuate power imbalance and disregard the need to breathe and pause and reflect. |
Website Launch
Scot Nakagawa, Michelle Johnson, and Kari Points share webinar wisdom.
We need each other. And before I see another person, Vivette Jeffries-Logan
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To celebrate the launch of this website and the update of the original article, SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) hosted a webinar in May 2021 featuring a slew of special guests offering their take on white supremacy and white supremacy culture 20 years after the article's publication. Guests included Change Lab's Scot Nakagawa, who publishes the incredibly informative Anti-Authoritarian Playbook online newsletter, Danielle Spratley reading the poetry of NC Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green, anti-racist activist, yoga teacher and author Michelle Johnson, Finding Freedom's Kari Points, Vivette Jeffries-Logan of Biwa Consulting, SURJ's own Misha Viets Van Dyke, and Justin Robinson from Earthseed Land Collective. The evening was a powerful weaving of story telling, framework building, analysis, critique and big, big heart. Guests talked about the state of white supremacy in the current context, grief in the body, the ways in which class and gender inform both white supremacy and our experience of it, the importance of our relationship to ancestors and the land, and so much more. The webinar was stewarded by SURJ's Grace Ahern and ASL interpreted by the fabulous Jennifer Mantle and Pilar Marsh, with tech masterfully managed by Jenn Lishansky. |
The webinar was a fundraiser for Earthseed Land Collective.
You can still donate to support the important work of these amazing people
who are modeling for us how to remember and reimagine our relationship to ourselves,
each other and the land in pursuit and practice of collective liberation.
You can donate here.
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And who am I?Great question. Still pondering. Here is an introduction to the site and a partial answer to this question. Artwork by Tema Okun
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Big gratitude to the readers ...
Last and certainly not least, a big gratitude to all those who served as readers of the website and offered invaluable feedback. Much of what you find useful here is due to these fabulous people:
Calvin Allen, Bridgette Burge, Erin Byrd, David Ryan Castro-Harris, Chris Crass, Dane Emmerling, Russ Gaskin, Gita Gulati-Partee, Claudia Horwitz, Vivette Jeffries-Logan, Michelle Johnson, Jes Kelley, Sung Won Park, Alexis Pauline-Gumbs, Kari Points, Susan Raffo, Courtney Reid-Eaton, Cristina Rivera Chapman, Krista Robinson-Lyles, David Roswell, Zulayka Santiago, Danielle Spratley, Becky Thompson, Bevelyn Ukah.