White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-racism Training

Front Cover
University of Oklahoma Press, 2003 - Social Science - 212 pages

Originally designed for facilitators as a training handbook complete with exercises and tools to assist white people address racism, this book guides white people through the process of understanding, challenging, and confronting issues of racism. This training program provides a meaningful way to help create change in the white community.

Responding to the challenge of creating a learning environment in which to address racism, White Awareness provides a detailed step-by-step guide through six stages of learning – from awareness to action. The exercises within each of the stages focus on key themes including: defining racism and its inconsistencies, confronting the reality of racism, exploring aspects and implications of white culture and identity, understanding cultural differences and examining cultural racism, analyzing individual racism, and developing action strategies to combat racism.

This newly revised edition published on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first edition, includes over forty activities with instructions and suggestions for conducting each session as well as recommended readings and sources for use in the activities. Proving worthwhile in educational, business, community, and military settings, the program is detailed yet flexible. The volume has been updated to include new source information, insights on President Bill Clinton’s 1998 “Initiative on Race,” and groundbreaking research on racism as a mental disorder.

 

Contents

Racism Today
3
How to Use This Program
24
Racism
120
Individual
146
Developing Action Strategies
178
References
199
Index
209
Copyright

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Popular passages

Page 97 - May my right hand forget its cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if ever I prove false to those teachings.
Page 10 - I don't feel guilty. But, all that said, I know I did not get where I am by merit alone. I benefited from, among other things, White privilege. That doesn't mean that I don't deserve my job, or that if I weren't White I would never have gotten the job. It means simply that all through my life, I have soaked up benefits for being White. I grew up in fertile farm country taken by force from nonWhite indigenous people. I was educated in a well-funded, virtually allWhite public school system in which...
Page 160 - After you, my dear Alphonse." "After you, my dear Alphonse," Boyd said. "After you, my dear Alphonse," Johnny said. They began to giggle. "Are you hungry, Boyd?" Mrs. Wilson asked. "Yes, Mrs. Wilson." "Well, don't let Johnny stop you.
Page 10 - All my life I have been hired for jobs by white people. I was accepted for graduate school by white people. And I was hired for a teaching position at the predominantly white University of Texas, which had a white president, in a college headed by a white dean and in a department with a white chairman that at the time had one nonwhite tenured professor. There certainly is individual variation in experience. Some white people have had it easier than me, probably because they came from wealthy families...
Page 97 - Aid him to carry out this noble declaration by obtaining freedom for the slave. Irishmen and Irishwomen ! treat the colored people as your equals, as brethren. By all your memories of Ireland, continue to love liberty — hate slavery — cling by the abolitionists, and in America you will do honor to the name of Ireland.
Page 45 - An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts « A preconceived preference or idea; bias.
Page 162 - You're not much bigger,' Boyd said. 'I can beat you running.' Mrs. Wilson took a deep breath. 'Boyd,' she said. Both boys turned to her. 'Boyd, Johnny has some suits that are a little too small for him, and a winter coat. It's not new, of course, but there's lots of wear in it still. And I have a few dresses that your mother or sister could probably use. Your mother can make them over into lots of things for all of you, and I'd be very happy to give them to you. Suppose before you leave I make up...
Page 21 - American population were properly educated—by properly educated, I mean given a true picture of the history and contributions of the black man — I think many whites would be less racist in their feelings. They would have more respect for the black man as a human being. Knowing what the black man's contributions to science and civilization have been in the past, the white man's feelings of superiority would be at least partially negated. Also, the feeling of inferiority that the black man has...
Page 53 - A form of prejudice based on the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
Page 161 - After you, my dear Alphonse.' 'After you, my dear Alphonse,' Boyd said. 'After you, my dear Alphonse,' Johnny said. They began to giggle. 'Are you hungry, Boyd?' Mrs. Wilson asked. 'Yes, Mrs. Wilson.' 'Well, don't you let Johnny stop you. He always fusses about eating, so you just see that you get a good lunch. There's plenty of food here for you to have all you want.' 'Thank you, Mrs. Wilson.' 'Come on, Alphonse,' Johnny said. He pushed half the scrambled eggs on to Boyd's plate. Boyd watched while...

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