Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

I’ve been participating in a Me and White Supremacy circle over the last month. If you’re not familiar with this book, it started as an Instagram challenge by Layla F. Saad, and then became a downloadable workbook, and now is a book. My circle was made up primarily of people from an Episcopal church in the southwest part of New Hampshire; they had invited anyone in the diocese to join them and I turned out to be the only person outside their church to join in.

This book, like the work it asks readers to do, is hard. I appreciated the support of a group. We followed The Circle Way as Saad asks in the appendix of her book, which is a non hierarchical way to share responsibility in a group that keeps “the purpose at the center” of the circle. We managed to do this even though our circle was on Zoom.

Me and White Supremacy is structured in 28 chapters representing 28 days of reading a short, clear analysis of a concept related to white supremacy and then responding to “reflective journaling prompts” about the day’s topic. That first part is pretty easy; the second part requires thinking, remembering, understanding, reflecting, and writing down how you personally have participated in or upheld the topic of the day. Things like “color blindness,” “white centering,” optical allyship,” “white saviorism,” or “tone policing.”

As a quick aside, if you aren’t sure what white supremacy is, or you think of men in white hoods or protestors when you hear it, that is not what Saad is talking about. White supremacy in antiracism work is the social systems and structures that uphold white dominant culture, but Saad asks readers to look at the feelings, attitudes, habits of thought, and experiences that individuals have and use, consciously or unconsciously, to maintain white white supremacy. So as I reflected on the prompts, the idea was to examine how I, as a privileged white woman, help make it possible for systemic racism to exist.

I am definitely still processing. Even though I spent a fair bit of time on the topic of antiracism this summer at work I learned a great deal from this process and know I will keep on learning. The final task in the book is to make a commitment. As Saad writes,

“Antiracism is not about perfectionism. It is about the intention to help create change met with the consistent commitment to keep learning, keep showing up, and keep doing what is necessary so that BIPOC can live with dignity and equality.”

I set three tasks for the next two weeks, as one of the final prompts asked. One is to press for antiracism to be at the center of the work of a committee I am on, even if it feels like I’m being pushy or is otherwise uncomfortable. The second is to try to follow up on a conversation that I let slide with someone who is white about Black Lives Matter. The third is to learn about Black-led advocacy groups in my area, listen (via emails and websites in COVID times) and understand where and I how I could and should lend support.

Next I need to work on a commitment statement. Saad reminds readers that this is to “help focus you so you know what work you are supposed to be doing.” In other words, so that what was learned in the last 28 days becomes more than words in a journal. I listened to a webinar this evening from The Adaway Group, and one point the speakers’ emphasized is that having values is a start but they don’t matter if there are no actions to carry them out. So this last step is really about defining some actions that can help a person really work on dismantling white supremacy. As Saad recommends, I am taking my time this week, so that I can write something meaningful and hold myself to it (with the Computer Scientist to help me be accountable).

There are many excellent books, articles, blogs, podcasts, etc. about race and antiracism. But as Nicole Cooke and Tre Johnson both explain, reading is just a start. If you’ve been reading and you feel called to more, Me and White Supremacy is a process that you can begin in order to start acting. Or if like me, you already thought you were acting, it will help you see how to do this work more effectively, with humility and greater (but not perfect!) understanding. I suspect I will end up going back through the prompts again another time, as the two folks who issued the invitation to our circle have done.

Advertisement