Introduction

The last few years have brought increased attention to national and international movements for social justice. As a result, we have seen more discussions, workshops, and corporate and university statements affirming commitments to allyship, support of the Movement for Black Lives, and condemnation of violence against Asian Americans. By analyzing weaknesses in liberal methods, perspectives, and tactics, my book addresses why these responses have done little to create significant change and how they often reproduce rather than challenge white supremacy. I argue that white supremacy is not only carried out by hate groups from the extreme right but can be supported by progressives who view themselves as antiracist. I apply systemic racism theory, Black feminist thought, racial capitalism, and theories on class oppression to two case studies of progressive organizing that illustrate the silencing effect of liberal discourse and the racism-evasive politics of civility. Using lessons from these case studies, and my own lived experiences as a woman of color, who has navigated white academe and both conservative and liberal communities, I advance practical and strategic solutions for organizations and antiracist accomplices to promote equity from a racism-centered intersectional perspective. As a follow up to that research, these resources are meant to guide instructors, students, and organizations in applying the lessons of the book. This Manifold workbook includes instructor resources, lesson plans, workshop activities, and other resources to accompany each chapter of the book.

Why I Wrote a Book on Liberal White Supremacy

I wrote this book after spending much of my career engaging with people who identified either as liberal or radical progressives. I worked with organizations in my field that were considered more leftist and served on the editorial boards of the more progressive interdisciplinary journals and committees. In these settings, there seemed to always be a tension between liberals and radicals and an understanding that these groups differed in fundamental ways. Therefore, I wanted to clearly delineate what I thought those differences were. This book was also informed by my personal experiences with liberals in progressive towns where I lived and in academia. In progressive towns that were racially diverse, I noticed a class elitism mostly from European American liberals but also from some people of color. European American liberals wanted to showcase their intellect as they conversed over topics they read in The New Yorker or The New York Times, repeating common ideas and critiques. They competed for position in the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) viewing themselves as the most involved, better parents while they ignored their children begging for their attention at pick-up time. Their definitions of what an “involved” parent looked like and what “service” was always seemed limited and biased to me. Several times, people were surprised to hear that I was a professor and immediately changed their demeanor towards me (from ignoring me to wanting to engage in conversation). Once, as I waited for my first-born daughter’s bus with my infant daughter strapped to my chest, another parent (a woman of color) gave me a disinterested look and ignored my strategies to address some of the problems we were all having with the buses. When she found out that I was on sabbatical, her demeanor changed from cold to warm. She smiled at me and was eager to talk to me about her and her daughter’s academic interests. She knew that if I was on sabbatical, then I must be an educator. However, to see me, a young woman of color who is often mistaken as Latinx, her first thought was that I must be a teacher. Though I told her I was a professor, she continued to assume I was a graduate student, who did not yet have her Ph.D. Graduate students do not take sabbaticals, but this was a typical scenario of people trying to resolve what they saw in me with their stereotypical images of what a professor looked like. This is a common experience for women and people of color in general and specifically women of color in academia. I was so often mistaken for a student by college staff that I made a tote that read “This is what a professor looks like.” I would be greeted as “Miss” right after a man was greeted as “Professor” before either of us showed our identification. I was harassed by public safety when I brought my child to work with me yet I heard from European American men that they were not even stopped. Instead they were told, “Hi professor, go ahead” and enjoyed comments about how cute their children were.

My interactions with liberal progressives were also problematic in that they were overly curious about my ethnicity, especially because of my work on racism. On job interviews, I was often asked about my ethnicity - sometimes during a job talk. It was as if people had to place me into a racial category before they could engage with me. I struggled to navigate these subtle racist aggressions, liberal white paternalism, and class elitism in academia. I endured comments about my educational background (e.g., concerns that I lacked an Ivy League degree) and found some European American liberal perspectives about working class issues and people problematic and narrow-minded.

My work squares these encounters with those I faced in a predominantly European American, rural, hometown, where I suffered overt physical and verbal racist attacks and class prejudice. These experiences informed my desire to study sociology and specialize in racism theory. Yet, throughout my career I confronted resistance and questions from well-meaning faculty who advised me against studying racism, because they saw it as an unworthy or non-lucrative area. The varied experiences I had in my conservative hometown with overt racism and the subtle racism and class elitism I navigated in progressive towns where I later lived and with liberals in academia compelled me to study and expose the strategies and rhetoric that perpetuate silence on injustice and find ways to break that silence.