To win economic justice, we have to build movements that are multiracial, multiclass, multicultural, and unflinchingly committed to destroying white supremacy. Co-ops are a critical part of this work. To build sustainable food co-ops that allow communities to survive, thrive, and push back against the corporate colonization of our food system, co-op teams — especially white people — have to practice anti-racism in our personal and professional lives.
It’s not easy. As white people, we are conditioned to not even notice white supremacy, even though it’s omnipresent and foundational to the U.S., our entire political system, and economy. We benefit from it, too, every single day. That’s why a commitment to unlearning racism, especially anti-black racism, and white supremacy is both daily and lifelong.
So, we’ve compiled a few resources from white anti-racist organizations and activists to get you started on your path to showing up for racial justice. The anti-racist organizations listed emphasize the importance of white people listening to, following the lead of, and being accountable to people of color in the fight for racial justice.
ORGANIZATIONS
Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ)
SURJ is a national network of groups and individuals organizing White people for racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves White people to act as part of a multiracial majority for justice with passion and accountability.
They work to connect people across the country while supporting and collaborating with local and national racial justice organizing efforts. SURJ provides a space to build relationships, skills and political analysis to act for change.
SURJ has chapters all over the U.S. Check them out here.
Catalyst Project is a center for political education and movement building based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
They are committed to anti-racist work in majority white sections of left social movements with the goal of deepening anti-racist commitment in white communities and building multiracial left movements for liberation.
They are committed to creating spaces for activists and organizers to collectively develop relevant theory, vision, and strategy to build our movements. Catalyst programs prioritize leadership development, supporting grassroots fighting organizations and multiracial alliance building.
Check out Catalyst’s resources here.
Articles
Black Youth Project: This video explains the difference between being “non-racist” and “anti-racist”
Everyday Feminism: 30+ Resources to Help White Americans Learn About Race and Racism
Catalyst Project: Catalyst Project Workshop Readers
Catalyst Project: Dismantling Racism, A Resource Book for Social Change Groups
The Establishment: So you want to fight white supremacy
Books
Videos
The Laura Flanders Show: White People in Solidarity Against Racism: Dara Silverman and Chris Crass
Transform Network: Open Conversation: How White People Need to Talk to White People About Race
In the aftermath of Charlottesville and the death of Heather Heyer, ‘white supremacy’ and ‘anti-racist’ showed up in media coverage probably more frequently and consistently than ever before, magnifying a white anti-racist taking direct action to challenge white nationalists and the alt-right.
This is a major opportunity to bring white folks into anti-racist practice — the above list is just a place to get started. It’d be great for you to start some of these readings in a group or with friends and family. But, as Heather’s cousin Diana Ratcliff asked in an op-ed in USA Today, “Why is it that the death of a white woman at the hands of a white supremacist group has finally gotten the attention of white folk?”
The answer is that a white supremacist culture reinforces white supremacy in more insidious ways than direct, public displays of racial violence, like the alt-right marching through campus. It’s when white liberals are consistently silent on state-sanctioned violence against and murder of Black people and people of color, but feel compelled to churn out a press statement condemning the actions of white nationalists in Charlottesville when a white woman dies.
It’s when Democrats champion diversity commitments from businesses, but support austerity policies and allow corporations to gut regulations and safety standards so that when economic and environmental disaster hits, poor and working class communities of color are hit first and worst.
To challenge white supremacy in all its forms, white people need to take action in solidarity with communities of color. Hopefully, Heather Heyer’s actions — counter-protesting with a multiracial crew of folks — galvanize more of us to drop the ‘colorblind-ness,’ neutrality, or passive claims of ‘not being racist’ and instead pick up our responsibility of being actively anti-racist and destroying white supremacy.
A death should never be what it takes to push people into reflection and action. But white supremacy will continue to claim more lives, overwhelmingly from Black folks and people of color, until our multiracial, multiclass, multicultural movement for economic, racial, and social justice wins.
