Witnessing Whiteness just one of several ways YWCA tackles racism

I am the CEO of YWCA Metropolitan St. Louis, a social services agency founded in St. Louis in 1904. One of our racial justice programs, Witnessing Whiteness, was the subject of a recent Star editorial. I am also an African-American woman, and I am speaking as both when I say that our program has created many dedicated allies in the struggle for racial justice through education. Its participants have then carried the message of equity and justice back to their dinner tables, churches, neighborhoods and workplaces.

The fact that the conversation starts in a segregated space by no means indicates it ends there. That is why you will find allies who have participated in Witnessing Whiteness peacefully marching in the streets of St. Louis alongside people of color, attending interfaith and multi-racial meetings, and speaking truth to power about systemic racism. And importantly, Witnessing Whiteness is not the only racial justice program at YWCA.

The editorial made the point that “constructive and substantive conversations about racism don’t exclude anyone.” I believe that statement to be true — and I still believe the Witnessing Whiteness program provides an entryway for white people into those conversations that they have had the privilege or choice to avoid for far too long.

Witnessing Whiteness is directed by our racial justice director Mary Ferguson, who is a white woman. She has been active in racial and other social justice work for over 40 years. She teaches that white isolation, self-segregation and vestiges of legal separation leave many white people in all-white spaces in their neighborhoods, schools and faith communities. Yet the exclusivity of that arrangement is hardly challenged, because the adjective “white” is falsely excised from the conversation. It is worth mentioning that many spaces we would call “diverse” or “integrated” aren’t actually inclusive of people from a variety of walks of life.

YWCA asks Witnessing Whiteness participants to shift their thinking. Instead of the idea that race affects only others, we challenge them to recognize that race affects white people as well. The enactment and enforcement of racism hide in plain sight when we don’t view whiteness in the central place it occupies.

Racism is systemic, and it requires all of us to participate in fighting it. But because racism burdens people of the global majority with discrimination and hate, as The Star pointed out, our approach does not add to that burden by asking the targets of racism to teach us. We must take responsibility for the role whiteness plays in racism.

The editorial advised us to include input from people of color, but simultaneously dismissed the perspective of the person of color quoted in the article who endorses this approach.

We operate with input from people of the global majority. Witnessing Whiteness was launched by our former racial justice director, a black woman. Nearly half of the program’s multi-week discussion centers on cross-racial relationships.

Witnessing Whiteness is not the sole offering in our racial justice programs. We have Sister Circle groups — open only to black women participants — and Catalyst Circles specifically designed for cross-racial groups. Our annual Stand Against Racism event — along with others featuring authors, speakers and other resources — are open to our whole community. All the work needs to be done and in a variety of configurations.

There is no one perfect approach to ending racism. Multiple, valid paths exist. We encourage everyone to walk them all, and to find a way to our vision of a world without racism.