Understanding Whiteness: A Guide for Allies

When learning and talking about oppression, often people look at the experiences of the oppressed or non-dominant groups.  However, it is important to look at the dominant group and the power structures at play that allow discrimination and oppression to occur. In what ways does whiteness (being the dominant group in systemic racial oppression) contribute to and/or allow the occurrence systemic racism? In what ways are white people (as members of the dominant group) complicit in systemic racism (even without intending to be or being aware of)?

Whiteness as a Social Construct

This resource will go through several concepts around whiteness and white supremacy and the ways well-intentioned people can unknowingly contribute to systemic racism. It is important to be really clear that when we talk about whiteness, we are NOT asserting that any of these concepts and terms are innate qualities of white people. The following concepts are social phenomena that we have created as a society. Whiteness as a social construct(1) looks at the way our socialisation and environment shapes what it means to be white in the world today. For instance, the legacy of overtly racist beliefs from our recent history (colonialism, The White Man’s Burdern, chattel slavery, Jim Crow, etc.) plays a significant role in shaping the institutionalised racism and unconscious racial or Eurocentric biases that exist today. These are phenomena that we must work together as a society to overcome, and while not in any way genetically inherent to being born white, they do shape the social construction of whiteness in society today.

A Note on Self-Care & Sustainability

It is natural to feel defensive, sceptical or triggered when learning about these concepts, especially if they are relatively new to you. Even if you don’t feel particularly defensive or sceptical, negative emotions like guilt, heartbreak and fatigue can come up in this work. It is important to prioritize your own self-care as you do this work, so that you can do it sustainably.

 However, it is important to remember that BIPOC experience racism their whole lives and don’t get to take a break from it when they want to. So however uncomfortable, challenging, or emotionally & mentally draining it may be to learn about racism as a white person, it is still a privilege to get to learn about it, rather than experience it first-hand.

So while, yes, self-care is important to ensure you’re able to do this work in a sustainable way, we must not let that become an excuse to not do the work. This work is essential, not optional.

What is Allyship?

Allyship(2) refers to people with privilege (not just racial privilege but any privilege- meaning that they do not belong to a particular marginalised group, but instead belong to the dominant group within a society) who do they best to understand the challenges face by marginalised or oppressed groups of people and to contribute to positive change.

A white ally(3) holds white privilege and confronts racism as it comes up daily, but also seeks to deconstruct it institutionally and live in a way that challenges systemic oppression, at the risk of experiencing some of that oppression. A white ally acknowledges the limits of her/his/their knowledge about other people’s experiences but doesn't use that as a reason not to think and/or act. Being a white ally entails building relationships with both people of colour, and also with white people in order to challenge them in their thinking about race. White allies don’t have it all figured out, but are committed to non-complacency.

Performative allyship(4) is allyship that only serves at the surface level, is more about performing allyship (or proving you’re ‘one of the good ones’), but doesn’t actually work to break away from the systems of power that oppress. Performative allyship can often serve to benefit, centre, or platform the self-proclaimed ally rather than the community they are claiming to support.

Performative allyship often involves statements of support without any meaningful work to create change, doing just the bare minimum to show support, or taking actions that appear supportive but actually aren’t helpful to that group, draw attention away from that group, or actively harm that group.

How White Supremacy Functions Today

White supremacy(5) is commonly understood as the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. But in action today, white supremacy is a little bit more complicated than that, as it may not always exist as a conscious or overt belief, but instead will exist in both white people and people of colour as subtle subconscious conditioning. We see this exemplified in the famous ‘doll test’ in which children of colour demonstrated a preference for white dolls and, when asked which dolls were associated with negative or positive words, displayed white supremacist conditioning in their answers(6).

In actuality, white supremacy is so much more than conscious white supremacist beliefs. Instead, it functions as a political, economic, and social phenomenon that imposes and maintains social, political, historical, and institutional domination by white people and is maintained and reinforced by a combination of institutional, cultural, and both conscious and unconscious white supremacist thoughts, words, decisions, actions and interactions between people.  You might feel that you are not a participant in, or reinforcer of, this system, but remember that we are all conditioned within the society we live in.

The concepts below are not always limited to whiteness. They are functions of oppression within all dominant groups. For instance, you could replace the ‘white’ in many of the terms below with ‘male’ in discussions around sexism, with ‘straight’ in discussions around homophobia, and with ‘neurotypical’ or ‘non-disabled’ in discussions around ablism. These are all functions of being within the dominant group in a system of oppression. It is understood that individuals within the system, didn’t make the system. But it is still our responsibility to learn about it, work to understand it and work to change it.

White Supremacy Terms

White privilege(7) is a term that is often misunderstood. It refers to the inherent advantage in which white people are not negatively impacted by systemic racism. White privilege does not imply economic privilege or that an individual’s life has not been difficult, only that their skin tone is not the source of their difficulties. This also doesn’t mean that it’s impossible for a white person to ever experience racial discrimination. Racial discrimination can happen to anyone, based on the individual biases and prejudices of those they come in contact with. However, being in the dominant racial group, white people will not experience systemic racial oppression. Being white will not directly contribute to major difficulties and disadvantages in their lives. This is white privilege.

White privilege means having the choice to learn about racism rather than experience it as a fundamental element of life, even from a young age. White privilege means not worrying that your skin tone will impact whether you will be safe in the presence of police, will be able to secure housing, will have access to medical care, etc.

White Exceptionalism(8) refers to when a person with white privilege believes that they are exempt from the effects, benefits, and conditioning of white supremacy and that therefore the need for antiracism education and action does not apply to them.  This is problematic because it avoids accountablility, maintains the status quo, and prevents positive change from occurring.

White Centring  

White Centring(9) refers to the centring of white people, white values, white norms and white feelings, over everyone else. This can show up in broad cultural ways or in racially microaggressive (or blatantly aggressive) interactions. Some examples of cultural white centring include European beauty standards dominating in popular culture (Eurocentrism)(10), the overrepresentation of white characters and narratives in books, movies, and other creative areas, and the interpretation of historic events through a white or European centred lens (another example of Eurocentrism).

Examples of microaggressive white centring include tone policing, white fragility, or the influence of any of the cultural white centring examples on the behaviour and words of white people in interactions and conversations with BIPOC.  Another example of white centring that can show up both culturally and in interpersonal interactions is white saviourism. 

Tone Policing:

• Tone policing(11) is when someone with privilege focuses on the tone in which a person has expressed a point of view or their experiences, rather than addressing the substance of the point itself.

• Tone policing shows up in saying things like, ‘If you only spoke in a more civil manner, I’d listen,’ or ‘You’re being too emotional,’ or, ‘You’re being too negative; you should focus on the positive.’

• Tone policing can be overtly manipulative or an unconscious defence mechanism.

• Either way, it prioritises white comfort over actual experiences of racism by BIPOC. It forces BIPOC to cater to the white person and essentially says, ‘I’ll only care about this injustice, if you speak nicely about it.’ 

Eurocentrism & White Saviourism:

• Eurocentrism(10) is a worldview that ignores or undervalues non-European societies as inferior to Western.

• Eurocentrism ignores or undervalues what Asians, Africans and other non-European people do within their own societies or sees the histories of non-European societies simply in European terms, or as part of the expansion of Europe’s ‘civilizing influence.’

• White saviourism(12) is when people with white privilege take it upon themselves to ’save’ BIPOC, believing (consciously or not) that white people are superior in capability.

• Rudyard Kipling’s 1899 work, ‘The White Man’s Burden,’ is a very clear example of white saviourism, but white saviourism exists today in less obvious ways.

• When white western people travel to BIPOC countries for missionary or volunteer work, without actually making an effort to serve the needs of the people there but instead assuming they know best and centring themselves as the saviour or hero, this is white saviourism.

• This is not to say that white people can’t do good humanitarian work in BIPOC countries, but if the emphasis is on the white person, if the local people are being portrayed as helpless or inferior and tokenistically used to bolster the white person’s status, then it is white saviourism, not humanitarianism, and it reinforces white supremacy.

• Another example of white saviourism and white centring is placing white people as the heroes in historic narratives and ignoring the contributions of BIPOC.

• For example, William Wilberforce being centred as the foremost leader in the British slave trade abolition, while giving little attention to the contributions of Black British abolitionists such as Olaudah Equiano or the role of the Haitian Revolution in bringing about the end of the slave trade.

White Fragility(13) is a term that can be quite triggering for white people and is often misunderstood. To be clear, white fragility does NOT imply that white people are inherently fragile. Like all of these terms, white fragility describes a social phenomenon that occurs because of the culture we’ve created around race issues. White fragility refers to the discomfort and defensiveness on the part of a white person when confronted by information about racial inequality and injustice.

It comes about because as part of the racially dominant group, white people tend to have a lack of exposure to conversations about race and racism as compared to BIPOC, who typically are aware of the role of race and racism in their lives from an early age. Tragically, BIPOC children will often experience racism from a very young age, so conversations with parents about these topics are a necessity. White children may have some conversations about race during their childhood, but they usually will be quite simple, painting racism as something binary, something only bad people do, rather than getting into the complexities of injustice. So white people are generally far less equipped to handle the discomfort that comes up during conversations about race.

Another contributing factor to white fragility is a lack of understanding about what white supremacy actually is. If your understanding is that white supremacy only exist in the form of conscious and overt, hateful, white supremacist beliefs (and that’s not what you believe), then naturally you will feel defensive at being associated with white supremacy. If you believe that racism only ever comes from bad, evil, hateful people (rather than seeing it as a complex societal function that most of us contribute to even unknowingly) then naturally you will feel upset at being associated with racism.

White fragility and tone policing are linked because if a white person is struggling emotionally with a conversation about race, they are more likely to center themselves, and focus on their own needs in the conversation, rather than the actual subject matter at hand. Watch out for this in your conversations about race issues. If you catch yourself getting defensive, upset, or focusing more on the tone of the other person than the content, try to take a breath, step outside of yourself, and re-focus on the content and the experiences of BIPOC.

Being Called Out or In(14)

One of the most important concepts allies need to be aware of is being called out or in. Most people are familiar with the term calling out.  Calling out refers to drawing attention to problematic behaviour by directly and often publicly challenging it. Calling in refers to drawing attention to problematic behaviour by privately explaining the misstep with compassion and patience.

It’s important to understand that both are appropriate! Which is most appropriate is different for each situation and depends on a number of factors including power dynamics, established relationships, etc. Obviously everyone would prefer to be called in than called out. But in many cases this is not a realistic expectation. This is particularly true when they party who demonstrated the problematic behaviour is in a position of power, if the person drawing attention is in the group harmed by the behaviour, and/or if there is not an established relationship between the 2 parties.

It is NOT the responsibility of a person who was hurt by problematic behaviour to coddle the person who caused harm. This, again, links to tone policing. This is another form of white supremacy. Demanding a compassionate and patient explanation from a BIPOC, if you have white privilege, reinforces systemic racism and white supremacy in a number of ways. This becomes even more damaging if you are in a position of power as compared to the other person (such as an educator to student relationship).

Key Terms Review:

(Plus a few extras!)

A NOTE ON THESE DEFINITIONS: These terms are complex concepts that require deep, honest reflection to fully understand. This glossary of basic definitions is included for convenience, but please be sure to read this resource in full to provide greater context and explanation, and if any terms are feeling confusing, please research and reflect further. Give yourself time and make the effort to truly understand how these might show up in your life. Additional resources can be found in the Antiracism Further Learning Resources Directory.

White Allyship(2): the practice by a person who holds white privilege to confront racism as it comes up daily, to seek to deconstruct racism and white supremacy institutionally, to learn about the experiences of BIPOC, and to live in a way that challenges systemic oppression, even at the risk of experiencing some of that oppression.

Performative Allyship(3): allyship that only serves at the surface level, is more about performing allyship for self-interest, but doesn’t actually work to break away from the systems of power that oppress. Benefits, centres, or platforms the self-proclaimed ally rather than the community they are claiming to support and is not backed up by real effort to learn, confront internalized racism, or confront and dismantle oppression and discrimination in daily life.

Tokenism(15): the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from under-represented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality within a workforce.

Cultural Appropriation(16): the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.

Whiteness (as a social construct)(1): an examination of the ways in which the social construction of whiteness (or what we as a society have determined it means to be white) functions in society today, and serve to preserve and reinforce certain power structures and systems of oppression. Whiteness theory is only about how whiteness functions today, not about anything inherently or genetically linked to being white.

White Supremacy(5): the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. White supremacy also functions as a political, economic, and social phenomenon that imposes and maintains social, political, historical, and institutional domination by white people and is maintained and reinforced by a combination of institutional, cultural, and both conscious and unconscious white supremacist thoughts, words, decisions, actions and interactions between people.

White Privilege(7): the inherent advantage in which white people are not negatively impacted by systemic racism. White privilege does not imply economic privilege or that an individual’s life has not been difficult, only that their skin tone is not the source of their difficulties.

White Exceptionalism(8): when a person with white privilege believes that they are exempt from the effects, benefits, and conditioning of white supremacy and that therefore the need for antiracism education and action does not apply to them.

White Centring(9): the centring of white people, white values, white norms and white feelings, over everyone else.

White Fragility(13): the discomfort and defensiveness on the part of a white person when confronted by information about racial inequality and injustice.

White Saviourism(12): when people with white privilege take it upon themselves to ’save’ BIPOC, believing (consciously or not) that white people are superior in capability.

Tone Policing(11): when someone with privilege focuses on the tone in which a person has expressed a point of view or their experiences, rather than addressing the substance of the point itself.

Eurocentrism(10): a worldview that ignores or undervalues non-European societies as inferior to Western.

Calling Out(14): drawing attention to problematic behaviour by directly and often publicly challenging it.

Calling In(14): drawing attention to problematic behaviour by privately explaining the misstep with compassion and patience.