Reckoning with Whiteness
Reckoning with Whiteness provides resources for people who benefit from racial privilege to examine that privilege honestly and constructively, while planning for a more equitable future.
About
About Reckoning with whiteness
Reckoning with Whiteness provides support for individuals to understand the benefits of whiteness in our own lives and through generations past. Many activists call on institutions, governments, and corporations to acknowledge and make reparations for harms done. Yet, individuals have also benefited from systems of inequality. Reckoning with Whiteness is founded on that notion if we take initiative to explore and acknowledge this as people with privilege, we can make great strides in structural changes.
Meet the Founder
Tara Brown, founder
For over 10 years, Tara has held senior program management roles in nonprofits and government to help low- and moderate-income people build economic security. She spent seven years in New York City, working to address the financial needs of recent immigrants, job seekers, public housing residents, domestic violence survivors, homeowners facing foreclosure, and many others. While she has been fortunate to hold leadership positions to support individuals in building assets and stability, Tara founded Reckoning with Whiteness to spur systemic change.
The programs Tara has led make measurable improvements in the financial lives of thousands of individuals and families, but they fail to address the underlying systemic inequality that would enable larger-scale progress. Tara believes one pathway to transforming our current system is to create space for individuals who have benefited from racial privilege to examine that privilege honestly, while planning actions for a more equitable future.
Tara is in the process of researching, analyzing, and documenting how her ancestors obtained assets such as jobs, education, and land that people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds were less able to access. In studying the ways that the social and political history surrounding her family helped them thrive in the United States, she has a deeper understanding of who was provided opportunities, who was left out, and why. Many people who are economically secure today were given opportunities for economic advancement through government policies and social practices. She hopes that others will share a similar experience if they humbly examine their own circumstances and that both policies and action toward a more equitable future increase.
Resources being Developed
In the long term, Reckoning with Whiteness will provide web-based resources to support people with racial privilege to understand the benefits of that privilege, as well as tools for planning actions to build equity.
Please reach out with any input you may have on resources that you would like to be developed or included.
Resources currently being developed are outlined below.
Assessments
Assessments will help individuals understand the ways that whiteness impacts our personal experiences with social systems including education, housing, employment, health care and criminal justice.
personal narratives
Our personal stories of Reckoning with Whiteness are key to making change. We will provide narratives from white people who are doing the work to understand the benefits of whiteness in their lives and what they’re doing as a result.
research and DIALOGUE guides
The guides will aid in researching and interpreting a racialized history of ourselves, our families, and our communities. They will also support us in having conversations with loved ones and community members regarding racial inequality.
inspiration for action
We will lift up examples of powerful actions that individuals and communities have taken to acknowledge systemic inequality and build equity.
