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Dismantling Racism Resource Book

White Organizations: (By “white organizations” we mean organizations
that are almost entirely made-up of white people among staff, leadership, constituency
and membership. A few people of color could be part of the organization even in
meaningful ways, but the organization is dominated by white people.)

White organizations need to be incredibly thoughtful about their role in racial justice
organizing. It is necessary that white organizations become active allies in struggles for
racial justice, but ultimately, white organizations need to be taking leadership from and be
accountable to people of color organizations and communities in the work as much as
possible. The following are questions that will help identify whether white organizations
are ready to take on a new or expanded commitment to engage in racial justice work.

Who is currently committed and interested in taking racial justice
work on?

As an organizer or leader are you the primary one pushing the agenda? Is there a shared
commitment among leaders and people who hold power and influence within the
organization? How thoughtful and deep is the commitment? Are people committed enough
to expend real resources for the work? Do people understand that this will involve internal
work, possibly internal resistance and tension, and may impact external relationships? Are
people going to back off at the first sign of trouble? The fiftieth?
If there is not a shared commitment among a critical mass of people with power in the
organization who also share a sense of the potential barriers and problems that could
arise, the organization is not ready. More internal education and more effort building a
base of support for taking on a racial justice focus must happen.

What is motivating people within the organization to take on
racial justice work?

Are people interested in the work out of a sense of solidarity with people of color, political
thinking which prioritizes the work, a sense of guilt, or opportunism? Seriously thinking
about these questions can help get a sense of how deep the commitment is as well as
identifying potential major pitfalls.

When is adding a race analysis to your campaign work opportunistic? -
some examples

When this is done to garner money or to generate #s or information for a grant

When spokespeople of color are used without any depth of relationship:

Dismantling Racism Project 93 Western States Center