Unlearning Whiteness is a six month coaching commitment for white people looking to build skills and analysis towards collective liberation.
Whiteness creates relational decay.
There is a long history of our good intentions creating obstacles to Black and brown activists and organizers. We white people tend to be remedial in the types of relational skills we need in order to be assets, rather than impediments, to building movements for collective liberation. We need skills for conflict, communication, and self-regulation. Alongside that, we must engage in ongoing political education and analysis-building. Without these, we’re liable to derail conversations, interrupt organizing, and just generally get in the way of the leadership of people of color.
This doesn’t mean we get to turn anti-racism work into a white person self-improvement project. We’re not here so we can feel better or assuage our white guilt. The internal healing and analysis-building work is done so that we can show up more effectively for the external work of organizing, mobilizing, and enacting change. White people working together to unlearn our dysfunctional emotional behaviors is one part harm reduction strategy for the present moment and one part praxis for more liberated futures.
What is this and how does it work?
Unlearning Whiteness is a six-month coaching commitment. We work together one-on-one via hour-long coaching sessions. These happen on Zoom or over the phone, approximately every other week for six months.
In each session, we may talk about points of analysis you don’t yet understand, debrief real life situations about racism and anti-racism, build emotional frameworks to embrace our full humanity, and engage in practices for emotional and relational resiliency.
I do not offer shorter term options for this work because we cannot unlearn our racism overnight. The length of the commitment is part of the work.
Who is it for?
This work is intended for white people who have at least a basic analysis of systemic oppression who are seeking to dig deeper into their own personal culpability in upholding racist systems, behaviors and dynamics.
If you are brand new to thinking about anti-racism, I suggest you start by hiring a Black anti-racism educator for consulting and/or paying for their courses. There are many many qualified people offering this work. Here are a few Black anti-racism educators who each offer online anti-racism courses and/or coaching with a variety of focuses and approaches: Desiree Adaway, Omkari Williams, Rachel Ricketts, and Dr. Tee Williams.
I welcome potential clients who are mixed race and/or white-passing and would like to unpack their relationship to whiteness, with the caveat and acknowledgement that that is not my personal experience and thus will affect my approach to the work.
White caucusing (i.e., white people working together with other white people) is a well-established practice in anti-racism work. More information and perspectives on this practice can be found by clicking here.
Who are you and what is your approach?
I’m Bear Hebert (they/them), and I’m a white, queer, able-bodied, working class, genderqueer person. I grew up and continue to live in south Louisiana on the ancestral lands of Choctaw, Chitimacha, and Houma peoples. I believe that relational work is real work, and that emotional work is movement work.
I show up to the work of Unlearning Whiteness free of judgement. I don’t believe we can shame ourselves or each other into change. Rather, I approach this work from a liberatory framework (one authored by Black feminist writers) that posits that we have to love ourselves and each other enough to both hold each other accountable and not throw each other away.
I’ve been a student of liberation for more than 15 years, and yet I am not (can never be) an expert on anti-racism. I first learned about anti-racism from the National Association of Black and White Men Together. My work is strongly influenced by the writings of bell hooks, James Baldwin, and more recently, adrienne maree brown, among others. I’m grateful for the community of artists and organizers at Alternate ROOTS for teaching me in real time about liberated relationships.
To support my learning and accountability to people of color, I do the work of Unlearning Whiteness in partnership with Ron Ragin, a queer Black man who is a performer, vocalist, and consultant (and also a dear friend of mine.) We meet monthly to be in conversation about the nuances and impacts of the work of Unlearning Whiteness. More information about Ron and his work can be found here: ronragin.com.
What is the cost and why?
The cost for this work is $1800, which includes 12 hour-long sessions of support over six months, with email and messaging support between calls.
Because dismantling capitalism is an essential part of dismantling racism, I offer no-interest payment plans freely. A standard payment plan is $300/month for 6 months, or $150/month for 12 months. I have limited spots for sliding scale clients with financial need.
For clarity: My rate is $150/hour for this work. I earmark one third for taxes and business expense ($50), then pay half of the remainder to Black-led organizing efforts ($50). The remaining $50 covers roughly 2 hours of my labor at a living wage of $25/hour. This includes the time I spend outside each session doing additional administrative and client support tasks.
I charge money for this work because inside capitalism, we all need to be paid for our labor. I am not amassing wealth through this work, but I do compensate myself for my time. I share these facts transparently because the reality of doing anti-racism work inside the extractive model of capitalism is complicated. I welcome questions and critique about this approach.