240 - Shelly Tochluk - A Roadmap for White Folks to Discard Shame, Dismantle Whiteness, and Live an Anti-Racist Life
“White people are perfectly fine. Whiteness as a socialized consciousness is what we wanna tear down; we don't wanna tear down the people.” - Shelly Tochluk
Whiteness is the problem. Many white folks know it; many more don’t. Or won’t. None of us are at the same point in the journey, yet all of us play a role in dismantling this inherited concept of racial identity. So, how can we nurture discovery, recovery, and anti-racist action without replicating the same judgments, shame, or gaslighting that whiteness thrives on?
Shelly Tochluk doesn’t have all the answers. Instead, she offers practical advice, road tested in her own life, to help white folks move beyond the performative and into a genuinely anti-racist life. Shelly is the author of Witnessing Whiteness and Living In The Tension and co-author of Being White Today, A Roadmap For Positive Anti-racist Life. She’s also a professor of education and workshop coordinator who spent 15 years co-producing “Unmasking Whiteness,” a four-day institute for the L.A.-based organization Alliance of White Anti-Racist Everywhere (AWARE), where she led white folks into a deeper understanding of their relationship with race, whiteness, and systemic racism.
“How do [we] pay attention to the on-the-ground politics of identity,” Shelly asks, “while keeping a strong hand on what we lose if we don’t hang on to the deep spiritual core of humanity?” That inquiry is the soul of the work for white people, work that’s often abandoned after a flurry of self-shaming. The turning point for Shelly came with a heart-centered invitation to accountability in the 1990s. “I was introduced to this work in a way that didn't ask me to see myself as a bad human.”
Make no mistake: the work of dismantling whiteness is discombobulating for white folks. “It took me a while to get to the point where I was equally balancing these structural issues we need to pay attention to versus the more personal orientation,” says Shelly. She’s dedicated to helping white folks navigate our own zigzagging paths––and reminding us that the work of dismantling whiteness is never finished. “This is a rallying cry!” she says. “White folks need to have a different model; [they] need to know what they can aim toward because that's the only thing that's gonna get us up and moving!”
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Witnessing Whiteness: The Need to Talk About Race and How to Do It
Living In The Tension: The Quest for a Spiritualized Racial Justice
Being White Today, A Roadmap For Positive Anti-racist Life
Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria?
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
GUEST CONTACT AND BIO
Shelly Tochluk is a professor of education at Mount Saint Mary’s University–Los Angeles. She is the author of Witnessing Whiteness: The Journey Toward Racial Awareness and Antiracist Action (3rd Edition), Living in the Tension: The Quest for a Spiritualized Racial Justice, and co-author of Being White Today: A Roadmap for a Positive Antiracist Life. Shelly volunteers with AWARE-LA (Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere-Los Angeles), and for 15 years she co-produced their 4-day institute, Unmasking Whiteness, which leads white people into a deeper understanding of their personal relationship to race, whiteness, and systemic racism.
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