Table Of ContentUnderstanding
White Privilege
Knowingly and unknowingly we all grapple with race every day.
Understanding White Privilege delves into the complex interplay between
race, power, and privilege in both organizations and private life. It offers
an unflinching look at how ignorance can perpetuate privilege, and offers
practical and thoughtful insights into how people of all races can work
to break this cycle. Based on thirty years of work in diversity in colleges,
universities, and corporations, Frances Kendall candidly invites readers to
think personally about how race—theirs and others’—frames experiences
and relationships, focusing squarely on white privilege and its implications
for building authentic relationships across race.
This much-anticipated revised edition includes two full new chapters,
one on white women and another extending the discussion on race. It
continues the important work of the first, deepening our knowledge
of the recurring history on which cross-race relationship issues exist.
Kendall’s book provides readers with a more meaningful understanding of
white privilege and equips them with strategies for making personal and
organizational changes.
Frances E. Kendall is a nationally known consultant who focuses on
organizational change and communication, specializing in issues of
diversity, social justice, and white privilege.
The Teaching/Learning Social Justice Series
Edited by Lee Anne Bell, Barnard College, Columbia University
Critical Race Counterstories along the Chicana/Chicano Educational Pipeline
Tara J. Yosso
Understanding White Privilege: Creating Pathways to Authentic Relationships Across Race,
Second Edition
Frances E. Kendall
Elusive Justice: Wrestling with Difference and Educational Equity in Everyday Practice
Thea Renda Abu El-Haj
Revealing the Invisible: Confronting Passive Racism in Teacher Education
Sherry Marx
Telling Stories to Change the World: Global Voices on the Power of Narrative to Build
Community and Make Social Justice Claims
Edited by Rickie Solinger, Madeline Fox and Kayhan Irani
Educator Activists: Breaking Past Limits
Edited by Catherine Marshall and Amy L. Anderson
Interpreting National History: Race, Identity, and Pedagogy in Classrooms and Communities
Terrie Epstein
Social Justice, Peace, and Environmental Education Standards
Julie Andrzejewski, Marta P. Baltodano, and Linda Symcox
History as Art, Art as History: Contemporary Art and Social Studies Education
Dipti Desai, Jessica Hamlin, and Rachel Mattson
Storytelling for Social Justice: Connecting Narrative and the Arts in Antiracist Teaching
Lee Anne Bell
Promoting Diversity and Social Justice: Educating People from Privileged Groups, Second
Edition
Diane J. Goodman
Actions Speak Louder than Words: Community Activism as Curriculum
Celia Oyler
Practice What You Teach: Social Justice Education in the Classroom and the Streets
Bree Picower
Understanding
White Privilege
Creating Pathways to Authentic
Relationships Across Race
Second Edition
Frances E. Kendall
Second edition published 2013
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2013 Taylor & Francis
The right of Frances E. Kendall to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him/her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition published by Routledge 2006
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Kendall, Frances E.
Understanding white privilege : creating pathways to authentic
relationships across race / by Frances Kendall. – 2nd ed.
p. cm. – (Teaching/learning social justice series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Whites – Race identity. 2. United States – Race relations.
3. Race discrimination – United States. I. Title.
HT1575.K456 2012
305.809–dc23 2012016288
ISBN: 978-0-415-87426-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-87427-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-96103-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Minion
by HWA Text and Data Management, London
This book is dedicated to the women and men of color who have entered
into authentic relationships with me because, as Adrienne Rich says, “we
can count on so few people to go that hard way with us.”
ContEnts
Series Editor’s Introduction ix
Acknowledgments xi
Preface to the Second Edition xiii
Chapter 1 Beginning with Ourselves: The Importance of Doing
Our Personal Work 1
Chapter 2 What’s In It for Us? Why We Would Explore What It
Means to Be White 19
Chapter 3 What Does It Mean to Be White? 41
Chapter 4 Understanding White Privilege 60
Chapter 5 How White Women Reinforce the Supremacy of
Whiteness 78
Chapter 6 Barriers to Clarity: What Keeps White People from
Being Able to See Our Whiteness and, Therefore, Our
Privilege? 96
Chapter 7 Now that (I Think) I Understand White Privilege,
What Do I Do? 116
Chapter 8 Talking about Race: What If They Call Me a Racist? 138
Chapter 9 Talking about Whiteness and Being White 156
Chapter 10 Becoming an Ally and Building Authentic Relationships
Across Race: The Challenge and Necessity of Making
Race Our Issue 171
Notes 192
Bibliography 198
Index 207
sEriEs Editor’s introdUCtion
I have been eagerly waiting for Francie Kendall to write about her life-
long work on white privilege. Understanding White Privilege: Creating
Pathways to Authentic Relationships Across Race has been well worth the wait.
Kendall has written a compelling and highly readable account of her own
coming to consciousness about racism as a white woman, and what she
has learned along the way about our role as white people in supporting
and perpetuating it. Through her long years of experience as an activist
and educator/trainer she has collected a vivid array of stories and examples
delineating how white institutions and individuals consciously and
unconsciously, overtly and tacitly, support a system that benefits white
people at the expense of people of color. These grounded examples hold
up a mirror in which white people can recognize our complicity in the
“spirit-murdering” system that is racism.
While direct and clear in her indictment of racism and white privilege,
Kendall is also a sympathetic and trustworthy guide for how white
people can work against these systems. She models the humility and
continuous learning required to resist constant recruitment back into
the “institutionalized dominance of whiteness” if we are to find muscular
ways to resist and challenge its hegemony. With humor, compassion,
and responsibility for “my people”, Kendall combines unwavering honesty
with encouragement for the hard work required to be effective antiracists.
Kendall has clearly earned the trust of friends and colleagues of color
whose stories she has learned from and honors in the retelling. For any
person who yearns for guidance in how to be a reliable and effective
ally in the struggle against racism, Kendall serves as an authentic and
experienced role model.
Description:Knowingly and unknowingly we all grapple with race every day. Understanding White Privilege delves into the complex interplay between race, power, and privilege in both organizations and private life. It offers an unflinching look at how ignorance can perpetuate privilege, and offers practical and t
