Subject Guides: Anti-Racism Resources: Whiteness, White Privilege & White Supremacy

Whiteness, White Privilege & White Supremacy

City of Winnipeg. (2023, May 8). Addressing whiteness as a barrier to progress on anti-racism with Dr. Ian Whetter [Video]. https://youtu.be/8Y-Efnqtkk0?si=Ty-ZgSlI2edbpuVW

Fighting for an end to racism requires understanding and addressing whiteness, white supremacy, white privilege and white fragility. Dr. Ian Whetter explores these concepts, how they get in the way of anti-racism and actions we can take to address them.

According to Peggy McIntosh, white privilege is the "unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits and choices bestowed upon people solely because they are white. White people who experience such privilege usually do so without being conscious of it" (as cited in W. K. Kellogg Foundation, n.d.).

Save the Tears: White Woman's Guide
From the author, Tatiana Mac: "If you're a white woman who is watching the world burn because of police murder against Black people, and you don't know what to do, I wrote you a guide."
What is White Privilege, Really?
Recognizing white privilege begins with truly understanding the term itself. From Teaching Tolerance. By Cory Collins, 2018.
Whiteness Project
Whiteness Project is an interactive investigation into how Americans who identify as white, or partially white, understand and experience their race.
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
A 1989 essay that provides examples of the privilege white people experience in everyday life.
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race
For years, racism has been defined by the violence of far-right extremists, but a more insidious kind of prejudice can be found where many least expect it – at the heart of respectable society.

eBook: White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo; Michael Eric Dyson (Foreword by)
The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.
eBook: White Like Me by Tim Wise
From "one of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege in the nation" (Michael Eric Dyson), this now-classic is "a brilliant and personal deconstruction of institutionalized white supremacy in the United States.

The Root. (2018, August 18). How white privilege works: Unpack that [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/4I84jxCNsmo

White supremacy is the idea that white people and their ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions are superior to all other people (Dismantling Racism Works, 2021).

According to The CARED Collective, white supremacy is often "connected to extremist, right-wing hate groups. However, the term is often used in anti-racist work to force an acknowledgement of the belief systems underlying whiteness. Thus, white supremacy is seen as the ideology which perpetuates white racism."

Not Just in America: Hate and White Supremacy Have Always Been Just as Prevalent in Canada as in the “Land of the Free”
QAnon, Soldiers of Odin, and the KKK are just a few of the conspiracy and supremacy groups operating in Canada, while the infamous Proud Boys call this country home

Singh, L. (2021, January). Let’s call it what It Is, white supremacy: A little late with Lilly Singh [Video]. https://youtu.be/eHY_KXEWBUY

Lilly breaks in her new rant room to talk about Black Lives Matter protests, the U.S. Capitol riot and her hopes for love and light in 2021.

Deconstructing Whiteness

The Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre: Whiteness
The Research Centre undertakes research on contemporary civil liberties and human rights issues.
Southern Poverty Law Center: Why Talk about Whiteness?
Emily Chiariello is a white anti-bias educator. While the material in this story is relevant to all readers, many of the challenges the author poses are directed at white readers, hence the use of “we” and “us” in certain places.
The Whiteness Project
"Until you can recognize that you are living a racialized life and you’re having racialized experiences every moment of every day, you can’t actually engage people of other races around the idea of justice" - Whitney Dow, documentary filmmaker, director and producer of the The Whiteness Project
University of Toronto: Deconstructing Whiteness and White Privilege
Calgary Anti-Racism Education (CARED) Collective: Understanding Whiteness

General Commission on Religion and Race of The UMC. (2017). Deconstructing white privilege with Dr. Robin DiAngelo [Video]. https://youtu.be/DwIx3KQer54?si=aJx1RaB0AinybCUF

Dr. Robin DiAngelo is the author of "What Does it Mean to Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy" and has been an anti-racist educator, and has heard justifications of racism by white men and women in her workshops for over two decades.