Barbara Beckwith

Join me in writing about your experiences growing up, with a focus on your awareness (or not) of race, racism, and white privilege.

People of color have written essays and memoirs about growing up with African, Latino/a, Native, Arab, Asian, South Asian, or Pacific Islander heritages in a country dominated by “white” (European heritage) people.

White people, however, rarely look at or write about the experience — and privileges of growing up White in America.

Bernestine Singley’s When Race Becomes Real: Black and White Writers Confront their Personal Histories (Lawrence Hill Books: 2002) showed me that both white people and people of color are willing to examine their lives with regard to race, racism, and white skin privilege. So I started this grassroots project to collect these stories and I invite you to contribute yours.

As a co-facilitator of the adult education workshop, “White People Challenging Racism: Moving From Talk to Action,” I encourage participants, both white people and people of color, to write about their personal experiences in order to start the process of looking at racism and white skin privilege straight in they eye. I ask their permission to share their writings, and several have agreed to posting their pieces on this website as inspiration to others.

I welcome people of all heritages, ages, genders (men: please contribute!), and levels of writing expertise. Pieces can be short or long, as you can see from the pieces below that I’ve already collected. If you are interested in putting your experience down “in black and white,” please contact me at beckwithb@aol.com