Training Resource 2021

WHITE SUPREMACY CULTURE

by Tema Okun and Kenneth Jones

This is a list of characteristics of white supremacist culture which show up in our

organizations. Culture is powerful precisely because it is so present and at the same time

so very difficult to name or identify. The characteristics listed below are damaging because

they are used as norms and standards without being pro-actively named or chosen by the

group. They are damaging because they promote white supremacist thinking. They are

damaging to both Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and to white people.

Organizations that are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color-led or a majority Black,

Indigenous, and People of Color can also demonstrate many damaging characteristics of

white supremacist culture.

Perfectionism

▪ little appreciation expressed among people for the work that others are doing;

appreciation that is expressed usually directed to those who get most of the credit

anyway

▪ more common is to point out either how the person or work is inadequate

▪ or even more common, to talk to others about the inadequacies of a person or their

work without ever talking directly to the person in question

▪ mistakes are seen as personal, i.e. they reflect badly on the person making them as

opposed to being seen for what they are - mistakes

▪ making a mistake is confused with being a mistake, doing wrong with being wrong

▪ little time, energy, or money put into reflection or identifying lessons learned that can

improve practice, in other words little or no learning from mistakes

▪ tendency to identify what's wrong; little ability to identify, name, and appreciate

what's right

Antidote: develop a culture of appreciation, where the organization takes time to

make sure that people's work and efforts are appreciated; develop a learning

organization, where it is expected that everyone will make mistakes and those

mistakes offer opportunities for learning; create an environment where people can

recognize that mistakes sometimes lead to positive results; separate the person

from the mistake; when offering feedback, always speak to the things that went well

before offering criticism; ask people to offer specific suggestions for how to do things

differently when offering feedback

Item No: 11a_Attach2

Meeting Date: 10/25/22

Training Resource 2021

Sense of Urgency

▪ continued sense of urgency that makes it difficult to take time to be inclusive,

encourage democratic and/or thoughtful decision-making, to think long-term, to

consider consequences

▪ frequently results in sacrificing potential allies for quick or highly visible results, for

example sacrificing interests of communities of color in order to win victories for

white people (seen as the default or norm community)

▪ reinforced by funding proposals which promise too much work for too little money

and by funders who expect too much for too little

Antidote: realistic work plans; leadership which understands that things take longer

than anyone expects; discuss and plan for what it means to set goals of inclusivity

and diversity, particularly in terms of time; learn from past experience how long

things take; write realistic funding proposals with realistic time frames; be clear

about how you will make good decisions in an atmosphere of urgency

Defensiveness

▪ the organizational structure is set up and much energy is spent trying to prevent

abuse and protect power as it exists rather than to facilitate the best out of each

person or to clarify who has power and how they are expected to use it

▪ because of either/or thinking (see below), criticism of those with power is viewed as

threatening and inappropriate (or rude)

▪ people respond to new or challenging ideas with defensiveness, making it very

difficult to raise these ideas

▪ a lot of energy in the organization is spent trying to make sure that people's feelings

aren't getting hurt or working around defensive people

▪ the defensiveness of people in power creates an oppressive culture

Antidote: understand that structure cannot in and of itself facilitate or prevent

abuse; understand the link between defensiveness and fear (of losing power, losing

face, losing comfort, losing privilege); work on your own defensiveness; name

defensiveness as a problem when it is one; give people credit for being able to

handle more than you think; discuss the ways in which defensiveness or resistance

to new ideas gets in the way of the organizational mission

Training Resource 2021

Quantity over Quality

▪ all resources of the organization are directed toward producing measurable goals

▪ things that can be measured are more highly valued than things that cannot, for

example numbers of people attending a meeting, newsletter circulation, money

spent are valued more than quality of relationships, democratic decision-making,

ability to constructively deal with conflict

▪ little or no value attached to process; if it can't be measured, it has no value

▪ discomfort with emotion and feelings

▪ no understanding that when there is a conflict between content (the agenda of the

meeting) and process (people's need to be heard or engaged), process will prevail

(for example, you may get through the agenda, but if you haven't paid attention to

people's need to be heard, the decisions made at the meeting are undermined

and/or disregarded)

Antidote: include process or quality goals in your planning; make sure your

organization has a values statement which expresses the ways in which you want to

do your work; make sure this is a living document and that people are using it in

their day to day work; look for ways to measure process goals (for example if you

have a goal of inclusivity, think about ways you can measure whether or not you

have achieved that goal); learn to recognize those times when you need to get off

the agenda in order to address people's underlying concerns

Worship of the Written Word

▪ if it's not in a memo, it doesn't exist

▪ the organization does not take into account or value other ways in which information

gets shared

▪ those with strong documentation and writing skills are more highly valued, even in

organizations where ability to relate to others is key to the mission

Antidote: take the time to analyze how people inside and outside the organization

get and share information; figure out which things need to be written down and

come up with alternative ways to document what is happening; work to recognize

the contributions and skills that every person brings to the organization (for

example, the ability to build relationships with those who are important to the

organization's mission)

Training Resource 2021

Only One Right Way

▪ the belief there is one right way to do things and once people are introduced to the

right way, they will see the light and adopt it

▪ when they do not adapt or change, then something is wrong with them (the other,

those not changing), not with us (those who 'know' the right way)

▪ similar to the missionary who does not see value in the culture of other

communities, sees only value in their beliefs about what is good

Antidote: accept that there are many ways to get to the same goal; once the group

has made a decision about which way will be taken, honor that decision and see

what you and the organization will learn from taking that way, even and especially if

it is not the way you would have chosen; work on developing the ability to notice

when people do things differently and how those different ways might improve your

approach; look for the tendency for a group or a person to keep pushing the same

point over and over out of a belief that there is only one right way and then name it;

when working with communities from a different culture than yours or your

organization's, be clear that you have some learning to do about the communities'

ways of doing; never assume that you or your organization know what's best for the

community in isolation from meaningful relationships with that community

Paternalism

▪ decision-making is clear to those with power and unclear to those without it

▪ those with power think they are capable of making decisions for and in the interests

of those without power

▪ those with power often don't think it is important or necessary to understand the

viewpoint or experience of those for whom they are making decisions

▪ those without power understand they do not have it and understand who does

▪ those without power do not really know how decisions get made and who makes

what decisions, and yet they are completely familiar with the impact of those

decisions on them

Antidote: make sure that everyone knows and understands who makes what

decisions in the organization; make sure everyone knows and understands their

level of responsibility and authority in the organization; include people who are

affected by decisions in the decision-making

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Either/Or Thinking

▪ things are either/or - good/bad, right/wrong, with us/against us

▪ closely linked to perfectionism in making it difficult to learn from mistakes or

accommodate conflict

▪ no sense that things can be both / and - always one extremity or another, little room

for middle ground

▪ results in trying to simplify complex things, for example believing that poverty is

simply a result of lack of education

▪ creates conflict and increases sense of urgency, as people feel they have to make

decisions to do either this or that, with no time or encouragement to consider

alternatives, particularly those which may require more time or resources

Antidote: notice when people use 'either/or' language and push to come up with

more than two alternatives; notice when people are simplifying complex issues,

particularly when the stakes seem high or an urgent decision needs to be made;

slow it down and encourage people to do a deeper analysis; when people are faced

with an urgent decision, take a break and give people some breathing room to think

creatively; avoid making decisions under extreme pressure

Power Hoarding

▪ little, if any, value around sharing power

▪ power seen as limited, only so much to go around

▪ those with power feel threatened when anyone suggests changes in how things

should be done in the organization, feel suggestions for change are a reflection on

their leadership

▪ those with power don't see themselves as hoarding power or as feeling threatened

▪ those with power assume they have the best interests of the organization at heart

and assume those wanting change are ill-informed, emotional, inexperienced

Antidote: include power sharing in your organization's values statement; discuss

what good leadership looks like and make sure people understand that a good

leader develops the power and skills of others; understand that change is inevitable

and challenges to your leadership can be healthy and productive; make sure the

organization is focused on the mission

Training Resource 2021

Fear of Open Conflict

▪ people in power are scared of conflict and try to ignore it or run from it

▪ when someone raises an issue that causes discomfort, the response is to blame the

person for raising the issue rather than to look at the issue which is actually causing

the problem

▪ emphasis on being polite

▪ equating the raising of difficult issues with being impolite, rude, or out of line

Antidote: role play ways to handle conflict before conflict happens; distinguish

between being polite and raising hard issues; don't require those who raise hard

issues to raise them in 'acceptable' ways, especially if you are using the ways in

which issues are raised as an excuse not to address the issues being raised; once a

conflict is resolved, take the opportunity to revisit it and see how it might have been

handled differently

Individualism

▪ little experience or comfort working as part of a team

▪ people in organization believe they are responsible for solving problems alone

▪ accountability, if any, goes up and down, not sideways to peers or to those the

organization is set up to serve

▪ desire for individual recognition and credit leads to isolation

▪ competition more highly valued than cooperation and where cooperation is valued,

little time or resources devoted to developing skills in how to cooperate

▪ creates a lack of accountability, as the organization values those who can get things

done on their own without needing supervision or guidance

Antidote: include teamwork as an important value in your values statement; make

sure the organization is working towards shared goals and people understand how

working together will improve performance; evaluate people's ability to work in a

team as well as their ability to get the job done; make sure that credit is given to all

those who participate in an effort, not just the leaders or most public person; make

people accountable as a group rather than as individuals; create a culture where

people bring problems to the group; use staff meetings as a place to raise issues

and solve problems, not just a place to report activities

Training Resource 2021

I'm the only one

▪ connected to individualism, the belief that if something is going to get done right, I

have to do it

▪ little or no ability to delegate work to others

Antidote: evaluate people based on their ability to delegate to others; evaluate

people based on their ability to work as part of a team to accomplish shared goals

Progress is Bigger, More

▪ observed in systems of accountability and ways we determine success

▪ progress is an organization which expands (adds staff, adds projects) or develops

the ability to serve more people (regardless of how well they are being served)

▪ gives no value, not even negative value, to its cost, for example, increased

accountability to funders as the budget grows, ways in which those we serve may

be exploited, excluded, or underserved as we focus on how many we are serving

instead of quality of service or values created by the ways in which we serve

Antidote: create Seventh Generation thinking by asking “how the actions of the

group now will affect people seven generations from now”; make sure that any

cost/benefit analysis includes all the costs, not just the financial ones, for example

the cost in morale, the cost in credibility, the cost in the use of resources; include

process goals in your planning, for example, make sure that your goals speak to

how you want to do your work, not just what you want to do; ask those you work

with and for to evaluate your performance

Training Resource 2021

Objectivity

▪ the belief that there is such a thing as being objective

▪ the belief that emotions are inherently destructive, irrational, and should not play a

role in decision-making or group process

▪ invalidating people who show emotion

▪ requiring people to think in a linear fashion and ignoring or invalidating those who

think in other ways

▪ impatience with any thinking that does not appear 'logical' to those with power

Antidote: realize that everybody has a world view and that everybody's worldview

affects the way they understand things; realize this means you too; push yourself to

sit with discomfort when people are expressing themselves in ways which are not

familiar to you; assume that everybody has a valid point and your job is to

understand what that point is

Right to Comfort

▪ the belief that those with power have a right to emotional and psychological comfort

(another aspect of valuing 'logic' over emotion)

▪ scapegoating those who cause discomfort

▪ equating individual acts of unfairness against white people with systemic racism

which daily targets people of color

Antidote: understand that discomfort is at the root of all growth and learning;

welcome it as much as you can; deepen your political analysis of racism and

oppression so you have a strong understanding of how your personal experience

and feelings fit into a larger picture; don't take everything personally

One of the values of listing the characteristics of white supremacist culture is to point out

how organizations which unconsciously use these characteristics as their norms and

standards make it difficult, if not impossible, to open the door to other cultural norms and

standards. As a result many of our organizations, while saying we want to be multicultural,

really only allow other people and cultures to come in if they adapt or conform to already

existing cultural norms. Being able to identify and name the cultural norms and

standards you want is a first step to making room for a truly multicultural organization.

An excerpt from

Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups (2001).