Critical Whiteness Studies as Self-Work for White Nonprofit and Government Workers

Abstract

Social equity researchers in public administration regularly refer to self-work as important or even crucial for White public servants seeking to authentically engage in racial justice efforts. Yet no papers in the field define self-work nor deliberately provide tools for White people to do it. Self-work for White racial justice advocates acknowledges racialized trauma and gives White public servants tools to understand White double-consciousness. I develop a model to support the argument that Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS)—the subset of critical race theory dedicated to understanding how the White racial identity contributes to racial hierarchy—is a powerful tool for self-work of White public servants. CWS has four assumptions: (1) Whiteness as property, (2) racial denial, (3) White privilege, and (4) the mutation of Whiteness. Each of these is based on the premise that White people are separate from their Whiteness, allowing them to engage with others who wish to end racism by adopting strategies to reconstruct or abolish Whiteness in society. In conclusion, I use critical autoethnography of racialized trauma to assess how CWS helped me become a better White public servant.

Keywords:

• Critical Whiteness Studies
• public administration
• racial trauma
• social equity
• self-work

Acknowledgments

Thank you to the Omaha Community Council for Racial Justice and Reconciliation and especially Barry Thomas for their contributions to my understanding of how White people can meaningfully engage in racial justice and self-work.