• participate in common practices;
• depend on one another;
• make decisions together;
• identify themselves as part of something larger than the sum of their individual relationships; and
• commit themselves for the long term to their own, one another's, and the group's well-being.

From Creating Community Anywhere: Finding Support and Connection in a Fragmented World by Carolyn R. Shaffer & Kristin Anundsen (New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1994).

White people have formed communities, but all too often these communities exclude people of color on an equal footing. Anti-racist white people face a quandry. Does one build authentic, caring, and supportive relationships with people of color, knowing that doing so will marginalize oneself in the white community? Or, does one seek community within the white community, knowing that the "community" is based on a constricted set of values that, at their heart, support racism? "Community" is a problematic thing for white anti-racists. We want it, but our culture makes it hard to achieve in a real way.