Hello reader

WACAN is growing, slowly and surely.

But let's get real. WACAN, along with the White Anti-racist Summit, the White Privilege Conference, and the entire white anti-racist community, has a long, long way to go.

Consider WACAN. Where else can you find discussion forums and other content available to a community of racially conscious white people who see themselves engaged in a struggle for racial justice? The answer: www.stormfront.org.

Stormfront.org is a long-standing resident of the Internet and home to white supremacists. Members of Stormfront.org hold many differing opinions, but they all converge on the rightness of whiteness and the need to preserve an endangered white lifestyle and/or nationhood.

To the extent that white people supporting white supremacy is a white problem, and to the extent that we share a culture, and to the extent that we are working from a frame of struggle for racial justice, WACAN and Stormfront.org are siblings under the same paternalistic and hegemonic white culture we inhabit. Not inconceivably, some real families might have one member in WACAN and another in Stormfront.

But get ready. Here's some reality. WACAN has 1,050 members. Stormfront has 103,000. WACAN has more than 2,000 posted messages. Stromfront has over 1,000,000. More messages are posted on Stormfront every two weeks than on WACAN in its 4-year history. WACAN gains 1 new member each day. Stormfront is gaining 500 members per day. At least WACAN went international this summer. Stormfront has a high-profile Internet presence in Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Australia. See article on Stormfront.org.

So...if you're reading this, you're probably one of the committed. But we need some help. Complacency, in the face of these figures, is privilege, as if to say it does not matter who prevails in this emerging global ideological war.

WACAN and Stormfront represent two opposite poles in white culture, with the huge and largely unaffected mass of colorblind white people in the center. If that mass were the Earth, then white supremacy would be the moon, not large enough to dominate the Earth, yet pulling a constant tide. White anti-racism, by contrast, might be an orbiting object the size of say, a small house. You could see it from Earth on a good viewing night, but it wouldn't be noticed much otherwise.

During the civil rights movement, Dr. King and the SCLC explicitly strategized about a three-part model to Southern white society. What today we would call white anti-racists worked within the movement, providing resources and information. Actions and interventions were targeted to draw the ire of the avowed white supremacists, and white moderates were expected to step in and make political concessions to restore civility. This strategy worked repeatedly, though not invariably.

Fortunately, the white anti-racist community of today, like that of old, still works in alliance with communities of color. However well or poorly we may perform in the struggle, it is not us alone. Still, if we are to do our share, we might reasonably aspire to grow a hundredfold, or two.

Exercise your vision. Tell your friends to join WACAN today.

Register and attend the White Anti-racist Summit.

A faith-based caucus is organizing. Contingents from the Episcopalians and the Quakers are committed to forming the caucus, and inviting other faith-communities to join. The caucus will meet at Day One of the summit on Wednesday, April 18 for a 2-hour session. We anticipate this meeting will foster contacts and relationships that will continue throughout the conference. The caucus may play a role in activities during Day Two of the summit as well. For registration information, see http://www.wacan.org/summit_register.asp. For more information, contact Lou Schoen or Jeff Hitchcock.

Summit information page
Summit flyer

A black family sues a small town in Maine for racism, raising unresolved questions. A week later the same paper, the Portland Press Herald, ran a story about white studies raising awareness of white privilege. In Alabama, mixed dating draws mixed opinions. Florida forgoes a white man's relic and opens call for new state song.

In Tennessee and the South, the black/white income disparity is shrinking, while in New Jersey and the North, income disparities remain the same or increase. At the same time, disparities in wealth remain, as noted in the 10-year anniversary edition of a now classic work on the topic.

Last week the state of Virginia grabbed headlines as the first state to "apologize" for slavery, even though they never actually used the word "apology" in their resolution. Was it more than simply weasel words? Les Payne picks apart the story. And CURE has issued a press release asking "Virginia Remorseful But Not Responsible?"

A college instructor draws upon white supremacist ties and publishes. In New Jersey, a town stalls in issuing a permit to demonstrate to the Klan. In Florida, the Klan and the police are in uncomfortably close association. One People's Project claims a highly-placed Brooklyn family court administrator is a white supremacist. In Greenville, NC, 5 suspected white supremacists are indicted on conspiracy to kill. White prison gangs the Aryan Brotherhood and Public Enemy No. 1, grow ominous.

Whiteness and white culture have set the scene for race relations in the United States, but sometimes relations between other racial groups come to the fore. This week the Cherokee expelled descendants of black people they enslaved. The story was reported before and after the decision took place.

New book, Other People's Property: A Shadow History of Hip Hop in White America, by Jacob Tanz

A newly elected white mayor of a majority black town in Lousiana jumps into his duties. Morris Dees speaks at the University of Texas Law School. A Mississippi segregationist remains true to his beliefs. Sister Helen Prejean points to the racist nature of the criminal justice system.

Melanie Trunk discusses some things white people should remember in the workplace.

Lorenza Cooper, Jr. and Shayla Monet Corprew defend Black History Month at Virginia Tech by pointing to the prevalence of white history.

The DiversityInc white guy comments on black intellectual status, passive racism, and affirmative action.

Rekha Shankar, a high school senior and woman of color ponders the white tendency to avoid discussing race.

Mike Seate discusses the presumptions of white people about black men.

Where was the first southern white college to voluntarily integrate? Warren Wilson Junior College honors a pioneer in its history. In Jackson, Tennessee black firefighters withstood abuse to foster integration. A new book discusses the life and work of Thomas Dixon, Jr., a noted white supremacist. Another book discusses a Reconstruction era massacre in Louisiana, where 150 black men lost their lives to a white supremacist-led insurrection.