6 ways we cause racist harm | cultural coherence

Once we learn to notice these six ways, we can change them.

1	take up too much space
2	take up too little space
3	move too quickly
4	move too slowly
5	expect too much of people of color
6	expect too little of ourselves

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We take up too much space

Take up more space than we need, forcing people of color to the margins.

Learn what Shawn realized after he didn’t move aside for a Latinx* cyclist who needed to pass him on the sidewalk in an area where there was road construction.

*Shawn uses the term Latinx, a gender neutral version of Latino/Latina.

We take up too little space

Shrink away from opportunities to disrupt harm to people of color.

Notice how Erin’s body shrinks as she remembers a missed opportunity to disrupt racist harm when a white colleague misidentifies a birth worker of color* on a tour of a birthing location.

*Erin uses the term body of culture based on her training with Resmaa Menakem, who uses this term in place of person of color.

We move too quickly

Move without pausing to consider the presence and needs of people of color.

Find out how Delaney responded to feedback from a Black colleague after she caused racist harm by moving too quickly in a meeting.

We move too slowly

Freeze or stall when there’s an opportunity to disrupt harm to people of color.

Hear Sara describe a time she wanted but failed to interrupt a fellow white woman causing racist harm to a Native organizer in a community care circle she facilitated.

We expect too much of people of color

Expect people of color to take care of us and our feelings.

Find out what Jessica learned when a Black colleague responded differently than she expected after she started crying in a meeting when the topic or racial discrimination came up.

We expect too little of ourselves

Act as if it is not our role to invest in relationships with fellow white people, offer each other feedback, or disrupt harm to people of color.

See if you can relate to Scott’s assumption that “it didn’t feel like it was my role” to intervene when a fellow white person caused harm at an environmental justice event. Hear what he learned from observing a fellow white man in the audience who did intervene.

Where do these patterns come from?

Our white-bodied European and European-descended ancestors used pseudoscience and religion to fabricate the concept of race and a racial hierarchy in which people with lighter skin are considered superior to people with darker skin.

Our people have used these false beliefs to justify violence toward people of color over the past 600+ years. This includes the collective and intergenerational traumas of Indigenous land theft, colonization, attempted genocide, enslavement of African peoples, forced assimilation of Indigenous peoples through boarding schools, Jim Crow segregation, redlining, mass incarceration, exploitation of immigrants, Japanese American internment camps, and more.

Why do they persist?

We have not practiced being aware of intergenerational racist harm, and have even been taught by elders to deny the presence of race and racist harm. Many of us grew up hearing well intentioned but false claims, such as “we don’t see color” and “the color of a person’s skin doesn’t matter.”

Not surprisingly, when reminded of our white racial identity, our bodies perceive it as a threat to our worth and ability to belong. In an attempt to make the discomfort of this perceived threat go away, our nervous systems respond defensively:

energy goes up to resist the challenge to our our belief that we are a good white person, or
energy goes down to avoid experiencing a discomfort we haven’t been taught, or had modeled, how to address non-defensively.

What is their impact?

These six patterns along with our defensive responses communicate a desire to continue to receive the unearned advantages of being white and exert control over people of color, as white people have done since the invention of whiteness.

The historical context of colonization, land theft and enslavement remain relevant today because our cultural community of white people hasn’t adequately acknowledged and repaired these collective harms we have caused people of color over the past 600+ years. Until we do, we will continue to perpetuate them in our culture, institutions, families and relationships.

How do we reverse them?

Our cultural community of white people needs specific practices that elders pass down to us and that we pass down to our children to unlearn the harmful beliefs, behaviors, and body responses set in motion over the past 600+ years. The good news is, it’s not only the humane thing to do, it improves our own lives and relationships.

In 2011, Robin DiAngelo coined the term white fragility to refer to the ways our hypersensitivity to racial stress impairs our ability to be in relationship with people of color. Cultural Coherence creates resources to help white people address this hypersensitivity by breaking it down into eight defensive responses using the teachings of Interpersonal Neurobiology, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, and Somatic Abolitionism. Our resources create a framework to help us see and change our harmful beliefs, behaviors, and body responses that underlie the defensiveness DiAngelo points to in this term.Our resource, antiracist body checks is a step-by-step guide to help us notice and change our harmful patterns.

Reversing our own patterns of racist harm brings us into more authentic relationships with our bodies, the land we live on, and fellow white people. We often find our relationships with people of color improve as well, but not because we’re helping them, rather because we’re more aware of our white racial identity and cultural community, and begin to cause less racist harm to them. Members of our community are often surprised and delighted to find that learning to prevent, disrupt and repair the racist harm we ourselves cause, though challenging, is often deeply enjoyable.

We hope you’ll join us.

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Antiracist Resources for White People

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