The value of White Accountability Groups

Natalie Jacklin-Chetty

At various points in my life as a young White adult South African, I grappled with the racial and social justice impact of apartheid in South Africa, and I knew which side of history I wanted to be on as we moved into our new democracy. I was drawn into the work of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, primarily because I wanted to learn how to facilitate and support others to have deeper conversations about race as we tried to heal from the devastation of racism in our country.

It was only in my later years that I started to understand on a personal level how I had been impacted by apartheid and racism, and, to my own shame and horror, the ways in which I had subtly internalised White supremacy and racism, even when I thought I was standing against it. Much of this learning came about through the loving and bold feedback I received from Black friends, family, and colleagues, as well as perspectives I was hearing from people I interacted with in workshops. I also started to recognise that I could not only depend on the feedback from Black people in my life but that I needed to do my own internal work. I realised that my effectiveness as a DEI practitioner had to include my ability to collaborate with other White people to really challenge racism in ourselves, as well as use our racial privilege to confront racism in our families, workplaces, and communities.

It was this awareness that led me to acknowledge the importance of White people introspecting together, and educating ourselves and other White people through White accountability groups. I have been working with White accountability groupings in one way or another since 2010. The small group I have been a founding member of since 2012 is called White Work SA.

From the article titled “White Work South Africa: Invisible Backpack of White Privilege,” our intentions are to:

• Continue to deepen our understanding of how to own, accept, and make conscious decisions about how to use our White privilege to play a constructive role in South Africa.

• Continue to recognise and confront racism in ourselves.

• Recognise and challenge racism in our interactions with others.

• Increase our skills in effectively engaging other White people in conversations about White privilege and racism, with the goal of increasing the number of White people who are actively confronting these issues.

Over the years, we have allowed ourselves the flexibility to focus on specific issues and areas of personal and professional work. We have gone through periods of meeting regularly and other periods of meeting less frequently. When we do meet, we always connect with the intentions stated above and try to balance our personal work with the work we do with other White people. Some of our achievements include:

• Facilitating conversations with White people on issues of whiteness, rank, power, and privilege, internal superiority, and responses to specific events and movements such as Black Lives Matter.

• Facilitating conversations with White people about our work, while our Black colleagues facilitate conversations with Black people about their work, and then bringing the groups together for interactive conversation (My work, Your work, Our Work).

• Producing a South African version of the Invisible Backpack of White Privilege. The original US version was written by Peggy McIntosh in 1989.

• Producing various reflections and guides based on our own work, including tips for starting a White work group, emerging practices for White people and supporting ourselves in this work.

• Producing a model of how we have observed our own and other White people’s consciousness around self and racism develop and evolve (entitled Consciousness Journey for White People: A Model for the South African context)

All these resources can be accessed on the Journey to Remember website.

The importance of this group for my own anti-racism work has been vast. It has provided me with a place where I can critically engage myself: how I am in my interracial relationships; examining my unconscious biases and making choices about how I want to educate and engage with other White people; as well as the macro social justice issues we continue to encounter in our South African and global work in Mandate Molefi.

For more information on how you can setting up your own White Accountability Group or to discuss White accountability further, please email whiteworkinsa@gmail.com .