We must look directly at the ways in which this racist ideology of white supremacy, this idea that white equals better, superior, more worthy, more credible, more deserving, and more valuable actively harms anyone who does not own white privilege. If you are willing to dare to look white supremacy right in the eye and see yourself reflected back,

white silence is violence. It actively protects the system. It says I am okay with the way things are because they do not negatively affect me and because I enjoy the benefits I receive with white privilege

Tone policing in all these places is the constant judgment—or threat of judgment—on how BIPOC express themselves.

Audre Lorde said, “Revolution is not a one-time event.” Antiracism work is not a twenty-eight-day journey. It is a lifelong practice. This book presents a place to begin and to continue the work. But it requires your lifelong commitment to antioppression. This is not like reading a personal growth book, attending a spiritual retreat, or going to a

legal changes in civil rights, though extremely important, do not change the deeply held social construct that there are biologically different races and that one race is superior to the others. And as you will see throughout this book, the belief in this social construct plays out at the unconscious level, affecting thoughts and behaviors that

White supremacy is a system you have been born into. Whether or not you have known it, it is a system that has granted you unearned privileges, protection, and power.

Despite our differences in skin color, hair texture, and other physical traits, genetically, you and I are largely the same. However, because race is a deeply held social construct and because of the existence of white supremacy, you and I are not treated the same. You hold white privilege. I do not. And that makes a world of difference.

White supremacy is a system you have been born into. Whether or not you have known it, it is a system that has granted you unearned privileges, protection, and power. It is also a system that has been designed to keep you asleep and unaware of what having that privilege, protection, and power has meant for people who do not look like you.

This is commitment work. This work is hard. There is no way to sugarcoat it. White supremacy is an evil. It is a system of oppression that has been designed to give you benefits at the expense of the lives of BIPOC, and it is living inside you as unconscious thoughts and beliefs. The process of examining it and dismantling it will necessarily be