Yes, It’s Called ‘White People School.’ Here’s What It Teaches

Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware, Word in Black

The new program challenges white Americans to rethink what they know about race, racism and reparations.

The name is supposed to get your attention: White People School.

Tamara Johnson-Shealey, the Black woman behind the provocative new initiative from the nonprofit organization Reparations Sunday, believes that dealing with the name of the project itself is a big lesson for the intended students.

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“First, you have to get beyond the shock of the name, right?” Johnson-Shealey said. “That’s been the big kicker. Like, they’re like, ‘What? What is this?’ And I think once they get past that part of it, that’s when they’re open to wanting to know more.”

Johnson-Shealey, a mediator and organizer of Reparations Sunday, is facilitating Acknowledge the Divide/White People School. It’s an initiative specifically designed for white people who want to examine what they understand — and may misunderstand — about Black Americans, racism and reparations.

“This White People School is an opportunity for white people who have a willingness — and I think that’s the bigger word — the willingness to learn,” she said. “And unlearn what they think they know … about the Black community.”

[…]

The program grew out of Johnson-Shealey’s years of conversations about race and reparations. 

Around 2017 and 2018, she and a white friend, David Slavin, conducted Facebook broadcasts discussing racism and Black-white solidarity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she joined streaming conversations on the Clubhouse app, including discussions with white women about reparations.

“We just wanted people to see that Black and white people, like, ‘We can do this,’” she said. “But we have to have very honest conversations in order to do it.”

Now she is taking that work into a more structured setting.

Learn more about the program.

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