White people's activism in US‐ based social movements for racial justice

Abstract

AbstractThere is a long history of small groups of white activists engaging in social movements for racial justice led by Black Indigenous and People of Color in the United States. Yet organized white antiracism has received much less study than white racism. From forging antiracist identities to crafting racial justice organizing strategies, white people's involvement in BIPOC‐led liberation struggles has proven both promising and problematic. This article explores what scholars know about white people's involvement in US‐ based racial justice efforts in order to pose central questions and quandaries for future study. It focuses on white antiracist activism in the United States beginning in the Civil Rights era. During the late 20th century, US‐based racial justice campaigns became fragmented across diverse networks and issue areas making it harder to locate groups of white people collectively aligning with a visible and unified social movement for racial justice. This appears to be shifting. Racial logics and racist regimes have proven themselves eminently flexible, and investigating how white people have tried to join social movements for racial justice illuminates important areas for future study.