ccasionally a well-minded person will tell us, "I like what you are doing with your organization, but you should pick another name." I have to smile when I hear this. I know what they are trying to say. Our name invokes images of white supremacy. That’s far from our purpose, of course. But if we knew our name raised these images in people’s minds, why did we choose it? The question invites an explanation.

Taken at face value, our name is rather simple. We believe there is something called white American culture, and we study that something. So we call ourselves Center for the Study of White American Culture. It simply describes what we do, just like the names of thousands of organizations in this country. In fact, when we considered alternative names, we found we really couldn’t come up with another without somehow making our purpose and mission more obscure. True, many other organizations do that as well, but we didn’t feel a misleading name would suit our purposes. We feel good about saying what we do.

As it turns out, our name gives us an edge sometimes. We show up in multiracial contexts, at conferences, in resource listings, that sort of thing. On seeing our name, people often have to think twice. What is an organization like that doing in a place like this?

"There is another model. This third model says that you can be white, intentionally, consciously and with some pride, and also be nonracist. You can look at the collective action of your people and hope that they might learn to live in a multiracial society without having to dominate it, either consciously or unconsciously."

One of our board members, an African American woman, tells of being at a conference with sample copies of our newsletter on which our name is noticeably written. A white woman standing close by kept sneaking peeks at the material, but never gained the courage to ask. On other occasions people (invariably they are white people) have such a toxic reaction to our name they can’t begin to listen to what we are doing. What’s going on here?

It’s simple. In our society, particularly among white people, we only have two models of white consciousness. The first model says that white identity, white consciousness, and the very notion of whiteness necessarily require a self-assumed superiority. There’s a lot of history behind this model. It doesn’t come out of thin air.

The alternative model is best described as unconsciousness. People who subscribe to this model, probably most white people in the country, try to minimize the importance of whiteness, saying perhaps, that they are not white, or that they are colorblind, or that white is just a skin color.

There is another model. This third model says that you can be white, intentionally, consciously and with some pride, and also be nonracist. You can look at the collective action of your people and hope that they might learn to live in a multiracial society without having to dominate it, either consciously or unconsciously. People of color have long known this possibility existed, even if examples of its practice were rare. Why is it white people have such a hard time grasping this notion? Conspiracy enthusiasts might want to have a go at that question.

It’s hard to change something when you can’t even name it. Like the concept in some religions that the name of god(s) should not be pronounced, the mention of whiteness invokes taboos and recriminations from colorblind white people. Perhaps we should fear naming god, but to fear naming whiteness only preserves its power and puts us in a position where we are unable to halt its aberrant and toxic effects. It forces us to choose between an unacknowledged self-hatred for our culture, or to gravitate to the falsely aggrandized self-image perpetuated by white racists. Many of our white youth, seeking any positive image they can find, choose the latter course for lack of an alternative.

We look forward to a day when we can talk about whiteness, about being white, and how we can encourage a positive role among white people in a multiracial society without having to wade through the taboos, the racist baggage, and the the lack of vision we see today.

That’s why we chose the name. It’s part of the work.

Jeff Hitchcock can be contacted at jeffhitchcock@euroamerican.org.