hite Americans have a habit. We don't refer to our racial identity in a self-conscious way. What do I mean by that? How often have you seen statements written by white Americans using the pronouns "I," "we," and "us" in a racial context? It's seldom done.

True, white supremacists use a racially self-conscious style of writing. But white Americans who do not intend to be racist generally write about racial experience in a way that separates the writer from the racial experience he or she is describing. The sentence you just read is a case in point. Let me rephrase it. As a white American writing about white Americans, I notice we often do not describe our racial experience in personal terms. Yes, that's better. A little more personal, as if I am really part of what I write about.

bell hooks has written:

Many scholars, critics, and writers preface their work by stating that they are white, as though mere acknowledgement of this fact were sufficient, as though it conveyed all we need to know of standpoint, motivation, direction...Yet none of these [scholars, critics and writers] write articles reflecting on their critical process, showing how their attitudes have changed.

From "Critical Interrogation: Talking Race, Resisting Racism." Yearning. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1990.

"In a thousand words of intellectual analysis about race and racism, white American authors are unlikely to share ten words of feelings having to do with the fact of their being white."

And you know, it's true. We don't get down to the nitty-gritty, whether it's rolling in the mud or telling our highest aspirations. We write about "us" as if we are simply another "them." Few white Americans really come forth and say how we feel about these issues. In a thousand words of intellectual analysis about race and racism, white American authors are unlikely to share ten words of feelings having to do with the fact of their being white.

All of which is to say, we encourage the personal expression and ownership of feelings about race and whiteness in the articles and postings at this website. It is difficult, if not impossible to work under the constraints of colorblind rhetoric when talking about issues of color. So, we encourage use the terms "I," "we," and "our" where needed to describe the racial experience of the writers. Writers of color have long made use of this convention when articulating their perspectives. We encourage white Americans to do the same.

This is not intended to be exclusionary. It does not mean Not-to-Be-Read-by-People-of-Color. Everything here is intended for a multiracial audience. Our subject matter is whiteness, but people of any color can and do have opinions and insights on this topic. And people can learn about whiteness both from their racial peers and from people of a different racial background.

There is a place for colorblind statements. The last sentence in the paragraph above is an example. But colorblindness that permits white authors to escape from detailing their inner experience and feelings, or that fails to call upon common elements of white experience is, at heart, exclusionary. It excludes people of color, and white people, from understanding and discussing what really underlies the experience of being white in America.

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