Again Awake: A White Researcher’s Iterative Positioning for Entering Black Spaces

Abstract

In this blend of critical annotation and personal reflection, the author narratively frames a selection of works comprising a contextualized reading list for White researchers confronting and positioning their whiteness for the first time. Built around 21 influential texts, this personalized collection of what to read and possible directions for contemplation reflects one educator’s awakening to the crucial situating of White research in Black spaces. The texts include academic journal articles, magazine pieces, and book chapters covering topical and methodological considerations, in addition to monographs and popular press books. The narrative and annotation are interwoven, creating a mini literature review that is grounded in the author’s iterative forays into research with Black students as her own awareness of race as a power construct (Kendi, 2019) and of her whiteness are continually challenged and developed through classroom, community, and campus experiences. This iterative process is necessary and natural, but requires a zigging and zagging of racial consciousness for which semester-length course models and individual books do not automatically provide adequate guidance. The intended audience for this paper is any graduate student or professional researcher who is taking on not only the steep climb of antiracist activism out in the world, but also the internal, sincere, and cyclical self-education that comes with authentic racial awakening.