White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

by Daniel Hill

So the first reason white people experience disorientation is a lack of exposure to authentic interaction and engagement with race. For the most part, white Americans are raised in and continue to live in segregated settings. Even when a person has contact with people of color, rarely do relationships deepen to the point of exchanging meaningful ideas about the system of race. Therefore, it’s important to acknowledge our “representational and informational” segregation.3 In chapter ten, I propose a number of different ideas for reversing this trend and actively encourage finding new ways to become proximate to and to learn from those whom we are segregated from.