Lou Snead

As a retired Presbyterian minister, I wrote this book out of my conviction that racism continues to exist in America in ways that many Whites either conveniently ignore or do not recognize because of the predominance of our white identity. My experience serving as a church pastor and working on community racial reconciliation initiatives has led me to realize that White racial biases continue to be endemic in America even among otherwise moral people. I argue that the pathway to overcoming the persistent and residual forms of racism in America begins with more Whites recognizing our learned racial biases and our White privileges instead of seeking to be color-blind or thinking that racism no longer exists in our nation. By confessing my struggle to liberate myself from my inherited racism, I promote an awareness transformation process that examines the root causes of racism that continue to exist today. I believe that ending racism in America will require courageous Whites to engage in both a self-examination of inherited racial biases and a commitment to addressing the institutional racism that infects our nation’s economic and political policies and practices.