Are Younger People Less Racist?

Whiteness Project is an interactive investigation into how Americans who identify as white, or partially white, understand and experience their race.

Do you notice that people muse that racism will die out because "young people aren't racist" and that "racism will die out when more old people die."

This is a fallacy. We are all enculturated into a hierarchy based on race.

The Whiteness Project defines their work:

Whiteness Project is conducting interviews with people from all walks of life and localities in which they are asked about their relationship to, and their understanding of, their own whiteness. Each video interview is paired with a statistic that provides a greater societal context and offers an opportunity for self-reflection by the audience on their own thoughts about race.

Leilani, 17 believes that racism will go away if we stop talking about it. “Stop talking about racism. Just stop.”

Lena, 21, can pass as white. She asked her Arab-American father to not attend her basketball games because students would make fun of her. She shares “I think it’s much better for you if you look white.”

Nathan, 17, shares that "In America now being a white Christian is the hardest thing. Anything white people say about Black people is turned back against us. White people are put into bad situations like in Ferguson." He believes "white people are misunderstood.”

Makenna, 21, believes that she doesn't see color unless she has to physically describe a person, and that "our problems don't start out as race problems but become race problems because everything is made into a racist something now.”

The Whiteness Project illustrates that we have all inherited a system of hierarchy based on race, one which we can't disrupt without consciousness of whiteness.

The recent five-part series Let's talk about whiteness unpacks this for more learning and unlearning.

Fellow leaders and learners, I wish you courage and resilience for the journey.

Deanna Signature

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Post by Deanna Rolffs (they/them)
December 14, 2022

Deanna Rolffs (they/them) is a strategist, facilitator, coach, systems thinker, and Process Consultant who works with executive leaders and teams at the intersection of organizational theory, leadership development, justice, and equity. Their process consulting approach focuses on organizational transformation via thriving teams, brave leadership, equitable systems, and inclusive communities. Deanna served as a Senior Consultant with Design Group International since 2018, became a Senior Design Partner in 2021, and launched L3 Catalyst Group in 2023.