I grew up colourblind. Finding out about my friend’s Blackness, led to the discovery of my own whiteness. An inquiry of meaning and impact of this phenomenon that had been absent during my entire childhood and most of my teenage years began. And suddenly it was omnipresent. Suddenly racism was omnipresent. To me.

My oh-so-sacred, oh-so-exceptional and cosmopolitan hometown didn’t appear to be very progressive and open-minded, after  all. When I was presented with the racist structures underlying my city’s politics, I was disturbed. It was less of a shock, when I discovered that this was the case for the whole of my country. And my continent. For the whole of what I grew up to perceive as my world.

Racism is not an aberration, as much as I want it to be. This is probably no news to you. But maybe it is.

I am a white, straight cis woman from Europe, trying to find ways to turn my whiteness from something destructive into something productively constructive. And I could use some assistance. So, whether you know, or you don’t know, what you’re talking about: This is our chance to discuss this matter in a safe – meaning anonymous – space.

Let’s talk whiteness and racism and what it does to us. Let’s especially talk, what we can do to it.