"A Toggle Switch Between 'Bland Nothingness' and 'Racist Hatred'"

"We lack more meaningful senses of white identity, even though some whites, throughout history, have been committed to fighting racism and advocating for social justice. In the 19th century, abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and John Brown helped end slavery. In the early 20th century, Mary White Ovington helped found the N.A.A.C.P. Lillian Smith depicted the South’s nexus of 'sin, sex, segregation' in her writings. White Communists, priests and rabbis stood beside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement. Where would America be without these white allies of black freedom fighters?
"Given that the monolithic definition of whiteness is antithetical to social justice, perhaps we should encourage a rebellion against it."

In The New York Times, Nell Irvin Painter argues that regarding race today, "[t]he essential problem is the inadequacy of white identity."