Contents
Author’s Note
Introduction
Chapter 1: Silence(d)
Chapter 2: Performance Chores, Perfection, & Privilege
Chapter 3: White Lies
Chapter 4: Go White-Savior Yourself
Chapter 5: KKK & Kale Smoothies
Chapter 6: What About the Boys?
Chapter 7: “Us” vs. “Them”
Chapter 8: You, Them, We
Chapter 9: The Frontline—HOLD
Chapter 10: Our Reckoning
Appendix: How to Facilitate a Listening Circle
Acknowledgments
Endnotes
About the Author
Jenna Arnold is listed as one of Oprah's "100 Super Soul Influencers" because she doesn't have much patience for the status quo. She has been called a "disruptor" in every industry in which she has dabbled from elementary school classrooms to halls of the United Nations, MTV and the White House. For her recent work as one of the organizers of the Women's March, Jenna was recognized with a Glamour Women of the Year award. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Forbes, and Fast Company, just to name a few, have recognized Jenna's work as "shaking up long standing assumptions" and being one of "the biggest ideas in social change" for the work of ORGANIZE, a non-profit she co-founded focused on ending the waitlist for organ transplants in America, for which she was also named one of Inc magazine's "35 Under 35" list.
"Jenna has uplifted marginalized voices embodying a crucial
sentiment of Malcolm X's: It is white people's responsibility to
bring other well-intended white people to the social justice work
of our time. Raising Our Hands is the urgent answer to our
request."
—Angela Rye, political analyst and commentator
"The world doesn't have time to wait for you to decide that you're
brave enough to do the work laid out in Raising Our Hands—you can't
read this fast enough."
—Reshma Saujani, bestselling author of Brave Not Perfect and
founder of Girls Who Code
"The wisdom in these pages will help you see the world, and your
role in it, through a powerful new lens. If you want to raise your
hand and step up to the frontline, this book will firmly point you
in the direction of how."
—Sophia Bush, actress and activist
"Jenna is a bold and brilliant writer who cleverly holds herself,
her sisters, and the reader accountable to a higher standard . . .
As a non-binary person of color, I was surprised to see my own
privilege reflected in these pages. Raising Our Hands is a helpful
tool for confronting privilege and bias regardless of race or
gender identity."
—Dr. Tiffany Jana, author of Overcoming Bias, Erasing Institutional
Bias and Subtle Acts of Exclusion and founder of TMI Consulting
"Jenna tackles this topic with care and simplicity through an
intersectional lens. I'm excited for people to engage with this
much needed conversation."
—Geena Roccero, supermodel and first trans Asian Pacific Islander
Playboy Playmate
"So many of the ‘well intended' white women who have
enthusiastically been marching over the past few years have been
missing the urgent context of the foundational work that's needed
today which Raising Our Hands provides. This is the book that
willing white women have needed for so long: directions for how to
engage in the collective work of liberation for all."
—Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs, director of community engagement for
the Women's March
"At a time of division and uncertainty, we need true allies to hold
their communities accountable and this book does just that."
—Jamira Burley, social justice activist and White House Champion of
Change
"Arnold provides a useful and compassionate resource to guide
readers seeking to transform themselves and their communities
through self examination, deep listening, and accountability."
—Jamia Wilson, author, activist, and publisher at The Feminist
Press
"We have a great responsibility to the future. The time has come to
address our past, our origin, and the ways it continues to dictate
our choices. This book is an amazing starting point."
—Mesiah Burciaga-Hameed, Afro-indigenous youth advocate
"Jenna Arnold's Raising Our Hands is a daring call-out that bravely
tells white women with supremacist sensibilities that the jig is up
. . . This is the book I want all of my white friends to read—they
will be forced to own their collective ability to challenge
injustice in profound ways."
—Avis Wanda McClinton, Quaker anti-racist activist and
preservationist
"This book and books like this bring us to a space of collective
healing so we can see how deeply dependent and connected we truly
are. I applaud Jenna's delivery of a work whose time has
come."
—Erica Ford, social justice activist and cofounder of the National
Black and Brown Gun Violence Prevention Consortium
"It is time for action and young people are wondering where you
are. Raising Our Hands is a user guide to how to be a great ally.
Girls, especially black and brown girls, need your help and Jenna
Arnold tells you how you can be your most effective selves!"
—Naomi Wadler, youth activist
"Funny, profound and engaging, Raising Our Hands is a catalytic
treatise for the future of ourselves and country. Through searing
truisms, it challenges us all to think and behave deeply and to be
. . . more. Every chapter takes us collectively one step closer to
a reimagined us."
—Denise Hamilton, author of When Sleeping Women Wake, social
justice facilitator, and CEO of WatchHerWork
"Raising Our Hands is bright as it is straightforward. This is
exactly the type of content, matched with motivating instruction,
that so many of us white women are eager to dive into—it answers so
many questions we didn't even know we had."
—Reverend Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft, Baptist Minister
"This book is a call to action to raise our hands to say, ‘That's
me—I don't know what I don't know but I want to do better. I'm that
white woman. I'm ready to do the work now' . . . Whether we like it
or not, we white people are implicated at birth and it's gonna take
all of us digging deep, decolonizing our minds and dismantling the
systems we are a part of to bring about the change we wish to see
in the world." —Kerri Kelly, co-founder of Race & Resilience,
author of American Detox (May 2021), and host of CTZN Podcast
"Gripping. Urgent. Unflinching. A must-read."
—Marie Forleo, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything
is Figureoutable
"Impressive in scope and effective in its simplicity, Raising Our
Hands is the tool many willing Americans have needed for too long.
There are so many willing women eager to do something besides march
but they don't know where to start—I suggest right here."
—Rachel O'Leary Carmona, COO of the Women's March and
social-justice activist
"Jenna takes white women on a journey through self-discovery by
pushing them to see the world through a more equitable lens. She
demands they listen, they learn and they hold themselves
accountable no matter how upside down it might turn their
worlds."
—Paola Mendoza, artist, activist, and author of Sanctuary
"This book is a welcomed invitation to remind us all that we have
learning to do and homage to pay to those who fought before us.
Raising Our Hands does a great service in this education and
provides an excellent road map on the work to do within ourselves
and in the world around us."
—Sarah Sophie Flicker, activist, artist, and contributor to the New
York Times bestseller Together We Rise
"Racial justice is something that Black and Brown folks cannot
achieve alone. We need white people to do the courageous work to
confront problematic behaviors within their own communities and
families. Jenna has raised her hand to do just that with Raising
Our Hands, clearly outlining the mental and societal roadblocks for
white women while emphasizing the potential tectonic shifts that
could happen if they were removed."
—Carmen Perez, civil rights and racial justice activist, 2017
National Women's March co-chair, and CEO of The Gathering for
Justice
"This is the book I give those interested in being part of the
solution but don't know where to start on wrapping their arms
around the complex social fabric of the US. Presented through
Jenna's engaging and simplistic lens, readers will draw complicated
truths much closer."
—Tiphani Montgomery, founder of Millions Conference and faith-based
motivational speaker
"Raising Our Hands is a firm, compassionate reminder to bind back
to what is already so familiar to us humans if we consciously seek
it out: compassion for each other and ourselves as we navigate what
feels like the daunting complexity of life."
—Zoe Buckman, visual artist and activist
"Think you're too busy to make a difference? Think again. In this
insightful, inspiring book, Jenna Arnold shows how to raise your
hand and your voice to create a ‘rising tide raising all people'
conversation, community and country. Read it and reap."
—Sam Horn, author of Someday is Not a Day in the Week: 10 Hacks to
Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life
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