INCITE launches Facing Whiteness website

INCITE is proud to announce the launch of the Facing Whiteness website. A collaboration between INCITE and Whitney Dow (creator of the “Whiteness Project”), Facing Whiteness explores how Americans who identify as white or partially white think about their racial identities, along with a variety of other issues. Over the course of 19 months (2017-18), we focused on three communities: Battle Creek, Michigan; Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Richmond, Virginia. In each location, we participated in and observed local life: we attended church services and political meetings; visited local stores to discuss business and the community; and chatted with many, many people over coffee. Local participants became involved in Facing Whiteness through these social networks, completing our intake survey and, in some cases, participating in filmed interviews and later surveys.

The Facing Whiteness website houses many of the project’s outcomes, including: the full interview transcripts of all 110 participants, along with video excerpts, biographical information and participant-submitted photographs; visuals from the intake survey of over 850 residents, as well as a request form for access to all of the de-identified survey data; demographic, socioeconomic and political information about the three study locations; and an interactive timeline of the project. We hope the website will serve as a resource to those communities and individuals involved in conversations about race in America today. The website may be accessed at the following URL: https://www.facingwhiteness.incite.columbia.edu/.

We look forward to hearing your questions and comments regarding Facing Whiteness. If you have any communications regarding the project or website, please do not hesitate to contact us through Sam Lutzker (sal2176@columbia.edu).