Welcome to The White Pages
Here’s the deal: I write about White people and what it might actually take for us to become true partners in building a more caring, less rigged world.
So, like an anti-racism newsletter, right?
I mean, maybe? The question I’m really interested in is what you do when you’re a member of a group that has been (a). given a whole bunch of power and (b). taught that we really only need to take care of ourselves. How do we learn about community and collective care and interdependence? How do other identities play in our struggle to do so? And, if that seems like an impossible challenge, how do we show up for each other so that we don’t give up or make an even bigger mess of things?
If you’re a free subscriber, you get emails from me about all of that. How frequently? Well that changes, but lately I’ve been on a pretty good “essay a week” kick.
Paid subscribers get all that, plus a few more things:
The ability to financially support something that you care about and find valuable, which is very cool and much appreciated.
A weekly (private) discussion thread with thoughtful people who care about building a better world (and who often talk about that but sometimes trade recipes and share photos of weird landmarks in their hometowns).
Access to the Flyover Politics Discord, the Internet’s premier spot to commiserate about the state of the world and talk about the joys that get us through (mostly breakfast pizza, if I’m being honest). It’s a shared space for our community and the cool crew that has coalesced around Lyz Lenz’s Men Yell At Me newsletter. There’s a Midwestern soul to the place, but you’ll feel welcome even if you don’t know your Casey’s General Store from your Kwik-Trip. I promise.
Occasional shorter, more informal newsletters from me about things that are on my mind [potential topics include: pop culture (and Whiteness in pop culture), organizing stories from throughout history, things I recommend, ideas that I’d like to process out loud in community, etc.].
A sticker (if you want one!).
Oh, and there’s a whole “pledge drive” membership level (because I also run a nonprofit called the Barnraisers Project, which trains organizers across the country and we have cool merchandise- sweatshirts and tote bags and such). For folks who can chip in more, I’ll send you some of that stuff.
Also: If any of that stuff above about “occasional additional newsletters” and “access to weekly discussion threads” is of interest to you but you don’t have the cash for a subscription, just toss me an email and I’m happy to help you out.
Regardless of what tier you join: The emails are often long but some of the jokes are decent. They could definitely use an editor, but people seem to find them helpful. It’s fun when people write back and share stuff that they’re thinking about/working on with me as well.
Oh, and about me: I used to work in education nonprofits but now I don’t. Instead I do organizing for the common good in majority-White communities. You’ll hear about that if you subscribe (or, if you really can’t wait, feel free to head over to The Barnraisers Project and check out our work there). I’m from Montana but live in Milwaukee. I have two kids, a decent collection of baseball hats and a CPAP machine. Oh, and I wrote a book! It’s called The Right Kind of White and is currently available wherever books are sold. I think you’ll like it.
If you want to find me elsewhere, I sort of know how to use Instagram and Bluesky and have just started using TikTok (mostly to read sentences by other writers that I love and to talk about snacks).
Thanks for being here.
