This Issue of The White Pages Is Brought To You By "Tying Up Loose Ends"

Updates and Other Ephemera

Hey Friends,

It’s been a while since I’ve done a housekeeping newsletter, and, well, it’s high time for one. I played around with inserting a cleaning-based metaphor about accumulated news (am I taking a load of logistical updates to Goodwill? Is there a pile of news-dust in the corner by the couch?) but… oof. Bad idea. Let’s just get on with it!

First up, a note about the pace of newsletters (not forever, just for now)

I think that The White Pages will be on a bit of a semi-hiatus for a couple of months. Here’s why.

As I’ve mentioned a bunch already, I owe my editor and the other hard-working people at Simon and Schuster a book by the end of the summer. So far, that book (about White people! And my relationship to White people! And all of us White people and our relationship to each other and what might need to change about if we want to help build the kind of world that we’ll need for our collective survival!) is actually coming along just fine. I have written many more words than I ever thought I would write about any single topic. Now, whether those are the Good Words that will end up in the final book or merely Words That Are Serving A Temporary Purpose Before I Find The Good Words remains to be seen, but we’re rolling.

The thing is, so far all of that “rolling” has been enabled by the fact that I have, for the first few months of 2022, focused as much of my time as possible on writing. This has meant that I haven’t had to struggle to balance both book writing and White Pages writing. And that’s been great! The downside is that it has meant putting my organizing work with The Barnraisers Project on the back-burner, and it’s well past time to rectify that problem. So, over the next few weeks, I’m going to be beginning “next step” cohorts for alumni of my past training cohorts AND kicking off a new introductory cohort (more on that in a second).

My gut is that facilitating these cohorts plus writing/editing the book plus keeping my household clothed and fed and entertained and not living in a Pigpen-style-cloud-of-dust will take up all my time for the next few months, which means something else has to get the temporary squeeze.

And yes, that “something” will most likely be these newsletters.

Now, why am I not totally definitive that you shouldn’t expect new White Pages for a couple of months? Because sometimes there are big topical news events that I can write about fairly quickly. And other times, I might be bored with working on the book and will instead get a hankering for some old-fashioned newslettering. And maybe juggling everything isn’t going to be as hard as I currently anticipate it will be. I think it’s smart to set expectations very, very low, but who knows? Maybe I’ll exceed them!

Oh, and there’s an 80% chance that I’ll write something for my favorite disaster-related holiday, Ruination Day on April 14th. So there’s that. Stay away from icebergs and theaters, my friends.

Speaking of Barnraisers cohorts, enrollment is open!

I can’t tell you how much I love facilitating the introductory Barnraisers organizing cohorts. I’ve missed them over the past few months and it is a legitimate joy to be kicking off a new batch the week of April 11th. All the questions you’re likely to have are answered in this expectations guide, but in the meantime, I’m not above giving a speedy run-down in the footnotes.¹

Bottom line, though, I’d love to learn with you! Let me know if you’re interested as well! Enrollment closes on April 1st.

More questions? Please read that expectations document first, but then 100% reach out; I’d love to answer them.

How am I doing?

Thanks for asking! There has been a lot going on lately, which I assume has been the case for many of you as well. Both I and my wife have had beloved older relatives pass away recently, and in the midst of that sadness, there have also been really wonderful opportunities to connect with family members in ways we might not have otherwise. We’ve also gotten to talk with the kids about death and life and grief and gratitude, which is always a pretty sacred opportunity. Soon there will be memorial services and church basements and both laughter and commiseration around plates of cookies and bars, for both of us are of classically Midwestern stock.

Otherwise? The kids are both doing well. It’s been fascinating watching them both this school year– the first-ever for my daughter, the first full year in multiple years for my son.

I’ve thought a lot about Olof’s third-grade class in particular– I’ve learned so much from them about the joys and trials of interconnectedness. Put as-succinctly-as-possible, it’s a community of kids who’ve known each other for years now, except suddenly they’ve all had this massive crucible experience. For some of them, that crucible has been particularly traumatic (in ways that are both individual and entirely predictable given what families have to bear the brunt of trauma in the U.S.). So they’ve come back, after a couple of years away, and have had to learn how to be a class together again. And there’s a lot of joy in that, but also now their shared space suddenly has to be large and durable enough to hold those new individual traumas  And because they’re eight-years-old and human beings, some of that trauma comes out in yells and slammed doors and interruptions in math class and then the whole class loses recess because a few members of their community are having rough days. Then, on those days Olof comes home and is bummed but also I get to process all that with him, which, when when put like that, is a pretty profound gift for me (though me feeling that doesn’t make any of that easier for him or his crew).

I guess what I’m saying is that I’m proud of all of them, those third-graders-who-have-weathered-something-together.

As for Ida (my five-year-old), I have never seen a more intense loyalty in-group loyalty than that which she displays to her pre-k class. Every night she gets out her class picture to remind me of their names for the thousandth time. No new facts, just first and last names. That loyalty is also VERY MUCH reciprocated. I just had my birthday last week (great! one of my chillest ever!) and, when it came time to open my presents, I noticed that I had received multiple cards from classmates of hers whom I had never met, but whom she had motivated to join in on our family celebration.

Shout out to Julio, wherever you are– your cards were lovely.

Are my children being taught critical race theory in school?

Non-stop. As you’ve no doubt heard, like all school districts across the country, ours has eliminated all core subjects to make more time for CRT. My kids trudge home each day heaving under the weight of Mari Matsuda’s Where Is Your Body? And Other Essays on Race, Gender and the Law. If only our family had some good faith champions in the conservative media and activist ecosystem willing to fight for us.²

I recommend…

1. Why did it take me four years to find my favorite Onion video of all time? (“I liked Trump because he tells it like it is? But do you know who really tells it like it is? JUDITH BUTLER!”)

2. This profile of The Sunrise Movement was the best organizing primer I’ve read in a long time: Joy, an obsession with accessibility and outreach, creativity and silliness and strategy all in the proper ratios, collective sustainability in times of both sowing and reaping… it’s all here.

3. I don’t pretend that this is a trenchant take, but after years of putting them off, I finally finished Robert Caro’s Lyndon Johnson biographies (shout out audio books) and, oh buddy, what a treat. Listen… nobody needs to read more about Mid-Century White American Males just for the sake of it, but holy cow if you are interested in transforming the world-as-it-is, what an essential guide through the bumpy terrain of how we got here. Also: If any of you ever want to talk about Coke Stevenson or Texas Hill Country soil conditions, know that I will drop everything to have both of those conversations.

4. If you have even a fleeting interest in American television, you have already heard that Abbott Elementary is great, but it is. Also: my personal socio-political trajectory can very much be described as “Jacob-to-Melissa.”

5. Do you have anybody in your life (yourself included) who would enjoy a gargantuan, whimisical-but-well-curated toy store/indoor carousel? Are you planning on being on the Minnesota side of the Driftless anytime soon, the part where grand bluffs rise up on either side of the Mississippi River? If so, you should go to Lark Toys in Kellogg.

6. Want to know what’s wild? I’ve used this space to prosletyze about Anne Braden for years, and though I’ve worn out the crease on the best Braden biography out there (you’re the people’s champ, Catherine Fosl), until this past week I had never watched Appalshop’s Braden documentary. I wrongly assumed it was only available on physical media but you can, in fact, buy a virtual copy. Highly recommended for all the shots of septugenarian Anne smoking while stuffing envelopes and saying wise stuff.

7. A first-cautionary-and-then-inspiring story about organizing locally, from Washington State “For the SGGL-backed candidates now in the majority, it represents a new beginning, a chance to restore competent, get-things-done local government. “We have issues here,” says Lowe. “Housing issues. We have to work on bringing our community back together.”

8. I had a lemon icebox pie on my birthday. It was good, so I recommend that you eat a lemon icebox pie.

9. Do you need an Upper Midwestern state school to root for in the NCCA basketball tournaments? On the men’s side, South Dakota State is very good and fun and I think they’ll win a couple of games. And why am I a fan of the Iowa Women’s team? CAITLIN CLARK FROM THE LOGO!

10. If Hanif Abdurraqib writes a piece about the Sad Banger, I will automatically tell everybody in my life to read it. I will also use that piece as an opportunity to hype up this year’s Swedish Eurovision song, Cornelia Jakob’s “Hold Me Closer,” a perfect addition to the Sad Banger Pantheon.

1. Ok, ready? Here goes: The cohorts are virtual; this is NOT a “how to be anti-racist” course, but is instead about the practical art of how to organize your community (particularly White communities) for justice;  they run for 10 weeks (but only half of those weeks feature sessions and yes, there are a lot of time options) and while I do make an optional solicitation for keep-the-lights-on funds at the end, and while I ask that folks donate to Black, Brown and Indigenous activists as part of their participation, there is no required cost to join the cohorts (more on the financial and/or volunteer piece here).

2. Yes, I know that normally my thing has been that the Left should stop making the “CRT isn’t really taught in schools, that’s a smarty pants law school thing” argument because it misses the point and accepts the opposition’s framing, but in my defense, it was an easy joke so I made it.