For immediate release:

March 28th, 2023

White Women: Do Better

Regina Jackson and Saira Rao, authors of White Women: Everything You Already Knew About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better. Rao and Jackson will participate in the Salons at Stowe this season.

Images Attribution: Jaymie Alexander, Jaymie’s Touch Photography

Salons at Stowe

White Women: Everything You Already Knew About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better

• COST: Free to attend  |  $16 to buy the book from the Museum Store  |  $20.50 to have the book mailed to you
• WHEN & HOW: Thursdays  |  7:00 – 8:30pm ET  |  Online
• DATES: April 13  |  May 11  |  June 8  |  July 6

Hartford, CT – Salons at Stowe continues to explore difficult and necessary conversations.  Beginning in April, the Stowe Center offers their latest Salon virtually – an open brave space dialogue that sparks conversation around strong topics.

For many white women, the idea of niceness is ingrained from an early age as a virtue. But what exactly does it mean to be nice? Does it require silence? An avoidance of anything supposedly unpleasant? An uncritical going with the flow?

Join Regina Jackson and Saira Rao, authors of White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better, for deep, honest, unflinching conversation about the culture of niceness as part and parcel of white supremacy. Over four sessions, participants will explore the ways that self-identifying white women deny, defend, and deflect the presence of white supremacy in their everyday lives, and the ways in which they may perpetuate it. Presented by the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, this Salons at Stowe series challenges white women to critically examine their participation in white supremacy as an important step in committing to the work of racial justice.

“This book prompts action,” said Karen Fisk, Executive Director of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. “I value this opportunity to be in dialogue with the authors and face what needs to change for good.”

While designed with the demographic of white identifying women in mind, anyone fifteen years of age and older is welcome and may register for this program. “Registration includes all four sessions and participants should plan to attend each one, but are not required if schedules conflict,” highlighted Director of Programs, Amy Hufnagel. A copy of the book, White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better, is required.

Participants are encouraged to purchase a copy through the Stowe Center or through their favorite Black-owned or non-Black Person of Color-owned bookstore.

About The Authors

Saira (NOT Sara) Rao grew up in Richmond, Virginia, the daughter of Indian immigrants. For forty years, she wasted her precious time aspiring to be white and accepted by dominant white society, a futile task for anyone not born with white skin. Several years ago, Rao began the painful process of dismantling her own internalized oppression. Rao is a lawyer-by-training, a former congressional candidate, a published novelist and an entrepreneur.

Born in Chicago in 1950, Regina Jackson remembers an America where everything was in Black and White. Burned into her memory are: the beatings and horrific treatment of civil rights workers throughout the South, the Goodman, Chaney & Schwerner murders, the murder of Viola Liuzzo, the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the murders of President John Kennedy and his brother Robert. The violence perpetrated on innocent people going about their lives, by white people. It is these memories that drive Jackson to push for real change in America, which is why she co-founded Race 2 Dinner.

About The Salons At Stowe

Salons at Stowe are 21st-century parlor conversations about race, class, and gender. Since 2008, Salons have provided a forum for lively discussion on contemporary topics that connect to 19th century issues. Featured guests provide a starting point for discussion and are a resource for the audience.

One participant shared: “As successful an exercise in ‘civic engagement’ as I have seen. Your featured guests were articulate, honest, courageous and wise.”

Led by the facilitator and informed by the book, the participants create a self-reflection dialogue —  a brave space to address systemic racial injustices.

Reviews Of The Book

“White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better is the book that will change the narrative.”

-Madison Butler, Founder, Blue Haired Unicorn

“…what they’re offering is an opportunity for white women to free themselves and their communities from the toxic ideals of white supremacy and white culture, a message that’s ultimately optimistic and even cathartic.”

– Booklist

“This book is a sharply-defined lens through which white women who consider themselves allies need to see themselves, especially if they have any hope of stopping their patterns of harmful behavior towards Black and Brown and Indigenous folx of color, truly divesting from whiteness, and actually taking action in the fight against racism and white supremacy.”

-Tina Strawn, author and activist

“This book dares to tell necessary truths. The kind of truths that can save lives, and if heard with an open mind and heart — may even help save the soul of this lost nation.”

-Frederick Joseph, author of New York Times bestsellers Patriarchy Blues and The Black Friend

“We tend to tiptoe around whiteness, and this book rips the bandage off. This is the book many BIWOC have been needing to give to the white women in our lives; from our white co-workers to our white mother-in-laws, this book is no-holds-barred. This is the answer to many of our prayers.”

-Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, Author of For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts: A Love Letter to Women of Color

Cost: Free to attend

$16 to purchase and pick up at Museum Store

$20.50 to purchase book for mail delivery

Schedule:

Online  |  Thursdays  |  7:00 – 8:30pm ET

April 13: Acknowledging Truth with Lisa Bond

May 11: Deflecting, Gaslighting, and Exceptionalizing with Regina Jackson

June 8: Whiteness, Whitesplaining, and Colorism with Regina Jackson and Saira Rao

July 6: Spiritual Bypassing and Toxic Positivity with Saira Rao

***

The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center is a museum, research library/archive, and program center in Hartford, Connecticut. The Stowe Center’s mission is to preserve and interpret Stowe’s Hartford home and the Center’s historic collections, promote vibrant discussion of her life and work, and inspire commitment to social justice and positive change. For general information and updates, please visit www.HarrietBeecherStoweCenter.org.

***

CONTACT: Christina Tom

Harriet Beecher Stowe Center

860.522.9258 x305 | ctom@stowecenter.org