We are originally and primarily based in the SF Bay Area, specifically Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco, CA. We recognize that we do our work on Chochenyo Ohlone land. All events, dialogues, workshops, and mailing lists on this website are reflective of our SF Bay Area collective. 

The White Noise Collective NYC chapter can be found here, and can be reached at: whitenoisecollectivenyc@gmail(dot)com. 

We also travel and may be able to come to you.

You can get in touch with us here: whitenoisecollective [at] gmail.com

And, you can join our page on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for updates and offerings of popular culture analysis, parody and engagement that speak to this intersection of race and gender.

We are informed and inspired by the intersectional analyses of influential Black feminist theorists as well as the work of our antiracist white ancestors. We share a vision of working toward a world free of white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity and other oppressive ideologies, and see our particular part of this vision as working towards a world in which:

• All people who experience gendered oppression and white/light skin privilege will feel inspired, empowered, and equipped to act up and be fiercely and creatively committed to social justice and racial justice movements, especially those led by people of color;
• All people who experience gendered oppression and white/light skin privilege will feel connected to a supportive community in order to foster self-awareness, self-reflection, responsibility, shared power and the literacy and skills necessary to actively dismantle oppressive structures of power;
• “White feminist” and restorative justice movements, people in helping and buffer zone professions, and all people will recognize and stop perpetuating patriarchal, colonial and racist practices.

• How do experiences of cisheterosexism, patriarchy, rape culture and trans and/or cis misogyny impact the work to challenge race privilege and systems of white supremacy?
• How do these two factors — the intersection of gendered oppression and white or light skin privilege — interact, and what are the privileges and responsibilities involved?
• How can we support each other to overcome our unconscious blocks in order to become more effective in our work?
• What effective, strategic actions can we take that can disrupt the interdependent systems of white supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy, ableism & capitalism?
• How can we learn from our political and biological ancestors to become more aware of what has been passed down to us in order to heal from and transform how it impacts us today?

Our workshops are the typical entry point for those new to our work (though not necessarily new to the work of examining privilege and oppression), though some choose to start by joining us at our monthly dialogues. From there, participants are invited to attend dialogues, write blogs,  contribute resources, and eventually may even step into the role of co-facilitating workshops and dialogues with us.

We offer workshops both through our WNC network and also through SF Bay Area SURJ, and you can learn more about our workshops here.

Our goal is to make our workshop and dialogue spaces accessible to those who want to get involved with ensuring that we create spaces with shared understandings. Therefore, we encourage a “workshop-as-entry-point” policy, but make no requirement of such for most of our dialogues. Depending on the topic, we may occasionally limit participation in a dialogue to those who have previously attended a workshop (or who have extensive experience in anti-oppression/anti-racist pedagogies and who have explored the intersection of race and gender in other settings), but we will ensure this is clear when we send out the details and links for the RSVP. 

While much effective work that addresses privilege and oppression happens in caucuses (identity groups), the work of White Noise Collective is not caucus work. We aim to hold a space that respects participants who have come from a broad spectrum of racial and gender identities, including those who identify as genderqueer, transgender, mixed race or anyone who identifies as having experienced white/light-skin privilege as well as gender(ed) oppression. That being said, we do wish to be transparent that the majority of our participants over the years have self-identified as both white and cis-female and a strong component of our work includes a focus on the dominant stereotypes, images, narratives and roles of the “white woman” and the ways these are used to structurally uphold systems of oppression. Additionally, our participants and organizers come from a wide range of class backgrounds, though most have been able to access some amount of class stability and higher education.

We recognize that the gender, class and racial identity of someone may shift over time, and through different contexts. (i.e. someone can be raised with white privilege in another country and be a person of color here, or vice versa, and our relationship to gender can change moment to moment). We ask that each person who participates in a White Noise workshop or dialogue understands gender and race in this way – as social constructs, as fluid, and with room for different individuals to have unique responses to the experiences of it. To that end, while we can work towards shared understandings of the impacts of structural inequality, we ask that all participants focus either on larger patterns or on our personal experiences and relationships to these identities, and do not assume anything about the race, class, gender identity, pronouns, or experiences of others, or universalize their ideas to everyone in the room. 

In all of our spaces, we aim to create a healthy “container” free of defensiveness, compartmentalization, competition, and fear. Please review our “WNC Dialogue & Workshop Practices/Agreements” to best prepare. All are welcome to be a part of the conversation and we believe that everyone brings a unique and valuable perspective.  

We examine white privilege in order to challenge both institutional and interpersonal racism, and to untangle and undo the ways racism operates on people socialized as white. We recognize white privilege is supported by an entire system of white supremacy, which is “the values, beliefs, ideals, behaviors, and cultural markers that justify racism on all levels (individually, culturally, and institutionally)” ~Heather Hackman and believe that if white people are not actively working to end this system, they are perpetuating it.

“Gendered oppression is the systemic manner in which certain groups are privileged or disadvantaged because of their gender. Because gender is such an integral part of society, we may unconsciously subscribe to harmful and inaccurate gender stereotypes. These socially constructed assumptions about gender do not describe essential characteristics of men, women, and people outside of the gender binary, yet they often claim to. This maintains the gendered power difference that allows certain groups to benefit (socially and economically) at the expense of others.” (Feminists@MIT)

The system of white supremacy is deeply interwoven with cisheterosexism and the system of patriarchy. Examining systemic and internalized cisheterosexism is about challenging the gendered oppression of all people. We recognize cisheteropatriarchy as based on a white supremacist, rigid gender binary system, that devalues femininity and femmes. Our collective efforts are deeply committed to a world in which the interdependent systems of white supremacy and cisheteropatriarchy no longer exist.

As an organization we believe accountability is important, and we have found ourselves in an extended dialogue about what accountability should look like and mean for us.  We recognize that accountability structures that might look accountable through one lens might look problematic through another lens (for instance, some believe that it is important to always have a person of color in the room when white people are meeting to discuss racism, while others believe this is tokenizing. Some believe white people should not rely on people of color to do the work for them / should be doing their own homework, but some believe this might create a white echo chamber). Currently, here are some of the practices we include:

• Following the leadership of people of color: Foregrounding the analysis of POC writers, organizers and scholars within our own analysis; taking action within POC-led coalitions; and responding to requests from POC organizers for strategic interventions.
• Transparency: we make our dialogue notes public and strive to visibilize our practices and policies; we post a “year in review” annually on our blog (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014).
• Soliciting feedback: we send out surveys annually through our listserv, facebook and website; we also send out surveys after workshops and specific projects.
• Advisory relationships: our core has formal advisors, and informal relationships with elders and others with whom we check in about our work and when challenges arise.
• Listening: we openly accept and integrate any feedback we receive from community members who are aware of our work.
• Doing our homework: we strive to stay aware of current and historical analysis about the themes we explore; we also try to remain in a state of constantly questioning the work we do, the assumptions we make and the ways we function in the world.
• Financial policies: We are an all-volunteer collective and do not profit financially from the work we do. We give a portion of our workshop proceeds to POC-led organizations doing frontline work or research related to the themes we are exploring. We focus on making these offerings to the organizations that we partner with in our work as well as to those from whom we draw our resources as part of a deeper process of relationship and movement building. To see a list of the organizations we have supported to date, check out our Redistribution page.

These are inspired by Paulo Freire’s definition of “true dialogue” and 10 years of practice with the White Noise Collective. As practices, these are meant to be practiced, not perfected. Dialogue is a space for practicing them, with the goal of building authentic trust, generating new ideas, and preparing for liberatory action.

• Speak from your own experience.
• Don’t assume about others’ lived experiences or identities. Seek understanding of each others’ experiences and ideas (and acknowledge that full understanding might be impossible).
• We learn best when we are uncomfortable.
  • Privilege conditions us to expect comfort and to conflate comfort and safety (i.e. white fragility).
  • We don’t learn when we are comfortable or when we are unsafe.
  • We have to push ourselves into discomfort if we want to learn/unlearn.
• Strive for “Both/And” – let go of right and wrong, binary thinking.
• One person talks at a time.
• Expect and accept a lack of closure.
  • Plan to leave with more questions than answers. Goal is to leave unsettled, with better tools and understandings, not to find the “right” way or all the answers.
• Move from certainty to curiosity.
• Understand the difference between intent and impact.
  • Assume good intentions of others.
  • Be accountable for your impact.
• Strive for balance between theory and lived experience.
• Make space for the personal, interpersonal, institutional, and systemic – simultaneously and intersectionally.
• Allow yourself to be both self-critical and self-loving.
• Be humble and horizontal –  everyone in the room has something to learn and something to share. We are student-teachers and teacher-students.
  • Facilitators are responsible for trying to get us where we’re going, but everyone brings knowledge.
  • Facilitators are not experts. We create these spaces because we want to learn about these things.
• Stories Stay, Learning Leaves.
• Practice speaking and practice listening. Work especially on the one that is harder for you.
• Take care of yourself so you can stay present.
• Cultivate praxis; reflect – take action – reflect and act again.