AN UNINTENTIONAL ACCOMPLICE[/trx_title]
What happens when you discover at 62-years-old you didn’t know anything about Emmett Till? If you are Carolyn L. Baker, you look deep within yourself and begin writing about your life as an unintentional accomplice to racism. The result is Baker’s debut book, An Unintentional Accomplice: A Personal Perspective on White Responsibility, about a white woman’s journey growing up in segregated Southern California coming of age in the counter-cultural 1960s.
An Unintentional Accomplice follows Baker’s awakening to the realities of her own white privilege, facing the painful reality that, no matter how “unintentional,” she comes to realize that, by not actively opposing discrimination, as a white person, she acts as an “accomplice.”
From this revelation, Baker shares her personal journey and observations on her awakening of cultural white privilege and unintentional racial harm to helping to build a more humane community. What makes An Unintentional Accomplice striking is that instead of preaching to readers or writing a “self-help” book about white privilege, Baker provides a non-judgmental personal narrative designed to encourage readers to act upon “the better angels of our nature.”
“The graphic photographs of Emmett Till’s brutalized body after it was retrieved three days later, flashed across the screen,” says Baker. “I sprang off the couch and screamed ‘No!’ It was the immediate and universal anguish every mother feels at the sight of such cruelty to a child. My heart was broken wide open, and from that moment, I began reviewing how, decade by decade, I had unconsciously been consuming racism my whole life. I read and wrote and read and wrote. And that was the beginning of my journey.”
The irony for Baker is that she comes from a Quaker background embedded with a belief in equality of all human beings and social justice. To that end, for over thirty years, Baker worked in the nonprofit sector in wide-ranging organizations, from Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles to the Clinton Global Initiative. As a development professional, Baker directed capital campaigns, annual solicitations, and proposals to private and governmental funders raising millions of dollars for safety net causes. So while Baker spent a lifetime helping people, she never saw herself as a racist. But when her “aha” moment came decades later, she realized that things were never what they appeared to be. “The cardinal sin of my ignorance and indifference was that it is so perfectly normal within my white culture,” says Baker as she thinks back on that moment. “The fact that I was unaware of one of the most galvanizing events of the civil rights movement was the trigger that caused me to look at my insular life of whiteness.”
Baker turned to 2Leaf Press, a black/brown female led press that publishes books about race and social justice. “I was impressed by Carolyn’s desire to share her revelation with others,” says Gabrielle David, publisher, “as well as her sincerity in wanting to take on this project. Since 2Leaf Press’ mission is to spark conversations about race and social justice, I felt the publication of An Unintentional Accomplice would show readers, both black and white, where those biases come from and how counteracting them will be key to moving toward a more just society.”
In An Unintentional Accomplice, Baker tackles institutionalized discrimination, the illusion of the American dream, with calls for a radically inclusive feminism. Shining a light on the concepts of comfort, power, privilege and identity, Baker acknowledges the benefits that racism has provided her and shares her process of coming to a healthy and functioning sense of white racial identity.
An Unintentional Accomplice was not written by a white woman for white people; it was written and published to be read by all people of different ethnic backgrounds. Achieving racial and ethnic comity will require the highly unlikely combination of people’s willingness to learn about each other and coming together. An Unintentional Accomplice is worthy of your time. You will not be disappointed.
Available on major online outlets. ISBN: 9781940939230 (Print), 208 pages. List price: $19.99. ISBN: 9781734618129 (ebk), $7.99. To order review or exam copies call (773) 702-7109 or email khyzy@press.uchicago.edu. For interviews or speaking engagements: info [AT] anunintentionalaccomplice [DOT] com
