Americans are increasingly aware of structural racial disadvantages, and especially aware of Black disadvantage. In turn, this paper asks to what degree do whites interested in undermining systems of oppression and privilege understand their own place within those systems (if at all)? Based on participant observation of four grassroots organizations serving the unhoused and 30 semi-structured interviews with volunteers, I show that even explicitly color-conscious white volunteers, many of whom spoke about structural inequality and systemic racism without prompting, struggled to see how their race was important in their day-to-day service interactions. A general inability to speak about interracial interactions despite many interracial service experiences highlights the pervasive power and privilege embedded in the taken-for-granted nature of whiteness and provides empirical support to the idea that racialized social systems discourage racial self-awareness among whites. These findings have implications for social justice- and/or service-oriented whites who seek to undermine the systems they identify as problematic and emphasize that antiracism is a continuous process.

美国人越来越意识到结构性的种族劣势，尤其是黑人劣势。反过来，本文询问对破坏压迫和特权系统感兴趣的白人在多大程度上了解他们自己在这些系统中的位置（如果有的话）？根据对四个为无家可归者提供服务的草根组织和对志愿者进行的 30 次半结构化访谈的参与观察，我表明，即使是明确具有色彩意识的白人志愿者，其中许多人在没有提示的情况下谈论结构性不平等和系统性种族主义，也难以了解他们的种族如何在他们的日常服务互动中非常重要。尽管有许多跨种族服务经历，但普遍无法谈论跨种族互动，这凸显了普遍的权力和特权嵌入在被视为理所当然的白人本质中，并为种族化社会制度阻碍白人种族自我意识的观点提供了实证支持。这些发现对寻求破坏他们认为有问题的系统并强调反种族主义是一个持续过程的社会正义和/或服务导向的白人有影响。