“The problem, which [white people] invented, has made of them criminals and monsters, and it is destroying them.”
UPDATE: Dirty White Matter is currently paused. This project was active between 2016 and 2021. It may be re-started at some point, or may take a new form. Stay tuned for more updates.
“I find it really difficult to convince white women, or white people, that we need to be liberated from anything. And yet I can think of so many ways that whiteness has constrained me and shrunk my sense of what’s possible.”
“I’ve seen the paperwork from my family owning other people…nobody knows how to process it...and then it gets worse generationally and it just lays there all the time and you ignore it.”
DIRTY WHITE MATTER
Community Discussion Events
Using art + recorded interviews + group discussion to critically discuss whiteness + femininity
Now Online: 3rd Thursdays from 7-9p EST
DIRTY WHITE MATTER events use art + recorded interviews + group discussion to critically discuss whiteness + femininity. The project aims to increase awareness, action and accountability. We listen to recorded interviews with BIPOC or white people discussing their experiences with whiteness + femininity. While listening we co-create accessible art. Afterward, we discuss as a group.
More dates coming soon.
• Payment:
Payment is optional but very helpful! If you can contribute $10-$20 we use it to pay the interviewees and facilitators. Any money made beyond covering our basic costs is donated back to BIPOC-led organizations. You can donate at the event or by visiting megstein.com/support/dirty-white-matter.
If you have questions, please email me at meg [at] dirtywhitematter [dot] com.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1. Can I come to more than one event?
Yes, of course! You can participate in as many events as you’d like. You’re also welcome to only come once. Each event can stand alone, though they offer a different conversation and recorded interview each time.
2. None of these dates work for me. Can I still participate?
Yes, you can email me at meg at dirtywhitematter dot com to set up an additional event on a date that works for you. You can also email me to discuss other ways you can be involved.
3. Who can participate?
Everyone is welcome to participate. This project focuses on discussing whiteness and femininity with the aims of disrupting and transforming harmful narratives and increasing the accountability of white folks towards people of color. However, everyone who wants to join that conversation is welcome at the events, regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc...
RESOURCES
Here is a list of similar projects that may also be of interest to you:
• Nice White Ladies
• The Whiteness Project
Here is a list of artists, curators, writers, podcasts, books, organizations and other resources that have greatly aided me in my racial justice work and/or who I recommend:
• Seeing White podcast (produced at the Center for Documentary Studies in Durham, NC)
• The Code Switch Podcast Episode 1: Can We Talk About Whiteness?
• The Racial Equity Institute (based in Greensboro, NC)
• "White Fragility" by Rodin DiAngelo (now also a book by the same title)
• me and white supremacy workbook by layla f. saad
• “The Phenomenology of Whiteness” by Sara Ahmed
• “The Racial Imaginary Institute: On Whiteness” Exhibition at The Kitchen in NYC
• “A Syllabus for Making Work About Race as a White Artist in America” by Ryan Wong
• I Am Not Your Negro
• Triangle SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice)
• White Supremacy Culture (produced by SURJ)
• The White Noise Collective
* White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness by Ruth Frankenburg
• Towards the "Other America": Anti-Racist Resources for White People Taking Action for Black Lives Matter by Chris Crass
• "Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Racism in the Feminist Movement" by Claire Heuchan
• White: Whiteness and Race in Contemporary Art curated by Maurice Berger
• Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines edited by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, China Martens and Mai'a Williams
• “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh
• “White People are Noticing Something New: Their Own Whiteness” by Emily Bazelon
• The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter
• “What Is Whiteness?” by Nell Irvin Painter
• Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation by angel Kyodo williams
• “THE ASSET VALUE OF WHITENESS: UNDERSTANDING THE RACIAL WEALTH GAP” by Amy Traub, Laura Sullivan, Tatjana Meschede, & Tom Shapiro
• “Breaking up with Intersectional Feminism” by Tamala Gordon
• Racial Wealth Audit
• Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
• Appolition
• Black August in the Park
• Durham Solidarity Center
• SONG: Southerners on New Ground
• SisterSong Reproductive Justice
• Monét Noelle Marshall, theater & performance artist
• Kamara Thomas, musician
• Antoine Williams, visual artist
• Saba Taj, visual artist
• William Paul Thomas, visual artist
• Gemynii, visual artist
• Derrick Beasley, photographer and visual art
• Stacy Lynn Waddell, visual artist
• Jasmyn Milan, visual artist
• Adé Oni, performance and visual artist
• Young, Gifted and Broke