Introducing a new column written by and for white men struggling for collective liberation in an age of patriarchy and white supremacy. Go men!

Whiteness is a demon that is often subtle and subconscious. As it swims in supremacy and shame, it second-guesses those “suspect.” Who are the masters of this malformation? White men.

The colonial script has trained us to be objective and oblivious, data-driven, and dominating. We do not know how to respond to social cues. At the same time, we take up far too much social space. As we cling to control, comfort, and convenience, we shape-shift community into commodity. Our postures and policies have wreaked violence on Black, Indigenous, and immigrant peoples. In the process, our souls are suffering. As civil rights veteran Ruby Sales has counseled us, there is no privilege in whiteness. It is a death sentence that diminishes our humanity because it requires that we conform.

In the spirit of white male redemption, Geez is giving white boys a little room every issue to break rank. This 200-word column is zoned to be both coddle-free and clobber-free. It is a clarion call for collaborative leadership – not for white dudes to shut up, but to speak from a place of redemptive love. It’s time to repent – for the sake of our souls and the rest of the world.

Tommy Airey lives with his partner Lindsay in Central Oregon doing the work of “soul accompaniment.” He is the author of Descending Like a Dove: Adventures in Decolonizing Evangelical Christianity (2018).

This article first appeared in Geez magazine Issue 56, Spring 2020, Disobedience.