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Ed. Magazine

Books: Fire in the Heart: How White Activists Embrace Racial Justice

Book Cover: Fire in the Heart

Fire in the Heart book coverIt’s a puzzling dilemma: How do people who are not themselves victims of discrimination come to develop a commitment to act for racial justice? Associate Professor Mark Warren spent several years seeking answers to that question through interviews with white activists from across the country. Fire in the Heart describes his findings from 50 such interviews, “contributing to our understanding of the processes that lead some whites to an awareness of racism and a commitment to combat it,” he writes.

Warren weaves key quotes and stories into eight themed chapters, starting with an introduction that describes his research methods and provides a skeleton of the rest of the book. Subsequent chapters explore seminal activist experiences and the moral impulse to act; relationships with people of color; moral visions and the purposeful life; challenging racism in the context of inclusion; multiracial collaboration; and building new identities in racially diverse communities. At the conclusion, Warren asserts that large-scale social change cannot occur until we create a national movement dedicated to racial justice.

Fire in the Heart is especially aimed at white students seeking inspiration and guidance in the effort to deepen their commitments to racial justice and activism. As an example of the power of white activism, Warren repeatedly highlights the impact tens of thousands of white volunteers contributed to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. While Obama’s election surely did not solve the problem of racism, it was an important step toward racial justice, he writes, and shows the potential of Americans to come together on a national level around values-based politics calling for change.

As Warren demonstrates clearly through 250 pages, the road to commitment has not been an easy one for any of the activists interviewed. Through numerous examples, he points out that it is common for white racial justice activists to be held in some suspicion both by white Americans as well as by people of color, a suspicion that inhibits the formation of successful collaboration. Despite the challenges, however, participating in this effort for a more just society has given white activists enormously fulfilling lives and, like the Obama volunteers, their own place in history.

Ed. Magazine

The magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education

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