A growing number of white people are working for racial justice, but experienced organizers caution that, to be effective, white activists need to develop accountable relationships with people of color. Though easy to understand in concept, this advice is sometimes more difficult to apply in practice.

Now a select group of white-identified anti-racist organizers from around the country tell personal stories and offer lessons from their everyday experiences that reveal how the notion of accountability informs their work.

Eleven chapters offer a panorama of personal styles, perspectives, organizing traditions and approaches. Locations range from post-Katrina New Orleans to the New York City school system, from a Washington, DC-based advocacy group to a faith community in Seattle.

The stories describe cutting edge work, available to a larger audience for the first time. Through the eyes of seasoned activists, readers learn practical approaches and best practices, identify mistakes and pitfalls to avoid, and understand how they might participate in the growing multiracial movement for racial justice.

For the reader not yet inclined to join the work, the book documents a rising social phenomenon. Some white people are moving beyond limited and simplistic models of colorblindness, diversity and multiculturalism to developing accountable relationships with people of color.

Bonnie Cushing and her fellow editors have put together a startling and edifying collection of articles that provide us with a deep insight into the minds of those who have been transformed by their work as whites engaged in anti-racist organizing. It's so easy for people engaged in social change work to get lost in our own self-righteousness and lose a perspective on the limitations of our own impact on those whom we imagine we have come to help. This book should be read by anyone who plans to do any form of organizing work. And organizer or not, if you care to defeat racism in American society, you need to grapple with some of the issues raised in the stories from the actual anti-racist work presented here. --Rabbi Michael Lerner, Jewish American, editor of Tikkun Magazine, chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, and author of The Left Hand of God