An Unintentional Accomplice
Subtitle
A Personal Perspective on White Responsibility
What happens when you are a 62-year-old white woman who discovers the story of how Emmett TIll, a 14-year black boy was beaten beyond recognition?
If you are Carolyn L. Baker, you look deep within yourself and then begin writing about your life as an unintentional accomplice to racism. Baker shares her journey from a Southern California suburb, coming of age in the counter-cultural 1960s, and graduating into the real world with a mantra many had back then ... "I'm free, white ... and 21!"
Now, eyes wide open, Baker calls out her own implicit bias and shines a light on the extra comfort, power, privilege and other benefits being white brought her. "An Unintentional Accomplice" follows Baker’s exploration of topics as diverse as social consciousness, social service, womanism, identity groups and the illusion of separateness. In this intimate narrative, Baker acknowledges her own lack of empathy as the by-product of whiteness. Her reflections are raw and vulnerable as she shares her incredibly unfiltered journey from indifference to involvement. By tolerating the discomfort of confronting sensitive issues, Baker deepens her personal commitment to inclusivity and diversity.
"An Unintentional Accomplice" is a painstakingly researched and honest account of one woman's desire to ensure safety, respect, dignity and opportunity for all people.
Bio
Carolyn L. Baker earned a liberal arts degree from ASU in 1981 and became an adjunct professor for Rio Salado Community College. In 1988, Baker began a 30 year executive career in nonprofit settings as wide-ranging as Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles to the Clinton Global Initiative. Baker is a Diversity Equity and Inclusion consultant, blogger and guest columnist for the LA Free Press.
Praise for this book
In this intimate memoir, "An Unintentional Accomplice," Carolyn Baker leans into vulnerability to share her journey to explore whiteness as a white woman. She grapples with both the discomforts of dismantling whiteness and the desire to tolerate the discomfort in confronting injustices of racism. Her reflections are raw and vulnerable, as a white woman in process excavating the trails of her journey and uncovering decades of subtle and overt messages of racism.
Aisha Dixon-Peters, PsyD senior adjunct professor, PsyD program in clinical psychology, University of La Verne
In "An Unintentional Accomplice" Carolyn Baker lulls us through her “cookie cutter” Southern California childhood and Girl Scout “white bred” mantras — that mirror of Disneylandish life— as we bask on the beach in our own smug skins. Then, like a stiletto, she slips in Emmett Till’s American tragedy making Klan enablers of us all without any need to dress-up in a great white sheet. Baker has clearly called out racism as the timeless tragedy in our time.
Richard L. Mitchell, PhD, Cornell University Author of "The Education of Adult Offenders"
