Welcome to the next installment of our Get to know... series - where we invite you to learn more about the amazing companies that make up our SHE Certified Community™. This feature highlights Dear White Women - a platform that helps White women use their privilege to uproot systemic racism. We had the founders, Sara and Misasha, answer some questions that give us insight into how and why they do their important work. Read their interview below!
Introduce your company!
We’re Dear White Women, LLC. The Dear White Women platform includes our award-winning social justice podcast that we’ve had for over three years now, our book Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism, which was published by the Collective Book Studio in October 2021, and our speaking engagements at corporations and schools who are looking to get more uncomfortable around the topic of racism and being more anti-racist intentionally in their own spheres of influence.
What is your mission as a company?
Simply put, we aspire to help White women use their privilege to uproot systemic racism. Being biracial daughters of one Japanese immigrant parent and one White parent each, we’ve talked about race and identity our whole lives, consciously or unconsciously, and as part of our biracial identities, we’ve been able to move through circles of White women for most of our lives as well. Being in those circles, we’ve learned firsthand what’s being said in those circles, what’s not being said, and, perhaps most importantly, what’s being said when people believe that only White people are in the room. We’ve taken that knowledge, combined it with our belief that women have so much power that they’ve been told they don’t have, in so many spheres of life, to make change, and set out to change the narrative in those White women spaces so that we can truly stand up for all women, not just those who look like us. We want to challenge the status quo and, in doing so, make the world that we want to see for our children, one intentional anti-racist action at a time.
"We want to challenge the status quo and, in doing so, make the world that we want to see for our children, one intentional anti-racist action at a time."
Introduce yourselves and your team!
It’s just the two of us (Sara & Misasha), so when you email hello@dearwhitewomen.com, you’re getting one of us to personally respond (typically Sara!). We do all our own content, but we do have wonderful editors who help us on the podcast side.
Show off some work or products you're excited about.
Our book! We’ve loved being able to talk to so many different groups about this book, and the conversations that have been generated as a result have influenced our ongoing work as well.
Which SHE mark have you been certified for?
We have been certified for the SHEowns mark!
Why are you proud to be a Certified SHEowns™ company?
Our whole platform is built on the belief that women can collectively do hard things, and that we’ve been shown so long that we don’t add value, or our worth is discounted, that we love leading by example. We are two best friends who have been friends for 25+ years, and that bond that we have between us is the bond that we know we can have with each other as women, if we focus on being women first, rather than our other identities.
In what ways other than gender equity do you think your company is making the world a better place?
We’re fighting for our kids in the work that we do. Ultimately, we’re striving to change the narrative in our country away from the dominant, exclusionary narrative into one that benefits and uplifts everyone, and while that world may not be one that we will ever live in, we hope that we’re creating the building blocks that will make it so for our kids, or perhaps our grandkids. For us, we focus on uniting women to uproot systemic racism, starting with White women, because we do believe that we all rise by lifting others.
"Ultimately, we’re striving to change the narrative in our country away from the dominant, exclusionary narrative into one that benefits and uplifts everyone[.]"
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
We love bringing this conversation to workplaces, schools, book clubs, and more. If you want to book us or see more about what we do in these spaces, check out our media page.
Where can everyone find and connect with Dear White Women?
Website: www.DearWhiteWomen.com
Instagram: @DearWhiteWomenPodcast
Twitter: @DWWPodcast
Contact: hello@dearwhitewomen.com