Our why.
We founded White Women Reckoning because we want to create spaces for courageous conversation and self-exploration around issues of equity and justice. We bring not only heart to this work but extensive experiences and skills.
We are gifted teachers and facilitators.
We are proud to be a woman and LGBTQ-owned business rooted in intersectionally feminist values and commitments.
We value the inherent dignity of each and every person.
We trust the transformative power of authentic collaboration.
Our story.
In the Summer of 2019, Krista invited colleague Naomi to a conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion on college campuses.
It was there, after many years of doing racial justice and equity work in separate academic and community spaces, that we discovered we shared similar commitments.
We are two academics who have dedicated our work to the idea of improving the lives of others and making the world a better place. What we came to realize together is that our desire to be “good white people” has often been the very thing standing in the way of doing the steady work of racial justice.
At times that has taken the form of feeling like we know the best way forward, while not acknowledging all the ways we remain inescapably mired in white ways of moving and being in the world. At other times, guilt over never being a “good enough” white person has been a barrier to effective action.
Neither approach bears good fruit. Together we realized that in order to engage in ethical and effective racial justice and equity work, we needed also to encounter ourselves as people racialized into whiteness. Facing ourselves is inner work, yes. But our encounter with one another helped us see how much we want and need to do inner work in community with other white people.
We also realized, as we began working through these ideas together, that we needed to actively take responsibility for the racist actions and beliefs in our white professional spaces and to invest ourselves in changing policies and practices, even though these things were not in our job descriptions.
For us to change, we can never stop doing our own work, whether within or around us.
The process of unlearning racism is never complete for white people. We know we will always be in the process of deconstructing our own internalized white supremacy and how it impacts those we care about. We believe that doing this intentional work in the context of community is the best way forward.
Meet the team.
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Naomi Simmons, Ph.D
Naomi Simmons earned her B.A. in Sociology from Bloomsburg University and her M.A. and PhD. in Sociology from the University of South Carolina. She has over 13 years of teaching and research experience in higher education and currently serves as the Director of the Gender and Sexuality Center at the College of Charleston. Her research has focused on the relationship between intercultural competencies and historical interpretations and perceptions at former slave plantations in the south and the ways in which de facto segregation continues to be employed in the creation of school attendance zones across South Carolina. She has authored institutional strategic plans for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging and has served as an ex officio member of the Board of Trustees at Newberry College, board member for Parents Advocates for Gifted Education in Lexington Richland School District 5, and as the Chair of the School Improvement Council for Harbison West Elementary . In addition to her consulting work with White Women Reckoning, Naomi is a facilitator with Speaking Down Barriers.
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Krista E. Hughes, Ph.D
Krista is a theologian, teacher, writer, and higher education professional who currently serves as inaugural director of the Muller Center for Exploration & Engagement and Associate Professor of Religion at Newberry College, where she invites college students to explore life’s big questions about meaning, purpose, belonging, and the common good and also serves as a campus leader in institutional equity work. She holds a B.A. in Spanish & Humanities from Wofford College, an M.A. in Latin American History from Vanderbilt University, an M.Div. in Theology from Vanderbilt University Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in Theological & Philosophical Studies from Drew University. Her M.Div. and Ph.D. carried certificates in gender and sexuality studies. Prior to Newberry, she served as Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at Hanover College. Across her varied research, writing, and teaching runs an implicit question: “How do the stories we tell about the world, ourselves, and others either harm or nurture common flourishing?” She serves as a regular facilitator for the community transformation organization Speaking Down Barriers (in Upstate South Carolina) and is vice chair of the Building Thriving Communities Foundation (Newberry, S.C.).