About Libertroph
“There’s been a culture built around segregation and assimilation; but there has not been a sustainable culture built around anti-racism. Not yet. How do we build a culture in which white people name their children in the tradition of anti-racist heroes? What are the stories of that culture? What are the rules of admonishment and rules of acceptance? What does the elderhood process look like in an anti-racist culture? How do we teach our white children about race in a way that is open and honest but doesn’t center them as the standard?”
- RESMAA MENAKEM
The “culture built around segregation and assimilation” is engrained and over-protected in white media and cultural narratives. But there are, have been, and will be white people defying that culture by parenting their children in anti-racist ways, uncovering the memories and traditions of their ancestral cultures, paying reparations and indigenous land taxes, and so much more.
Libertroph is a collection of art and stories about white anti-racist organizing efforts past and present. It is a reckoning with what white culture is and what exists beyond it. And it is an invitation for more white people to take up the life-giving work of anti-racist organizing.
LIBERTROPH (noun): One who is nourished by liberation
The suffix ‘troph’ refers to nourishment.
Plants that are nourished by sunlight are phototrophs. Heterotrophs depend on other organic compounds for nourishment, whereas Autotrophs nourish themselves.
As anti-racist organizers, we bend toward liberation for nourishment. We show up to protests to be nourished by community; we seek out art and stories to nurture our visions; we move through conflict to cultivate accountable relationships that sustain us over time.
We are Libertrophs.