How St. Louis inspired ‘Witnessing Whiteness’ author and her new book on anti-racism

If it weren’t for the YWCA Metro St. Louis, Los Angeles-based writer Shelly Tochluk would have never written a third edition of “Witnessing Whiteness: The Need to Talk About Race and How to Do It.”

Tochluk credits the local YWCA as “the reason this book is still being used” – and why she took up revising it. At the same time she was making those revisions, she was writing her new book that will be released next month, “Being White Today: A Roadmap to a Positive Antiracist Life.”

Originally published about 15 years ago, “Witnessing Whiteness” became a program the YWCA Metro St. Louis started in 2011. Since 2014, more than 4,000 white St. Louisans have participated..

Mary Ferguson has been deeply involved in nearly every facet of the YWCA’s Witnessing Whiteness work — first as a volunteer, then as a consultant. She said Witnessing Whiteness aims to deepen white people’s understanding of their own role in how racism operates. The program is distinct from more conventional forms of diversity, equity and inclusion work in its explicit focus on white people meeting with one another rather than cross-race approaches.