Understanding and Combating Racism: My Path from Oblivious American to Evolving Activist

Educated but untaught, involved but unknowing, Catholic but spiritually reserved, white but unwittingly blinded by the ubiquitous whiteness surrounding him. These are some of the many storylines W.E. 'Bill' Wynne explores in this relevant account of his social and racial justice advocacy journey and conversion over the course of his life. Despite these looming shadows, other hurdles hovering over his middle-class upbringing, and other missed signals accessible as a businessman and active community contributor, Wynne slowly but surely attains life-changing insight and finds his voice in becoming an authentic justice advocate with others.

Wynne's self-discovery of the many evils associated with the racial injustice permeating our society, institutions, and our hearts is captivating, experiential, and illuminated by his innate ability to build diverse relationships that result in many enduring friendships. The serendipitous and fascinating nature of the varied human networks that mysteriously and organically interconnect and multiply through the decades of Wynne's life is essential to his anti-racism work and activism today.

This intrepid tale of his sixty-year-plus pilgrimage from unknowingness to continuing enlightenment provides anyone, irrespective of religion, color, ethnicity, age, or gender, extremely helpful guidance in overcoming frozenness, reticence, and fear of social and racial justice engagement.

Bill Wynne is retired and a white antiracist activist in the Rochester, New York, area. A first-time author of Understanding and Combating Racism: My Path from Oblivious American to Evolving Activist, the foundation of Wynne's experiential insights in this memoir is premised on the human networks and friendships he developed in his business career and then his subsequent work in the nonprofit sector for many years. This was further complemented through extensive decades-long engagement and leadership roles with many church and community organizations. Bill's social and racial justice activism is a lived example demonstrating the importance and power of diverse and meaningful relationships which is one of the key through lines of his memoir.Raised Catholic by second generation German and Irish parents and the oldest of six siblings, Bill had a full array of Catholic education from the Sisters of St. Joseph in elementary school, to the Jesuits in high school, and then the Franciscans in college. He eventually received his MBA at the more secular University of Rochester during his over thirty-year career in telecommunications. Before moving on to the nonprofit sector for ten years, he walked the 500-mile-long pilgrimage in northern Spain known as the Camino de Santiago. The physical, mental, and spiritual challenges he faced during this month-long trek were complicated by the timing ... departing ten days after "9/11" and returning shortly after the bombing of Afghanistan, the beginning of a twenty-year war.After retiring in 2014, Bill immediately began searching for ways to be more "hands-on' with social and racial justice activism as well as to broaden his knowledge about racism. He read countless books and led book reviews, attended scores of programs and conferences, and got educated on the disturbing racial history of this country that was not taught when he was growing up.The timing could not have been better given the tragic Mr. Michael Brown police killing in St. Louis that year, then the political transition from a Black to white President, the many resulting tragic impacts during that shift from the incident in Charlottesville, to the Mr. George Floyd murder, and the Capitol insurrection to name just three. With his knowledge deepened, Bill got more active by developing several racism awareness programs and antiracism advocacy. Eventually by mid-2020, the "call" for Bill to tell his story came at him in several ways and he was led to tell the story of how he came to understand the impact of whiteness through his life and his personal obliviousness.Serving as essential guides on his most current pilgrimage were several Black friends most of whom Bill had just met over the past seven years. Some thought his voice needed to be heard through the lens of a white Catholic male who went from virtually complete unknowingness about the depths of racism (just like most whites) to become an informed and participative antiracism advocate. One white friend in his Fr. Richard Rohr discussion group calls Bill a "contemplative activist." Bill's most important support, however, emanates from the love and support of his wife of almost fifty years, Sandy, and their three children and four grandchildren. Similar to the Camino but much more demanding, he could not have written this book without them "walking" in solidarity on this challenging and ever-changing road to understanding and moving towards a full antiracism commitment. A living example of his family's participation was through the establishment in 2018 of the 'Wynne-Strauss Fund for Social and Racial Justice' through the Rochester Community Foundation. The process has been established for grants from this fund to be made for virtually the rest of this century and to assist with this, all proceeds from the sale of this memoir will be directed to the fund.