What is Whitewashed USA?

We believe that many of the challenges facing America can be traced back to its racially divided roots.

We are here to break those negative patterns by educating about their history, and the actual harm they are doing to both white Americans and People of Color today.


Whitewashed USA is a not for profit organization, founded by Joel Gardner, a white American who believes that life is not a zero sum game, and that the success of a community is measured not by the success of its most prolific and visible members but by the success of all its members as a whole. With this in mind we intend to shed light and honesty on racial tensions in the United States, begin frank non-inflammatory discussions about historic context and current state, and collaborate with individuals and other organizations across the racial spectrum to heal wounds. Our end goal is to provide a path towards true racial equality in this country. 

We are not here to help black folks or to be allies; they are perfectly capable of standing in their own truth. We are not here to tell other communities what they need to do to fix their problems. We are here to help everyone understand how the racial divide is still harming this country, damaging our lives, and the future lives of our children regardless of color. 


While we stand with solidarity next to many others who are actively working on exposing and changing oppressive systems facing the world today, our primary focus is the system which grew from the travesty of African American enslavement in America. This system of oppression is still negatively impacting our nation in ways that may not be apparent to many people, especially white folks like us who are knowingly or unknowingly participating. 


We recognizes that the contextual information of both historic and present day race relations has been consistently polished, covered, obscured and hidden away to avoid offending either side. In doing this, a great disservice has been enacted on African Americans, other people of color affected by racial inequalities, and indeed our entire nation as a whole. Not one American can escape the negative effects that have come from hiding this context. Many names like political correctness and color blindness have been given to this anti-pattern of obfuscating the reality of the color line, we choose to simply call it whitewashed, and we are here to call attention to and reverse that process.

Whitewashed USA provides the following services:

  • Speakers for public and private events and training - to discuss racial matters including how to be aware of racial prejudice around us, movements within the United States that are impacting the color line and how to get involved in positive change.
  • Collaboration – we will put the full force of our network behind events and causes sponsored by groups that have overlapping desires for equality. Contact us for more details.
  • Discussion Forums – Our blog is designed to be a safe place to openly discuss race issues, it is heavily moderated to maintain a constructive tone and block potentially abusive behavior.