Want to challenge White supremacy? Here’s a good place to start.

Like many White Americans, I was raised without an awareness of my racial identity. In early adulthood, an intensive antiracism workshop awakened me to the Whiteness that has always been my companion—silent, invisible, and yet utterly formative. Both Kerry Connelly’s Good White Racist? and Layla F. Saad’s Me and White Supremacy are helpful companions for White people at various stages of an antiracism journey.

Connelly, a certified life coach and seminary student who writes from within the Christian tradition, describes her book as written “by a white person for white people.” Saad writes near the beginning of Me and White Supremacy, “I am an East African and Middle Eastern Black woman. I am a Muslim woman. I am a British citizen. I live in Qatar. And I speak, write, and teach to a global audience.” She addresses her book to “any person who holds white privilege,” a status that is more complex and nuanced than it seems. Saad’s book, which is based on a wildly popular Insta­gram challenge, guides readers through an intensive 28-day process of journaling and reflection.

For those just beginning antiracism work, these books offer a straightforward, unacademic introduction to basic concepts and terms. At the same time, both authors state unapologetically that their work is designed to make White readers feel uncomfortable. Saad predicts: