ABSTRACT

This narrative essay is a three-part analysis of the author’s experience working as a white activist-director of two new gender-based centers. Drawing upon Sara Ahmed’s work on diversity to explore the impact of institutional trauma, the author explores questions around issues of mental health, leadership, and power encountered by women’s center employees: What kind of leaders do women’s centers produce and cultivate? What if the mandate of intersectionality is not more programs but less power hoarding by white feminists? How are institutional trauma and safety racialized, especially with respect to white femininity and sexual violence? What are white feminists doing or avoiding by trying so hard?