Introduction

At the inauguration of his “Black Power” movement, Stokely Carmichael rhetorically justified this pivot in the larger Black movement as a necessary recognition of whites’ inability to “condemn themselves” for their racism. Decades later, following the rise of #BlackLivesMatter and the reintroduction of racial justice discourses into mainstream public life, a similar analysis of whiteness has come to frame the anti-racist projects of large numbers of “white allies.” In this introductory chapter, this historical shift and the theoretical conundrum it poses are explored with Carmichael as interlocutor, and illustrative examples are provided from public discourses, debates, and entertainment media. In addition, definitions of “ally,” and the unique questions it poses as a social category, are explored.