Our Problem, Our Path

A healthy multiracial society could be ours

Building a healthy multiracial society is possible, but not without millions of White people seeing racism as our problem and choosing to walk an antiracist path. It will take us supporting and challenging one another on this journey to learn more about the realities of racism and what we can do about it. In Our Problem, Our Path, award-winning author Ali Michael and clinical psychologist Eleonora Bartoli invite White people to join them on an antiracist journey to learn to talk about race with one another in ways that lead to real change.

Drawing on decades of personal and professional experiences engaging in antiracism, the authors:

• emphasize the need for White people to have honest, meaningful relationships not only with People of Color and Native people, but also with other White people, in order to change systems shaped by racism
• provide strategies for parents and teachers to support White children to become contributing members of a healthy multiracial society
• introduce trauma-informed tools from psychology that enable readers to understand and overcome their own resistance and fear around taking antiracist action
• demonstrate how White people can take antiracist action today, exactly where they are and as they are

Grounded in an understanding of antiracism as a daily, lifelong practice, Our Problem, Our Path supports White people to help one another find the trailhead and start moving on the path toward a more just, equitable and loving multiracial society for all.

As the Director of the Race Institute for K-12 Educators, Ali Michael, Ph.D. works with schools and organizations across the country to help make research on race, Whiteness, and education more accessible and relevant to educators. Ali is the author of Raising Race Questions: Whiteness, Inquiry and Education, winner of the 2017 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award.  As a member of a multiracial editorial team, she has co-edited The Guide for White Women who Teach Black Boys, Teaching Beautiful and Brilliant Black Girls, and Everyday White People Confront Racial and Social Injustice: 15 Stories. With her colleague Toni Graves Williamson, Ali adapted Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility for a Young Adult audience.  Ali sits on the editorial board of the journal Whiteness and Education.  Her article, What do White Children Need to Know About Race?, co-authored with Dr. Eleonora Bartoli in Independent Schools Magazine, won the Association and Media Publishing Gold Award for Best Feature Article in 2014. When she is not writing, speaking, or training, Ali is striving to be an anti-racist co-parent to two amazing kids. Her writing and speeches are available at alimichael.org.

Eleonora Bartoli, Ph.D., is a consultant and licensed psychologist, specializing in trauma, resilience-building, and multicultural/social justice counseling. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology: Human Development/Mental Health Research from the University of Chicago in 2001. After receiving her clinical license in 2005, she opened a small independent practice, which she has held since. After 15 years in academia (12 of those years as the director of a Masters in counseling program), she became a full-time consultant. Her mission is to share the tools of counseling and psychology in support of social justice work.

Throughout her career, Dr. Bartoli has held leadership positions in professional organizations at both the state and national levels. She has also presented at numerous conferences and is the author of a number of publications focused on multicultural counseling competence, white racial socialization, and the integration of social justice principles in evidence-based counseling practices (please see her website, dreleonorabartoli.com, for details). Dr. Bartoli has been the recipient of academic awards, including the Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Provost Award for Outstanding Advising and Mentoring. The Gillem-Bartoli Alum Award for Contributions to Social Justice was established to honor hers and a colleague’s contributions in their role as activist-scholars within academia. In all her work, Dr. Bartoli integrates an understanding of neuroscience, focusing on how it informs symptom development as well as healing and resilience-building strategies.