Peter Jarrett-Schell - Seeing My Skin: A Story of Wrestling With Whiteness

Advance praise for Seeing My Skin

Peter Jarrett-Schells vignettes, from childhood to present, paint a picture of the learnings and limitations awaiting white people striving to be racial allies and accomplices. Through humility and vulnerability, Jarrett-Schell drew me into his ongoing efforts to responsibly navigate racism inside and outside his interracial family and work relationships. In a way no other book has done for me, Seeing My Skin made visceral the reality that living in white skin will always dull my ability to sense racial danger, requiring me to develop and nurture cross-racial relationships that help direct my energies in ways that disrupt, not perpetuate, patterns of whiteness.

Deborah Kittredge Irving, racial justice educator
and author of Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race

Seeing My Skin is an important read; it is important because it is a conversation; it is a confession; it is a guide for anyone who is serious about eradicating race in this country. While Jarrett-Schell claims that it is not theological, it is a book for such a time as this. Perhaps for Whites to truly understand race in America, how life is lived in Black skin, they must take a walk on the wild side and see lifeexperience lifethrough the eyes of people for whom they would lay down their lives: the black children most will never have.

The Rev. Gayle Fisher-Stewart, PhD, Calvary Episcopal Church,
The Center for the Study of Faith in Justice @ Calvary

In his stunning new book, Seeing My Skin, Peter Schell recalls a series of haunting encounters with friends, family, and strangers and considers the seductive power and incalculable costs of his Whiteness. This vital work is essential reading for White people ready to confront the insidious workings of Whiteness in their own lives and in the world around them.

Jacob Slichter, Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing, Sarah Lawrence
College, and author of So You Want to Be a Rock & Roll Star

A riveting, all-too-convincing testimony to the endemic and institutionalized racism in which all white Americans still participate, regardless how pure our motives or whether we notice or not. Jarrett-Schell helps me sense how dimly Ive understood my own blithe, lifelong trajectory along the rails of race. To me this book is more revealing than any other Ive read about the racist order of things in our country and why general White liberal goodwill in itself wont change the way things are.

Alan Venable, author of Hopes Kids: A Voting Rights Summer

Seeing My Skin is an invitation to enter into the interior struggle of a White man who acknowledges the racialized air that he has been breathing. This air claims to sustain him as a White man, at the same time he realizes this same air is toxic to those who are not defined as White. It is like a fish who willingly jumps out of the water to see what water is like, all the while gasping for water. Through memory re-membered with the wisdom of age, experiences, and honest relationships with those who are not White, Jarrett-Schell debriefs his experiences by shedding light on the hidden, deep, dark, systemic racism that so shaped him and the United States. He offers no easy answers; instead, he shares his willingness to step out of denial, resist the temptation to turn back, and stay in this uncomfortable, uncompromising, and discerning place. His tenacity and courage to hang in there to keep digging into the deep, dark abyss of Whiteness is refreshing. His faith in his family and the people of his church is what holds him in this in-between placenot to make everything all right, or smooth things out for him, but to hold him accountable while supporting him to walk this life-long journey that will have impacts for the next generation: his son, his church, and his readers. This is a must-read for anyone who cares about the state of race relations in the United States.

Eric Law, director, The Kaleidoscope Institute

From the beginning to the end of this important book, Jarrett-Schell takes us beyond jargon and deep into the world of Whiteness by means of a riveting and deeply personal series of flashbacks and erudite reflections. Any of us who claim the term White must interrogate the contours of privilege and cross-examine our own assumptions, intentions, and values about race. Jarrett-Schells intimate unpacking of Whiteness in his own life is a brilliant example of what we all must do. Insightful, at times surprisingly humorous, and always honest, Seeing My Skin asks the deep questions of identity, invites us to join in on the long and hard work of dismantling White supremacy, and compassionately shows us the path of love and right relationship. This is an excellent book highly recommended for book clubs, churches, seminarians, and all people concerned with social justice working for liberation in our world.

Dr. Jason B. Crawford, Humanities Instructor at Champlain
College, Saint-Lambert, Quebec, and Lecturer in Christian
Social Ethics at the Montreal School of Theology

(A STORY OF WRESTLING WITH WHITENESS)

PETER JARRETT-SCHELL

For Rondesia, to whom 40 percent of all credit is due.
For Joshua, to whom is due the best of myself.

Copyright 2019 by Peter Jarrett-Schell

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Church Publishing
19 East 34th Street
New York, NY 10016
www.churchpublishing.org

Cover design by Paul Soupiset
Typeset by Rose Design

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Jarrett-Schell, Peter, author.

Title: Seeing my skin : a story of wrestling with whiteness / Peter Jarrett-Schell.

Description: New York : Church Publishing, 2019.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019002071 (print) | LCCN 2019022050 (ebook) | ISBN 9781640651937 (ebook) | ISBN 9781640651920 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Jarrett-Schell, Peter. | Episcopal ChurchClergyBiography. | Race awareness. | Ethnic attitudes. | WhitesRace identity.

Classification: LCC BX5995.J275 (ebook) | LCC BX5995.J275 A3 2019 (print) | DDC 305.809/073dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019002071

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Peter Jarrett Schell with Ronald Jarrett and Rondesia Jarrett Schell Yesterday Edited