San Diego, CA – June 16, 2022 – Cognella Press is proud to announce the forthcoming publication of Twelve Steps for White America: For a United States of America and Twelve Steps for White America: Workbook by William Watson and featuring workbook material by Christine Sleeter.

About the Book:

The text answers the revolutionary call of James Baldwin in “The Fire Next Time” for new standards for white Americans. Educator and former psychotherapist William Watson presents a treatment plan for democracy, an innovative framework of steps white Americans can take (and all individuals and organizations can incorporate) to right our nation’s course to peace and prosperity through justice then liberty for all.

The problem: Watson’s Rigged Advantage Theory presents U.S. democracy as compromised by advantage rigged to favor some, exploit others, and marginalize many. Rigged advantage operates a whiteness inclusion-collusion that relies on two codependent strategies—white supremacy and anti-Blackness.

The solution: Address elements of dysfunction common to both rigged advantage and alcoholism. Apply 12 steps of known recovery principles to unshackle the past, promote U.S. security and global competitiveness, and eliminate race as a predictor of democracy’s outcomes.

Twelve Steps for White America maps a pathway to truth, reconciliation, and renewal forged in a crucible of national repentance, atonement, and redemption.

About the Workbook: 

The workbook presents readers with a user-friendly, graphic-rich toolkit that guides them to learn each step and achieve each step’s learning outcome. (Step Four is enriched by Christine Sleeter’s specially created assessment that contextualizes family history.)

Additionally, Advanced Mastery Exercises challenge readers to practice fundamental change principles, counter ideological impermeability, discern the difference between an idealized and realized USA, quantify racial wealth inequality, dismantle the whiteness presumption of whereabouts authority (PWA) over Black Americans, recognize the power dynamics of interruption, practice loving kindness meditation, and implement a daily program of personal practice to consecrate liberty free from rigged advantage.

About the Author

William Watson first learned democracy watching his Mississippi parents risk their lives (and his) in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Defying odds set by poverty and alcoholism, Watson earned a social justice-focused doctorate from San Francisco State University and completed a Presidential Fellowship for College Excellence with The Aspen Institute’s partnership with Stanford University. After prototyping equity innovations in higher education for over 20 years, he founded Waterbrook, LLC, a USA democracy project inspired by MLK’s Beloved Community. For more information, visit williamwatson.org.

Learn more about the core book: https://titles.cognella.com/twelve-steps-for-white-america-9781793544988 

Learn more about the workbook: https://titles.cognella.com/twelve-steps-for-white-america-9781793554826