I lead an organization that teaches white people how to engage with race and take action. Here's how you can get started — and it goes beyond reading books.

• White people are realizing what their Black peers have always known: America is a racist country and society.
• Eleanor Hancock, the executive director of nonprofit educational organization White Awake, said that it's natural for white people to feel shame or guilt right now.
• But they need to untangle themselves from taking their role in the system personally, and use their agency to educate themselves and take action.
• Hancock advises seeking out local leaders and mentors who are already working on these issues, and helping to support them and their causes.

Across America, many white people are realizing what their Black peers have always known: We live in a racist country and society.

In fact, white people are increasingly realizing that we live in a "police state," according to Eleanor Hancock, the executive director and cofounder of White Awake, a nonprofit organization and online platform that specifically provides educational resources on race for white people. As a statement on its website says: "We believe this is important because white people are socialized, and awarded limited types of privilege, to align ourselves with the capitalist, ruling class at everybody's expense."

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In this moment, white people may find themselves striving to become anti-racist; but, as Business Insider's Hillary Hoffower reports, there's a tangible difference between being an ally and an anti-racist. Allies are supportive of the cause, but they don't take action. Anti-racists take action — whether educationally, socially, financially, or all of the above — and they actively interrogate their own privilege and position in the world.

In an interview with Business Insider, Hancock discussed what white people might be feeling as they process their own privilege — and how they can work through that to become active anti-racists.

White people may feel extreme shame or guilt as they confront their privilege — and that's a natural response

"It's pretty hard to know that you are in this privileged position, and maybe, somehow, you are implicated in this terrible violence that's going on," Hancock said. "And so it's hard to untangle that without taking it personally and feeling a lot of shame or guilt."

And while that's a natural response, it can become counterproductive, especially when people get "zealous" about their own shame — and begin to project it out onto other white people.

That response makes sense, as Hancock notes: "Somebody actually gave you that privilege, right?"

And that makes it difficult to grapple with, "because these things have roots that are really deep historically, and their contemporary manifestation is also hard to see where it's coming from."

One of the main obstacles in being anti-racist is feeling like racism is too big to tackle — which leads to inaction

Acknowledging that whiteness exists within a structural system of racism — and processing your own position within that — is an important step. But you can't stop there; as Hoffower reported, thinking that you can't change anything will simply lead to inaction.

And there's a way to move on from those feelings of shame or guilt productively.

"We don't have to hate ourselves or hate other white people or take it all personally — we really are part of something so much larger and so structural," Hancock said. "The helpful thing is when you can start to separate yourself from it and understand that, within the system, you do have some agency, and you have the ability also to educate yourself and align yourself differently."

Hancock said that white people should also seek out spaces where they can discuss the trauma of what they're witnessing — such as the video of George Floyd's murder. White people, she said, should not go into a multiracial space and make it all about themselves, but should instead seek out someone like a friend, family member, or therapist who can offer support.

From there, find out who's already been doing the work, and see how you can help

There's probably already somebody out there who's organizing on the issues directly impacting your community. Hancock said that, beyond seeking out educational resources, she would "love to encourage" white people to seek out local leaders who have already been at work on these issues.

"We need everybody, and everybody has value, and we occupy a very specific position in society," Hancock said. "It's good to understand what that position is so that we can consciously choose not to play the role that was given to us, but to create a different role for ourselves."

White people shouldn't jump in and try and start a new effort, or immediately take up space within a group that's already been organizing; instead, Hancock said, they should prioritize the leadership of whoever is on the frontline.

Ultimately, Hancock said, it's important for white people to continue bringing in those who haven't done this work before — including themselves.

"This is an incredible moment where so many people are seeing something for the first time, and public opinion is in support of a radical change."