The questions that begin Stephen Brookfield's discussion of why he thinks white instructors in multiracial Adult Basic Education (ABE) classes need to explore their own whiteness include the following: (1) If racial identity is largely a cultural, not biological, construct, then why focus on "any" form of racial markers?; and (2) Doesn't this constant harping on race create unnecessary divisions and stop us all from getting along? Brookfield claims that it is not talking about race that disrupts social harmony but rather it's the fact that whiteness as an identity is connected to power in a way that a learned blindness to racial inequality helps maintain a system that exhibits structural exclusion and normalizes brutality. Brookfield maintains that he has been struck over the years by the fact that people of color tell him that the most helpful thing whites can do in terms of fighting racism is to become aware of what it means to be white. They tell him that it is much more important for whites to learn that they have a particular racial identity, and to examine how that identity operates in the world, than it is for them to learn about the cultures of racial minorities. Brookfield shares his observation that in a multiracial classroom; it seems to him that culturally responsive teaching that varies instructional modalities to take account of collective modes of generating knowledge is crucial. He therefore supports the point that if students of color see everything through a racial lens, then it behooves a white teacher to explore what it means to experience the world as profoundly racialized. Brookfield closes the article by saying that the only way he can experience the world as racialized is by doing a deep dive into his own racial identity and that is why he believes white instructors need to explore their own whiteness. [This article is part 1 of 4 in this series.]