Teacher education programs in countries where minoritized students experience systematic and persistent racial discrimination face tension between (1) producing teachers equipped to reverse discrimination in classrooms and schools, especially those attended by minoritized students, and (2) helping everyone considering teaching to develop their knowledge of how they can address racial discrimination, even if most teacher candidates take only baby steps. This tension, not limited to the United States (see e.g. Howard, 2014; Penetito, 2010), has run through most of this author's career as a teacher educator. This special issue of "International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education" can be viewed as attempting to bridge the tension between these two framings by asking how both can be addressed when it comes to White teacher candidates. This issue offered snapshots of whiteness in the teacher education classroom, impacts of whiteness on students of color, portraits of White teacher candidates grappling with racism, exploration of contexts that impact on White teachers' learning and teaching, and analyses of White identities that probe entry points for racial learning.