The Interrogatory Imperative: Hope and Persistence from 20 Years of Interrogating Whiteness in OD

In 2001, Diane Grimes presented a charge to the field of organization development: that it should “get its own house in order,” by employing an “interrogation of whiteness” to examine the hidden assumptions about race embedded within OD literature and praxis. This paper explores how the field has responded to Grimes’ call to action over the past 20 years and examines how interrogations of whiteness have advanced the field’s capabilities to disrupt white supremacy culture within the discipline and its spheres of influence. A review of literature connects interrogating whiteness with its roots in critical race feminism and the humanistic values embedded in OD’s founding philosophies, then demonstrates significant advancements in the use of interrogating whiteness since Grimes’ original charge. Key findings support the conclusion that the field is more meaningfully equipped than ever to pursue racial equity within organizations. These findings include the development of new awareness of white supremacy’s impact on diversity management, new lenses through which to conduct interrogations of whiteness, new language to describe the dynamics of white supremacy culture and ways of disrupting it, and new models for integrating interrogations of whiteness into OD praxis. This paper concludes with a renewed call to action, charging the field to apply these findings to an expanded, multidimensional disruptive inquiry of oppressive systems, and proposing that to meet a new cultural moment, OD must unbind itself from its factionalized view of equity/diversity/inclusion and strategic values alignment, and recognize liberatory praxis as fundamental to the work of the discipline.