In this response to Stephen Brookfield's "Why White Instructors Should Explore Their White Racial Identity" (EJ1246146), Shantih Clemans agrees with Brookfield's strong assertion that white teachers need to carefully explore what it means to be white. However, she takes two primary points of departure: (1) she feels Brookfield falls short in offering practical guidance to support the imperative of white exploration; and (2) she takes a contrary view to Brookfield's claim that Adult Basic Education (ABE) teachers need to reject a "color blind view of the world for its seeming emphasis on the universal aspect of humanity." Clemans says that the more chances ABE teachers take to learn from each other -- teacher, student, black, brown, white (and all) -- the more seeds of empathy are planted, the more commonalities we recognize in each other. Clemans shares her point of view that rather than something to critique, humanness is actually a doorway in, a tool to unlock the gnarly puzzle of privilege and power. [For Part 2, see "'Race'ing White Instructors: Beyond the Black-White Binary. Forum: Reflections on White Racial Identity in the ABE Classroom" (EJ1246147).]