This summer we have seen a global groundswell for #blacklivesmatter against a backdrop of racial injustice and police brutality. George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Elijah McClain. Rayshared Brooks. Tony McDade. And countless other Black people killed by the police in the US. Anti-black racism is a more than 400 year old system of violence, exploitation, and domination that dehumanizes and terrorizes Black people and people of color. We cannot just watch the news and struggle with emotions of despair, anger and helplessness… We must do something. One place to start is by looking critically at how we show up in our personal and professional spaces. It’s on each of us to ensure that we’re not just not racist, that we’re committed to being anti-racist.
How can we breathe life into a narrative that transcends the headlines? What happens now after the dust and debris has settled? Will this monumental moment become a movement? And what can we do to contribute to the cause?
That depends on what we decide to do now…
Photo from Unsplash
This knowledge-building session is both an introduction and a deep dive into understanding the historical evolution and present-day manifestation of anti-black racism as a system of oppression. his session is all about visibilizing the ways in which racism has been and continues to be designed as an entire system that shapes and influences all aspects of our societal life including government policy, mass incarceration, poverty, the media, and more.
Photo from Unsplash
This awareness-raising session looks at how anti-black racism shapes our everyday interactions and is reinforced by them. We will shift from a macro lens of racism as the system of systems to a micro lens of racism as it shows up and plays out in our interpersonal interactions, relationships, and dynamics, often without our knowing it.
Photo from Unsplash
This skill-building session begins to shift our knowledge and awareness of how racism operates at an institutional and interpersonal level to how we can actively challenge it in our lives. The follow-up half day session allows participants to grapple with the complicated nature of doing this work, the emotional experience of seeing the world through a different lens, and the ways we can continue stretching in our knowledge, awareness, and action.
August 7-9, 2020
August 14-16, 2020
August 21-23, 2020