From Not-Racist to Antiracist
Let us help you implement permanent and long-term strategies that will create an anti- racist organization . All courses are customized to fit the needs of your organization. Below are some sample courses. We can design courses on any topic. Courses can be virtual or in-person.
Understanding Racism and its Roots Presentation
This seminar is a two to three-hour lecture designed to introduce participants to the beginnings of racism in the United States.
The seminar will explore how inequity based upon Blackness came to be encoded into the laws of the United States, and will trace anti-Blackness to the present. The focus of this presentation is demonstrating how racism is a structural problem and must be addressed as such, rather than as a good versus bad person binary. In understanding the historical and social context of structural racism, the participants will begin to see the complexity of modern-day racial inequity as an all-encompassing system rather than an issue of individual behavior.
The seminar permits participants with a limited amount of time to get their feet wet and begin the long journey of understanding and unravelling structural racism. It is recommended as an introduction for anyone looking for a cursory overview. It can be a starter course before committing to the “Peel Away the Layers” series or it can be used as an annual refresher course.
The presentation can be adapted to a half day seminar to allow for a more in-depth dialogue between presenter and participants and among participants. All courses can be customized based on the client’s needs.
This seminar may have up to 100 participants.
Racial Literacy Workshops-The Peel Away the Layers Series-Part 1
These workshops are designed to be transformative with each part building upon the other to give participants a solid understanding of structural inequity. Participants will peel away the historical layers of economic, social and political inequity in order to understand how inextricably they are linked to societal values and assumptions about what is acceptable behaviors.
Part 1 (4 hours) starts with the immigration of Europeans to the Americas going from the cheap labor of indentured servants to the deliberate enslavement of Africans for free labor and genocide of indigenous people for their lands. We begin to examine the myths we believe, the social and economic costs of one narrative, and how our own socialization informs how we see the world. Participants should begin to develop an understanding of the social construct of race, structural discrimination/racism and develop a shared vocabulary.
The goal is to have participants appreciate the history and legacy of a system build on exclusion and begin to recognize patterns from history in reproducing and normalizing racialized inequality. Participants will leave with a clear understanding that structural racism is upheld by policies that appear neutral in intent, but that these policies have a harmful effect on racial and ethnic minorities.
Participants will be required to review assigned resources in advance.
Racial Literacy Workshop- The Peel Away the Layers Series-Part 2
Structural racism is upheld by individuals who implement policies that appear neutral in intent, but that disproportionately harm minority groups.
Part 2 (4 hours) reinforces Part 1, but focuses more on how we have internalized messages of superiority and inferiority. We explore layers of entitlement and social privilege. Participants examine how family, institutions, culture, media, all play a role in enforcing our assumptions and stereotypes.
We discuss practices that participants can begin to put in place to ensure that they do not unconsciously engage in behavior that perpetuate systems of oppression either by their actions or inaction, or collude in their own demise.
Participants will be required to review assigned resources in advance.
Racial Literacy Workshops-The Peel Away the Layers Series-Part 3
Learning to view things with an anti-racist lens takes practice. Having learned to identify inequity in all its forms, participants practice disrupting the status quo of inequality.
Part 3 (4 hours), we begin the difficult tasks of identifying the issues in the organization using the historical lens. We answer how is racism at play in this organization, and how can we put long-term strategies in place to eradicate racism knowing that there are no easy or no size fits all answers. The organization will set 1 to 2 concrete achievable goals.
Participants will be required to review assigned resources in advance.