Upcoming Dates:

Offered through Common Ground Healing Arts. Register for the 6 week online course with them.

Goal: For people with Racial Privilege to identify their own anti-racist work based upon individual risk assumption and access to resources.

Please read these posts and the three following exercises before attending the workshop in order for you to get the most out of the discussion. To be added to my email list: Register here.

RISK: Read the Calculating Risks post, and reflect on what risks you feel most ready to take on.
RESOURCES: Read the Identifying Non-Monetary Resources post, and begin your own resource list
SMART Goal: Read what a SMART goal is and be ready to apply those lessons to your own indvidual goals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria

Calculating Risks in Service of Equity and Justice

Identifying Non-Monetary Resources and Wealth

DART: White Vulnerability

Consent for Non-Intimate Relationships and in Anti-Racist Work

Toni Barskile has been Black for 58 years in which she has attended prep schools in New Jersey, mastered White-approved “standard” English, figured out how to be perceived as “non-threatening” to members of the White establishment and teaching survival/ computer/ critical-thinking skills to Westhaven residents. Toni also works with the dialogue on race subcommittee on media relations, attends White Feather presentations sponsored by Trinity Episcopal Church, and provides web development/design assistance to the Truth Commission Ad Hoc Planning Group of the University and Community Action for Racial Equality. 

Dolly Joseph has been White and lived in Central VA all of her life. Her ancestors colonized lands of the Moneton and Cherokee peoples in the Appalachian Mountains; her family’s generational wealth comes from the exploitation of Enslaved People of African descendants near Calypso, North Carolina. Dolly is an educator and community builder and was once named one of the “4 under 40” women leaders in Charlottesville. Now that she’s no longer under 40, she’s petitioning for a new honor of “5 under 50” to be started. 

Toni’s superpowers include being able to call White people out on their ish without making them cry and the ability to identify structural racism in everyday situations and ways to dismantle it. Dolly’s superpowers include slicing to the heart of the problem, finding order and pattern in chaos, and getting people to do the thing they didn’t even know they wanted to do. Together, they will facilitate so that we will collectively be more ready to smash white supremacy.

One of the ways that people with greater privilege distance themselves from accountability in injustice is to focus on their personal financial instability in this Capitalist society. It’s true that the system is broken, and many of feel stressed and strapped. However, many of us are also doing substantially better than people in poverty. Black people living in poverty deal with the intersection of racial discrimination and economic hardship. Many people do not feel financially stable, yet have unrecognized resources that allow them to access food, shelter, and security. Because of our class segregation in this culture, affluent people do not recognize the barriers that lack of economic access creates. It is HARD to survive our system without these resources that we may take for granted.

Access to these resources means that we can both extend the use of the resource to Black, Brown and Indigeneous People, and use it to subvert and smash the status quo.

Here are some examples of resources that you may have and not recognize. You may have other resources not listed. These resources are not a given for many people, especially Black, Brown, and Indigeneous People. Imagine the barriers that would you would face if you did not have ready access to some of these assumed resources. This list is based upon professional class norms. Use your own life and experiences to generate your own resource list.

I was looking to find a quick article to link to about consent, but pretty much all of them had to do with sex, so I am writing quickly, and may need to revise. Tell me what is unclear or wrong. Consent and its complement, setting of boundaries, is critical in healthy relationships. White Supremacy, Exploitation, and Racism thrives when we ignore boundaries, and ignore the concept of consent. We ask consent of people we perceive to be equal and important to us. We fail to ask consent when we lack respect for another person’s humanity. Practicing consent is critical for dismantling the interpersonal structures that underly racism.

Asking for consent in practice:

• Ask before tagging a person in photos or your posts. Identifying people in photographs can endanger all aspects of their life. Tagging someone in a post puts them on the spot, may tokenize them, and require them to take on the emotional labor of reading and/or responding to content that is triggering/traumatic
• Check in regularly during and between conversations with friends about whether it’s okay to have potentially triggering conversations. If they say it’s not, respect that boundary, and find another outlet for that processing. Don’t make their boundary about you. They may be tired. They may have limited time. It may not feel good to them.
• Offer, don’t insist. If you want to do something with/for someone, ask if they want that good, service, connect, amplification, whatever. There are many reasons why people may not want something, and it may be out of your experience why they would not. Don’t make your desire to gift become a burden.

If you have racial privilege, you must understand that Black People in America are NOT SAFE. You will not receive and do not deserve trust or consent if you do not center the preservation of Black Life, including their emotional, psychological, financial, and physical health. It is not your job to become a paternalistic protector of Black Lives. It is your work to create space for Black People to have autonomy and self-determination. Black People know best how to preserve Black Life. Those of us who are not Black have the duty to support access to the resources to preserve that life.

This work would not be possible without Toni Barskile.