Racial Equity Workshop
Updated September 2020
21 Days of Reinforcement
Thank you for your engaging participation in the workshop. If you have been touched, enlightened, and empowered like most attendees, you now have a sense of awareness that requires additional reflection and reinforcement. The time spent is much more than a workshop. We are committed to organizing for change. We are committed to being a life-long learner. Research shows that it takes 21 days of attention to a new learning to make a habit. In addition, John Dewey, an educational reformer, states, “We don’t learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experiences.” To help make our country better for everyone, we want you to live this effort each and every day. Be uncomfortable with the brutal facts. Maintain hope with the brutal facts. This suggested 21-Day Reinforcement timeline will assist you when you return back to your daily routine. Feel free to change the order of the activities to best coordinate with your own schedule. The most important action is to stay in close touch with racial equity education each day. We also encourage you to stay involved with the movement for change by joining a local social justice organization and coming back to the Phase I workshop as an alumnus.
Update: With the coronavirus pandemic upon us, it is even more critical for us to go further with our learning and application of anti-racism concepts and activities. COVID-1619 and COVID-19 are wreaking havoc on Brown and Black people. Please be gentle with yourself and remember to pause and hold grace for your family and loved ones. We are all on a journey. Make space for your own processing and those who you invite into your justice walk.
Day 1. Write a short blog (300-500 words) or journal entry of your feelings about the workshop or any particular anti-racism topic.
Day 2. Read through your workshop notes for at least 30 minutes and/or call a new friend from the workshop to say “hello” and check-in.
Day 3. Send an email to the workshop organizer if you have not received the official REI workbook.
- Read “Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life.” (Sue, Capodilup, Torino, Bucceri, Holder, Nadal, and Esquilin) Summary article: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/microaggressions-in-everyday-life/201010/racial-microaggressions-in-everyday-life
Day 4. Watch “Take a Walk in My Shoes: Jane Elliott” (Creator of the “A Class Divided” Exercise)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qFl9isxTiQ
Day 5. Identify two people who you feel could benefit from attending a racial equity training workshop. Contact them and extend a warm invitation. Your contacts should express an interest in learning more – not those who are indifferent or in denial of racism.
- Reflect on your own position as a Power Broker (one who holds power -- not necessarily position) -- in an organization. What are you doing or not doing with your power?
- What is your perception of poor people? Read: Americans Want to Believe Jobs Are the Solution to Poverty. They’re Not.
Day 6. Watch “Kids on Race” video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPVNJgfDwpw
Day 7. Blog or journal two ways that you have changed (intend to) your behavior since attending the racial equity workshop.
Day 8. Begin listening to the podcast (Scene on Radio – “Seeing White”) http://podcast.cdsporch.org/seeing-white/
- Review the workbook for at least 30 minutes.
Day 9. Read “Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation.” (Bonilla-Silva)
http://itp.wceruw.org/bonilla-silva%20rethinking%20racism.pdf
Day 10. Reflect on your own internal racial oppression - inferiority or superiority. How has this bias shaped you today? Identify an example of how it has hindered your progress (personal or professional) in life.
- Read and reflect on Why People of Color Need Spaces Without White People - http://bit.ly/3000GK8
Day 11. Engage someone of another race/ethnicity in a conversation about one lesson you have learned thus far.
- Read and reflect on Robin DiAngelo’s “White Fragility”
https://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/viewFile/249/116
Day 12. Watch and read Tim Wise’s work.
· “Race and Whiteness in the Era of Trumpism”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6myUwP3wPfs
· “What’s the Matter With White People? A Modest Call for Personal Responsibility”
Day 13. Plan and eat at an ethnic restaurant or prepare an ethnic dish. (Optional: Invite a friend or family member and have an intentional discussion around race in America.)
- Learn more about Dr. Joy DeGruy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5FoWhE7Qgg
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laztUibh-v0
Day 14. Blog or journal after reading “Slave Law in Colonial Virginia: A Timeline”
Day 15. Chat (or schedule) with a young person about the power of racial equity education and the movement for change.
- Learn about the often forgotten white freedom fighters who sacrificed for racial justice. (e.g., Anne Braden, Peter Norman, and William Moore)
Day 16. Identify a current example of white advantage or privilege at your place of employment, faith center or educational institution. Write down possible solutions. Share with a friend from the workshop.
Day 17. Visit “Race: The Power of an Illusion” (Review the discussion guide and/or watch the video)
http://www-tc.pbs.org/race/images/race-guide-lores.pdf
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/race/103372104
Day 18. Religion and Racism. Review the Doctrine of Discovery, Monogenesis/Polygenesis and the workbook for at least 30 minutes. What does this Doctrine(s) and other faith-based racial dictates mean to you? Are there particular areas of interest?
Day 19. Learn more about Albert Einstein, the anti-racism champion. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-celebrity-scientist-albert-einstein-used-fame-denounce-american-racism-180962356/
Day 20. Read “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” (McIntosh)
http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf
Day 21. Write a short blog (300-500 words) or journal entry of your feelings about the workshop or any particular anti-racism topic.
Want more?
Critical Thinking Netflix shows: 13th, American Son, Flint Town, Time: The Kalief Browder Story, I Am Not Your Negro, Seven Seconds, The Rachel Divide, Freeway: Crack in the System, and When They See Us.
Favorite [recent] Reads: Caste (I. Wilkerson); Heavy (K. Laymon); The Color of Law (R. Rothstein); all articles/books by Dr. Ibram Kendi, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Carol Anderson; The New Jim Crow (M. Alexander); Buried in the Bitter Waters (Jespin); Suspect Citizens (F. Baumgartner), and White Tears/Brown Scars (R. Hamad).
History: Zinn Education Project: https://www.zinnedproject.org
- Howard Zinn - A People’s History of the United States
- Nell Painter - The History of White People
- A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. - In the Matter of Color
Listen to Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History Podcasts
- Season 3: General Chapman’s Last Stand
- Season 2: Miss Buchanan’s Period of Adjustment
Watch Native American History “We Shall Remain” documentaries on PBS
- https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/weshallremain/?fbclid=IwAR1lgYsvIOYS8L37QbxV3m4Sfi9gvxPD5Ar18YwXY-xU2CSwRpe_7kiIqiA
Watch “Stolen Education” documentary on Prime Video.
Listen to the 1619 Project Podcasts
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/podcasts/the-daily/1619-project.html
- Healthcare “How the Bad Blood Started” - September 14, 2019
“People are trapped in history and
history is trapped in them.” James Baldwin
Racial Equity Institute, LLC
https://www.racialequityinstitute.org/
704-400-2879
21 Days Creator – Deborah Stroman, PhD (debby@dstroman.com)
Professor. Advocate. Connector.