Welcome to the Fall 2025 Antiracism Learning Circles! 
Scroll down to see Schedule Details & Descriptions of our current offerings.
Scroll down to the bottom of this page to register.
A printable flyer is HERE.

OVERVIEW OF OFFERINGS

Podcast series from Scene on Radio:
    1. Seeing White 
    2. The Land That Has Never Been Yet 
    3. Capitalism 
Books
   4. How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future
   5. Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
   6. Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist
   7. Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley 
   8. This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism
   9. Subtle Acts of Exclusion: How to Understand, Identify, and Stop
        Microaggressions
Compilations
   10.  Poetry and Immigration 

ABOUT LEARNING CIRCLES

To register scroll down to the BOTTOM of this page to enter your name, email, location, and which circle(s) you would like to join. Your facilitator will reach out to you with a Zoom link & assignments for your first session.  

Free and open to all.   These circles are open to all and are free of charge. They are conducted via video conferencing (zoom), so you can participate from any time zone. Times shown are Pacific. Please invite your friends and neighbors to join these Learning Circles!  If you are moved to donate to the sponsoring organization, you can do that HERE.

Why Learning Circles?  As Maya Angelou reminds us, "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better."  This is a format where we learn together, strive to hear every voice, provide a safe space for expressing doubts and discomfort, encourage each other, and learn in a small group setting.  It is a way to deepen our relationships and understandings.  

Our goal is to build multicultural, diverse, engaged communities and work to dismantle racism and other oppressions. Antiracism Learning Circles are opportunities to do some of that work, to expose ourselves to our true history, to increase awareness of ongoing oppressions, and to explore and reveal our reactions to issues concerning race in America.  We are animated by imagining "what if?" a critical mass of us are exposed to this information and knowledge.

To get updates of future offerings, simply click that box in the registration form.  We offer Learning Circles in the fall and winter/spring each year.

Questions? Contact Jody at feldmanjody@gmail.com

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SCHEDULE DETAILS & DESCRIPTIONS -- FALL 2025 OFFERINGS

1. Seeing White  This is where to start your journey!

• Tuesday, every other week
•   - afternoon @ 2:00 pm Pacific (3:00 MT, 4:00 CT, 5:00 ET) - OR -
•   - evening @ 6:30 pm Pacific (7:30 MT, 8:30 CT, 9:30 ET)
•  10 sessions, 90 minutes each (with a break in late December)
•  Dates: 9/23, 10/7, 10/21, 11/4, 11/18, 12/2, 12/16, 1/6, 1/20, 2/3

Seeing White is an award-winning podcast series about a history we probably didn't learn about in school. It's guided by 3 questions: Where did the idea of “whiteness” come from, what does it mean, and what is it for?  During this circle, you can expect to:

• Feel angry, depressed, discouraged, confused or overwhelmed, at least temporarily, because of the history that you might not have known.
• Notice a growing awareness, a changing perspective and an interest in learning more about this  history 
• Better understand:
•      - Race as an idea that is socially constructed rather rather than determined
         by biology.
•      - The origins of “Black” and “white” as social categories.
•      - Racism as a structural (built into law) organizational policy and cultural
         practice in addition to individual acts of discrimination
•      - The deep roots and comprehensive reach of race and racism
•      - Some historical patterns and themes that link the past to the present.
•  Spend 90 minutes every two weeks in a guided Zoom conversation with others and another approximately 60-90 minutes preparing in advance for each discussion:  listening to podcast episodes, watching Ted Talks and other videos, and reading short articles.

2. The Land That Has Never Been Yet  (Seeing White is a pre-requisite)

• Tuesday, every other week
•    - afternoon @ 2 pm Pacific -- OR --
•    - evening @ 7 pm Pacific 
• 9 sessions, 90 minutes each
• Dates: 9/23, 10/7, 10/21, 11/4, 11/16, 12/2, 12/16, 1/6, 1/20

This sequel to “Seeing White” is a podcast series about democracy and whether we have ever really had one. The title is taken from a Langston Hughes poem entitled “Let America Be America Again.”

The series touches on concerns like authoritarianism, voter suppression, gerrymandering, neoliberalism, foreign intervention, and the role of money in politics. But it goes much deeper, effectively retelling the story of the US from its beginnings to the present. Previous participants say this information is critical to understanding how our system came to be and what it will take to move closer to the Beloved Community.  Audio podcast is supplemented with related video, audio or print pieces.  Facilitated by Jody Feldman from First Unitarian Portland.
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3. Capitalism (Season 7 from Scene on Radio)

• Thursday, every other week
•      - afternoon @ 2 pm Pacific --OR--
•      - evening @ 7 pm Pacific
• 9 sessions, 90 minutes each
• Dates: 9/25, 10/9, 10/23, 11/6, 11/20, 12/4, 12/18, 1/8, 1/22

Capitalism moves mountains, sometimes literally. It’s unchallenged as the world’s dominant economic system. And yet, in its current form, capitalism is on trial as it hasn’t been for at least half a century. People across the political spectrum are questioning the status quo. Millions, young people especially, now see capitalism as the problem, not the solution. Others fear throwing out the baby with the bathwater. This is a series not about economic theory, but about our values, how they are reflected in our systems, how the systems impact regular people, and what alternatives may look like.  Facilitated by Jody Feldman from First Unitarian Portland.

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4. How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt 

5. Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, 2025

• Monday, weekly, evening @ 7 pm Pacific
• 7 sessions, 90 minutes each
• Dates: 10/6, 10/13, 10/20, 10/27, 11/3, 11/10, 11/17

Abundance explains that our problems today are not the results of yesteryear’s villains. Rather, one generation’s solutions have become the next gener­ation’s problems. Rules and regulations designed to solve the problems of the 1970s often prevent urban-density and green-energy projects that would help solve the problems of the 2020's.  Laws meant to ensure that government considers the consequences of its actions have made it too difficult for government to act consequentially.  In the last few decades, our capacity to see problems has sharpened while our ability to solve them has diminished. Exploring how we can move from a liberalism that not only protects and pre­serves but also builds, Klein and Thompson trace the political, economic, and cultural barriers to progress and propose a path toward a politics of abundance.  Facilitated by Bill Yasnoff from First Unitarian Portland.

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6. Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist, by Kate Raworth 

• Wednesday evening @ 7 pm Pacific, weekly
• 9 sessions, 90 minutes each
• Dates: Sept 24 - Nov 19

The extreme inequality, lack of opportunity, persistent poverty, and ongoing destruction of our planetary environment due to our current neoliberal economic system is both inconsistent with our UU values and pushing us towards human extinction. Rising anger about this has helped fuel the “fake populism” represented by Donald Trump. 

What would an economic system supporting UU values look like? One such vision is “Doughnut Economics,” developed by Oxford economist Kate Raworth, which proposes managing the economy specifically and deliberately to meet the needs of all within the means of the planet. The goals are to ensure that no one falls short on life’s essentials (from food and housing to healthcare and political voice), while ensuring that collectively we do not overshoot our pressure on Earth’s life-supporting systems, on which we fundamentally depend – such as a stable climate, fertile soils, and thriving biodiversity. The Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries is a serious approach to reframing our economic assumptions and objectives that can help guide human progress toward the social and economic justice in harmony with the Earth that we envision for the beloved community.  Facilitated by Luke Groser from First Unitarian Portland.
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7.  Tribal Histories Of the Willamette Valley by Dr. David G. Lewis

• Thursday evening @ 7 pm Pacific, weekly
• 7 sessions, 90 minutes each, (with breaks around the holidays)
• Dates: 11/6, 11/13, 11/20, 12/4, 12/11, 12/18, 1/8
• Optional field trip the week of Jan 19th 

From oral history to written word, learn about the history of Oregon through the stories of the Indigenous Peoples of the Willamette Valley. Dr David G Lewis, OSU professor and member of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, has created a book of the history of the tribes that inhabited the Willamette Valley. The book covers the timeline from the first years of contact to more current times. You will learn a fuller history of the land we live in, what our local tribes have experienced with colonization and how this history impacts our state still. The text includes oral histories that highlight Natives perspectives about the history of the Willamette Valley as they experienced it. Facilitated by Kristel McCubbin Masterson from Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Oregon. 
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