Welcome to the Winter/Spring2025 Antiracism Learning Circles! Scroll down to see Details & Descriptions of our current offerings, which include:
Registration is now CLOSED for these Circles:
1. Seeing White (starts Wed. January 22nd) [registration now closed]
2. Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley (starts Thurs. January16th) [registration now closed
3. On Tyranny (starts Tues. January 21st) [registration now closed]
4. Caste: The Origins of our Discontents (starts Thurs. February 6th)m[registration now closed]
5. Doughnut Economics (starts Mon. Feb 3) [registration now closed]
7. The 1619 Project (starts Thurs. February 6th)
Registration remains OPEN for these Circles:
6. The Land That Never Has Been Yet (starts Wed. March 12th)
8. Subtle Acts of Exclusion (starts March 3 rd)
9. My Grandmother’s Hands (start TBD)
10. Poverty, By America (starts March 18th)
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. 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.
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 congregation, you can do that HERE.
What are 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. We 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 our 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.
A printable flyer is HERE.
Questions? Contact Jody at feldmanjody@gmail.com
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DETAILS & DESCRIPTIONS -- WINTER/SPRING 2025 OFFERINGS
1. Seeing White Season 2 of Scene on Radio. This is where to start your journey! [Registration now closed]
Wednesdays @ 2:00 pm PT [3 pm MT, 4 pm CT, 5 pm ET] --OR--
Wednesdays @ 6:30 pm PT [7:30 pm MT, 8:30 pm CT, 9:30 pm ET]
# of Sessions: 11, every other week
Dates: 1/22, 2/5, 2/19, 3/5, 3/19, 4/2, 4/16, 4/30, 5/14, 5/28, 6/11
This is an award-winning podcast series about our real history -- the one none of us were taught in school. It responds to the questions: Where did the notion of “whiteness” come from, what does it mean, and what is it for? The learning circle is about curiosity (an interest is asking questions and learning more) and conversation. During circle, you can expect to:
* Feel angry, depressed, overwhelmed, or discouraged, at least temporarily because of the events in American history that you might not have known about.
* Better understand:
o ”The meaning of whiteness and how it works in the world”
(from John Biewen, the Seeing White podcast producer).
o Race as an idea based in culture rather than biology.
o The origins of “Black” and “white” as social categories.
o Racism as structural, i.e.
built into governmental and organizational policies and cultural practices
and individual acts of discrimination
o The deep roots and comprehensive reach of race and racism.
o Historical patterns and themes linking 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.
Facilitated by Don Stepich from Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
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2. Tribal Histories Of the Willamette Valley by Dr. David G. Lewis [Registration now closed]
Thursday evenings @ 7 pm Pacific [8 pm MT, 9 pm CT, 10 pm ET]
# of Sessions: 7, weekly
Dates: 1/16, 1/23, 1/30, 2/6, 2/13, 2/20, 2/27
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.
We will read sections of the book and discuss weekly for 7 weeks. Each session
will be 90 mins. Facilitated by Kristel McCubbin Masterson from Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Oregon.
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3. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, by Timothy Snyder [Registration now closed]
Tuesdays at 5 pm PT [6 pm MT, 7 pm CT, 8 pm ET]
# of Sessions: 20, weekly, reading an essay/chapter per session
Dates: 1/21, 1/28, 2/4, 2/11, 2/18, 2/25, 3/4, 3/11, 3/18, 3/25, 4/1, 4/8,
4/15, 4/22, 4/29, 5/6, 5/13, 5/20, 5/27, 6/3
On November 9th, millions of Americans woke up to the impossible: the election of Donald Trump as president. Against all predictions, one of the most-disliked presidential candidates in history had swept the electoral college, elevating a man with open contempt for democratic norms and institutions to the height of power.
Timothy Snyder is one of the most celebrated historians of the Holocaust. In his books Bloodlands and Black Earth, he has carefully dissected the events and values that enabled the rise of Hitler and Stalin and the execution of their catastrophic policies. With Twenty Lessons, Snyder draws from the darkest hours of the twentieth century to provide hope for the twenty-first. As he writes, “Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism and communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.”
Twenty Lessons is a call to arms and a guide to resistance, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come. Facilitated by Lisa Lake from Unitarian Universalist Community Congregation of Washington County.
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4. Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, by Isabell Wilkerson [Registration now closed]
Thursdays, 1st and 3rd, at 5 pm PT (6 pm MT, 7 pm CT, 8 pm ET)
# of Sessions: 8, twice per month
Dates: 2/6, 2/20, 3/6, 3/20, 4/3, 4/17, 5/1, 5/15
In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. She explores eight pillars that under lie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines and stigma. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial system in America to plan their out-casting of the Jews, she writes about the health costs of caste, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points a way forward for us to move beyond artificial and destructive separations of human divisions toward hope in our common humanity.
Facilitated by Lisa Lake from Unitarian Universalist Community Congregation of Washington County.
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5. Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist, by Kate Raworth [Registration now closed]
Mondays @ 7 pm PT [8 pm MT, 9 pm CT, 10 pm ET]
# of Sessions: 9, weekly, about 30-35 pages per week
Dates: 2/3, 2/10, 2/17, 2/24, 3/3, 3/10, 3/17, 3/24, 3/31
"Doughnut Economics shows how to ensure dignity and prosperity for all people."―Huffington Post
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 Bill Yasnoff from First Unitarian Portland.
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6. The Land That Has Never Been Yet Season 4 of Scene on Radio.
Wednesday @ 2 pm PT (3 pm MT, 4 pm CT, 5 pm ET) -- OR --
Wednesday @ 7 pm PT (8 pm MT, 9 pm CT, 10 pm ET)
# of Sessions: 12, weekly
Dates: 3/12, 3/19, 3/26, 4/2, 4/9, 4/16, 4/23, 4/30, 5/7, 5/14,
5/21, 5/28
This is the sequel to “Seeing White” (which is a prerequisite). It 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.
There will be 12 sessions, meeting every other week for 90 minutes, supplemented with related video, audio or print pieces. Facilitated by Jody Feldman from First Unitarian Portland.
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# of Sessions: 19, weekly
Dates: 2/6, 2/13, 2/20, 2/27, 3/6, 3/11*, 3/20, 3/27, 4/3, 4/10, 4/17,
4/24, 5/1, 5/8, 5/15, 5/22, 5/29, 6/5, 6/12
(* = meeting one Tuesday)
In many ways a "graduate level" perspective on how we got here, we recommend that this not be your first foray into the topic of America's racial past. We recommend you start with "Seeing White."
This book is a dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism that debuted in the New York Times Magazine in 2019. It offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present. This compilation of essays on key topics speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long glossed-over truths around our nation's founding and construction - and the way the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation but continues to shape contemporary American life.
We will read one essay (chapter) per week and meet for 19 weeks. It is a journey well worth the commitment. Facilitated by Jody Feldman from First Unitarian Portland.
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Mondays at either 2:00 or 7:00 pm PST
Starting March 3rd, meeting every other week (with one exception)
7 sessions
Dates: 3/3, 3/17, 3/31, 4/7*, 4/21, 5/5, 5/19
(* = one week interval)
This practical, accessible, nonjudgmental handbook is the first to help individuals and organizations recognize and prevent microaggressions so that all can feel a sense of belonging.
Our society is growing more diverse, but are we supporting inclusive cultures? While overt racism, sexism, ableism, and other forms of discrimination are relatively easy to spot, we cannot neglect the subtler everyday actions that normalize exclusion. Many have heard the term microaggression, but not everyone fully understands what they are or how to recognize them and stop them from happening.
In this book, Tiffany Jana and Michael Baran offer a clearer, more accessible term, subtle acts of exclusion, or SAEs, to emphasize the purpose and effects of these actions. After all, people generally aren't trying to be aggressive--usually they're trying to say something nice, learn more about a person, be funny, or build closeness. But whether in the form of exaggerated stereotypes, backhanded compliments, unfounded assumptions, or objectification, SAE are damaging. Jana and Baran give simple and clear tools to identify and address such acts, offering scripts and action plans for everybody involved: the subject, initiator, and observer. Knowing how to have these conversations in an open-minded, honest way will help us build trust and create stronger, healthier, happier people and communities.
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[dates & times to be announced]
The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society.In this groundbreaking work, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of body-centered psychology. He argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. Our collective agony doesn't just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans—our police. My Grandmother's Hands is a call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not about the head, but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide.
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10. Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond
Tuesdays at either 2:00 pm or 7:00 pm PST
Starting March 18th, meeting every other week
6 sessions
Dates: 3/18, 4/1, 4/15, 4/29, 5/6, 5/20
The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?
In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.
Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.
Facilitated by Jody Feldman from First Unitarian Portland.
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R E G I S T E R B E L O W. The facilitator will contact you with more information.
