Workshop Purpose

This workshop’s goal is to help people use the Toolkit to access their inherent brilliance and experience to transform ourselves and our institutional policies and systems that perpetuate structural racism and oppression.
We each have a personal toolkit to accomplish this goal, ways we act to have good relations with each other regardless of race.  In this workshop, using the Tools for Racial Justice website, we work to help transform 98% white organizations into ones where we can co-create a true beloved community. We use tools of role-playing, dialogue, and available resources as well as share our own various tools to better answer the place of goodness in everyone. We also share techniques for using Toolkit materials from a wide variety of sources. The idea is that it is a growing, living, dynamic Project with things being added or changed on a regular basis. Through this workshop and Toolkit, our intention is to encourage awareness of the spiritual implications of racism.
Hearing a spiritual call to transform ourselves and organizations, we ask ourselves, what is it that our lives are really saying?  Are we listening? Are we ready for transformation?

Workshop Needs

internet connection and AV equipment or personal laptop and projector. various handouts, name tags, paper, and pens.

Workshop Description

in small groups, we share strategies and resources that work best for them to both interact in multicultural situations and bring a broader understanding and analysis of the issue. Highlights will be shared with everyone and roleplaying, exercises will be offered. In addition, the Healing Racism toolkit will be explored utilizing hands-on demonstration of its various components. as well as a process for incorporating one’s personal Toolkit into something useful for the wider community.

Workshop Plan

Depending on how much time you have for the workshop, you can start by jumping right in and have people read the article “What I learned from my racist run-in, illustrated” found at https://medium.com/raw-honey/what-i-learned-from-my-racist-run-in-illustrated-d347d6b2bdc Then in small groups, talk about strategies they have or think they could use in similar situations. You can also or instead have this as a handout. It also works well to have it printed out and pasted on foam core.

A. 10 minutes — Start: introductions, (brief, name, meeting) – Describes the “mutual listening and learning” model. i.e. There is no one expert; we learn from each other. Also describe workshop “We each have a toolkit, ways we act in diverse situations to have good relations with each other. Tools for Racial Justice has one too, made up of material from a wide variety of sources. In this workshop, as a safe environment, we will share, explore and experiment with our various personal and corporate tools and provide some initial instructions on how to use them to better answer that of goodness in everyone so vital in the co-creation of beloved community.”

B. 10 minutes — show website video or go to the website. Scroll through various pages explaining what they are seeing. Stop at role-play.

C. 40 minutes — role play: Values Clarification exercise
After they read the description, assign roles and give people name tags that state their name and who they are. Ask people to act out what happens in the description through improvisation. Then have them rate everyone on a scale of 1 – 6  — who had the best behavior? (rate a 1); who the worst, most at fault (rate 6); in the middle (ratings 2-5).

D. 20 minutes (depending on numbers) debrief the experience: what did people feel, learn? why did you rate the characters the way you did? what do you have in your personal healing racism toolkit that helps?

E. 15 minutes — go to other places on the website that you think most useful.

F. 5 minutes — end with gratitude and ask for evaluations

We know that the experiences of people of color and the experiences of white people differ within our communities and gatherings.

Can we commit to interrupting white supremacy:

• in ourselves;
• in our interpersonal interactions;
• in our organizations;
• and at all system levels of society;

Our intention is to make this real.

………..
QUERIES:
What do you say:

• If a person of color comes to your gathering, what would you say to them after hello?
• If a person of color is upset about an interaction with someone?

What do you do if:

• a person of color’s experience is ignored or marginalized?
• someone in leadership makes a racially-tinged joke or offhanded comment?
• a major committee or group in the wider organization decides to do something problematic, such as wear blackface?
• a white person explains or comments on the experience of a person of color in a condescending, overconfident, and often inaccurate or oversimplified manner?
• a white person exclusively centers their own personal anti-racism work.

…………..