This webinar is about having Difficult Conversations. How are we approaching the difficult conversations in our lives around racism and white supremacy? What frameworks, tools, and interventions can support us to stay grounded in embodied awareness as we connect with friends, family, and others about challenging topics? While we’re focused on racism, these tools can of course be applied to conversations about other systems of oppression, such as ableism, sexism, etc.
Timestamps:
00:12:45: Guiding Stars
00:13:57: Embodied awareness and grounding
00:27:30: Transformative power of practice
00:45:43: Contextual Strategy
00:57:30: Closing & Commitments
Here are some of the resources and links we reference directly in the webinar:
- Sogorea Te’ Land Trust
- Native Land
- Overt and Covert White Supremacy. Image Source: Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence (2005). Adapted: Ellen Tuzzolo (2016); Mary Julia Cooksey Cordero (@jewelspewels) (2019); The Conscious Kid (2020).
- SURJ Bay Area
- What is Grounding, compiled by WNC
- Adapted from Seeking Safety by L. M. Najavits
- White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo (more of her work can be found at https://www.robindiangelo.com/publications/)
- “Cultivating resilience : antidotes to White fragility in racial justice education” by Katherine E. Roubos (more resources can be found at https://www.katherinerouboslcsw.com/resources)
- Transformative Power of Practice by Ng’ethe Maina and Staci Haines
- LIST OF PRACTICES, TOOLS TO TRY, INTERVENTIONS, compiled by WNC
- attention liberation: a commitment, a year of practice by adrienne maree brown
- Spectrum of Allies Model from Training for Change / David Albert
- Action Strategy How-To Guide by Ruckus Society, now a part of Black OUT Collective
Here are a few additional resources that are related to the content and may be helpful:
- Have a Loved One with Distressingly Racist Ideas? Me too. by Heather Millar
- SURJ Guide to Talking about Violence
- Little Book of Dialogue for Difficult Subjects by David Campt & Lisa Schirch
- More on hyperarousal, hypoarousal and trauma responses
- Hyperarousal & Hypoarousal from Survivors Healing Survivors
- Fight, Flight, Freeze: What This Response Means by healthline
- Fight, Flight, or Freeze: What Is the Stress Response For? by PsychCentral
- Understanding the connection between trauma responses and the symptoms of white fragility
White Fragility and Whiteness as a Trauma Response with Dr. Robin DiAngelo, Dr. Jacqueline Battalora, and Resmaa Menakem
This is a brief history reviewing pivotal foundations of racism and classism built into policing in the US, specifically focusing on the evolution of slave patrols and night watches. There is an intentional focus on the evolution of domestic policing and internal control, as opposed to the evolution of military, policing borders, and colonial occupation.
This video was originally created and uploaded to YouTube on May 5, 2016.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive history, but to offer a clear counter to the current narratives of modern policing. We did a wide range of research for this piece, and it has gone through many revisions. Please let us know if something seems inaccurate. Our goal is to support folks socialized with white privilege and gender(ed) oppression to better understand ourselves situated within a longer historical context, and to support conversations articulating how white silence and white complicity maintain these systems of violence.