Resources

Thank you for showing up again this month to stand for racial justice in Kansas City!  Our meeting this month focused on solidarity action.  As the country embraces for a Trump presidency, we know that we will be entering a time of increasing mass protest.  Now, more than ever, we need to be prepared to bring analysis and strategy that centers racial justice to action spaces of which we are a part.  Now is the time to push ourselves, embrace our growing edge, and take risks we have been hesitant to take in the past.

We referenced a number of tools and resources for how we can show up powerfully and bring a strong anti-racist lens to our direct action work.  We wanted to make sure to make these available to you.

Here you can find the Enid Lee essay “Looking Through an Anti-Racist Lens.”
http://www.austinschools.org/campus/small/principal/documents/LookingthroughanAntiRacistLens.pdf

Here you can find the Catalyst Project’s “Tools for White Anti-Racist Organizing.”
http://collectiveliberation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Catalyst_Tools_for_White_Anti-Racist-Organizing.pdf

Here is the link to the website for the Midwest Academy and their book “Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manuel for Activists.”
http://www.midwestacademy.com/manual/

Lastly, we welcome your feedback on what we are doing well and what we can do better with our monthly mass meetings.  Please take a few minutes and fill our our mass meeting evaluation by clicking on the link below.
https://goo.gl/forms/ap7EUNeGLfVetNtf2

We will continue to let you know about opportunities to show up for racial justice in 2017.  Onward!

Thanks to everyone who was able to attend the SURJ KC mass meeting last night as we begin learning what it means to “call in” other white folks in our lives.  We are at a critical time in our nation as we prepare for a new president who has promised violence, mass deportation, racial profiling, and religious persecution.  It is vitally important over this holiday weekend that we don’t slip into the familiar and comfortable routine of avoiding difficult conversations about race. To effectively grow a vast multi-cultural movement to end white supremacy, we must engage and mobilize a significant number of white people to embrace and act upon an anti-racist agenda. And we must continue to love each other. We want them to join our efforts to disrupt white supremacy in ourselves and the community at large.

As you prepare to sit at the table this week and over the next month with folks in your lives that don’t share your views, we have included the presentation and handouts from last night’s discussion to support you in engaging in courageous conversations, moving your friends and family into action, and taking the first steps in building the movement that we need.

Also, we are including a google form that we ask you to use to share stories from your conversations.  This will allow us to be encouraged by each other and gain insight into what works in these challenging conversations.  Thanks again for joining us last night and please stay tuned for numerous opportunities to participate in trainings and solidarity actions in the coming week!

Share stories here:
https://goo.gl/forms/e1AyG4hd7H3JCyvc2

Mass Meeting Presentation:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwg1g_Z1_rV5QW16QzNtaUJfWlE/view?usp=sharing

Mass Meeting Handout:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwg1g_Z1_rV5M2tLMExjWEVLaFU/view?usp=sharing

House Meeting Training
https://www.facebook.com/events/731716640310913/

As a white person committed to racial justice, this situation may sound familiar.

You’re sitting in a room with people of color talking about racism and social justice.

You know enough about white supremacy to not to take up all the space in the room.

Too often, you’ve seen white people focus on how upsetting noticing racism is for them personally – as opposed to focusing on the daily trauma and actual impact on people of color and what needs to be done to stop it.

And you definitely don’t want to do that!

But you’re also not quite sure when or how you can process your feelings around white supremacy or if it’s even ok to. And all of that keeps getting in the way of you knowing how to take action.

This in-between space of no longer wanting to be part of the problem, but still fumbling with understanding how to be a part of the solution, can lead you to feeling:

• Guilty about how you benefit from white privilege but not knowing how to give it up
• Confused about what to do but not wanting to ask and show your ignorance
• Afraid of accidentally perpetuating white privilege so you remain quiet
• Defensive when people call you out for racism since you’re trying your best
• Wanting to distance yourself from those “bad” obviously racist white people

This happens a lot but you don’t have to stay stuck there!

To help with this situation, Everyday Feminism is offering a free online workshop, “Healing from Toxic Whiteness to Better Fight for Racial Justice.”

You’ll learn how to free yourself from toxic whiteness to develop an anti-racist white identity, by getting:

• The four core pains that drive all of the outrage, denial, guilt, and fear preventing white people from taking action for racial justice – including and especially for yourself.
• A completely new way of looking at white supremacy – as something that has caused pain, suffering, and trauma across generations of white people in addition to people of color.
• A powerful mindfulness practice that will help you get in touch with that pain and suffering, and how to take care of and release it with compassion.
• How to transform your interactions with other white people by connecting your ability to work with your own pain with ability to work with other white people’s resistance to taking action.

>> Click Here To Save Your Spot In Everyday Feminism’s Free Online Workshop <<

(Even if you can’t make it, register here anyway. You’ll get the video recording later!)
Date: Thursday, September 15, 2016

Time: 8 pm Eastern / 5 pm Pacific

Duration: 90 minutes
Hope to see you there!