Building Racial Justice through Allyship/Accompliceship – 4 Part Series

NOTE: You may sign up for the remaining three sessions even if you missed the first one, but you must have attended either Session 1 or Session 2 to register for sessions 3 and 4

As white people, we have a responsibility to work on eliminating structural racism in partnership, accountability and alongside BIPOC activists (Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color). In order to change culture, policies, and practices we need to organize out of mutual interest, and work to do our own internal and external work in a climate free of blame, shame and guilt. Participation in this series will create a community of learners who will support each other’s movement along a continuum that deepens our ability to invest in Black lives and work in true solidarity. In this series, we will explore what it means to be an anti-racist white person and to support each other to become not only an ally but also an accomplice. The series topics include: Understanding the Landscape, Knowing Yourself: privilege and exclusion in allyship work, Interpersonal and Structural Interventions, and Moving Towards Accompliceship.

Goals:

1. To develop a common language for talking about power, privilege, and difference.

2. To identify practical strategies for implementing and facilitating change collectively.

3. To build alliances and networks

4. To develop shared understandings of the critiques of some forms of white allyship by activists of color.

5. To discuss our own barriers to working in full solidarity with people of color, and strategies for breaking those barriers down or shifting how we perceive them to function.

6. To build a collective set of actions toward allyship/accompliceship that we can support each other in and hold each other accountable to.

SERIES SESSIONS

Session one: Understanding the Landscape September 7, 2021, 6:30-8:30 pm

In this workshop, we will discuss why self-work and knowledge are essential for effective allyship and accompliceship actions. We will learn about the Dominator Model that constructed a system that has shaped our histories and current experiences and unveils how power structures affect us. As a community of learners, we can start with the tools of language and words that will create a climate talking about racism and other differences.

Session two: Knowing Yourself: Privilege and Exclusion in Allyship work October 5, 2021, 6:30-8:30 pm

This session returns to and deepens our discussion of allyship and self-work. We will discuss how our own experiences of exclusion can become rich tools to strengthen our allyship. Understanding how we have learned to be both oppressed and oppressors and how it hurts all of us on both sides.

Session three: Interpersonal and Structural Interventions. November 2, 2021, 6:30-8:30 pm

This session uses tools from bystander intervention models to navigate various effective approaches to responding to and preventing racist actions, structures, and policies.

Session four: Towards Accompliceship December 7, 2021, 6:30-8:30 pm.

This session returns to the concept of Accompliceship discussed in session one. We will talk about community and trust building, as well as how we make choices about where and how to participate in the dismantling of white supremacy. This session will introduce terminology related to systemic anti-racist change including concepts like abolition, transformative justice, and land back movements.