Our expectations and objectives are for Friends to learn how to talk about racism and give members of the workshop an opportunity to practice facilitating discussion on racism so that they can conduct them in their own meetings. We will also spend time during the week individually and as a group exploring and addressing our personal experiences with racism.
Some of the topics we will cover are defining and discussing structural racism, and white privilege. Increase our awareness of racism and introduce ways we can heal from racism. Identify and discuss structural changes that need to be made within the Religious Society of Friends to help us move beyond the structure of racism.
Our format will include:
Entering the room in worship
Beginning and ending each day with 15 minutes of worship
Large group exercise daily for approximately 10 minutes
View a few DVD’s that explore racism for 60 minutes
Spending time in both small and large group discussions (including racial affinity groups) or journaling for 60 minutes
Experience small and large group practice sessions 60 minutes
Daily 15 minute break
Some of the books we recommend Friends review prior to our time together are:
Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship: Quakers, African Americans and the Myth of Racial Justice – Donna McDaniel & Vanessa Julye
Sarah Mapps Douglass, Faithful Attender of Quaker Meeting – Margaret Hope Bacon
Lifting the White Veil: An exploration of White American Culture in a multiracial context – Jeff Hitchcock
The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege – Robert Jensen
We do not anticipate handing out any reading assignments that will need to be read during the week of the Gathering.
We would like participants to bring a journal to write in along with something that represents your work against racism.
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