On Friday, July 10, we held Unlearning White Supremacy: An Open Conversation on the Work of White People for Racial Justice as part of our Direct Address series. Thank you to our Facilitator Kerastas and panelists JD Doyle (East Bay Meditation Center and Heart and Mind Teaching), Ti Wilhelm (Opportunity Fund), and Toran Ailisheva (White Noise Collective).
Before sharing a list of immediate direct action steps and resources, please remember to engage in this work with self-compassion, to follow local Black leadership, and to see this as long-term work. No one person can fix these deeply embedded inequities, but together the possibilities are limitless. As guest speaker Toran Ailisheva said during the conversation, we can all make “the choice to feel like some other world is possible.”
Friday’s conversation was dedicated to taking direct action to stop the COVID-19 outbreak at San Quentin State Prison and to demand the release of high-risk individuals across California’s prison system.
Please Consider Taking the Following Direct Action Steps:
- Follow @VoicesofSanQuentin on Twitter and Instagram, and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (@C_C_W_P) on Twitter and Instagram. Follow: #StopSanQuentinOutbreak #LetThemGo #EmergencyReleaseNow #BringThemHome.
- Read the Emergency Release Letter to the Governor from organizations pledging support to released individuals. Organizations that have resources to offer can sign the letter here. Reach out to organizations you make decisions for, belong to, or have leverage with and encourage them to sign.
- Call or email those in power and demand immediate release using the template below. Check out the #StopSanQuentinOutbreak Toolkit for more information and templates you can copy and paste directly to your email or social media platforms.
Donate To (Bay Area Specific):
- Pay your Shuumi Land Tax
- Black Organizing Project and follow them on Instagram
- Anti Police Terror Project and follow them on Instagram
On-going Learning Support:
Resources and Organizations Mentioned in Friday’s Conversation
- artEquity – provides training, resources, and consulting for individuals and organizations “on creating and sustaining a culture of equity and inclusion through the arts and culture.’
- Showing Up for Racial Justice – SURJ
- White Supremacy Culture by Tema Okun
- Developing a Liberatory Consciousness by Barbara Love
- On Being with Krista Tippett – “Is America Possible” with Vincent Harding
- “Me and White Supremacy” by Layla F Saad
The 5 Methods of Divestment & Weaponization of White Power & Privilege – from Community Ready Corps of Oakland (Resource provided by Cal Shakes staff member LeeAnn Dowd)
More From Guest Speaker Ti Wilhelm
- What is White Supremacy?
- White Women doing White Supremacy in Nonprofit Culture – an add on to the Tema Okun piece on White Supremacy Culture (above)
- 5 Racist Anti-Racism Responses “Good” White Women Give to Viral Posts
- Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist Multicultural Organization
- Cultivating Resilience: Antidotes to White Fragility in Racial Justice Education
- WHAT’S UP?! Pittsburgh – Unlearning Racism Study Group Reading List
More From Guest Speaker Toran Ailisheva
- LIST OF PRACTICES, TOOLS TO TRY, INTERVENTIONS
- Narratives of White Women Used to Uphold Racism and Patriarchy
- Cracking the Code; The System of Racial Inequality: (documentary)
From our previous panel on allyship and anti-racism
- The Great Unlearn – Black-led resources and critical discourse for unlearning.
- Collective Document of Scaffolded Anti-Racist Resources – This is a working document for scaffolding anti-racism resources that’s been created during the COVID pandemic. The goal is to facilitate growth for white folks to become allies, and eventually accomplices for anti-racist work.
- PODCAST: On Being with Resmaa Manekem about working through racial trauma in the body as “white supremacist bodies” (aka white people) and “bodies of culture” (aka BIPOC)
- Dismantling Racism Works (dRworks) Web Workbook.
- Read this great article by Natalie Morris about watching white people wake up to racism
- 10-Week Course: Healing From Internalized Whiteness
- SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) Guide for Calling in White Folks In About Violence and Property Destruction Narratives.
- Community Agreements to support difficult conversations
