November 12: Anti-Racism Post-Election
Recommended resources:
Read: "Will The Biden-Harris Administration Rescind Trump’s Diversity Training Restrictions?" - Dana Brownlee (Forbes)
Discussion:
- What anti-racist ideas and actions have we focused on so far?
- What anti-racist actions do we want to see happen in the next four years?
- How can we use this energy as momentum moving forward? Where do we start?
Follow-up actions:
- Read: "Don’t Cancel Federal Diversity Training, Fix It" - Susan S. Harmeling and Charles M. Henderson (Government Executive)
- Watch: "Don't ask where I'm from, ask where I'm a local" - Taiye Selasi (TED)
- Support for diversity initiatives: Virtual White Men's Caucus (White Men as Full Diversity Partners)
- Resource for educators: Teaching Tolerance (a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center)
- List of Kitsap groups/organizations working toward racial justice: Kitsap ERACE Coalition(Equity, Race And Community Engagement), Kitsap Advocating for Immigrant Rights and Equality (KAIRE), West Sound for Social Justice, Kitsap SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), Kitsap Professional Leaders of Color (PLOC), Kitsap Youth Activism Team, Kitsap Immigrant Assistance Center (KIAC)
October 22: Racial Injustice in the News
Recommended resources:
- Read: "The Dangerous Racialization of Crime in U.S. News Media" - Elizabeth Sun (Center for American Progress)
- Watch: "Unconscious Bias: Do Newsrooms Struggle To Report On Race Issues?" (Thomson Reuters Foundation), "How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time" - Baratunde Thurston (TED)
- Listen: "Racial Bias in Crime Reporting" - On the Media (WNYC)
Discussion:
- View: “Unconscious Bias: Do Newsrooms Struggle To Report On Race Issues?” (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
- As you interact with news about racial injustice, have you noticed differences in how certain stories are reported?
- What are some ways that Black, Indigenous, and people of color are treated differently in news coverage?
- Should a person's merit/accomplishments be considered when reporting on a crime they committed?
Follow-up actions:
- Read: Race Forward's 2015 Race Reporting Guide: "Seven Harmful Racial Discourse Practices to Avoid" (pp.19-24)
- Support more diverse newsrooms and newspapers that are representative of different communities
- Seek out additional news coverage if you find yourself getting comfortable with one news source
- Ask yourself: which details of this news story are missing? Which details are being unfairly scrutinized?
October 8: Policing
Recommended resources:
- Read: "Kitsap law enforcement is committed to building trust" - Kitsap County law enforcement leadership (Kitsap Sun Opinion), "Race, Policing, and the Universal Yearning for Safety" - Ezra Klein & Phillip Atiba Goff (Vox)
- Watch: "Once-Violent Camden, New Jersey, Now Seen As Model For Community Policing" (TODAY)
- Listen: “Re-imagining Public Safety” (with King County Council Member Girmay Zahilay) (Pitchfork Economics Podcast)
Discussion with guests from Bremerton Police Department: Laurel MacIntyre-Howard (behavioral health navigator), Sergeant Tim Garrity, and Lieutenant Aaron Elton
- Improving outreach to community groups and strengthening existing connections; identifying job boards to invite people of color to consider careers in law enforcement
- Identifying grant writing resources to assist with hiring more behavioral health navigators
- Improving police accountability measures and changing the culture of policing from within
Follow-up resources:
- Learn about Laurel’s work as a behavioral health navigator: “Behavioral health navigators step in where police step out” (Kitsap Sun)
- Open letter from Kitsap ERACE Coalition: “Kitsap Protests: What Do They Mean and How Do We Go Forward?”
September 24: The Wealth Gap
Recommended resources:
- Read: "How America's Vast Racial Wealth Gap Grew: By Plunder" - Trymaine Lee (The 1619 Project, New York Times), "Examining the Black-White Wealth Gap" (Brookings Institution)
- Watch: "Struggle for Black and Latino Mortgage Applicants Suggests Modern-Day Redlining" (PBS NewsHour)
- Listen: "1619: The Racist Roots of the U.S. Wealth Gap" (The Takeaway podcast, WYNC)
Discussion:
- For BIPOC participants: have you experienced financial barriers?
- Why are proposed solutions (like "baby bonds", reparations, or increased taxes on the wealthy) so difficult to discuss with each other?
- As individuals, what are some short-term and long-term actions we can take/support to begin to close the wealth gap?
Follow-up actions:
- Website that tracks COVID-19 mortality age by race: “The Color of Coronavirus: COVID-19 Deaths by Race and Ethnicity in the U.S.”(APM Research Lab)
- Read about the Fair Housing Act (US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development)
- Small steps to take: educate yourselves and the public about the wealth gap, be intentional about where you spend your money, support programs and policies that invest in youth and help BIPOC communities build wealth
September 10: White Culture
Recommended resources:
- Read: “Why Talk About Whiteness?” - Emily Chiariello (Teaching Tolerance), Whiteness - National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Watch: "Talking Mindfully About Whiteness" - Neenah Estrella-Luna (TEDxSalemStateUniversity)
- Listen: "My White Friends" (S2 E12) - Scene on Radio
- For parents & families: Not My Idea - A Book About Whiteness by Anastasia Higginbotham - John Jimerson
Discussion:
- View The Whiteness Project
- If you identify as white: What is your experience of white culture? How do you describe your culture?
- If you don't identify as white: How would you describe white culture? What are some similarities and differences between your culture and white culture?
- For everyone: How have aspects of white culture led to the casual and overt racism we see in America?
Follow-up actions: check out these resources recommended by the group
- Interactive map showing Native treaty, language, and historical territory data:Native-land.ca
- Article on racial disparities in wealth: “Examining the Black-white wealth gap” (Brookings Institution)
- Census data on local demographics: Kitsap County Quick Facts
August 27: Talking to Family & Friends
Recommended resources:
- Read/Listen: "Claudia Rankine: How Can I Say This So We Can Stay in This Car Together?" - On Being with Krista Tippett podcast (scroll down page for full text transcript)
- Watch: "A Conversation With White People On Race" - Op-Docs (The New York Times)
- Listen: "Want To Have Better Conversations About Racism With Your Parents? Here's How" - Life Kit podcast (NPR)
- For Parents: "How to Talk to Kids About Race" - Home School (The Atlantic)
Discussion:
- View "How to talk about race with racist white parents and family" (WA Post)
- Have you tried to have conversations on race with your family/friends? How did it go?
- What were you feeling at the time? E.g. nervous, angry, scared
- What worked? What would you do differently next time?
- What tools/skills do you feel would better equip you for these conversations?
Strategies/Tips from Dispute Resolution Center trainer Sophie Morse:
- Listening to Understand & Curiosity
- Ask open-ended Questions … and question the answers!
- Develop agreements – how are the two of us going to have these conversations so neither of us walks away feeling scarred (uncomfortable is ok, and expected).
- Preparation; Do research. I don’t like being caught off guard by [racist] talking points. I want to have my facts handy. If they have different facts, one approach is to keep with either I statements or “We” statements: “We don’t seem to have the same information on this topic” and see where that goes.
- Find common ground and build from there. Always connect first.
- Avoid jargon. Just not helpful.
- Set boundaries. Your house, your Facebook page, your rules!!
- Assume best intentions, and point out that intent =/= impact!
- Part of white supremacy culture is about not revealing emotions, and having to do or say things “just right.” Both of which serve to keep us from having conversations that deeply matter, because those conversations will be messy.
August 13: Intersectionality
Recommended resources:
- Read: "Social Identities And Systems Of Oppression" - Talking About Race (NMAAHC)
- Watch: "The urgency of intersectionality" - Kimberlé Crenshaw (TED)
- Listen: "Kimberlé Crenshaw on Racism, Intersectionality, and the Death of George Floyd in the Times of Covid-19" (KFPA) (interview begins around 24:00)
- For parents: "Intersectionality 101" (Teaching Tolerance)
Discussion:
- View the Social Identity Wheel.
- In your own life, do you think about some identities more than others? Which ones, and why?
- Which identities are important to you that others don’t always acknowledge?
- By prioritizing certain identities over others in our society, how do we perpetuate systems of oppression?
Follow-up actions:
- Explore media from different identities, cultures, and perspectives: books, movies, TV, music, art
- Ask yourself: whose perspectives are you prioritizing? Whose perspectives are you ignoring? Why?
- Article: “Go Ahead, Speak for Yourself” - Kwame Anthony Appiah
July 23: Exploring (Micro)aggressions
Recommended resources:
- Catch up on the news: “Seattle man's '1,000 Cuts' campaign tackles racism and microaggressions” (KING5)
- Read: “Did you really just say that?” - Rebecca Clay (APA Monitor on Psychology)
- Watch: “Why Microaggressions Aren’t So Micro” - Whitney Grinnage-Cassidy (TEDxYouth @UrsulineAcademy)
- Listen: “Microaggressions Are A Big Deal: How To Talk Them Out And When To Walk Away” - Life Kit (NPR)
- For parents: A Kid’s Book About Racism - Jelani Memory
Discussion:
- Poem: “From Citizen, I” - Claudia Rankine
- View 1000 Cuts campaign
- Share types of microaggressions: microassaults, microinsults, microinvalidations
- Share some strategies for responding to microaggressions
Follow-up actions: check out these resources recommended by the group
- Book: Sulwe by Lupita Nyong'o (available at KRL)
- Poem: “Within Two Weeks the African American Poet Ross Gay is Mistaken for Both the African American Poet Terrance Hayes and the African American Poet Kyle Dargan, Not One of Whom Looks Anything Like the Others” - Ross Gay
- Interactive game: Killing Me Softly
July 9: Acknowledging Our Biases
Recommended resources:
- Read: “Bias” (National Museum of African American History and Culture) and “Don’t Talk about Implicit Bias Without Talking about Structural Racism” (National Equity Project)
- Watch: “How to Overcome our Biases? Walk Boldly Toward Them” - Verna Myers (TED)
- Listen: “Speaking of Psychology: Understanding your racial biases” – Speaking of Psychology (American Psychological Association)
Discussion:
- “Our Kind of People” by Bayeté Ross Smith
Follow-up actions:
- Read about some implicit bias interventions (on page #8) from the King County Office of Equity and Social Justice
- Take the Project Implicit test for yourself (with a friend/family member, if possible) and discuss the results
- Explore some of Bayeté Ross Smith’s other works (National Geographic Storytellers Summit 2020)
June 25: What is anti-racism?
Recommended resources:
- Catch up on the news: “Why The Killing of George Floyd Sparked an American Uprising” - Alex Altman (TIME)
- Read: “The American Nightmare” - Ibram X. Kendi (The Atlantic), “What it Means to be Anti-Racist” - Anna North (Vox)
- Watch: “Let's get to the root of racial injustice” - Megan Ming Francis (TEDxRainier)
- Listen: “A Decade Of Watching Black People Die” - Code Switch podcast (NPR)
Discussion:
- What have you found challenging about anti-racist work?
Follow-up actions: check out these resources recommended by the group
- Teaching Tolerance “Speak Up” pocket card
- Unlocking Us with Brené Brown (podcast): Brené with Ibram X. Kendi on How to Be an Antiracist
- CNN/Sesame Street racism town hall
- #KidLit4BlackLives virtual rally on YouTube
- Hollaback! Resources for Harassment on the Street, Online, and in the Workplace
- Uncomfortable Conversations With A Black Man
- Bremerton City Council upcoming meetings
- This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on how to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work by Tiffany Jewell (available at KRL)