Waking ourselves for the benefit of all.
Roots Deeper Than Whiteness Participant Page
Welcome! This page is for registrants in our Fall, 2020 Roots Deeper than Whiteness course. Please do not share this page with anyone who is not registered for the course. You are welcome to share specific homework materials, but not the link to the page – which will include links to recordings as they become available.
Homework Assignments:
Important Information
Homework: Homework materials for all sessions will be posted below. Please allow 2-3 hours for homework per session. We ask that everyone engage with the study materials and reflection questions prior to each session.
Recordings: Recordings of each live session will be available 2-3 days after it takes place. Links to these recordings will be posted at the top of the homework assignment for the corresponding session. Recordings, along with the participant page as a whole, will remain accessible through February 15, 2021 (three months after our final live session). After this, study materials will be mailed to you as a PDF and session recordings will no longer be available.
Have you visited the Logistics Page for the Course? Please allow 20 minutes to review this page and take the action steps outlined within it prior to the course. Applications for your personal zoom login must be submitted by the end of the day Saturday, October 3, in order to participate in the first live session (applications are approved manually, not instantly).
Supplemental Mini-Trainings
We are holding the following supplemental mini-trainings that you can take free of charge as part of this course. They are for course participants only. The first is on mindfulness meditation as a tool for emotional resilience and the second is on communicating effectively across lines of political difference.
Mindfulness Meditation for Self Care & Resilience – with Byron Wild
Session Two Takes Place Oct 25, 4-5ET (1-2PT): Learn More & Register
Session One Recording (10/11): Video Recording / Audio Recording
If you have any questions or would like more information about joining Byron's free meditation group on Wednesdays, you can email him at byron@whiteawake.org.
Hard Conversations with People We Love – with Andy McGuire
Session Two Takes Place Nov 7, 5-6:30 ET (2-3:30 PT): Learn More & Register
Session One Recording: View Here
Homework: View Assignment
Session One: Introduction & Cultivating Resilience
In the first session of the course, we will be getting to know one another, discussing the historical basis of white supremacy, and considering how to work with emotions in a way that builds resilience and supports effective action. Your homework assignment consists of materials for you to read (or watch), as well as reflection questions that address the corresponding themes. Please allow 2-3 hours per session for homework.
Session Recording (10/4): View Here
Chat Log: Read Here
Presentation Content: David's Slides
Study Materials:
Working with Emotions & Caring for Ourselves
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Fighting injustice can trigger trauma - we need to learn how to process it and take healing action – Kazu Haga (12-15 min read) Note: Kazu’s primary focus here is on building emotional and spiritual strength to carry out more effective protest and direct action. We want to also highlight that cultivating this type of inner strength is important when seeking to live a socially engaged life of any kind. We do not expect that everyone taking the course would be engaged in direct action, though certainly many of you may be.
If you're interested, check out Kazu Haga's new book "Healing Resistance" and his organization East Point Peace Academy.
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Cultivating Resilience: Antidotes to White Fragility in Racial Justice Education – Katherine E. Roubos (Read Abstract on Pages 2-3, 3 min read)
Reflection Questions
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How are you doing right now? How have you been impacted by the pandemic and corresponding economic crisis? By police brutality, BLM protests, and episodes of vigilante justice? By the fires, floods, storms and other collective traumas of our time? What support do you need, and how might you go about receiving it?
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Have you experienced feelings of guilt or shame as it relates to racism or other problems in public life? Are these feelings productive for you, and do these readings in any way help you grapple with them?
Considering White Supremacy
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What is White Supremacy – Elizabeth Martínez (Please read parts 1-3 & 6; 10-15 min total read)
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Birth of a White Nation – Jacqueline Battalora (36 min watch)
Reflection Question:
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How did this content impact you? Was any of the content new, or was it helpful to reflect on these things afresh? What a-ha moments arose for you while considering the historical development of white supremacy and white racial identity in the US?
Session Two: What Happened to Us?
Session Recording (10/18): View Here
Chat Log: Read Here
Presentation Content: David's Slides
Study Materials:
"The Making of Whiteness"
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Roots Deeper than Whiteness: Remembering who we are for the well-being of all – David Dean (30-40 min read). If you would prefer, feel free to listen to the audio version of this article instead.
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Anti-Black Racism, the Minstrel Show, and the Making of Whiteness – Chris Crass (pages 22-25 / 8-10 min read)
Reflection Questions
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How do these study materials impact your understanding of your own family history (including your family's “coming to America” story)? What new forms of clarity do they create and what new questions do they bring up? How do you fit into this deeper historical story of racial socialization?
Divide and Rule in the Modern Era
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Coded Racism as a Political Weapon and Its Impact Today – David Dean (15 min watch)
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Beware the Race Reductionist – Briahna Joy Gray (15-20 min read)
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Learning How to Listen - Michigan - Episode Two of “To See Each Other,” a podcast by People’s Action (Listen until the 8:50 mark of the episode - feel free to skip the opening advertisement)
Reflection question:
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How does this content impact your understanding of the underlying drivers of injustice in our society today?
Optional Deeper Study: View this list of articles and videos if you would like to dive deeper into the themes of this session.
Session Three: Stepping into a legacy of resistance & self-determination
Session Recording (11/1): View Here
Chat Log: View Here
Presentation Content: David's Slides
Study Materials:
"The Other America"
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Quotes from Anne Braden on “The Other America” (2 min read)
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St. Patrick’s Batallion: View this infographic and listen to this podcast (2 min clip watch from cued start time to 1:10:44)
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King in the Wilderness documentary: Building the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign (2 min clip, watch from cued start time to 1:21:37)
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The 1969 Rainbow Coalition: Documentary Trailer and Description (1 min) and Fred Hampton’s Speech to the Young Patriots (2 min watch)
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“David and Goliath” speech clip – Jesse Jackson’s 1984 “Rainbow Coalition” Presidential Campaign (short clip)
Reflection Questions
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Once you have read the Anne Braden quotes and gone through the other short clips, please take a moment to notice: How are you feeling in your body? What emotions are arising? What thoughts are arising?
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You might want to take a few minutes to journal about your observations.
Political Analysis
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Why the Working Class? – Vivek Chibber (10-15 min read)
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Our Analysis – Eleanor Hancock (15-20 min read)
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The Evolution of Identity Politics – Eric Ward (10-15 min read)
Reflection Questions
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What stands out from these three pieces?
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Are any of these ways of looking at things new to you?
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Do you have any questions that warrant further exploration?
Organizing stories and strategy
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“No One’s Ever Asked me Before” – Down Home North Carolina Report (10 min read, read executive summary pg 3-5)
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Democrats can win by tackling race and class together. Here’s proof. (7 min read)
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Nothing More Powerful Than a Strike – Jane McAlevey (2 min watch)
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Labor Organizing Story (Nurse’s Campaign) – Jane McAlevey (12 min watch)
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Time To Leap – Selection from No Is Not Enough by Naomi Klein (25 min read)
Reflection questions:
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What stands out to you from these stories?
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Do you feel a resonance with anything that either relates to work you are currently involved in, or might inspire work you want to do?
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Do these stories give any insight into how the political analysis you just studied might play out in specific situations?
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Do these stories inspire a shift (or further nuance) in how you might approach people you are in relationship with, want to build relationship with, or hope to influence?
Optional Deeper Study: View this list of resources if you would like to dive deeper into the themes of this session.
Electoral Action: If you have capacity to take action with regard to the November elections we strongly encourage you attend one of People's Action's Deep Canvassing Phone-a-thons in swing states or consider a volunteer opportunity from Daniel Jubelirer's "No Regrets" Guide to Taking Effective Action in the 2020 Election.
Session Four: Taking Action
The final aspect of our “Roots Deeper than Whiteness” course involves carrying forward the legacy of multiracial resistance and deeply rooting ourselves in solidarity-based organizing today.
In the homework for our last session, we will dive further into this theme by:
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Considering fundamental skills for stepping out of our bubbles and engaging in large-scale movement building;
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Reflecting on a number of specific issues that play a role in social change;
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Considering how we might join or further our engagement within a political organization.
There are many avenues for creating social change, all of which are essential, and no one person can do everything. We encourage you to use this final portion of our course to reflect on the work you feel most called to do.
Session Recording (11/15): View Here
Chat Log: View Here
Study Materials:
Organizing and Base-Building
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Building the Power to Win - Jane McAlevey (5 min watch)
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Part II of “Learning How to Listen - Michigan” – a podcast by People’s Action (Listen from the 8:50 mark until the end - feel free to skip the opening advertisement; 20 min listen)
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An Organizing Basic: Keep Self-Interest in Mind - David McDowell with Southwest Organizing Project in Chicago (5 min read)
Reflection Questions:
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What stood out to you from these resources?
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Did anything you read, watched or listened to affect your perspective on how we organize for social change?
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Do you feel inspiration or clarity about any work that you are doing or might want to do?
Specific Areas of Focus
Please pick 3-4 of the topics below that interest you and look at the corresponding resources.
Electoral Organizing
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Rhode Island: The Overlooked Political Revolution – Rising (9 min watch)
Defund the Police
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I’m a Minneapolis City Council Member, We Must Disband the Police––Here’s What Could Come Next – Steve Fletcher (10-12 min read)
US Imperialism, Social Movements Abroad & International Solidarity
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Socialist Candidate Wins Big in Bolivia – Ryan Grim (9 min watch)
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Indigenous Socialism in Bolivia: A Model For Us All – David Griscom (watch until 9:30 mark)
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The Return of Left Internationalism - Aziz Rana (Read final section called “Making Material Demands in Internationalist Terms”; 10 min read) / Optional Deeper Study: Read whole article.
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Optional Deeper Study: “Victory in Chile” – David Griscom (7 min watch)
Indigenous Sovereignty
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How to support Standing Rock and confront what it means to live on stolen land – Berkeley Carnine & Liza Minno Bloom (15 min read)
Rural Organizing, Classism & Addressing White Nationalism
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If Dems Don't Embrace Populism They Will Be Destroyed – Rising (6 min watch)
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What the media gets wrong about the Trump supporter caricature – Rising (9 min watch)
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Optional: If Progressives Don’t Try to Win Over Rural Areas, Guess Who Will – George Goehl (7-10 min read)
Antitrust Legislation
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Zephyr Teachout on Antitrust Legislation – Rising (11 min watch)
Coalition-Building
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Refusing to be Washed Away: Organizing in a New Jersey community in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy – The “To See Each Other” Podcast (Listen from cued start time to 21:48; 9 min total)
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The Cowboy-Indian Alliance – Devon Douglas-Bowers (5-7 min read)
Reflection Questions
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What stood out to you from the resources you selected?
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Did anything you read, watched or listened to affect your perspective on the social change we need and/or how we might achieve it?
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Do you feel inspiration or clarity about any work that you are doing or might want to do?
Joining an Organization
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How to get involved in an activist organization and become a valuable volunteer–starting today – Laura Casado (10-20 min read)
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Organizations to Consider Joining – White Awake (15+ min of reading/research)
Reflection Question:
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Are you an active member of a social change organization? If not, what have been the barriers to doing so and what might you need to overcome them? If so, is there anything you need to make your engagement more purposeful, impactful, and/or fulfilling?
Post-Course Additional Resources
Resource List: View Here