SFJAZZ Race and Restorative Justice Workshop Series
White Affinity Group Participant Page
Welcome! This page is for those registered for the White Affinity Group portion of the Race and Restorative Justice Workshop Series at SFJAZZ. On this page we will post your study materials for each of our sessions. We're excited to explore together what it means to create an anti-racist and healing community at SFJAZZ and how we as white folks can contribute to making this vision a reality.
Study Materials:
Important Information
This white affinity group will primarily be facilitated by us, Kat Culberg and David Dean. If you'd like to learn more about our background and experience, or if you'd like to learn more about the Race and Restorative Justice workshop series as a whole, check out this workshop series flyer that was emailed to you a few weeks ago. We'll share more specifics about the session-by-session content of the white affinity group in our first meeting together. Also, if you have colleagues who would still like to register for the group, please send them this registration form.
Study Materials: Study materials (homework) for all sessions will be posted below. Please allow 15-45 minutes (approximately) per session for these short readings, videos, audio recordings, and reflection questions. We ask that everyone engage with these prior to each session, as many of the themes will be expanded upon in our sessions together. We will post study materials for each upcoming session very shortly after the previous session and will notify you via email when they are posted.
Program Logistics: This white affinity group will include four 2.5 hour sessions. The first two will be in person at SFJAZZ on August 11th and 12th from 2:30-5:00pm each day in JHL. The following two sessions will be held virtually (via zoom) later in the month. We will notify you soon via email with the specific dates and times. As you read on the workshop series flyer, many of your colleagues of color will be in a parallel affinity group during the second half of August. This will be followed by a convening of both groups in September that will focus on interpersonal and organizational accountability and growth, collective healing, and collective action planning (two 2.5 hour sessions; dates and times to be released shortly).
Session One: Introduction & Community Building
Study Materials:
Understanding Race, Racism & Restorative Justice
-
The Creation of Whiteness - Tim Wise (4 min watch)
-
What is White Supremacy? – Elizabeth Martínez (15-18 min read)
-
What is restorative justice and how does it relate to anti-racism? (5 min read)
Understanding Collective Liberation
Collective liberation is the understanding that all of our liberation is bound up together, or, as Fannie Lou Hamer once said, that "Nobody is free until everybody is free." It is important for us as white people to understand the ways in which racial justice is a pursuit that is meant to serve the well-being of everyone. Anne Braden was one of the most dedicated white people in the southern civil rights struggle. She once said, "The fight against racism is our issue. It’s not something that we’re called on to help People of Color with. We need to become involved with it as if our lives depended on it because really, in truth, they do." The following two resources are meant to help illustrate this important truth:
-
Costs of Oppression to Privileged Groups (2-3 min read)
-
Solidarity for Survival: An Interview with Ian Haney López – David Dean (Listen to 3 min intro). There is a transcript below the audio, if you would prefer to read. The first three minutes are delineated by a small division in the text.
Reflection Questions
Centuries of segregation and socialization have made it difficult for many of us who are white to realize all the ways that racism shows up in ourselves and in our communities. This lack of consciousness is one of the reasons that racism continues to persist. The following questions are meant to help us begin to build the important skill of critical reflection on the topic of race as it relates to our own lives.
The document below contains ten questions. We encourage you to pick the three that feel most resonant to you and take some time to journal about about them.