In recent years, a version of anti-racism (and activism more broadly) has come into the mainstream that creates major barriers to the change our society needs. 

 

Based in a punitive culture and oversimplified understandings of privilege, it prioritizes call-outs over the hard, relational work of coalition-building. It allows the powerful to co-opt our movements while carrying on their exploitation, racial violence and genocidal militarism. And it pushes many white people into counterproductive roles as fearful, deferent “allies” who put people of color on dehumanizing pedestals, tear each other down, and have little consciousness of their own stake in social change. 

 

This course is meant to help those of us who are white to let go of this dysfunctional model of activism. In its place, participants will be called to form a rooted connection to a hidden yet unbroken tradition of multiracial social movements based in the transformative principle of solidarity.

 

This is a tradition of ancestors of all colors who stood firmly against oppression and bias while affirming all people's profound stake, role, and belonging in shared struggle. It is a tradition of those who organized with clarity about the centuries-long connection between racism and the corporate domination of the entire 99%. It is a radical tradition that white southern revolutionary, Anne Braden, called her "spiritual home."

 

Through three course sessions and curated study materials, participants will be guided to understand, step into, and carry forward this tradition in the following ways:

 

• Learn about the long history of racism and settler colonialism as tools of the powerful to divide and rule—tools to stratify the masses into a racial hierarchy and break our collective resistance to the corporate domination of our lives and the earth itself. 

 

• Form a meaningful connection to "movement ancestors" throughout U.S. history who identified and challenged this system of racialized capitalism by building transformative alliances among ordinary people.

  

• Recognize the pitfalls of “liberal” anti-racism and the importance of a “radical” alternative. 

 

• In a container of acceptance and shared vulnerability, practice skills for processing difficult emotions like shame, rootlessness, and confusion that can arise in people racialized as white (to help us respond with open hearts in charged situations around race and identity).

 

• Bring a radical anti-racist approach to your political work: Gain tools for cultivating restorative cultures, organizing white communities, and meaningfully engaging in movements that are building powerful coalitions from the U.S. to Palestine and beyond. 

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While reclaiming a legacy of radical anti-racism is something for all people to do, this course offers a distinct form of political education designed for white people engaging in this work. Therefore, live sessions will be held as a “white caucus.” To learn more about the caucus for this course, read our Course Structure and Community Agreements document.