JEDIs at Work-Monday, June 29, 2020
AGENDA
Norms and Vocabulary
Intersectionality Activity
Ibram X. Kendi Video
Breakout Rooms-
How do you feel about Mr. Kendi’s proposition that we all say and do racist and anti-racist things?
What do you think about Mr. Kendi’s analogy of cancer and racism?
Racism to Anti-Racism Spectrum-Terrorist to Abolitionist
Query- Moment of Silence
Extensions-Resources to pursue to further our work here today
Ibram X. Kendi video from today’s session: https://youtu.be/XaJrwTrdENI
https://racismscale.weebly.com/The Racism Spectrum
13 Great Books to read by African-American /Black Authors:
1. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You by Ibram X. Kendi & Jason Reynolds
2. History Teaches Us To Resist: How Progressive Movements Have Succeeded in Challenging Times By Mary Frances Berry
3. They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery
4. Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall
5. My Vanishing Country: A Memoir by Bakari Sellers
6. Ta-Nehishi Coates We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates
7. Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side by Eve L. Ewing
8. On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope by DeRay McKesson
9. Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom
10. How Not to Get Shot: And Other Advice From White People by D.L. Hughley
11. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
12. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
13. Between The World and Me by Ta-Nahisi Coates
This a video with brief overviews and interviews for 10 of books above with the authors:
https://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow/videos/562770134384849
JEDIs at Work-Monday, June 29, 2020
Norms:
• Stay engaged, and listen deeply to others
• Lean into discomfort
• Expect and accept non-closure
• Begin with an assumption of good intent
• Value the feelings and experiences of marginalized people in the conversation
• What’s said here, stays here, but what’s learned here, leaves here.
Vocabulary:
Justice– the quality of moral rightness
Equity– the act of giving people what they need to be able to achieve equally
Diversity– recognition of the existence of variation in people
Inclusion– welcoming, respecting, and appreciating all people, regardless of their identifiers
Intersectionality– how a person’s identifiers combine to create their unique perspective
Bias– an inclination of the mind, either positive or negative
Prejudice– preconceived opinions not based on actual experience
Discrimination– unjust treatment of a person based on their identifiers
Racism– a feeling of superiority based on race, supported by the presence of power
Systemic Racism– racism imbedded as normal practice within a society
Intersectionality
Intersectionality is a theoretical framework for understanding how aspects of a person’s social and political identities might combine to create unique modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies advantages and disadvantages that are felt by people due to a combination of factors.
Identifiers
These are SOME of the major identifiers. Most of these are ascribed to us, however, some are chosen. Some are fixed, but some can change throughout your life.
AGE FAMILY STATUS
RACE SEXUAL ORIENTATION
ETHNICITY RELIGION
ABILITY SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS
GENDER EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Activity-Design Your Identity Molecule
Consider how important and immediate each of the identifiers above are to you right now. Create a molecule that consists of 10 circles, each one labeled with one of the identifiers. Make the circles containing the identifiers that are the most important to you (the ones you think about most often) larger, and the ones you do not consider too much smaller. Place one or two circles at the center of your molecule and connect the circles of identifiers that are related with lines.
In your breakout room, share your molecule with the group.
Consider the following questions/points:
• Which identifier was the most difficult for you to express?
• How would your molecule look if you drew it 10 years ago? How might it look 10 years from now?
• The small circles are areas in which you may be insensitive to others in conversation. These may be your areas of privilege.
• The larger areas may represent the ways in which you feel marginalized.