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.