I really appreciate the opportunity to participate in this program. Where I live, similar programs are always booked and hard to access because of their popularity. Thank you for putting the materials online and finding a way to communicate big ideas in a manner that is accessible to more people. There is obviously more to do: I will continue to read and educate myself, to show up when it is important and to put my values to work. Watching these videos has influenced the algorithm on my Youtube channel so that the platform continues to offer more content for me to explore. The pdfs are especially meaningful to me because I am working within my office to gather white colleagues around the book White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo; I want to offer this content to those who join me in support of their own exploration of anti-racism. Hopefully, I can persuade them to put in the time (which is not too much, frankly) to participate in this program. What I take from the lessons is the importance of not doing "ego work", backing away from "Toxic white guilt", and knowing how powerful compassion and wholehearted listening are to mending relationships. I am humbled but emboldened. I am cautiously ready to bring anti-racism into every aspect of my life.
I'm so glad the module is addressing "white guilt" I see areas where whiteness is very dominant, making toxic decisions and destroying their community and I think, how does this help address racism? Rather than organizing free lectures and workshops and conferences to get the community involved in a dialogue or sponsor University scholars or black history museums to offer access to information about the history of racism and how to address it in the present and future, I just see people looting and bullying each other while displaying #BLM as validation for their actions.