Racial justice in our lives and work
Cynthia Lin and Julie Andersen
September 9, 2016
 
Framing questions:
What gets dislodged when we reflect on questions around equity and racial justice? What are the opportunities, fears, and barriers that arise when we truly open ourselves and engage with these questions?
 
Opening circle: What calls us into Racial Justice? What is happening (in this political moment, in this place, in your life, in your work) that makes this work urgent and critical?
 
 
Framework of race/racism/racial justice & intersectionality:
interpersonal / cultural / institutional / systemic.


Operating assumptions: 
Grounding of our approach to racial justice and how we’ll hold the space.
* No staying neutral on a moving train.
* Intersectionality - absolutely. AND given the US political and historical context, applying a racial justice lens to social justice work is critical.
* Organizations are institutions! And so organizational practice and consulting practice with organizations is an important and exciting point of intervention to dismantle systemic racism!
* Organizing - and building grassroots power that centers the people most impacted by systems of oppression - needs to be part of the toolkit we draw on to get there.
* We won’t get to there by this end of this circle :)
* This journey is a combination of inner and outer work and requires transformation at all levels.
* There is a role for everyone! It call for...
   * compassionate self-awareness: knowing and managing our internal fears and anxieties; developing a practice of knowing, interrupting and stopping bias
   * creating a CORE culture that is an example for mainstream culture: works towards elimination of racism, oppression and creation of social justice managing dissonance through being grounded in the present creating connections through eliminating barriers between self and others  
 
Storytelling:
* A specific moment in your practice (work, life, community) to explore with a racial justice lens - missed opportunity, could have done differently, encountered a challenge.
* What is one question that you could have asked (to anybody, including yourself in this) that could have led to a shift (in perspective, in path, in analysis)?