Understanding Whiteness Connecting as Socialized Females*
AN 8-WEEK VIRTUAL PROGRAM
FOR BUILDING OUR CAPACITIES TO BE IN THE WORK OF ANTI-RACISM AND ANTI-OPPRESSION
The next program starts SOON!!!
Tue, 9/7/2021
*This program is for white-identified women or non-binary/gender non-conforming people who were assigned female at birth and socialized female growing up. We are excited to offer this program as our ongoing journey through this work has highlighted the critical importance of understanding the particular complexities that being socialized female brings to anti-racism and anti-oppression work. We are a cisgender heterosexual woman (Shannon) and a non-binary queer person (Heath) and we have gained much from being in this work together. Read more about us below!
THE INVITATION
In 2020, the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tony McDade, and others; the racial disparities in who is suffering and dying from COVID-19; and the responses of too many white Americans to these injustices and disparities have revealed just how alive racism continues to be in our country. These events – including the contentious presidential election – thrust the subjects of Black Lives Matter, systemic racism, and whiteness into mainstream conversations.
While we are on the ‘other side’ of the presidential election, the removal of an explicitly racist administration does not mean that we are on the other side of racism. Indeed, it may be more important than ever that those of us who are white-bodied understand how we contribute to, and benefit from, the forces that have long oppressed Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).
We believe that understanding and feeling how whiteness, white supremacy, and white privilege move through us and among us is essential to white-bodied people being able to truly dismantle racism and oppression in our communities, our institutions and our systems. It can be deeply difficult work AND deeply connecting, healing, and liberating work. We hope that you will join us.
This work has changed our lives and we feel compelled to contribute to the long, long, long overdue work of dismantling racism and co-creating a culture that embodies equity, justice, liberation, and healing.
So, we are offering Understanding Whiteness - Connecting as Socialized Females* (this is a 3rd evolution!) as a way to keep learning and unlearning about whiteness, to support others in doing the same, and create the deep connection and relationship needed to sustain this work. Relationships are essential if we are to build our inner capacity to do and stay in the tough work of really dismantling systems of racism and oppression.
When we say “build our inner capacity”, we mean that we will focus on engaging in ways that help us build our abilities to:
Being able to notice and disrupt the patterns of white dominant culture in ourselves and in our interactions with each other.
Understanding and navigating our and others’ emotional reactions in general and, specifically, around race in ways that keep us relating to one another’s heart and humanity rather than judging, shaming, and blaming.
Recognizing our habits of discounting BIPOC experiences, realities, stories, and culture and learning to center BIPOC in a room even when they are not present.
Building our awareness and capacity to stay settled in our body AND hold other’s stories when we are in the charge of race and oppression.
Build the knowledge that supports our ability to look at (analyze) what is happening around us through a social & racial justice lens so that we are better able to take action in ways that don’t center whiteness or perpetuate white supremacy.
“I have a better understanding of white supremacy culture, some tools for how to disrupt it in me, and awareness of how I can do less harm to BIPOC folks.
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The program is limited to 9 people so we recommend registering now or soon! If you would like to talk for a bit in person, you can email Shannon or Heath and we’ll find a time. We realize 8 weeks is no small commitment so a bit of personal connection between us and a chance to ask a few questions could be an important part of your decision-making process. We are happy to support you in that!
We also highly recommend doing this program with a friend so you have someone to talk about things with and to help sustain you in this work afterwards — we need to be in it for life to make a difference.
PROGRAM DETAILS
This 8-week series will be a space to bring your questions, concerns, confusion, judgment, pain, and hopes around whatever has gotten stirred up in you around Black Lives Matter, racism, whiteness, white privilege, white allyship and/or whatever else you find yourself wondering about. Together we will learn about our whiteness and how it lives in us. We will help each other be with the discomfort we experience as we confront our unwitting participation in sustaining racism and oppression.
We will gather for 8 sessions on Tuesdays from 9/7/21 to 10/26/21.
We will be on Zoom (yes, more zoom, sigh) from 4:00-6:00 pm Pacific time.
Our meetings will include personal reflection as well as small and large group discussion.
Each participant will receive a welcome call.
We will provide resources, on-going support, and connection through weekly emails and a group resources site on Padlet.
Please know that this is not a training. Our intent is for each gathering to feel more like a retreat where we slow down, breathe, feel, reflect, ground and connect. We’ll provide bits of content from videos, podcasts, articles, and/or books that have helped us on our journeys of feeling, recognizing, understanding, and thinking about how whiteness moves through us to harm and oppress others.
We hope you will join this program to care for and renew yourself as you work to dismantle racism.
We cannot do or sustain this work alone.
“I see now how my whiteness is a part of the problem and how unaware I am of this generally. I have more an idea of how to keep going with my learning, awakening, and actions.”
INVESTMENT
Your presence is more important than your money. We are offering this program on a sliding scale, asking you to make a contribution that is within reach for you but that feels like an investment. The suggested range is between $500 and $1,000 for the entire program. Those who can pay higher rates help make this program accessible for everyone and sustainable for us.
If the above range is out of reach for you, or you want to pay on an installment, please let us know. Together, we will find a way to make it work. Please email Shannon or Heath if you would like to talk about more about this..
We will be contributing 10% of all contributions to support the work of Holistic Resistance, an African Heritage-led organization that does racial and social justice work. Their work includes workshops and programs designed to engage us all in reaching for one another, including working with young Black men and women to support them in their personal and collective healing.
“Shannon holds the space in a way that supports us in our learning and discomfort. She is welcoming, accepting, knowledgeable, and real.”
ABOUT YOUR FACIILTATORs
SHANNON H. PATTERSON (she/her)
While I am admittedly very “late” to the work of anti-racism and anti-oppression, I am dedicated to being in this work for the rest of my life. When I established Connection Works in 2013, I declared that I would be dedicated to disrupting and ending work practices that diminish & disregard people’s humanity. I cannot say I’m truly dedicated to this if I am not always doing my own work - internal and external - towards the creation of an anti-racist and anti-oppression world. I want to be in community with and support others who also want to be in this work. Here is a bit about my journey, my support systems, who I’m learning from, and qualifications for facilitating this program:
On-going support/mentoring through attendance and facilitation of Wake Up programs accountable to Holistic Resistance.
Completing a 6-month Facilitator Training with Holistic Resistance.
Completing a 4-month Disrupting Our Whiteness program with Holistic Resistance.
Radical Dharma: A Deepening Circle with Reverend angel Kyodo williams (weekend).
Unpacking Whiteness (8 weeks) with Anna Brown Griswald.
Other people and organizations central to my journey via their articles, books, and programs: Resmaa Menakem, adrienne maree brown, Ijeoma Oluo, Generative Somatics,Ta-Nehisi Coates, and many, many others.
20+ years of small group facilitation and 1:1 coaching experience based in a love for and expertise in being with people in deep, difficult, and heartfelt conversations with themselves and each other.
20+ years of on-going personal work, including traditional 1:1 talk therapy, Core Energetics group work, and yoga.
““I was struck by Heath’s ability to facilitate such a deep circle. Their sharing, vulnerability and strength were empowering and beautiful.” ”
HEATH KOWALEWSKI (they/he/she)
I am passionate about working with other white folks to deeply feel and process the traumas of white supremacy in order to build resiliency to stand strong with people of color in the fight for liberation. As a non-binary, transmasculine, queer individual I am also committed to understanding the intersections of gender and sexuality with oppression and racism, and to serve as a bridge of connection across gender and sexuality particularly with other white folks. My work with Holistic Resistance the past four years, including a 6-month Facilitator Training, is a foundational and ongoing influence, support, and accountability in how I engage in anti-racist work, from philosophy to practices that include trauma-awareness, somatic wisdom, active listening, inquiry, creativity, singing, earth connection and reaching for lifelong connections. They see each breath, each moment as an opportunity to lean deeper into this healing process and to continuously increase their capacity as a white person to stay awake and connected to the reality of oppression. Other teachers, influences, and practices that inform my work include: Healing from Internalized Whiteness course with Sandra Kim, La Loba Loco’s Being An Accomplice offerings, Keath Silva with Yarrow School, relational neuroscience and family constellations work with Sarah Peyton, 5 Rhythms dance, breathwork, and so many more.
“Shannon held the group with deep care and wisdom. The sessions were thoughtfully designed, had a great tempo, and were responsive to the group.”
Why white-identified socialized females?
While we need to do our work in multiracial spaces, having a space where we can explore the complexities we feel in our day-to-day lives is important to support us in getting “on the other side” of the questions, concerns, fears, guilt and shame living in our bodies, hearts, and minds. White-identified women and non-binary/gender non-conforming people who were assigned female at birth and socialized as women have their own specific ways of perpetuating racism, especially towards women of color. There is a lot of complexity here and we will touch into some of this during this program. Being that we identify as a cisgender heterosexual woman (Shannon) and a non-binary queer person (Heath), we are feeling very mindful of whose experiences we have the most capacity to skillfully hold.
Our work together as white-identified women and non-binary/gender non-conforming people who were socialized as women will help us have more capacity for these conversations in other areas of our lives so that we can be better partners in dismantling racism and oppression in ourselves, relationships, workplaces, communities and systems. Our time together will help us better support BIPOC without placing a burden on them. Doing this work together will help us learn how to reduce our chances of causing them harm along the way and be more ready to repair when we do.
A note about centering whiteness
When whiteness is centered, it is generally done unconsciously, and in ways that oppress and harm others. However, in order to begin to disrupt and dismantle whiteness, we must understand it and feel its impact. This does not mean centering white people rather it means focusing on the elements of white supremacy culture that keep oppressive and harmful ways of being and doing in place and how they play out in our interactions and systems. If you are new to white caucusing or white affinity groups, we highly recommend reading this article.
GRATITUDE, SUPPORT, AND ACCOUNTABILITY
We continually give our deep thanks and appreciation to Aaron Johnson, Porsha Beed, Dylan Wilder-Quinn, and Jennie Pearl of Holistic Resistance, who continue to be in relationship, mentorship, friendship with us in this work. We highly recommend you read more about them! We will be in touch with them throughout this program to support ourselves so we can better support you, continue our learning, and be in accountability, especially around how we practice centering POC in a room even when POC are not present.
We also thank those at Crossroads for their wonderful article Racial Identity Caucusing, which helped us find the words to describe what we are learning to do when white-bodied people gather together to “do their work” around race.