Disrupting Our Whiteness Program:
Finding Wholeness in Resistance
Building long-term relationship for connection, accountability, and support
TWO Fall Cohorts:
Sundays 6-8 PM PST starting October 20, 2019
Wednesdays 1-3 PM PST starting October 23, 2019
Online Zoom video platform
Join Dylan Wilder Quinn and Jennie Pearl for a 4+ month relational program on building resistance and resilience for white people working on undoing our racism. We will focus on relationship building, sharing strategies for working with other white people in our lives, processing our whiteness present in the room, and moving through the elements of White Supremacy Culture, compiled by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun and their collaborators, over the course time.
In Holistic Resistance, we believe that building long-term relationship and deep, real connection are key to doing anti-racism work. Specifically, white people need to be learning to build long-term community with each other while normalizing conflict and undoing our whiteness together. We cannot do anti-racism work without a deep understanding of our relationship to other white people and our own internalized whiteness. This 16-week program is geared towards white people, and will be led by white facilitators accountable to POC.
This is one part of a larger series of workshops, creative work, and actions co-created with Aaron Johnson and Porsha Beed that focus on Black liberation called Holistic Resistance, and we are accountable to Aaron and Porsha in this program. Holistic Resistance offers programming for both POC and white people. Some of the programming is directly facilitated by POC leadership and some of it is accountable to POC leadership but guided by white facilitators. For more information visit www.holisticresistance.com.
"What are our responsibilities as white folks in anti-racism? How do we deepen our devotion to creating another way of being? White supremacy culture will constantly try to suck us back into the ways we’ve been socialized to not pay attention - and definitely don’t rock the boat.
We absolutely have a responsibility to step up as white folks in this work, but how we step up makes all the difference. Transformation doesn’t happen in a
vacuum. For so long I was going at my anti-racism work alone. These systems of oppression, like racism, are huge, and they thrive when we are isolated. It wasn’t until I began deeply connecting with other white folks and building lasting relationships that I started to feel my resiliency growing and long-term strategy actually moving into action. And this work can be healing - connection and relationship cultivate another way of being.
Social justice is not just hard work - it is hard work, but when we do it community, it’s also connective. Undoing the notion we can do this by ourselves is healing, and the connection we experience in community generates more capacity for work." - Jennie
"I've been in conversation with other white people where we were so focused on being 'the good anti-racist' that we tore each other apart with our criticism and our perfectionism, got afraid to speak up and be in conflict, and eventually burned ourselves and each other out. I've been in conflict with other white people where we didn't agree about racism and I felt both activated and unsure of what to say next. I felt lonely and alone in this work. Literally, in so many spaces, our own white supremacy culture
keeps us from participating in anti-racism. It pushes us and other white people out of the work, which is literally the opposite of what we need to be doing as white people. Shame and blame aren't effective strategies to connect to other people around racism - but neither is politeness and avoiding conflict. It's time for something different - something that's relational and connective, and coming from a place where we ALL as white people have work to do. It's time to support each other, to share strategies and create a sense of community based in ending racism. White people, we've got work to do." - Dylan
In this program we will:
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Foster community to dismantle the myth that we can do this work alone or in isolation.
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Practice reaching for white people using strategies that connect us in long-term community, as opposed to shaming and blaming people out of the movement
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Delve into the power of questions and real-life scenarios to deepen your BODY's (not just your mind's) analysis of anti-racism
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Explore how our own and others’ trauma and oppression are ultimately linked to white supremacy culture
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Practice centering POC in a room even when POC are not present - a necessary part of our long-term work
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Practice undoing white supremacy culture in the room, like naming perfectionism and practicing being in conflict together, so that we don’t put the burden of this work on POC.
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Use mindfulness and embodiment to create long term resilience and anti-racist patterns in our bodies.
This program is for you if:
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You're looking to deepen your relationship with other white people who care deeply about ending racism
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You want to build relationships that disrupt white supremacy culture
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You want more strategies around speaking up in your community and affecting change.
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You appreciate reflection, self-inquiry, and connection as strategies for deepening your anti-racism work.
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You find yourself sometimes hating white people, or experience distancing or shame around your own whiteness or privilege, and believe there's another way.
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You've been in conflict with other white people around racism and want support and connection around it.
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You want an embodied experience of how doing anti-oppression work is deeply tied to your own healing.
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You have felt alone in this work and crave connection and support.
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You have your own experience of oppression - for example, being disabled, female, trans, or queer - and want support and strategies around both fighting for your own liberation as well as for racial justice
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You benefit from a balance of partner and group work.
From Aaron Johnson, Holistic Resistance co-founder: Holistic Resistance believes there needs to be a place for white folks to be with each other and work on our material. AND...it does not erase our work with POC-led leadership and movements. We should respect this process as a portion of our work, not the complete picture. White people working with accountability is an essential piece of not putting the burden exclusively on POC to help white folks unlearn our racism. We invite you to not leave it to People of Color to ask you important questions about your whiteness. We also invite you to recognize questions and feelings that are better kept to yourself and harmful when in the presence of POC. We have been asked by POC to ask better questions of our white peers and really listen to the answers we hear in our communities. This series is an opportunity for white folks to practice that in real time and to cultivate deep, long lasting relationships along the way. .
More About Us
Jennie Pearl (she/her) is an anti-oppression facilitator, yoga teacher, and bodyworker, bridging the gap between social justice and healing. She believes relationship is key to dismantling oppressive systems. Jennie aims to build bonds with other white folks and invite them to stay in the fight for justice and equity for a lifetime. She is the founder of Wake Up, a group for white-identified people to unlearn racism, unpack privilege, and untangle white supremacy from the inside out. They explore how yoga and meditation can help them commit to and sustain the work without spiritual bypassing or diminishing racial justice. Jennie collaborates with a core team of facilitators at Holistic Resistance, whose mission is to build connection as the foundation of all of their work. Read more at www.jenniepearl.com
Dylan Wilder Quinn (they/he/she) has been facilitating and educating groups for 16 years. They look to connect deeply with everyone who is wanting to create a different world we know is possible, based in justice and connection. They believe that this work needs to be fueled by closeness and integrity, and through that we heal our relationships to shame, conflict, and punishment. As white people this.means better showing up.in relationship and solidarity with People of Color. They are a long-term childhood abuse survivor, are trans, non-binary, disabled, and poor, navigating oppression daily, and white, navigating their oppressor identity daily. They have found that their combination of life experiences is helpful to do the crucial work of working with people across intersections to heal through deep relationship, authentic questions, and centering the liberation of marginalized people. They are a facilitator with Holistic Resistance. People of Color have taught Dylan to be resilient to their own experiences of systemic oppression, and they refuse to forget it and will continue to fight till all people are liberated. Read more at www.dylanwilderquinn.com.
More About Us
HOLISTIC
RESISTANCE
To My Fellow White Anti-Racists: My White Anger is a Privilege
Ready to Register?
Registration: Reach out to holisticresistanceinfo@gmail.com to register for either Sunday or Wednesday, or ask questions, and send payment (first months' or total) via Venmo to @jennie-Pearl-1 or PayPal to www.paypal.me/jenniepearlconsult. Space for each cohort is limited to 8 participants.