Support For Hard Conversations About Race

The white world is finally waking up to the insidious power of systemic racism and the ways we unknowingly participate in it. We must keep waking people up. Opening hearts and minds. Engaging them to become allies in social change.You and I can make it happen!

 

Let's raise $1,500 to allow 15 people who couldn't otherwise afford it to experience a transformative 5-week anti-racism immersion by internationally recognized social justice educators, Victor Lee Lewis and Patti Digh. Victor and Patti create anti-racism learning environments that are deeply collaborative, socially supportive, fiercely honest, and truly life changing.

 

The Black Lives Matter movement has opened a rare window of opportunity for deep and lasting social change. A large and growing segment of white America is increasingly refusing to turn a blind eye to violence and discrimination against Black Americans and other people of color.

 

But even the most well-meaning people can find themselves at a loss as to how to make a lasting difference. How to untangle themselves from our nation's long history of systemic racism. How to get involved without doing unintended harm.

 

The Hard Conversations series by Victor Lee Lewis and Patti Digh is the place to start. Let's fill up these classes!

 

Hard Conversations: Whiteness Race and Social Justice 

Next offering: October 26 - November 30, 2021

Deepens our understanding of potent myths and facts about whiteness. Explores how the idea of a white race was constructed and how it influences all of us. Teaches us how to work more effectively with ourselves and one another to identify and challenge both normative and extreme white supremacy. Helps us learn what it means to be an ally and what we can do to make everybody free. Learn more

 

Hard Conversations: A Deep Dive into Racism and Its Undoing

Next offering: October 27 - December 1, 2021

Unpacks the meaning and impacts of institutional and structural racism. Takes on the challenging issues of white privilege, white fragility, color-blindness, microaggressions, cultural appropriation. Helps us shift from always reacting to social crises to more proactively creating positive social change. Learn more

 

Some of the people most ready to unlearn white supremacy and racism, and most ready to take effective anti-racism action, have lost their jobs, fallen behind in rent, or otherwise lost ground during the pandemic. You can empower their learning and allyship by donating to this scholarship fund and sharing the GoFundMe on your social media.

 

I support Victor Lee Lewis and Patti Digh's anti-racism education work because, after living and conducting anti-racism education and activism in some of the toughest communities in the U.S., I've come to appreciate the skill, heart, and psychological agility it takes to break through biases that are baked into a culture. People don't change because you prove them wrong, fill their heads with information, or blame and shame them. People change because their hearts are moved, their perspectives shift, and their lives are transformed.

 

Patti and Victor get it. They teach by example that anti-racism education is best engaged with warmth, support, and compassion. And with immersive experiences that provoke deep inner soul-searching, empathic connection, and the quest for meaning. Victor's extensive training in trauma and emotion regulation prepares him to provide emotional support to help folks overcome shame or overwhelm while removing the blinders of bias. They have each been delivering anti-racism education for more than 30 years, and have reached more than 5,000 people with their Hard Conversations series, and it shows.

 

VICTOR LEE LEWIS, M.A., is best known for his inspiring leadership role in The Color of Fear, a powerfully honest and unflinching film about racism which received the Golden Apple Award for Best Social Studies Documentary of 1995 from the National Educational Media Association. Victor went on to create and teach courses based on The Color of Fear and on Get Out! the movie, and to deliver social justice education to groups, individuals, and organizations worldwide. He is the Founder and Director of the Radical Resilience Institute, and is a nationally-recognized speaker, consultant, trainer, social justice educator and writer. www.radicalresilience.com

 

PATTI DIGH is the author of eight books on workforce diversity and living mindfully, including a Fortune magazine Best Business Book for the year 2000, and one of five finalists for the Books for a Better Life national award in 2008. She recently served on the Executive Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union-NC Board of Directors and has served in advising roles on diversity, equity, and inclusion to corporate and nonprofit organization clients. She was formerly the Vice President of International and Diversity Programs at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the world’s largest association of human resources professionals. www.pattidigh.com

 

You Can Help

Whatever you already do to undo racism, you can amplify the difference you're making by introducing the people in your life to this accessible, effective, affordable, and transformative anti-racism learning environment. Our social change efforts must reach high into the realms of policy, law, and institutional reform. But it must also take root within the hearts and minds of individuals. Help us bring 100 people into the Hard Conversations that have the power to change the world.

 

If you want to do more to end racism, please donate and share.