On December 16, Friends gathered to discuss chapters three and four of Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm: “There Is No Choir” and “What’s Wrong with Niceness?” On January 20, we will discuss the first half of chapter five, “The Moves of White Progressives” (p. 56-84). This section of the reading will begin to dive, much more specifically, into racially harmful actions and patterns of behavior frequently acted out by white progressives.
The Nice Racism book journey is a space for white F/friends to gather and support one another in a shared journey to address our complicity in white supremacist systems and internalized white supremacy, including the shame and fear many of us feel when we begin to do this work. We see anti-racism as a spiritual practice, dismantling systems of harm and moving us toward beloved community Please join us at 8:00 p.m. on Zoom.
Our goals are to equip ourselves, especially white Quakers, to look at how racism shows up even when we have positive intentions, and to support each other as we work to unlearn harmful patterns and learn liberatory practices. We hope to make the work more than just intellectual discussions. We will offer prompts for participants to notice sensations in their bodies as they read, or to notice what arises for them if and when they hear something uncomfortable, scary, upsetting, exciting, etc. There will be opportunities to share these experiences in addition to our thoughts and ideas about the book’s content.
F/friends can come even if they are not able to read the chapters of the book (we will focus on roughly one chapter per month, sometimes two when necessary to keep on pace). Friends also do not need to attend every session, though the more consistency we have, the better, as trust built over time is very helpful when working with topics that call us to transformation.
The group will meet Sept 23, Oct 21, Nov 25, Dec 16, Jan 20, Feb 17, Mar 24, Apr 14, May 26, and Jun 16. As noted, you don’t have to commit to every single meeting in order to join. You can read a review of Nice Racism from BFM’s Lauren Brownlee in Friends Journal at https://www.friendsjournal.org/book/nice-racism-how-progressive-white-people-perpetuate-racial-harm/
Use our Contact Us form to get details of the training, and the Zoom link, or see your email bulletin.
