Undoing Racism™ Community Organizing Workshop

The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond’s Undoing Racism™/Community Organizing Workshops move beyond a focus on the symptoms of racism to an understanding of what it is, where it comes from, how it functions, why it persists and how it can be undone. The core of workshop’s systemic approach emphasizes learning from history, developing leadership, maintaining accountability to communities, creating networks, undoing internalized racial oppression and understanding the role of organizational gatekeeping as a mechanism for perpetuating racism.

HOW CAN WE UNDO RACISM?
The fabric of racism is inextricably woven and constructed into the founding principles of the United States. Racism was done and it can be undone through effective anti-racist organizing with, and in accountability to the communities most impacted by racism. The People’s Institute believes that effective community and institutional change happens when those who are agents of transformation understand the foundations of race and racism and how they continually function as a barrier to community self determination and self sufficiency.

ANTI-RACIST COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

Anti-racist community organizing and training analyzes power and how it is used to maintain a racial construct that was implemented centuries ago during the founding of the nation. This nation has always reflected rich diversity from the innumerable multitude of indigenous cultures who inhabited and sustained this land prior to arrival of European explorers to our present composition. Yet, unequivocally, whites continue to fair significantly better than all people of color. Anti-racist organizing helps us to understand why.

ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES
Through dialogue, reflection, role-playing, strategic planning and presentations, this intensive process challenges participants to analyze the structures of power and privilege that hinder racial equity and prepares them to be effective organizers for social justice. Workshop participants will:

• Develop a common definition of racism and an understanding of its different forms: individual, institutional, linguistic, and cultural;

• Develop a common language and analysis for examining racism in the United States;

• Understand one’s own connection to institutional racism and its impact on his/her work;

• Understand why people are poor and the role of institutions in exacerbating institutional racism, particularly for people and communities of color;

• Understand the historical context for how racial classifications in the United States came to be and how and why they are maintained;

• Understand the historical context for how U.S. institutions came to be and who they have been designed to serve;

• Understand how all of us, including white people, are adversely impacted by racism every day, everywhere;

• Address surface assumptions about how your work is (or is not) affected by racism;

• Develop awareness and understanding about ways to begin Undoing Racism ;

• Gain knowledge about how to be more effective in the work you do with your constituencies, your organizations, your communities, your families;

• Understand the role of community organizing and building effective multiracial coalitions as a means for Undoing Racism.