April 2024: What's In It For Me?

It’s officially Spring! Yay (unless you suffer from allergies)!

If you were able to join a conversation in March, thank you. The conversations around settler colonialism were thoughtful and for many of us, tough. We heard so many people say that they wanted more references to get a deeper understanding of what settler colonialism is and how it impacts us today. To that we say, Google is our friend 😃. Do some research about settler colonialism and bring what you learn back to the community. One of the strengths of CWC is the ongoing flow of new knowledge from one person to the next. We can’t think of a better way to “continually educate ourselves.”

If you weren’t able to make it to one of the March gatherings, we hope you’ll join us for this month’s conversation centered around the question, what’s in it for me?

A few of us have had the opportunity to attend the 25th Annual White Privilege Conference this week. One of the sessions that resonated a lot was the one led by Ryan Virden titled “Breaking the Privilege Frame: Developing Mutual Interest in Dismantling White Supremacy.” His main point: white people have to figure out what’s in it for them to dismantle white supremacy. Without that understanding, we run the risk of being unreliable accomplices in racial justice circles, retreating to comfort when things get messy and hard.

To help us dig into this topic, we’ve come up with these three questions:

What might you lose, if anything, in the dismantling of white supremacy?
What might you gain, if anything, in the dismantling of white supremacy?
Is reaching “(your) own full humanity” an incentive to dismantle white supremacy for you? Why or why not?

We look forward to exploring the benefits of dismantling white supremacy with you this month. If the topic doesn’t inspire you, come to a gathering anyway and talk about that. We love hearing different perspectives (we really mean that!!!).

We look forward to seeing you soon!

“It’s a spiritual endeavor to disconnect from whiteness.” - Ryan Virden, educator, author, and founder/director of Lir Cultural Coaching