We need your feedback on RacialEquityTools.org! Please complete this Community Survey by March 29, 2024.
Race Equity Culture™ Virtual Partner Training with Ahimsa Strategies and Living Change

Racial Justice Stances: Dismantling White Supremacy Through Better Conversations

A workshop for supporting more effective and humanizing conversations across layers of power and privilege.

Description

Imagine if your conversations about racial justice were consistently nourishing and energizing. Imagine that tension and conflict around race ended up as gateways to deeper relationships. Imagine racial justice conversations that feel expansive, allowing space for imagination and shared exploration. What if this were possible more of the time?

The work of dismantling white supremacy challenges us to embody our truest selves and our deepest values. But often, even talking about racism with others takes us away from ourselves and from conscious choice in how we show up. This workshop supports participants in developing new tools to stay rooted in who they are and what they value, even in moments of tension and conflict.

Racial Justice Stances: Dismantling White Supremacy Through Better Conversations will introduce you to stance, explore the layers standing between you and your true power, and hold space for you to practice holding your stance in racial justice conversations.

Stance is a tool for rooting in your core self, so that your inherent wisdom, power and sense of connection are available to you as you challenge racism in others, within yourself and in the systems we seek to transform. It is both a journey and a destination. Rooted in stance, we are better able to speak our truth, to ask for or demand what we need, to hold ourselves and each other accountable, and to build deeper relationships that further liberation.

This virtual workshop will give you the groundwork to:

  • Develop a stance for racial justice conversations rooted in your core values, beliefs and longings for the world;
  • Better understand, notice and navigate your triggers;
  • Sharpen discernment around when and how to engage in racial justice conversations;
  • Practice your stances in real-world scenarios, guided by facilitators; and
  • Hone your practice of racial justice conversations over time.

Format

Racial Justice Stances is offered on both an open enrollment basis and for member-serving networks seeking to advance racial equity. The workshop takes place over two, two-hour sessions spaced a week apart. The format emphasizes individual reflection, small-group exploration, and full-group practice. It is designed for all who have at least a basic knowledge of systemic racism.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email workshops@equityinthecenter.org.

Upcoming Workshops and Cost

Equity In The Center updated service pricing to a tiered pricing model in April 2022 to better align with best practices among equity-focused organizations. We ask that organizations purchasing tickets on behalf of their staff purchase tickets in the tier that aligns with your organizational budget and sector. For individuals purchasing tickets for themselves, we ask that those with greater privilege purchase tickets at the higher end, which will allow individuals with historically less access to wealth, disproportionately BIPOC folks, to pay the lower fees.

Refund PolicyApply for a Race Equity Culture™ Scholarship

September 2023 Session

Tuesday, September 26, 1:00 – 3:00 pm ET AND

Thursday, September 28, 1:00 – 3:00 pm ET

(12-2pm CT / 11am-1pm MT / 10am-12pm PT)

Subsidized Rate Actual Cost Rate Supporter Rate Investment Rate
Non-profits with budgets <$1M Non-profits with budgets between $1M and $3,999,999; government Foundations with assets less than $10M; non-profits with budgets between $4M and $9,999,999 All for-profit companies; foundations with assets over $10M; and non-profits with budgets $10M and above
$200 $225 $250 $275

*Budget categories based on Rockwood Leadership Institute’s tiered pricing model

Facilitators

Tamir Novotny, MPA

Tamir Novotny is principal of Ahimsa Strategies, a coaching and facilitation practice that supports progressive leaders and organizations in advancing justice while living in our full humanity. Their projects focus on supporting individuals and teams in moving through the tensions, contradictions and conflict inherent in equity work while strengthening relationships and promoting accountability beyond punishment culture. Prior to starting Ahimsa Strategies, Tamir ran Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, a progressive, membership-based organization working to empower emerging leaders and elevate philanthropic practice in order to build a more just, equitable and sustainable world. Tamir received a Masters in Public Administration from the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and a BA from NYU in Metropolitan Studies. They are also a Certified Professional Coach. In their spare time, Tamir enjoys climbing, hanging out with their nibblings, making music, and competitive gaming.

A selfie of Tamir glancing into the distance against a backdrop of green hills and a body of water

Kristell Caballero Saucedo

Kristell Caballero Saucedo provides coaching and consulting support through practice at Living Change, Kristell supports individuals and organizations committed to transformative change in organizational culture, learning & development, program strategy, and evaluation. Her work is committed to social justice work that puts race with an intersectional analysis at its nexus. Most recently, she led the cultural capability building work at United States Pharmacopeia as a National Urban Fellow. She served as the Program Officer for the Racial Equity Initiatives at Borealis Philanthropy. Kristell served as a grantmaker for the Community Innovation program at the Bush Foundation. First as an INP RISE Fellow, and later as the Racial Equity Project Manager at Northside Funders Group she led and curated a racial equity toolkit and learning curriculum for grantmakers. As a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico, Kristell focused her research on Afro-Mexican rights. She spent a year working on anti-racist non-formal education at Phiren Amenca, an International Roma Rights organization based in Hungary. Kristell holds a Change Management certification from Cornell University, a master’s degree in Policy Management from Georgetown University, and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Spanish from St. Olaf College.

What To Expect

When you come to Racial Justice Stances, be ready to:

Follow your intuition rather than be told what to do.

This workshop was developed to help you find your way of engaging in racial justice conversations rooted in your core self. 

Go deep – this workshop may take you to tender and vulnerable places.

In this workshop, we explore parts of us that may have become contorted in order to survive in an oppressive society. Stance offers us a way of realigning those parts of us with our true selves, which can be deeply healing. 

Work in a mixed-raced space centered on mutual liberation. We do this for two reasons:

1. We believe that connecting across layers of power and privilege can be transformative. We recognize that this may create a sense of vulnerability for participants of color. We also believe that collectively, we need to learn how to have these conversations together. That said, we encourage everyone in this space to center their own growth, especially participants of color.

2. Racial Justice work goes beyond the “default scenario” of the “problematic white person.” We tend to focus on that default scenario because it’s so pervasive. And, there are also times when we have to have racial justice conversations in which there is no clear “problem person,” or in which two principled people are in conflict and there is no obvious answer. We believe it is necessary to take on this full range of scenarios in order to work toward liberation.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at workshops@equityinthecenter.org.