Session 2:
Materials
This week you will be invited to reflect on your life story through the lens of race and ethnicity. It may be helpful to review the materials at the start of the week, so you can give yourself some time to reflect on your own life, with particular attention to “turning points” when it comes to race. Feel free to look at the prompts before the materials.
1) Community Agreements
We welcome your on-going edits and comments to the Community Agreements (click back or go here). Based on your input, we made some updates.
2) “My people” - Who are they?
The prompts will be inviting us to explore our ethnicity what this means to us.
We invite you to read this story:
What have you given up? Zen priest Greg Kosen Snyder on growing up Pennsylvanian Dutch, assimilation, intimacy, and power, 2018
(est. 15-20 min)
3) “My skin”- When did you know?
The prompts will be inviting us to get in touch with times and circumstances when you became (or become) aware of the color of our skin, and what that is like.
To help spark personal reflection, we invite you to read these varied stories:
The first time I discovered I was white, by John Blake, 2017 (3 stories)*
(est. 15 min)
4) Talking about race.
We invite you to spend 10-15 min to explore any of these testimonials .
As you watch, notice sensations, gut reactions, emotions and thoughts. In particular, notice the comparing mind, if it arises.
A Conversation With White People on Race - NYT, 2015 (5.5 min)
Optional
Facing My White Privilege, by Tara Brach, 2016
If you're English, you're white - that's according to the 'National' Census, Open Democracy, 2011
Play that Funky Music, White Boy…
*The following two videos are connected to the article above by John Blake.
“The Story Behind the Song”