The Case for Anti-Racism Work in Community

I have been thinking about writing this post or a while, and being in a particularly reflective mood, I am finally writing it now! About 3 months ago, some friends and I started a group that we call the Anti-Racist Coalition. While I was biking this summer, I had a lot of time to think about how I wanted to practice anti-racism, and this group came to my mind. It was inspired by Seattle’s Coalition of Anti Racist Whites (CARW) who I had heard about but wasn't quite about their structure. I put out a call on Facebook to see if anyone would be interested in forming a group that was focused specifically on building skills around anti-racism in community, and I was surprised and excited to find that people wanted to join!

The group is made up of a nice cross-section of people I have met in all areas of my life, from high school to college to grad school, some who I considered acquaintances and some who I had lost touch with over the years. I am so glad that they all joined because it has been a great joy to reconnect with them in such a meaningful context. Despite us living all over the country and only meeting virtually, I would say that some of these relationships are much deeper than many I have in-person. One great outcomes of the pandemic is the huge shift to virtual meetings, and while I miss meeting up with people in person, it has certainly expanded the horizon of who I communicate regularly with.

Starting this group was important to me because I wanted to practice skills around equity and anti-racism in community, and I think that aspect of the group has been the most important part for me. Although all of the group members share a lot of the same core beliefs, everyone comes from different backgrounds with different experiences in this work, and I have learned so much from everyone and been able to challenge some of my own biases. Especially in the past month or so, we have hit strides in our group dynamic, and I am glad to feel comfortable with everyone and able to bring up and feel comfortable leaning into hard topics. I think it speaks to the importance of intentionality in group-building that can seem rigid at first but that leads to authentic connection. While our meetings feel less rigid and structured now, I feel like I take a lot more out of them. Not to mention, working in community helps hold us accountable. I started following conservative news sources to broaden my perspectives because I said that was something I wanted to do and then someone kept checking in to make sure I had done it.

I am also very excited by the practicality of this group. I never wanted it to be a place for solely discussion, but rather a place to build skills and take action. The things we do and practice are things we can apply to our lives outside of the group and to our own contexts. In the past few months, we have defined equity and what it means to us, learned about logical fallacies, learned about how to call folks in and out and when and how to do each, and most recently have had conversations on various hot topics (eg, defunding the police, supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, sending students back to in-person school) where we take on different perspectives and practice the skills we have learned. We have practiced a lot around calling in, actively listening to understand, and finding common ground. While our conversations are fruitful, we are all relatively similar in our beliefs/opinions (fairly liberal), and we want to try inviting folks with more conservative beliefs/opinions to truly have authentic conversations and to provide spaces that allow various opinions to be held and discussed in a respectful way. I have found that in our sort of manufactured controversial conversations, each of us coming in with the intent to learn and understand before challenging has made it a lot easier for me to share my views and also be willing to listen. I am excited to create a space for that to happen in a more authentic way and model and practice how to hold hard conversations with folks of varying perspectives.

Figuring out how to make a difference in your world can be daunting, and doing it with a community makes it much easier, manageable, and more enjoyable. This group is certainly a testament to that. If anyone reading this has any questions or is interested in joining my group, please feel free to reach out!