Focusing the Group

Hello Friends,
I hope you have all had a good week, even in the face of desperate news from Texas. Despite the heartbreak, keep your minds and hearts open to see how Texas residents are portrayed in the media — racism in many forms will be visible.
I have put off the Doodle poll scheduling until we can put together a plan for future meetings, but that will be forthcoming in the next month or so. If any of you want to get together in the meantime, I’m more than happy to host a group or even meet up for a one-on-one chat, so please let me know. I will also create a quick poll for everyone to weigh in on the particular areas (schools, environment, policing) you might want to focus on as we put these groups together.
Find a way to start a discussion, ask questions, and share your own resources as you find them. Push yourself to become more comfortable with these conversations.

Resources and Getting Started

Thanks again to all of you for your interest in discussing racism in ourselves and our community. Here is the resources list that we handed out at our first discussion meeting for your reference. Please feel free to share this. The list includes a copy of the overt/covert racism triangle that we used to discuss white supremacy and systemic racism.
We must find ways to be accountable to people of color in our community. If you have suggestions of groups we can reach out to so that we can make sure that our efforts are actually helpful and informed, please let me know.
If you are interested in participating in any way in the March for Racial Justice on September 30, either by attending or making posters or however you’d like to participate, please let me know and we’ll get a group together to coordinate details.
We’re also interested in coordinating with existing efforts that might be happening in our community’s religious organizations, county government, school board, etc. If you have connections to these efforts, we’d prefer to coordinate rather than duplicate those efforts.
One of the best ways to educate yourself about these issues is to seek out the voices of people of color who are already sharing their experiences in public online. The resource list we provided lists many organizations that are a good starting point. If you’d like suggestions, I’m happy to offer them.