What is Whiteness?
This is a 4-session workshop, and participants are asked to commit to all 4 sessions.
In the numerous conversations about the race, what often emerges is the reminder of how important and necessary it is to engage in exploration about the experience of race in the white community. More specifically, as communities of color take part in assessment and exploration of the realities of race, it becomes increasingly apparent that white members of our community need to create more opportunities to deconstruct and address what it means to be white and how whiteness has impacted all of our lives.
The What Is Whiteness Discussion Group is a group developed for white members of the Student Affairs community who are interested in exploring the meaning and significance of white racial identity in the United States, including experiences with whiteness in our personal lives and in our work here at Duke University. An underlying goal of this discussion group is to better equip white members of our community to recognize and combat racism in all its forms. Our hope would be that this would better prepare us to navigate (and lead) such discussions among the students we serve.
Our hope is to make more explicit the ways in which whiteness frames our own worldviews and everyday interactions so that we can maximize our effectiveness as white members of multicultural work communities. We also hope to deepen our connection to our own cultural backgrounds and more fully understand the cross-racial encounters that permeate our lives. We will begin by simply inviting discussion. However, as we continue, we will offer readings and other materials to help stimulate ideas and facilitate a more flexible perspective toward deeper sharing and learning.
We do not expect that 4 discussion sessions will be sufficient to reach a thorough understanding and readiness to address all of the issues of race in our lives. We do hope that this beginning will spark more conversations, moving those of us white professionals in Student Affairs closer to a readiness to engage our students----particularly our white students----in an ethical and courageous examination of how we can continue to grow toward social justice and diversity rooted in unity and respect.
To maximize our discussions, enrollment will be limited to 8 participants. Our hope is to create a space that allows all participants to fully engage, and larger groups make this difficult.
UPDATE:
Because we've only had a couple people register, we have decided to delay the start of this program. In order to give more people a chance to enroll (we only had a few days notice), we will begin this program one week later, starting on September 21. We will add a final session one week after the October 12 follow up and have an October 19 final meeting.
Mondays - September 21 and 28
October 12 and 19
4:00pm - 5:30pm at the Women’s Center Lower Lounge
Offered by the Office of Professional Development of the Division of Student Affairs
Facilitated by Libby Webb and Gary Glass from CAPS