Waking ourselves for the benefit of all.
Radical Anti-Bias Education
Course Participant Page
Welcome! This page is for registrants in our 2021 summer training, "Radical Anti-Bias Education: Cultivating True Comrades in Struggle." Please do not share this page with anyone who is not registered for the training. You are welcome to share specific homework materials, but not the link to the page – which will include links to recordings as they become available.
Homework:
Important Information
Homework: Homework materials for all sessions will be posted below. Please allow 1-2 hours for homework per session. We ask that everyone engage with the study materials prior to each session.
Recordings: Recordings of each live session will be available 2-3 days after it takes place. Links to these recordings will be posted at the top of the homework assignment for the corresponding session. Recordings, along with the participant page as a whole, will remain accessible through November 1, 2021 (three months after our final live session). After this, study materials will be e-mailed to you as a PDF and session recordings will no longer be available.
Have you visited the Logistics Page for the Training? Please allow 20 minutes to review this page and take the action steps outlined within it prior to the training. Applications for your personal zoom login must be submitted by the end of the day Saturday, July 10, in order to participate in the first live session (applications are approved manually, not instantly).
Join Our Mighty Network: If you would like to be part of the online forum we have created for this training, we encourage you to join the Mighty Network group for this class. You can view the full invitation here. The Network is somewhere you can share with the whole group (similar to an FB group), and it is also a place where you can send a private message to anyone else who joins. We hope this helps you all make the connections you may desire with other "Radical Anti-Bias Education" training participants.
Session One: Introduction & A Radical Approach to Anti-Bias Education
Session Recording (7/11): View Here
Chat Log: View Here
Study Materials
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Excommunicate Me from the Church of Social Justice (7-15 min read)
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Clip from Trumpland, a film that examines the social and political forces that have emboldened white nationalists in the age of Trump. Note: The second speaker in the clip is Briahna Joy Gray (6 min watch).
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Matewan “Union Speech” – clip from 1987 film (6 min watch). Note: The term “dago” is a pejorative for Italians, who were recent immigrants during the historical period of the Matewan Massacre.
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Shared Foundations - Sarah Ngu (10-15 min read)
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Selections from “The struggle against white chauvinism” - 1949 CPUSA study guide (20-25 min read)
Optional background reading: If you’re very new to some of the topics covered in this training, or if you haven’t taken a course with us before, here are some optional, background study materials that you might want to review:
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Our Analysis – Eleanor Hancock (10-15 min read)
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What is White Supremacy – Elizabeth Martínez (15-20 min read)
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Understanding Antisemitism as Ruling Class Strategy – Excerpts from Essays by April Rosenblum and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (10-15 min read)
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Roots Deeper than Whiteness: Remembering who we are for the well-being of all – David Dean (30-40 min read). If you would prefer, feel free to listen to the audio version of this article instead.
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Birth of a White Nation – Jacqueline Battalora (36 min watch)
Session Two: Histories of Race and Class Bias
Session Recording (7/18): View Here
Chat Log: View Here
Study Materials
The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism - Thomas Frank (10-40 minutes total time, depending on which option you select). Please select one of the three options listed below, to learn about the basic history and theory Frank outlines in his recent book.
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“A Brief History of Anti-Populism” - Anton Jäger interviews Thomas Frank for Jacobin Magazine (we recommend starting at the point cued in this link, and watching or listening until the 45 minute mark in the interview; 40 minutes total time)
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“Why is a smear campaign from 1896 still going today?” - later segment of above interview, if you’re short on time (please watch from point cued in this link to the 45 minute mark in the interview; about 15 minutes total time)
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We need to reclaim populism from the right. It has a long, proud leftwing history - selection from the book, reprinted in The Guardian (if you prefer written material over audio; and/or you’d like insight into the full range of topics Frank discusses in the Jacobin interview, we recommend this article; 10-12 minute read)
What the media gets wrong about the Trump supporter caricature – Rising (9 min watch)
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Optional, going deeper: Chris Hayes interview with George Goehl
Why I Quit the Klan - C.P. Ellis narrative collected by Studs Terkel in 1980 (20-30 minute read)
Anti-Black Racism, the Minstrel Show, and the Making of Whiteness – Chris Crass (pages 22-25 / 8-10 min read)
Anti-Asian Racism Creates Inequality for All - Excerpt from an Essay by Viet Thanh Nguyen (5 min read)
Invisibility is the Modern form of Racism Against Native Americans - Rebecca Nagle (5 min read)
Excerpt from MLK’s 1965 Speech in Montgomery, AL, about how Jim Crow was a tool explicitly (and effectively) designed to destroy the multiracial Populist movement that flourished briefly in the late 1800s (4 min read).
Using Dog Whistles to Undermine Government – Video from Ian Haney López (2 min watch). If you're interested, click here for more from Haney López's Race-Class Academy. Note: In session one we critiqued liberalism for not going far enough to meet people's economic needs. In this video Haney López uses the term in the positive because, when compared to right wing government, it calls for a more sizable social safety net. This was particularly true prior to the 1980s before Reagan successfully shifted all of mainstream politics to the right.
Building Accountable Relationships with Communities of Color: Some Lessons Learned - Pax Christie online resource (15-20 min read)
Activity: View Full Assignment
Assignment Summary: This week, in addition to your study materials, we are including an embodied activity for you to do — a solidarity meditation. This meditation is intended to be a reflection on the vast web of interconnections we have with other humans in a far reaching social and economic network. In the face of our society's manufactured divisions, this practice is meant to draw our mind and spirit to the potential of building the comradeship and collective power required to transform our world. Click here to read the full assignment.
Session Three: Next Steps for Taking Action
Session Recording (8/1): View Here
Chat Log: View Here
Study Materials
Race-Class: A Winning Electoral Narrative – Demos Action (5-7 min read)
An Interview with Heather McGee - Bad Faith Podcast (watch/listen to first 10 mins)
If Progressives Don’t Try to Win Over Rural Areas, Guess Who Will - George Goehl (8-10 min read)
Reply to Misled Worker - Article from 1930 in the Southern Worker, the CPUSA’s weekly newspaper in the South. Written by James S. Allen, the paper’s editor. Read original text (includes newspaper masthead). Or read our transcribed version (10-15 min).
White Anti-Racism Must Be Based in Solidarity, Not Altruism - Jesse Myerson (15-18 min read)
“Learning How to Listen - Michigan” – a podcast by People’s Action (Read episode description and listen from the 8:50 mark until the end, 20 min listen)
Activity: View Full Assignment
Assignment Summary: The activities portion of this week's homework begins with a personal assessment to reflect on how you would like to deepen your external work in the world for social change. It also includes a review of the "awareness practices to shed bias" that Eleanor spoke about in session two and the opportunity to reflect on which of these you might want to bring into your life on a more regular basis. Click here to read the full assignment.