Thank you to the 41 community members who attended the Feb. 23 Diverse Fort Collins book group!
We discussed Chapters 5-8 of Robin DiAngelo’s book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism.
Trying something new this time, we divided into affinity groups (people of color and non-binary folks, white women, white men, white women and men, social justice and equity/diversity/inclusion advocates) and reviewed information from the author’s Reading Guide:
Principles for a constructive discussion (such as “a strong opinion is not the same as informed knowledge”)
Common patterns and responses (such as “Positioning themselves as already getting this/Giving evidence for why this discussion doesn’t apply to them: “I already know all this.” “I am married to/have children who are____” followed by distancing (rather than insight and recognition that this doesn’t exempt them and their learning is not finished).
Silence breakers (such as “I’m really nervous/scared/uncomfortable saying this and/but…”)
…and finally the Reading Guide chapter questions.
If you haven’t read the book yet, here are chapter titles to give you an idea of the content:
Chapter 5 The Good/Bad Binary (He’s not a racist. He is a really nice guy)
Chapter 6 Anti-Blackness
Chapter 7 Racial Triggers For White People
Chapter 8 The Result: White Fragility
Thank you to our wonderful volunteers and facilitators for helping make this a successful event:
Mia, Jessica, Jamie, Ricardo, David, Victoria, Kit, Kimberly, Tom, Katherine, and Mara.
Thanks again to Rev. Kimberly and American Baptist Church for the gift of this meeting space.
***RESCHEDULED TO MAY 17***Join us on March 22 at 2 p.m. for the final meeting. We’ll discuss Chapters 9-12.
Details and RSVP at http://www.DiverseFortCollins.com/events
We hope to see you then!
Diverse Fort Collins 