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Wrestling With Whiteness, a program of the Jesuits West Collaborative Organizing for Racial Equity (CORE). The program will run the 5 Thursdays after Easter 2021: April 8th, April 15th, April 22nd, April 29th and May 6th at 3:30pm-5:30pmPT / 6:30pm-8:30pm EST.Jesuits West Collaborative Organizing for Racial Equity (CORE)

Outcomes: This training will create a shared understanding of whiteness, reflect on how it lives in us and shapes our lives, and utilize the gifts of Ignatian spirituality to prayerfully consider how we free ourselves to think and act outside of the dictates of white supremacy culture. Participants will learn to articulate their own story of whiteness, opportunity and privilege and analyze how their work is impacted by implicit bias and white supremacy. Participants will get equipped with tactics of resistance to train, organize and move other white people in the work of dismantling white supremacy.

There will be about an hour of assigned prep-work for each session, a combination of readings, videos, prayer and reflection questions.

Training outline:
Session 1- Whiteness and White Supremacy: What is it and how does it show up? Take a deeper dive into the history of whiteness and understanding our role in it and begin to explore the concept of an “opportunity story”.

Session 2- Implicit Bias, Stereotype Threat and Racial Anxiety: How they show up in our lives and work and how do we free ourselves from invisible habits and instincts we don’t even know we have? We does it mean to enter into this work believing we are loved by G-d, complicity in the sin of racism, and do the spiritual work we need to get free to love?

Session 3- Calling in and Relational 1-1s on Race: How do we invite more white folks into this work, challenge our white peers in their relationship to race, and how do we build meaningful relationships with people of color. How do we have spiritual conversations on race?

Session 4- Seeing white supremacy culture in our organizations and making plans for moving forward.

Session 5: Settler colonialism, right relationships, and our role as faith institutions. (New addition!)

Participants must be:
-Committed to doing the work of racial justice and dismantling white supremacy.
-Active with a Jesuit parish, school, university or other ministry. That includes attending as a student, working at, volunteering with etc.
-Committed to attending all 4 cohort sessions by video and completing assigned preparation and homework.
-16 years old or older.

The training is based on a curriculum developed by Faith in Action, a Jesuit founded multi-racial multi-religious grassroots faith-based organizing network working across the US on racial and economic justice. It was created by white-identifying organizers in Faith in Action who wanted to take responsibility for organizing themselves and their volunteer leaders to wrestle with white supremacy culture and implicit bias. Over the course of a year, they consulted with clergy, organizers and trainers of color across the nation to develop this four part online curriculum. We are adapting the curriculum to utilize Ignatian spirituality as a key method for helping us discern our relationship to whiteness and our call as white folks.

The sessions will be led by Annie Fox, the Jesuits West Provincial Assistant for Social Ministry Organizing. Find out more about Annie at https://www.jesuitswest.org/our-work/faith-doing-justice/provincial-assistant-social-ministry-organizing/