The Series for Racial Equity and Inclusion -Part VI - "I’m a good person! I'sn’t That Enough?"
Presented by: Debby Irving, Racial Justice Educator and Writer
REGISTER HERE
Using historical and media images, Debby examines how she used her white-skewed belief system to interpret the world around her. Socialized on a narrow worldview, Debby explores how she spent decades silently reaffirming harmful, archaic racial patterns instead of questioning the racial disparities and tensions she could see and feel.
This workshop is designed to support white people in making the paradigm shift from ‘fixing’ and ‘helping’ those believed to be inferior, to focusing on internalized white superiority and its role in perpetuating racism at the individual, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural levels.
This seminar will help you to:
- Understand the impact media images and curricular offerings have on the construction and maintenance of our belief systems
- Discover the connection between belief systems, data interpretation, and behaviors
- Identify what whiteness is and how easily it becomes normalized in white and/or leadership spaces
- Recognize the way our belief systems collect evidence that supports what we already believe to be true, setting us up to disbelieve and/or not seek out different perspectives
Debby Irving brings to racial justice the perspective of working as a community organizer and classroom teacher for 25 years without understanding racism as a systemic issue or her own whiteness as an obstacle to grappling with it. As general manager of Boston’s Dance Umbrella and First Night, and later as a classroom teacher, she struggled to make sense of tensions she could feel but not explain in racially mixed settings. In 2009, a graduate school course gave her the answers she’d been looking for and launched her on a journey of discovery. Debby now devotes herself to working with white people exploring the impact white skin can have on perception, problem-solving, and engaging in racial justice work.
Presented by Enterprise Bank in partnership with the Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce, Greater Lowell Community Foundation, Lowell Development & Financial Corporation, The Lowell Plan, Lawrence Partnership, Essex County Community Foundation, Non-Profit Alliance of Greater Lowell and The Theodore Edson Parker Foundation
Date and Time
Tuesday Apr 19, 2022
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM EDT
Printed courtesy of www.greaterlowellcc.org – Contact the Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce for more information.
131 Merrimack Street, Lowell, MA 01852 – (978) 459-8154 – info@greaterlowellchamber.org