Racism isn’t a BIPOC issue but a white issue, says one of the organizers behind a new virtual series on white privilege that launches Monday night.
10C Shared Space and the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition will be hosting a four part virtual series titled Connecting Circles:The System is Rigged - Fall 2021 White Privilege Series.
It's a free event with host conversations once a month for residents to discuss white supremacy, false alleyship and subtle language used to avoid real discussions around racism.
The first discussion takes place Monday, Sept. 13 at 7 p.m. and will talk about what it means to be white.
Brendan Johnson, the executive director of GNSC, explains the intent of this event is to provide a space for white people to have open discussions around white privilege as part of learning to identify examples and giving people tools to combat it.
“I guess the point of having it with white people is that we don’t do further harm or trauma or damage to BIPOC community members, like they don’t have to be part of a conversation where they ask harmful things, knowingly or unknowingly,” said Johnson, “It’s for us to do our work, the homework is for us."
Talking with members of the BIPOC community and friends, Johnson said it was made clear that white people need to do the work in understanding their role in white supremacy.
“You really have to inspect your own identity in order to move forward in the world,” he said.
“When you’re equipped with knowledge you get to make better decisions and do things differently.”
The idea came from a previous chat about this topic held by the GNSC and 10C that received a good response from participants. For this upcoming event, 25 people have registered.
“I think the people coming to the room have come with the desire to learn, and share and be uncomfortable,” he said, “So far, we haven’t had anyone coming that would be there for a negative reason, you know, to disrupt or be upset. It seems like the people coming are there to build community.”
To help facilitate these events, Michelle Peek from Art Not Shame will be joining Johnson. He mentions they will be using learning materials within the local and global community, along with information from Black and Indigenous scholars, to help prepare for these big conversations around racism and identity.
“We’ve done some homework together and we’ve wanted to share what our learnings are and we want to share with each other,” he said.
“This isn’t a place to feel shame or guilt, this is a place to have these open discussions to co-share and learn.”
Residents who are interested in signing up for the event can do so here.
