Hello there,

Thank you for joining the July Communities Ending Poverty Anti-Racism call. The Community of Practice is not recorded to foster safe space dialogue. We imagine having coffee and chatting with like-minded practitioners facing similar struggles in their work. Since thousands of kilometers are between us, we try to recreate that coffee chat feeling online. This month's session didn't go quite as expected, and we are working on adjusting to ensure we communicate the group's intentions. You can expect to hear more from us as we move forward together. 

Discussion Highlights

• White supremacy culture refers to a hierarchy with white people at the top and everyone else below. The culture functions with an internal sense of superiority.
• White supremacy functions in collaboration with other systems of oppression; they reinforce and reproduce each other. Dismantling those systems will make life better for everyone.
• Rissy shared an article in advance of the Community of Practice called Sense of Urgency from the White Supremacy Culture website.
• Participants chose breakout groups based on four questions.
  • How does urgency show up in yourself and in your workplaces?
  • How might our sense of urgency be causing racist (or other oppressive) harm?
  • Do you have any examples of the listed antidotes that you already use?
  • Which antidotes do you need (personally or within your organization) and how could that look?

Resources

• VIDEO | White Supremacy - Blair Imani
• VIDEO | Colour Evasiveness
• VIDEO | Reverse Racism

Upcoming Opportunities

• WEBINAR (Public) | Five Community Driven Pathways for Systems Change | August 2 | 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. ET | Learn about SASS (Systems-change Advocacy Support and Solidarity).
• WEBINAR (Private - Zoom link) | Rent Banks – Strategic innovation in a time of crisis | August 23 | 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. ET | Learn how local rent banks and provincial networks play a critical role in helping to stabilize housing and prevent homelessness.

The next Anti-Racism CoP call will be August 31 at 11:00 a.m. ET. We will be discussing ways to make our Community of Practice safe for everyone. 

Sincerely,

Maureen Owens (she/her) 

Manager of Communities, Communities Ending Poverty

Vibrant Communities, Tamarack Institute

maureen@tamarackcommunity.ca