Time and again, we hear white people say: “I believe passionately in racial justice, but I don’t know how to translate that belief into action that makes a real difference.” Likewise, the failure of white-led organizations to boldly and consistently address racism often stems not from a lack of desire, but from a lack of analysis, skill, and accountability.

With affirmative action, racial profiling, homeland security, and the aftermath of hurricane Katrina at the center of public debate, multiracial coalitions within and across faith communities can make a crucial contribution to the struggle for racial equality and a just society. If white people of faith are to become anti-racist allies and agents of change, we need to move beyond good intentions and “do our own work.”

This four-day workshop provides a context for white people to educate ourselves about white racism and white privilege, hold each other accountable, and demonstrate good faith as we seek to build genuine and lasting alliances with people of color. Beyond Good Intentions is intended to supplement, not substitute for, contexts where people of diverse races strategize and work together to dismantle racism.

Through input from the workshop leaders, assigned readings, videos, group discussion, and structured exercises, Beyond Good Intentions will help white leaders transform their values into action by:

• sharing concrete tools that foster self-awareness and analysis of white privilege and institutional racism
• cultivating practices of truth-telling and prophetic witness that allow white people to speak out against racism
• breaking down counter-productive patterns of shame and guilt which short-circuit white people’s capacity to serve as effective allies in anti-racist work
• deepening the spiritual foundations which undergird the commitment to courageous, visionary testimony
• developing strategies for creating and sustaining institutional change
• helping participants gain the skills and strength they need to work for structural change in their home communities.

In addition to employing analysis of critical race theory and anti-racism/anti-oppression pedagogy, Beyond Good Intentions will incorporate theological and biblical reflections and spiritual practice from Christian and Jewish traditions.

Event is gender inclusive

Leaders: Julia Watts Belser and Melanie Morrison
Time: Monday – Thursday, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
Location: InterPlayce in Oakland, California
Cost: $350 ($100 deposit; $200 balance due)  Registration may be paid in installments extending past the time of the workshop.

This workshop is made possible by a grant from the United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries.

Julia Watts Belser is an author, activist, and anti-oppression educator studying to be a rabbi at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Los Angeles and completing doctoral study in the Joint Program in Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union and University of California in Berkeley.

Melanie Morrison is Director of The Leaven Center, an ordained United Church of Christ minister, anti-oppression educator, and author of three books including The Grace of Coming Home: Sexuality, Spirituality, and the Struggle for Justice. For the past 12 years, she has co-facilitated Doing Our Own Work, an anti-racism seminar for white people.

You may register online with a credit card or download a registration form at The Leaven Center web site: www.leaven.org/registration.htm. For more information about Beyond Good Intentions, call 989-855-2606 or email leavencenter@leaven.org.

InterPlayce is at the corner of 23rd and Telegraph, just a few blocks from the 19th Street Bart Station, and just one block north of West Grand Avenue. The address is 2273 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, CA 94612.