White Accountability Group

All White folks are welcome.

Everything is open, free and available to anyone who wants to share or join.

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Tuesdays from 7:30 – 8:30pm (EST)

A space for and by White folks looking to combat White Supremacy and support Racial Justice.

Weekly we are going to chat virtually. This will be foregrounded with readings, videos and questions shared before and after. The Full “Syllabus” (list of readings and resources) is below, with links to the weekly folders that will have any notes, questions, resources and other documents that are used for the conversation. It will change, it will grow, and there may be ebbs and flows but we HERE to try and DO BETTER as White people standing up for racial justice. For more check out our Syllabus.

Community Guidelines

Our Syllabus

Week 1: Introductions
Let’s get to know each other, to create a space where we can navigate this ongoing (hard ass) work together.

Week 2: Witnessing Whiteness
Starting from the very beginning. Healing from “toxic” whiteness is part of the labor that white people need to do before they can truly stand up for racial justice in a meaningful way. This means alleviating the burden of learning about whiteness from Black Indigenous and/or People of Color (BIPOC) and putting it on our shoulders. We need to learn what “white supremacy culture” is before we can hope to undo it.

Week 3: Unlearning
TBD.

Week 4: Cheat Week #1
Every four weeks we’ll have an informal check in and exchange. This can be done over food or drinks. Part of sustaining this work is ensuring that we build in rest. This will also help us reaffirm and renavigate any processes that aren’t currently working.

Week 5: Racism in Canadian Policing
Despite Canada’s ‘clean’ image, It is a little known fact that Black people were considered “property” well into the 1800s in Canada. In 2017, 44% of Black children in Canada lived in poverty, compared to 15% for non-racialized children. Racism on our police force is a deadly serious issue. There are countless examples of unnecessary deaths of visible minorities, particularly of our black and indigenous populations due to altercations with the police. A black person in Toronto is 20 times more likely to be killed by police than a white person.

Week 6: Talking to White People (Workshop)
Many of us have been in situations where we’ve had to tackle questions we don’t know quite how to answer, or seen situations where people just shout at each other. One of the many things about the issues we care about is that they’re messy, competing facts exist and conversation can deteriorate into yelling those facts back and forth at each other until no one’s having a conversation and no one is open to growth or learning. The goal of this session is for us to discuss together about creating conversations that move through tension productively. We won’t be talking about talking points on different issues because it is not about the content of the questions; it’s about how you frame and structure your response to the question in a way that moves the conversation forward. 

Week 7: Microaggressions
But what about less clear-cut, individual behaviors or statements?  These are known as microaggressions. They have a racist impact regardless of intention, because they are based on stereotypes and/or centering the dominant White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) culture as the standard. When we think of a “Racist” (with a capital R), some of the first associations that usually come to mind are the KKK, burning crosses, racial profiling, redlining, “separate but equal,” and calling someone the N-word.  Most people would agree that behaving in such a way today is intentionally hateful, and thus racist. It is unequivocal.

Week 8: Cheat Week #2
Every four weeks we’ll have an informal check in and exchange. This can be done over food or drinks. Part of sustaining this work is ensuring that we build in rest. This will also help us reaffirm and renavigate any processes that aren’t currently working

Week 9: Bystander Intervention (Part I)
We will be discussing the critical role of bystanders in combatting micro ( and macro) aggressions against people of colour ( and other targets). Key concepts include (1) What is a Bystander, (2) Micro Interventions and (3) the Bystander Effect.

Week 10: Bystander Intervention (Part II)
Workshopping 3 Scenarios to explore how our discussion on Bystander Intervention could be applied.

Week 11: Institutional Interventions/Change
[TBD].

Week 12: Cheat Week #3
Every four weeks we’ll have an informal check in and exchange. This can be done over food or drinks. Part of sustaining this work is ensuring that we build in rest. This will also help us reaffirm and renavigate any processes that aren’t currently working.

Week 13: Race and the Social Determinants of Health
Reviewing core concepts in Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) including Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES), and book by Dr. Damon Tweedy “Black Man in a White Coat.”

Week 14: Racism in Health I
Exploring Racial Bias in Healthcare including the foundations of Scientific Racism.

Week 15: Racism in Health II
Continuing our discussion, because the pseudo-science behind anti-blackness runs deep!

Week 16: Cheat Week # 4
Every four weeks we’ll have an informal check in and exchange. This can be done over food or drinks. Part of sustaining this work is ensuring that we build in rest. This will also help us reaffirm and renavigate any processes that aren’t currently working.

Week 17: Trust & Discrimination
Answering Question #1 from our Judgement Free Question Space.

Week 18: Anti-Ableist Insults
Answering Question #2 from our Judgement Free Question Space.

Week 19: POSTPONED

Week 20: Cheat Week #5
Every four weeks we’ll have an informal check in and exchange. This can be done over food or drinks. Part of sustaining this work is ensuring that we build in rest. This will also help us reaffirm and renavigate any processes that aren’t currently working.

Week 21: Election Night
Our regular meeting is cancelled for this week, instead you’re welcome to join an open space to process, get distracted or just be somewhere during these turbulent times. All are welcome, so feel free to share with folks who might want to hang with us. 

Week 22: What Now?
Brainstorming, we in it, now what?