ABOUT
Black Lives Matter
TODAY & ALWAYS
Beloved Community Honors & Centers Our Black Communities.
What we talk about in our sessions is not just academic jargon, or hot topics for our partners to think about and discuss. These topics of race, systems of oppression, and marginalization have real, life and death consequences for our Black communities. We say centering Black lives because we believe that the root of White supremacy is anti-blackness specifically.
We believe it is crucial that we continuously interrogate and address the ways that biases, racism, white supremacy, and intersectionality impact our decisions and the ways that our organizations operate. We also require ourselves and the organizations that we work with to center Black joy, Black futures, and Black contributions to our history, institutions, and systems.
HOW TO
Opening Space for Discussion.
When opening space for discussion, we recommend establishing a Brave Space for the conversation with the following guidelines.
Elements of a Brave Space
Controversy with Civility, where varying opinions are accepted.
Owning Intentions and Impacts, in which everyone acknowledges and discuss instances where a dialogue has affected the emotional well-being of another person.
Challenge by Choice, where everyone has the option to step in and out of challenging conversations.
Respect, where everyone shows respect for one another’s basic personhood.
No Attacks, where everyone agrees not to intentionally inflict harm on others.
Organization of a Brave Space
We recommend doing this in racial identity caucuses: one for white staff, one for Black staff, and one for non-Black People of Color. Remind everyone that folks process grief differently, and that just because someone doesn't share, doesn't mean they aren't negatively impacted by what is going on.
When white folks don't share, this is often tied to white fragility and that should be named constantly throughout the session. White folks should not be able to sit in a space dedicated to talking about racism and not share their thoughts. Think about ways to name that explicitly as an expectation.
Open with Simple Prompts.
For example: How are you feeling? What do you need? Where do we go from here? Let the conversation flow naturally from there.
Conclude with a Mandate or Charge.
This could be establishing racial caucus time in your organization. It could also be a steering committee to craft organizational statements in support of Black Lives. Maybe its a commitment to hiring professionals to support you in your anti-racist organizational development.
Resources
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What Is Intersectionality?
At Beloved Community, we frame our work in Kimberle Crenshaw’s (1989) theory of Intersectionality. We recommend Intersectionality as a framework for organizations to use to examine how multiple layers of oppression may be impacting their stakeholders and community members . . .
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White Supremacy and Anti-Blackness: A Covert and Overt Beast
I share this in a moment where I am balancing feelings of intense rage and hope for a new future where BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) are able to survive, thrive, move, laugh, live, exist, make mistakes, and just be. This is an invitation for you to do your own work . . .
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Pride Isn’t About Parades or Rainbows
We enter Pride month in 2020 amidst another painful and dark time in our country's history. Too many black people have been added to the murder count at the hands of police in the past few weeks including, but sadly not limited to, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd . . .
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What It Means to Be Equity Champions During Crisis: Part I
Companies and organizations across the globe are feeling a sense of urgency with the sudden onset and continuance of COVID-19. Businesses both small and large have made difficult decisions while attempting to stay afloat. Some orgs have decided big cuts are best . . .
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What It Means to Be Equity Champions During Crisis: Part II
In our initial post, Beloved Community explored ideas for how to develop a more inclusive and equitable virtual team culture. In this post, we focus on populations that are at risk, and examples of organizations that have keyed in on equitable practices while navigating the pandemic . . .
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Historical Context & Recommendations
The term safe space has become part of recent controversy surrounding a larger debate regarding freedom of expression on college campuses. An exploration of the term’s use, however, shows that it has been appropriated by the media and campus administrators . . .
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Brave Spaces Communication Guidelines
As white people working to cultivate a culture of anti-racism, we are called to create a “brave space” where we accept the likelihood that we will be uncomfortable when investigating issues of race, privilege, and oppression and our roles within them . . .
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Resources for Racial Caucuses
To advance racial equity, there is work for white people and people of color to do separately and together. Caucuses provide spaces for people to work within their own racial/ethnic groups. For white people, a caucus provides time and space to work explicitly and intentionally on understanding . . .
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Publications: Layla Saad
When Layla F. Saad ran a free month-long Instagram challenge during the summer of 2018, she had no idea it would become an international cultural movement. Since then, over 80,000 people downloaded her guide to the movement, Me and White Supremacy: A 28-Day Challenge to Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor. . .
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Veteran's Day: Dreams Deferred for Black Soldiers
I know three things about my grandpa Joe: he was in the Navy, he was a chef, and he’s the reason I was born in San Diego instead of Mamou. He died when I was barely able to walk, but my mom has a black and white picture of him hanging above her fireplace . . .
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Centering African-Natives during NAHM
November is National Native American Heritage Month, a time to celebrate Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, a time to learn and reflect on the original inhabitants of this continent. Owing no doubt to my own ethnic heritage and work (I am a Louisiana Creole and a member of the Atakapa-Ishak Nation) . . .
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Lessons Learned at CRT Camp
For a week in August, the African American Policy Forum (a think tank headed up by one of the most influential antiracist educators and critical race theorists in the country, Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw) hosted CRT Summer School to help folx across sectors understand the politically-motivated . . .