by Daniel Hunter
May 2004

"I'm so glad to be involved in this effort. I've been involved in many 'Dismantling Racism' workshops, but never where I get to work on my own 'stuff,'" she wrote. She was not alone, many of the participants in this new workshop for African-Americans commented about the uniqueness of working on our own internal issues.

In late May, Training for Change launched a brand new workshop for African-Americans working on the wounds of racism: "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud." This was cutting edge: one of the few workshops across the country designed and led by African-Americans, rooted in popular education, to address internalized oppression.

This Friday to Saturday workshop was led by Dr. Judith Jones and Daniel Hunter. Nine participants attended, coming from New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Chester, PA. They represented diverse backgrounds and communities: different economic class, religious traditions, and occupations (including grassroots organizers, organizational developmentconsultants, pastors, students, and youth ministers).

The Challenge: Self-limiting beliefs

With these different backgrounds, participants had different experiences and interpretations of what it was like growing African-American. One common thread: racism was used to divide people by internalizing negative messages about each other and ourselves.

Racism is like a poisonous smog that distorts and destroys. All of us breathe in smog that we did not create. The smog affects all of us. Black people, too, have breathed in the smog and internalized negative messages about our own power.

These are messages that tell us we are not powerful enough, smart enough, or good enough. They are self-limiting beliefs, and they limit one's ability to affect change and be fully creative and powerful. Therefore, the goals of this workshop were to 1) identify and challenge self-limiting beliefs, 2) develop curiosity about each other’s experiences – confronting the ways we are divided; and 3) learn how to support each other better.

A New Approach: Using Movies

With these goals in mind, we wanted to support people to address our self-limiting beliefs without getting stuck in the swamp of despair. In past workshops Training for Change has offered for people of color, we've found it a challenge to help people stay out of a victim mentality while still working on the deep issues of self-limiting beliefs.

For these reasons we began Friday evening in a way we've never done before: watching a movie. We found that when people started by looking at an external experience, they could notice it without getting so stuck in their own personal sense of despair. (Another advantage is that it gives the group a shared common experience and lets the diversity of the group show up – rather than assuming we all experienced racism the same way.)

And it worked! Participants used the characters in the movie to look at their own personal "triggers": what hooked them. What stereotypes or other self-limiting beliefs showed up in the movie that triggered or hooked them?

Survival in a hostile environment has meant that each of us, depending on where and how we grew up, have learned different sets of self-limiting beliefs. Some people may have learned a survival strategy to stay out of leadership and hide one's brilliance for fear of being killed; another might pick the opposite strategy of always proving one's intelligence as a way of gaining respect in a white dominated culture. Each strategy makes sense depending on context. When we relate to each other as African Americans, however, the question is how can we remain curious about different people's experiences – and so best understand who they are and how to relate to them?

Since we all get triggered by other people at some time, using the movie to look externally at triggers set us up for addressing important goals: like practicing curiosity in spite of the triggers and being able to be better allies to other African-Americans.

Skill-building: Overcoming Triggers with Curiosity

Facilitators used tools rooted in popular education to work these issues. We wanted to assist participants to gain skill in being curious – as an alternative to shame and blame. So Saturday morning, after using the movie to look at triggers, we offered the following challenge: "Try to find a time in your own experience when you were triggered by someone and, in spite of that, were able to be curious about them. What enabled you to do that?" We had participants share that in pairs.

We then harvested different strategies people used: for example asking questions, sharing a task together (and focusing on that), finding positive in the other person, and using humor and journaling. We reviewed the list and both facilitators added some stories and additions.

We wanted to offer participants a chance to use the workshop as a learning laboratory. So with this list in mind, we had participants get into small groups and share some defining moment about race they grew up with. What early memories or lessons do they carry? We set it as a chance to be curious with each other.

Since participants had requested some time to share other stories or ideas with each other, we also set out another chance to practice the skill of curiosity (again using the list we created as a starting point). This time it was in the form of a freeform mingle: where participants could simply approach each other and practice curiosity (maybe a story they wanted to hear or a question they wanted to ask). It was a chance to stretch one’s ability to be curious.

Rooted in Popular Education

Popular education trainers might notice that sequence of steps mirrors the 4-stage model of experiential education: experience, reflection, generalization and application. In our case the experience (step 1) was both the movie (and those triggers) as well as people’s recall on a time they remained curious despite the triggers. People reflected (step 2) and came up with a list of "what enabled them to do that." When we built the list and reviewed the options, we were generalizing (step 3). Then step 4, application, showed up in the sharing defining moments they learned about race and the mingle. Each step leads to the next in a natural cycle.

Because experiential education is rooted in people’s own experience (as opposed to a lecture or someone else’s theory), it becomes more deeply rooted as a skill for people to call on. Throughout the workshop we introduced theory that participants could use to become better supports to each other as African-Americans (such as the 5 Roles of Black Racial Identity Development). But we started with people’s lived experience: since people are their own experts on their lives.

Next Steps

The responses from participants were very positive. For many, it was a rare chance to get to actually work on internalized oppression. And we did it without getting people stuck in the swamp of despair. In fact, people came out of the workshop with deeper community and renewed hopefulness.

Both Judith and Daniel found it one of the more strenuous workshops they’ve led – and one of the most rewarding! It was a new design and a new approach to a big issue.

Because it was so successful, Training for Change will offer the workshop later this fall: October 22nd to 23rd.

One participant summarized this experience, saying: "There were kinks and details to iron out. But you all have an amazing core. You all are on to something very important and unique – stay with it!"