Rooting out Racism is a two-day immersive anti-racism training that is intentional, real and dynamic.  This training is anchored in the transformative power of people who work in social service and advocacy organizations. Grounded in anti-racist praxis, arts, and culture, this training creates shared knowledge, a common framework, and embodied experiences that support the collective reimagining and reshaping of non-profits in the DC area.  

We hold the belief that everyone who enters this training is a critical player in the dance of transformation.  Participants felt their value and brought their full and vibrant selves.     

We intentionally curated space, so that people who entered felt seen and drawn in.  My old love of visual displays and felt-sense of a space came to life again. It mixed with Brittney’s brilliant artistic talent and Micaiah’s joyful spirit and together we designed the space. 

We created the container for the training by reading Micky Scottbey-Jones poem, Invitation to Brave Space, reflecting on what we need to make this our brave space.  “Amplifying the voices of those who fight to be heard elsewhere… Turn down the volume of the outside world… Calling each other to more truth and love.”

We start and end each day with poetry.  We fill the room with art materials and toys for tinkering. Music is pumping through the space giving energy at poignant moments. We gather in circle, create art, and use movement, engaging our minds, bodies, emotions and imaginations.   

This training comes alive.  It pulses through us!  

And we get real with one another.  

Our history, a history that informs everything, yet so often elusive and invisible, is displayed about the room.  The history of how race was created in the US, of resistance, of persistent white-supremacist actions, policies, harms, and the history of nonprofits woven throughout.  We display this history in a way that requires us to interact with it with our bodies; duck under, pass through as we move about the room. Grounded in history we build a common analysis of racism in the US and name the basic assumptions that underlie our work.  

Wrapped in our history, we name and make visible the ways racism is showing up in our organizations.  We first name the problems, for clear articulation of where we currently are is the critical first step for change.  It is from the ugly underbelly of how things really are now, that we get matter to begin to build visions for anti-racist organizations.  We ground our understanding of an anti-racist organization in the basic principles of Reparations, Healing, and Imagination & Movement. We see relationships as the cornerstone of sustainable change and participants ability to lean into one another is fed by the deep and ongoing relationships among those of us who are facilitating.

We see the transformative power of social service and advocacy organizations in DC. We know that when people are brought together who hold a common vision for change, have a shared analysis of the problem, have access to organizing tools, and are in relationship with others working toward a common vision, movement happens. What is normal or expected begins to change. 

In order to sustain change, we must be in community together.  This work requires us to accompany one another on the journey. The core curriculum design team focused on relationships and invested the time and energy to really get to know one another.  A year ago I sat in many individual meetings in which we set the common intention of building an anti-racism training for DC-based nonprofits. For a year we met regularly, deepening our connection with one another, and allowing the training to take form as we dug into the content together.  Brittney Washington and I were the lead facilitators in November and carried the content creation across the finish line. Nkechi Feaster was a critical designer for this training, and has been pouring her time and energy into Service 2 Justice since its inception. Asha Carter, David Haiman and Rebecca Mintz were all core to creating this training.  Marta Vizueta Bohórquez, Estephanie Britto, Kelsey Norton were engaged early on. Iden Cambell was out of town, but contributed enthusiasm and intention. Along the way Sequnely Gray and Richael Faithful each contributed their energy at different moments in the creation. We also consulted Aaron Goggins and Dushaw Hocket at different points, receiving brilliant resources and insights from both. In addition to the people who participated in the past year, this training was birthed from over a decade of work by a collective of people either intimately or tangentially connected to Service 2 Justice.  Samantha Davis was another key person establishing Service 2 Justice over the years. People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond came into DC to facilitate Undoing Racism trainings for years, building a baseline, common analysis of structural racism and power. Movement Matters, Organizing Institute has been a critical source of inspiration for community organizing theory and tools. And for many years in a row, providers and recipients gathered, sharing knowledge and building a common framework through Service 2 Justice Conferences. 

November was the launching of a new training that was many years in the making.  Rooting out Racism is one offering in a large ecosystem moving us toward racial justice in DC and beyond.