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Corvallis | May 15, 2021 Common Ground Conversations on Race in America CORVALLIS | MAY 15, 2021 ©2021 CGC on Race Influencing societal change through common ground conversations COMMONGROUNDCONVERSATIONS.COM Prepared for … MAY 15, 2021 Influencing societal change through common ground conversations MADISON JOSIAH MIKE EMILY CALEB CommonGroundConversations.com Art designed By SJliuxingjie from pngtree.com FACILITATORS Influencing societal change through common ground conversations MIKE GREEN EMILY GREEN I'm a cultural economist, I'm a homeschooling mom with a consultant, speaker and degree in social work and experience Chief Strategist at the in working with distressed families in National Institute for communities of color. I lead & mentor Inclusive Competitiveness womens groups We equip and empower people to be informed empathetic societal change agents through the power of common ground knowledge, understanding and conversations. Morning Session PROBLEM We don't know who we are Conversations Journey We don't know how we got here Establish a Common Frame of Reference We don't know our own story Make the complicated simple We were never taught our true history We don't know the truth about us Tell the Truthful Story of Ourselves in America We cannot teach what we don't know Learn Lessons from the Greatest Era in US history IMPACT Learn and Accept the Outcomes of the Revolutionary Eras Define Our Era, Our Responsibility, Our Opportunity Systemic biases in policies & practices Rampant racism, societal oppression Summarize and Synthesize; Q&A along the way Heightened sensitivities, confusion Distrust, ignorance, anger and hostility Ambivalence, apathy, anxiety Valuing and devaluing of humans by race OUR APPROACH Afternoon Session Truthful Storytelling & Conversations Exploratory Practices BENEFITS Culturally Insightful | Informative | Interactive | Energizing | Empowering | Transformative Paradigm-shifting knowledge Well-researched credible resources Practical tools for learning at all age levels Improve cultural competence, confidence and understanding Improve capability to interpret societal discourse around race Introduce process and framework to support racial equity goals Improve capacity to teach and equip youth to become empathetic societal change agents BE CURIOUS | BE CONSIDERATE Safe Trusted Space We establish a common ground for curiosity wherein all participants engage on a journey together to gain greater awareness, build trust, recognize common values, experience epiphanies and discover common ideals. Unconscious Bias We help people learn to navigate unfamiliar environments with greater cultural awareness, competence, confidence and comfort. Millions of children grow up in isolated bubbles in which they're never taught the truth about various people, places and cultures outside their sanctuary. When people work in a multicultural workforce, sometimes they need help in adjusting to a new environmental paradigm. Blind Spots We guide people through a journey of discovery and enlightenment that opens new doors of knowledge and understanding, thereby expanding their societal vision. No one drives a vehicle with a blindfold on, but many of us navigate society with blinders established throughout our "(in)formative years" when much of the information we learned was limited to what we were taught and personally experienced. Belonging We empower people with unique insights and understanding that leads to genuine empathy, consideration and embracing of others as part of one family. Environmental hostility, microaggressions and systemic race/cultural insensitivity sends a message that some people do not belong in the corporate workplace. Such hostilities, even unwitting, contributes to costly attrition of quality talent among people of color. BENEFITS Culturally Insightful | Informative | Interactive | Energizing | Empowering | Transformative Facilitation 10-Module Journey CGC on Race CGC on Race A complete contextual understanding of the current events unfolding in our nation today plus: Introduction to historical insights and enlightenment that lead toward • Practical tools • contextual understanding of current Embodied practices • Actionable steps events unfolding in our nation today. to become empathetic societal change agents affecting transformation in our local communities. 10 CGC JOURNEY MODULES • How Shall We Live? Reconciling with Human Value • Birth of a (White) Nation • The Great White Struggle with Racial Hierarchy • U.S. Civil War and the Value of Black Lives • The Greatest Era in U.S. History (7 years of progress) • The Revolutionary Era (Part 1) • Rise of Black Prosperity Amid White Terrorism • The Revolutionary Era (Part 2) • Decades of Dissonance • Our Era, Our Time, Our Responsibility FACILITATION Culturally Insightful | Informative | Interactive | Energizing | Empowering | Transformative JOURNEY’S 10 MODULES are compressed into 3 SESSIONS WHAT DO YOU THINK? SELF-ASSESSMENT (no right or wrong answers) Take our mini survey. Combine YOUR TOTAL score based on scores from each response. Completely Agree Somewhat Agree Don’t Know / Neutral Somewhat Disagree Completely Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Racism isn’t a widespread problem today Systemic racism doesn’t exist Systemic racism is not a problem in the Christian church The “Civil Rights Movement” achieved its goals in a definitive way through legislative policies Segregation in the U.S. today is different than it was during the era of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Belief in white supremacy and racial hierarchy are marginalized, fringe ideologies (not mainstream) Hard, honest work universally yields opportunity and prosperity in the U.S. today regardless of race Critical Race Theory ideology and Black Lives Matter campaigns are attacks on whiteness in America TOTAL Q: What is the difference between the Civil Rights Movement and the “Negro Revolution”? We all started our lives in the middle of a chapter of U.S. history. To better understand the society we were Influencing societal change through common ground conversations born into, we must know its true history … from the beginning. COMMON FRAME OF REFERENCE What foundational ideas, knowledge and principles can we all agree on? COMMON FRAME OF REFERENCE We live on ONE WE ARE ONE HUMAN FAMILY planetary HOME Our environment was designed Can we all agree that we are one family of humans to sustain us if we work to living together on one planetary environment that sustain our environment we all consider our home? COMMON FRAME OF REFERENCE OUR ONE HUMAN FAMILY COMES IN MANY DIFFERENT SHAPES AND SIZES Just like all of nature, all families are comprised of a rich diversity of humans COMMON FRAME OF REFERENCE HUMANS HAVE EQUAL VALUE Children See EQUAL Children clearly see the HUMAN differences that make up VALUE the diversity of humanity. Data shows that infants have the ability to visually discriminate based on race, beginning as early as 3 – 6 months old. Between 6 – 8 years old, children can (and do) sort others into racial groups. COMMON FRAME OF REFERENCE COMMON FRAME OF REFERENCE ARE HUMANS VALUED EQUALLY IN THE UNITED STATES? Adults established biased SYSTEMS of public policies and private sector practices based on varying values of humans by race. COMMON FRAME OF REFERENCE RACE IS A MYTH | A LIE | A SOCIETAL CONSTRUCT “RACE CATEGORIZES PEOPLE based on the presumption of shared physical and biological characteristics. We created categories and put people in those categories in relation to power. Racial distinctions are highly problematic, because race is not biological." Dr. Lucretia Berry “RACE IS A MODERN IDEA. Ancient societies did not divide people according to their physical differences, but according to religion, status, class, even language. Race is not biological." PBS Library | What is Race? COMMON FRAME OF REFERENCE WHEN & WHY DID EUROPEANS BECOME WHITE? "Somewhere in the journey, Europeans became something they had never been or needed to be before. They went from being Czech or Hungarian or Polish to white, a political designation that only has meaning when set against something not white. It was in becoming American that they became white." (Quote from “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson p 49) COMMON FRAME OF REFERENCE WHEN & WHY DID EUROPEANS BECOME WHITE? COMMON FRAME OF REFERENCE WHEN & WHY DID EUROPEANS BECOME WHITE? 7 MINS 8 SECS VIDEO – TIMESTAMP (1:47 – 8:55) COMMON FRAME OF REFERENCE CHECK-IN How does this information make you feel? COMMON FRAME OF REFERENCE CONSIDERATION COMMON FRAME OF REFERENCE CONSIDERATION KIND GENEROUS SHARING STORY OF OURSELVES IN AMERICA WHAT HAPPENS WHEN HUMANS DISCOVER OTHER HUMANS? We've all heard some version of the story of America and how this country was born. Think about the story you've been told and how that has shaped your perspective of who we are as a nation and who you are as an American citizen. WHAT'S THE REAL STORY OF AMERICA? STORY OF OURSELVES IN AMERICA WHAT HAPPENS WHEN HUMANS DISCOVER OTHER HUMANS? Our story begins when the home team of humans who had lived on the northeast coast of this continent for many generations wakes up one day to discover the arrival of a visiting team of humans. Imagine their surprise to see a team of White men. They had lived on this continent for millennia and had no reason to fear the visiting White men. What do you think was their natural inclination? They greeted them with consideration. STORY OF OURSELVES IN AMERICA WHAT HAPPENS WHEN HUMANS DISCOVER OTHER HUMANS? The visiting team of humans were just as surprised to arrive
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