This course teaches Race Skills, a necessary and foundational skill set for understanding what race truly is, how it came to be, and how to function effectively in a racially diverse society.
It provides participants with:
- A critical understanding of historical, legal, and social psychological factors leading to prejudice, discrimination, and racism within our society
- An explanation of how the collection of individual-level processes (i.e., stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination) relate to structural-level racial inequality and systemic racism
- Tools to begin applying four foundational race skills to everyday life
Race skills will empower people to effectively engage (and become willing to re-engage) in difficult race-related conversations, leading to anti-racist social action.
Ground Rules for Seminar & Workshop Sessions
- Monitor your airtime—in both directions. Please be mindful of your level of participation. If you have already shared multiple times, please consider giving others space to share more. If you have not shared, please consider sharing.
- Be mindful of how your words might impact others.
- Use “I” statements, instead of speaking in a way that assumes others’ perspectives and experiences are the same as yours.
- Keep in mind that everyone has something important to contribute.
- It’s okay to respectfully disagree with one another.
- Demonstrate respect: Engage in active listening, do not interrupt one another when speaking, speak respectfully to others.
- What’s said here stays here. In other words, maintain each other’s privacy and confidentiality. However, please keep in mind that we cannot guarantee complete privacy and confidentiality for what is shared during Seminar and Workshop sessions.
- Everyone should always feel respected and safe—like you are not going to be attacked for who you are, your perspectives, or your experiences.
- Discomfort is okay. It is a normal part of learning about race and racism, and it can be a sign that you are growing your race skills.
- Please distinguish between discomfort that you can tolerate and red flags that indicate a high level of distress. It is okay to step away and come back into the session if you need to do so. Our conversations may include triggering content.
Guidelines adapted from Beyond Your Bubble (Israel, T., 2020) and the University of Michigan’s Intergroup Relations Program.