December 2023: The Price of Fitting In
We are excited to share a new opportunity for CWC community members looking for service opportunities within CWC. So many of you already serve the community by telling your story, sharing resources, sending out follow-up emails, and running tech during the gatherings. In 2024, we are going to add “hosting” to the list of service opportunities!
We will be holding two informational sessions in January for anyone interested in exploring the possibility of hosting a CWC gathering. We’ll discuss responsibilities, tips, and strategies and answer any questions that come up about the role of host.
For the prompt for this month, we were recently having a conversation about the things we have given up as white people to ‘fit into’ and benefit from the culture of white supremacy. We thought that would be an interesting topic to explore in community.
To jumpstart that exploration, we’ll watch this brief clip featuring Brené Brown talking about her research around belonging and then use the following questions to help focus our reflection:
What have you given up, if anything, to “fit in” to white supremacy culture?
Who would you be if you didn’t worry about fitting in?
What conditions are necessary for you to feel like you can be completely yourself?
How do/can you help create those conditions for yourself and others?
We often, rightfully so, examine the impacts of white supremacy on people who identify as BIPOC. This month, we hope you’ll join us for this important look into the ways we, as white people, are harmed by white supremacy. And as always, if this discussion doesn’t inspire you, come anyway and talk about that :-)
“A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.”― Desmond Tutu
