September 2025: Building Community

Happy September. As the days grow cooler and pumpkin spice reappears everywhere, we want to pause and thank everyone who joined last month’s conversations about joy. It’s comforting to have a community to connect with, especially during a time of growing disconnection and divisiveness. 

That got us thinking about the next Element of Antiracism Practice: community. At CWC, we often talk about connection as one of the most essential human needs. In fact, when we close our gatherings with the ritual of naming “one word or phrase” about our experience, the word we hear most often is community. It’s what helps us stay grounded. It’s what helps us keep going. It’s what helps us realize that building community isn’t optional—it’s a core element of antiracist practice.

One participant put it this way:

"CWC helped me feel less alone when I was first waking up to the truth about racism and white supremacy. I didn’t have any family or friends I could talk to, which strangely made me feel like I was making a big deal out of something that wasn’t a big deal—but of course it is. Still, it felt too risky to bring it up. I didn’t want to lose the community I had with family and friends but I also needed to talk with like-minded people.”

We hear stories like this all the time. And we’ve learned that what helps many of us move through this fear is realizing that if we aren’t connecting with the people we love through racial justice, we are connecting with them through white supremacy. Antiracist community reminds us we’re not alone. It shows us another way to belong. It helps us shift from individualism to interdependence so that we can build deeper relationships across lines of race—and begin to imagine what’s possible when we honor the fullness of everyone’s humanity.

This month, we want to specifically explore what it means to build community through the lens of giving and taking. Many people first join racial justice spaces as “takers”—listening to others’ stories, soaking in new truths, beginning to reshape their understanding. That’s natural. But we’ve seen that communities flourish when people eventually also become “givers”—sharing their own stories, insights, or support for those who are just beginning their journey.

This give-and-take becomes even more important in multiracial communities. White people are often (rightly) criticized for taking the wisdom and grace of BIPOC folks without reflecting on what we can offer in return. Practicing give-and-take at CWC helps us prepare to step into multiracial spaces with humility, accountability, and a willingness to meet the needs of the moment—whether that means speaking, listening, reflecting, or taking responsibility. We do have something to contribute. We just need the practice.

So this month, instead of one single prompt, we’ll dive into a set of questions together:

1. How do you define community?

2. What communities do you belong to, and what keeps you there?

3. What are some ways you are currently giving and taking in the communities to which you belong?

4. How open are you to working in community with other White people who may be newer to antiracism?

5. What’s something you can do moving forward to build stronger community with loved ones who don’t share your views? With strangers?

   
   

We hope you’ll join us this month to explore these questions. Each time we gather, we see how much we need each other—not just to understand the world differently, but to live differently.

If you’ve been wondering whether there’s a place for you here, this is your invitation. Come as you are, whether you feel like a giver, a taker, or somewhere in between. The only way we sustain this community is together.

“A true community is not just about being geographically close to someone or part of the same social web network. It's about feeling connected and responsible for what happens. Humanity is our ultimate community, and everyone plays a crucial role.” – Yehuda Berg, American author