Deconstructing Whiteness

​This group is comprised of community members, most of whom self- identify as white, and who acknowledge holding a role in the white supremacist systems within our community. ​

Group participants dedicate their time to unpacking together the impact of white supremacy on our community, and ourselves. We do this in connection, in a primarily white space, to reduce the negative impact of our mistakes on community members of color. Black, Indigenous and People of Color endure daily, unaware white folks blundering into the territory of racial ignorance and microaggressions.​

In doing the internal work, we create more band width within ourselves, to speak up and show up in ways that we haven't known before. Together, we grow tolerance for the discomfort, learn to push through, and find courage to act, advocating for BIPOC, interrupting racialized comments, and supporting BIPOC projects and businesses. ​

In this way group participants strive to contribute to the creation of safe and welcoming spaces for our BIPOC neighbors, friends and all who share this Southern Oregon valley.​

How did we begin? In March 2019, we provided an initial offering as part of the Racial Equity Coalition, a local race awareness group that began in 2014 in the aftermath of the Ferguson Uprising. ​

The BIPOC members of the REC, motivated by the desire to reduce the distress and exhaustion, the “racial battle fatigue" they endure on a daily basis, urged the white members to offer white awareness education for the local community.​

A Planning Team emerged made up of white members of the REC, plus white participants from a recent REC Race Tool Kit Training of 2018.​

The first community offerings were based on exercises from the REC's Race Tool Kit Guide Book developed from 2016-2018.​

REC closed its doors in March of 2020.​

We now function as our own entity.​