It’s been a challenging and powerful time for the group. With the help of our consultant, we have been looking at our own behaviors, words, choices, and power. What does it mean to be “dismantling white supremacy?” What is “accountability?”
We have a lot of work to do, but we are six white people committed to doing the work together.
Our work with the consultant has mostly consisted of me meeting with Farron to process the shift that I have felt, personally, as I have (personally, not we as a group) realized I don’t want this to be “just another book group.” I started the groups as a way to “stay on task” with my list of racial justice work. And I, personally, have different needs now. Part of my work is sussing out what it means to have these needs and to be in community with other white people — people who all say they are committed to antiracism — who have different needs.
Our group is in the process of exploring what our group is, why it is, and what it will be. The growing pains, brought on most significantly thanks to Farron’s work with us as a group, are big, good, and important. This is “the work.”
We have already used most of the funds raised on this gofundme, through Farron’s work with me, with another group member, and with the group as a whole. I’m hoping to raise much more than the goal in the gofundme. I am exploring grant options as well as soliciting donations from everyone I know who might be able to afford a contribution. If you would like to support the work we are doing with our consultant, perhaps for the group as a whole, but definitely for me as a founding member, here is a link to the gofundme: https://gofund.me/e0b1b3d5