Thank you for participating in the Aspiring Ally Development Workshop Series. Below you will find links to many of the things I covered and more. There is a lot here, take it at your own pace.

Let’s Connect

In addition to the social justice content we touched on, I provide virtual offerings on mindful leadership, toward thriving, emotionally intelligent leadership, strategic planning, and more. If you would like to bring this content to your community, workplace, organization, or team, please let me know. This could be a much needed hour to explore, half-day interactive virtual workshop to connect, or a full-day in-depth virtual retreat to develop your individual and collective leadership capacity.

Workshop Session 1: Foundations of Social Justice

Links

• • Why Minneapolis Was the Breaking Point by Wesley Lowery

• • Land Acknowledgement from On Being

• • Brave Space from Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens

• • Cycle of Socialization

• • The Power of Unlearning

• • The Myth of Colorblindness

• • Implicit Bias Podcast

• • Implicit Bias Test

• • Moving Walkway from Beverly Daniel Tatum

Videos

Color Blind or Color Brave

Brené Brown: The Power of Vulnerability

Morpheus from The Matrix discussing systemic oppression.

A simple illustration of privilege.

Books

Adams, M., Bell, L. A., Goodman, D., & Joshi, K. Y. (2016). Teaching for diversity and social justice (Third ed.). Routledge. 

Workshop Session 2: Aspiring Ally Identity Development

Readings

• • Scholarly Article

• • Handouts

• • Blog Post

Questions for Reflection

What really motivates you to speak up when you do?

What is getting in your way of being a more effective, consistent, and sustainable aspiring ally?

Workshop 3: Deepening the Learning

Common Obstacles

• • Anger

• • Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman on Meeting Our Enemies and Our Suffering – OnBeing podcast

• • Perfectionism as White Supremacy Culture from Tema Okun

• • Performativity

• • Fear of critique

• • Fear of my own racism

• • Binary thinking

Tools

• • Hope

• • Mindfulness in General

• • Mindfulness for Racial Justice Specifically

• • Mindfulness to Explore White Urgency by Beth Berila

• • Mindful Resistance by Kyle Ashlee

• • Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach

• • Apologies & Forgiveness

• • Messing Up & Accountability

• • Systemic Accountability by Paul Kivel

Videos

Powerful testimonial to the difficulty of and liberation in forgiveness from Albert White Hat.

The story of the Golden Buddha from Finding Joe. What armor have you developed? How is it getting in your own way?

Quicksand by Guante. Speaking up and working toward social justice can be hard. This video goes through the many excuses I often go through in my head when I’m trying to justify and rationalize my own inaction.

Workshop Session 4: Committing to Action

Reading

From Anti-Oppression to Liberation Approaches to Social Justice

Links

• • “Justice is what love looks like lived out in public” Cornel West

• • Learning as a bridge. Robert Kegan and Marcia Baxter Magolda

• • Resources for moving from blame to compassion in social justice.

• • Self-Care for Activist by Debbie Irving

• • White Culture summary – 1 page PDF

• • one anti-racist action a day – daily newsletter

• • Don’t React, Choose Your Response

• • Your Liberation Is on the Line by angel Kyodo williams

Videos

bell hooks on blame, binary thinking, and cultivating social justice.

Brené Brown: Listening to Shame

J Smooth: How to tell someone they sound racist

Becoming Less Racist: Lighting the Path to Anti-Racism video interview series with Simran Jeet Singh

John Oliver on US History

Potential Actions

• • Protest

• • Donate

• • Parent

• • Social Media

• • Learn

• • BLM Sign

• • Apologize & do better

• • Write an Op-Ed

• • Give your talents, skills, or products

• • Support people who experience oppression in your life

• • Vote, phone bank, run for office

• • Connect with your neighbors who experience oppression

• • Withdraw from an opportunity & recommend someone else

• • Donate earnings to a social justice organization

• • For more actions the link below of collected resources literally has hundreds (focused on racial justice) of possibilities included. There is no excuse for inaction.

Podcasts

Let’s Connect

In addition to the social justice content we touched on, I provide virtual offerings on mindful leadership, toward thriving, emotionally intelligent leadership, strategic planning, and more. If you would like to bring this content to your community, workplace, organization, or team, please let me know. This could be a much needed hour to explore, half-day interactive virtual workshop to connect, or a full-day in-depth virtual retreat to develop your individual and collective leadership capacity. I have committed that any fees I receive through paid engagements on this aspiring allies topic in 2020 and 2021 from higher ed and non-profits will be 100% donated to organizations working toward racial justice. Let’s do some good work together!