My White Perceptions, Silence, and Fragility

Updated October 12, 2020

We thank you for your patience and support during this turbulent period for everyone while we have taken time to reflect and discuss how to best use our collective energy to support the work of racial justice in our community.

After discussions with community partners and after much reflection, the SURJ DiscussionGroup planning team has come to the conclusion that the most honest and effective way forward is to point our white community members to the work of anti-racist BIPOC activists rather than continuing the discussion groups as led by white facilitators.

We are taking this direction for two reasons:

  1. We have come to a place where we acknowledge that white spaces for discussions of racial justice are inherently problematic for the transformative work we need to do and that there are BIPOC educators doing this work more effectively both locally and nationally that we should support and follow.
  2. The larger racial conversation in the country has dramatically shifted since the original formation of these discussion groups and we believe that white community members are ready to move out of safe spaces into brave spaces, from students and allies to accomplices in racial justice.

In order to support us all in this transition from education to action, we have compiled a list of resources that includes local anti-racist campaigns led by BIPOC activists that we urge you to plug into as well as anti-racist trainings led by local and national BIPOC educators. We also include other resources for independent learning. We welcome your feedback and additions to this list and it will remain available through this link: SURJ Disc Group Resources. The resources list will remain active, but this website will only be active through the end of the year.

One upcoming event that we urge you to attend with more info here: Defund Cville hosts a community conversation: “Let’s Talk About Policing!”. See also attached flyer or complete the survey here.

We have been very grateful and humbled by this journey with you and we are excited to see you on our next steps, fighting for racial justice together in our community.