Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

In this group, we will provide anti-racist education through the use of “Looking Inward” dialogues. Dialogues that explore racial advantage specifically address White privilege, Whiteness, and the social context of past and current domination by Whites, primarily within the U.S., in a way that provides space for: a) examining the presumed alliance across individuals who experience racial advantage, b) exploring unconscious bias or microaggressions, and c) creating room for racially advantaged individuals to find peer support in challenging racism and stereotyping. These dialogues are currently available to students, but we hope to open them to faculty and staff in the near future. If you are interested in creating a space to learn about Whiteness, anti-racism, and allyship, please contact diversity@brandeis.edu. 

“Looking Inward” Dialogues that Explore Racial Advantage - Level 1

In this group, we will be exploring the shared and divergent experience of White identified people, the historical oppression of BIPOC people, and salient aspects of White Supremacy culture. We will explore the many ways in which White embodied people enjoy racial advantage and struggle with difficult feelings in response to that advantage that make relationships with BIPOC more difficult for them to negotiate in a healthy manner.  We explore the ideas of White saviorism, implicit bias, and, finally, the development of a personal anti-racism plan. 

The convener will help group members to identify their social location within our culture, identify the process of White racial identity development, and develop a nuanced understanding of how racial disadvantage effects BIPOC lived experience both historically and currently.  Through readings and videos the convener will create a supportive environment for students to learn more about their own racial identity and to appreciate the advantages and disadvantages afforded to those of different races in the US context.  The three meetings will culminate in each member with the help of the group committing to their own personal anti-racism plan.

Facilitated by Joy Von Steiger, the group will meet for 90 minutes on three consecutive Fridays from 2-3:30 pm. In support of group members’ attendance at all three meetings, they will receive a copy of the book Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad.

“Looking Inward” Dialogues that Explore Racial Advantage - Level 2

Following the Level 1 group, students are invited to participate in a subsequent group that looks more deeply at the White embodied experience, how group members understand their own developmental challenges with regard to cross racial relationship development, and the racialized experience of students at Brandeis.

The convener will provide readings and videos about the racial history at Brandeis, will invite guests to join the group to discuss the experience of BIPOC community members at Brandeis and will support members to operationalize their anti-racism action plans.

This group will meet for 90 mins on 12-1:30pm for three consecutive Fridays. 

To sign up for the Looking Inward Dialogues that Explore Racial Advantage, please contact Joy von Steiger at diversity@brandeis.edu. 

This is a rare opportunity for participants to learn about, share and discuss the many faces of oppression as they exist in the social, cultural and racial hierarchy which works to disempower, devalue and disrupt the humanity of Black women.  We will delve into how Black women experience various forms of racism and other forms of oppression that manifest as violence against their health, well being, self-image, and security. 

The convener will help participants with conceptualizing and vocalizing the structure and impact of oppression as it manifests as stereotypes, microagressions, misogyny, exclusion, exoticizing, domination, and racism (interpersonal, internalized, covert, institutional, cultural, and structural).  Curriculum may include films and music relevant to the conversation and readings on Critical Black Feminism, intersectionality theory, double consciousness, and oppression.  These materials, combined with the collective perspectives of group members, will help oppressed people build power and agency, reposition Black female  bodies and ideas to center and rewrite the dominant narratives about Black lives.  All students are welcome to share, listen, learn and support racial justice and the liberation of Black women.  

This program will be divided into two parts that are designed to be mutually reinforcing. Part one is not a prerequisite for part two but participants are encouraged to attend both in order to benefit and contribute to a meaningful and multidimensional conversation.  While all of these issues and topics are intersectional, the dialogue will be structured around two main themes that guide the discussion for sessions in each part.  This is not an exhaustive list of subjects we will explore. 

If you would like to convene in this group or want more information, contact the facilitator, Lauren Threatte at diversity@brandeis.edu.

Part 1: Living in a Man’s World

How do White male privilege, intersectional racial privilege, misogyny, gendered violence, domination, sexual oppression and repression manifest in the lives of Black women within communities and institutions. (Other related topics may be explored). What empowers Black women to rise amidst these experiences? 

Part 2:  Black Looks

We critique the investment in Whiteness, normalization and neutralization of White femininity, White female privilege, internalization of White supremacy, standards of beauty, stereotypes, anti-Black representations, exploitation of Blackness, gender expression and gender roles in the Black community.  How can Black women redefine femininity and transform the dominant narrative about our images. 

“Looking Inward” Race Dialogues are curricularly constructed in a way that the experience will center inquiry on a particular group’s experience around racial advantage or racial disadvantage. For example, “Looking Inward” race dialogues that focus on racial advantage will explore the interpersonal and systemic ways that White people experience racial advantage, particularly in the U.S. Similarly, “Looking Inward” race dialogues that focus on racial disadvantage explore the interpersonal and systemic ways that BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) people experience distinct forms of racial disadvantage, particularly in the U.S. Though BIPOC “Looking Inward” dialogues operate under an umbrella acronym, the curricular point of entry for each dialogue acknowledges that not all People of Color face equal levels of oppression or experience and process racism in the same way, particularly when we use an intersectional lens in a power analysis.  The subject matter of these dialogues will vary by group but will all cover fundamentals of race, racism, and racial justice.  

In naming these “Looking Inward” dialogues that focus on racial disadvantage, we aim to provide a space through which inquiry and exploration is rooted in the  histories, representations, , stories, , and empowerment of Black and Indigenous people as two groups that have historically experienced a particularly severe form of oppression in this society.  “Looking Inward” dialogues employ an approach in our anti-racist work that allows for deeper conversations around racism, including exploration of the “presumed alliances” that exists between and among all people in maintaining or combating racism and racial inequities. 

The “Looking Inward” Dialogues are designed to support conversations and interpersonal connections among Brandeis students who wish to engage one another around the shared or divergent experiences of a particular social identity. Though each “Looking Inward” Dialogue is open to all students, the curricular focus will be specific to the history and lived experience of specific racial groups, particularly in their collective understanding of how that group engages anti-racism and racial equity work and combats racism at the interpersonal, institutional, structural and systemic levels. 

All “Looking Inward” dialogues will support participants in the “deconstruction” of their social identities and explore their own individual and group positionality within our society’s structures of domination and subordination.  “Looking Inward” dialogues can form around a number of social identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, religion) and shared experience, but for now, our pilot groups will specifically engage participants around issues of race and racism while advancing the goals of equity, inclusion, and belonging. 

While all “Looking Inward” dialogues are sites for combating racism, the curriculum for “Looking Inward” dialogues differ based on the exploration of racial advantage or disadvantage, or common White or BIPOC experiences respectively.  Dialogues that explore racial advantage specifically address White privilege, Whiteness, and the social context of historic and current domination of Whites, primarily within the U.S., in a way that provides space for: a) examining the presumed alliance across individuals who experience racial advantage, b) exploring unconscious bias or microaggressions, and c) creating room for racially advantaged individuals to find peer support in challenging racism and stereotyping.  “Looking Inward” dialogues focusing on racial disadvantage  provide space for: a) examining the presumed alliances across disadvantaged groups, b) exploring internalized oppression, and c) creating room for racially disadvantaged individuals to find peer support in challenging racism and stereotyping. All “Looking Inward” dialogues are designed to build stamina and preparedness to engage in cross-race experiences.

Looking Outward Dialogue (Intergroup Dialogue)

“Looking Outward” dialogues bring participants together to explicitly address cross-race conversations. Drawing on the experience of the “Looking Inward” dialogues, participants will enter these facilitated spaces with a better understanding of their own racial identity and the larger context that informs and shapes that identity.

Facilitators lead discussions, open up the conversation, and guide participants as they engage around curriculum, materials, or exercises.  Facilitators are also referred to as conveners to distinguish them from instructors.  In these roles, facilitators create an educational experience by exposing participants to informational materials and help participants connect these materials to their lived experiences and observations. In this sense, facilitators bring people together not simply to engage in dialogue, but to undertake informed dialogue. In addition to the content of the dialogue, facilitators support the process of community building, the development of communication skills, awareness of social systems and structures, academic engagement, challenging and decentering master narratives, demarginalization, integration, solidarity, empowerment, transformation, and liberation. Thus, facilitators lead participants on a journey of discovery that starts with a careful and deliberate “look within.” Using this approach, the typical power imbalance between teacher and student is minimized in a setting where the facilitator encourages participants to direct questions to each other, speak freely, compare “academic knowledge” to their own lived experiences, and challenge the assumptions and knowledge constructions contained in the curriculum.

Though the process of identity-based intergroup dialogue experiences are similar to certain aspects of group therapy, they are not synonymous and have very important differences:

 
Both identity-based dialogue and group therapy have the following in common:

1. Requiring a commitment to confidentiality; 
2. Can be experienced as healing or therapeutic; 
3. Can change participants in profound ways;
4. Supportive and protected environments; 
5. Afford educational spaces; and,
6. Can facilitate deep self reflection.

They differ in that identity-based dialogues (Looking Inward and Looking Outward) allow participants the opportunity to explore issues related to the intersection of identity, power and privilege. For persons from marginalized groups, this is a space free of the need to educate others. And for those persons from privileged groups, it is a space for education and decentering their privileged identity(ies). These spaces are typically facilitated by individuals who share membership in the centered identity and are trained in supporting the dialogic process.

Though a completely different space, group psychotherapy is a mental health treatment and can also sometimes be a space of shared identity.  The treatment is being offered to provide insight into one’s experience and sources of distress and to offer skills to mitigate negative mental health outcomes.  These services are offered in a counseling setting and provided by trained mental health professionals.  Groups may focus on coping skills, managing depression or anxiety, grief, and surviving quarantine to name a few.

In essence, dialogue and group therapy are not the same thing. Though dialogue may have the impact of being therapeutic, it is not intended as therapy.