The fabric of racism is inextricably woven and constructed into the founding principles of the United States. Racism was done and it can be undone through effective anti-racist organizing with, and in accountable relationship to the communities most impacted by racism. The People’s Institute believes that effective community, systems and institutional change happens when those who serve as agents of transformation understand the foundations of race and racism and how they continually function as a barrier to community self-determination, self-sufficiency, and interdependency.

Undoing Racism®/Community Organizing is our signature workshop. Participants will experience a humanistic process for laying a foundation to explore how we have been racialized, socialized, and conditioned to think about race and racism.

We first analyze class, power and institutional/individual relationships to and within communities. As power is analyzed, we will explore how people play a role in maintaining the current disparate racial outcomes that every system and institution produces.

This intensive, interactive process challenges participants to analyze themselves first, then the structures of power and privilege that hinder social equity and prepares them to be effective organizers for justice.

Participants will:

• Develop a common language and analysis for examining racism in the United States;
• Develop a common definition of racism and an understanding of its different forms: individual, institutional, linguistic, and cultural;
• Understand their own connection to institutional racism and its impact on their lives and work;
• Understand why people are poor and the role of institutions in exacerbating institutional racism, particularly for people and communities of color;
• Understand the historical context for how racial classifications in the United States came to be and how and why they are maintained;
• Understand the historical context for how U.S. institutions came to be and who they have been designed to serve;
• Understand how everyone in the U.S., including white people, are adversely impacted by racism every day, everywhere;
• Address surface assumptions about how your work is (or is not) affected by racism;
• Develop awareness and understanding about how racism is manifesting in people’s lives and work, and how to begin to organize to Undoing Racism®
• Gain knowledge about how to be more effective and humanistic: in the work you do, in organizations you’re a part of, with your community, your family;
• Understand the role of community organizing and building effective multiracial coalitions as a means for Undoing Racism®.