Phoenix Institute is excited about hosting a series of discussions about racism on Wednesday nights.
Our intent with this series is that we become aware of our own prejudices, implicit bias, and racist enculturation that show up in our beliefs and behaviors as Guardians. Through education and self-examination, we seek to make needed changes within ourselves that result in action to bring about needed changes within the United States.
Our deepest desire is that meeting regularly basis and coming together to share what we are learning will be a platform from which we can take needed action. Samuel wants us to try—as much as possible for a white person—to understand the black perspective of white America, including the perspectives of those black people within Samuel’s work who may or may not feel prejudiced against. Additionally, he wants our individual selves to release those old beliefs and replace them with responsible behaviors.
The following bullet points with more specific information are based on information that Lea shared about what Samuel wants us to get from these discussions. He wants us to:
- Clearly see institutionalized racism at work in our society in the past and present, and how it has permeated the (white) society’s fundamental thinking regarding upward mobility for black Americans in its many forms.
- Identify mass consciousness constructs which allow those who have authority (politics on a national scale, politics on a local scale, police, and legal system) to have a handy scapegoat to blame and drill into white society that all the ills they are experiencing are due to “those people,” establishing the mindset of abuse being okay because “they” somehow deserve it, are due it, or even asked for it.
- Become aware of how those prejudices show up in our personal beliefs and behaviors, including things we are fully unaware of because it is such a part of our “normal” function (ingrained, in our societal DNA).
- Educate ourselves about the impact that a consistent denial of rights and persistent lack of advancements does to a group of people who already come from generations of being told they are less than human.
- Recognize the unjust and unfair practices that are perpetuated now through minor and major ways in our behaviors, and to take action to replace this thinking within ourselves and within mass consciousness.
