Bringing Global Majority and Indigenous People into Our Area
I am white with a mixed raised-poor, working-class, and middle-class background. I have tried many things over thirty years to create an RC Area that has at least half Global Majority and Indigenous (GMI)* people. [* The peoples of Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands, and South, Central, and Caribbean America, and Indigenous people, are over eighty percent of the global population. These people also occupy most of the global land mass. Using the term “Global Majority and Indigenous (GMI)” for these people acknowledges their majority status in the world and interrupts how the dominant (U.S. and European) culture assigns them a minority status. Many Global Majority and Indigenous people living in dominant-culture countries have been assimilated into the dominant culture—by force, in order to survive, in seeking a better life for themselves and their families, or in pursuing the economic, political, or other inclusion of their communities. Calling these people “Global Majority and Indigenous” contradicts the assimilation.]
Things would work for a while, and then folks would drift away. Finally, eight years ago, we decided that we would not add white people (with the exception of young adults) to our Community until it was over half GMI people Once we made that decision, things began to change. We had our first class in English and Spanish. That was a wonderful start. Our Area is now almost half GMI people. Most folks are raised poor or working class and also currently working class. A few are middle class.
We held our classes where folks lived. It was a poor and working-class neighborhood. We met at a community center in a dangerous area. I was often scared, but I discharged and got to know people on the block. My perspective changed. For example, once someone started playing loud music outside the community center, and we couldn’t hear each other. My reaction was to be mad, but the GMI people all got up and danced. I said to myself, “Oh, I get [understand] how white my perspective is.” I started to be more flexible.
I learned that it was not important that I talk much. It was more important that others got to talk even though I had more RC experience.
We often did not start on time, and we often went late.
Sometimes people brought food, or I did. Other groups meeting in the same building would give us their leftovers. That brought us all together.
We learned to be flexible in how we supported people. We once left our Area workshop to back [support] some folks as they performed. It was a great way to build relationships. I have also accompanied people to doctors’ appointments. We have done things like that for each other.
We did many introductory talks, many of them on the spur of the moment [with no advanced planning]. We got good at it. People would stop by and want to know what we were doing, and we would invite them in and do an introduction.
We admitted new people to classes on an ongoing basis. This meant that we continuously restarted fundamentals classes. Some folks heard the same presentations several times. That was not a problem—they added their thinking even when they had only been in RC for a short time.
There is now no such thing as a sixteen-week introductory class. All classes are ongoing and just add people in. A core of folks have stayed throughout. Some have come and left, and some have left and come back. Many more people have been introduced to RC.
I decided that I would not let GMI people face racism in order to spare white people’s feelings. So whenever something happened that was racist, we would address it. That made a big difference.
Before every Area workshop I would ask the GMI people what they wanted the white folks to know and do, and not do. The first class of the workshop was always on racism. The GMI people would meet separately.
Eventually the GMI people came up with [created] guidelines for our Area. These have been really helpful. We white folks, especially those of us who are middle and upper class, have to monitor how much space we take up—physical space, locational space, and air time [time spent talking]. We need to make room.
After a year, I backed [supported] two GMI people to lead. Now both are teaching RC classes of GMI people, and I’m supporting them. I meet with them and one other white RC teacher once a week on Zoom.
We decided to raise money as an Area for outreach. At first all the GMI people wanted to do the fundraising, with events. Mike Markovits [President of the Re-evaluation Foundation] came (pre-COVID) and did a workshop for us. He said emphatically that the white folks needed to raise the money. We did that for a couple of years, and we still get some gifts from those efforts.
At one point it was suggested that we mix the white classes and the GMI classes. But the GMI people wanted a place for themselves. They talked about the safety of an all-GMI class. So we decided to keep the classes separate and have mixed support groups and Area events.
I would love to hear what others have done and learned.
Oxford, Massachusetts, USA
Reprinted from the e-mail discussion list for RC Community members
(Present Time 206, January 2022)