Workshop Proposals from United to End Racism for NGO Forum in Durban
Removing the Internalized Effects of Racism
Description of workshop: No person grows up in this society without personally internalizing the hurts and messages of racism. Participants will be introduced to using paired listening and emotional release, as practiced in Re-evaluation Counseling, to free themselves and others from internalized racism and the resulting feelings of despair, anger, self-invalidation, etc. Re-evaluation Counseling provides a means for individuals to recover from these residual effects of past distressing experiences (including oppression) that interfere with thinking and functioning.
United to End Racism proposes to conduct this workshop each day. If the programme agenda allows for more than one time period each day for workshops, we also propose to conduct similar workshops on different days, each for a specific constituency (African and African-heritage, Asian and Asian-heritage, Indigenous, Arab, and Latino/a), to do more involved work relevant to each group. Each of these workshops will be led by a member of the specific constituency targeted by racism.
Support Groups for WCAR NGO Forum Participants
UER proposes to lead support groups throughout the WCAR NGO Forum to give participants the opportunity to come together and take turns listening to one another about their experiences of racism and fighting racism, as well as their experiences at the WCAR. Coming together and sharing in a group, led by an experienced support group leader, creates a special safety that participants can use to rid themselves of stresses they are experiencing at the WCAR, recover from the effects of racism in their lives, and reclaim initiative and intelligence to become more effective at the WCAR and in their work to end racism. In the support groups participants will learn skills they can use in their home communities to assist others to recover from the effects of racism. Individuals may attend one time, or as often as they wish. Support groups will be organized by constituency as well as by mixed groupings.
In the support groups people will have equal time to be respectfully listened to, without comment, as they are encouraged to share experiences of racism and the painful emotions associated with them and to take pride in themselves, their people, and their successes. These small support groups (five to six people) will be led by experienced leaders from UER; confidentiality will be maintained. UER is prepared to lead many support groups each day, each one and a half hour in length.
Panel Speak Outs on the Effects of Racism
United to End Racism and the National Coalition Building Institute* propose to jointly organize "panel speak outs" each day. In each panel speak out, three to four participants of the NGO Forum would each have a short time (ten minutes) to share with the audience their experiences with racism. After sharing, the participants and members of the audience would pair up with another person and exchange listening and sharing of their thoughts or emotions after listening to the panel and their own experiences with racism. Listening to each other's experiences will be an important part of the NGO Forum. The panel format gives participants a chance to more fully understand and relate to others stories as well as a chance to share and process their own experiences. Listening to people's experiences of racism is a powerful tool and helps people increase their commitment to act against racism.
* We expect other groups to join in this application and will amend it soon to add those groups.
The Intersection of Racism and Anti-Jewish Oppression
Racism is the key oppression in the world today. It is used to divide, isolate, and confuse people about the commonality of all human beings. It has many different forms and policies depending on the institutions in the society in which it resides. Many issues arise to confuse people in their struggle to eliminate racism. One of these issues is prejudice against and mistreatment of Jews.
Anti-Jewish oppression (called anti-Semitism in some places in the world) has been used in different historic periods to confuse people and to divert their attention from the work on ending racism and building a just society. Although Jewish oppression targets Jews, it has been used to victimize all segments of the population, including people targeted by racism. By perpetuating the myth that Jews are the source of whatπs wrong in society, including racism, the underlying institutional forces of racism are left unchallenged. This has been used to divide peoples who are natural allies in the struggle to end racism.
United to End Racism (UER) proposes to offer a workshop on the intersection of racism and the oppression of Jews, how they impact on and interact with each other. We will also talk about the work necessary for Jews and people targeted by racism to become allies and the tools needed to do this work.
Steps Toward A Rational Resolution To The Conflict Between the Israel and Palestinian peoples
UER proposes to offer a workshop, led by an Israeli and a Palestinian, that will offer a perspective on a way to begin steps toward a rational and just solution to the desperate conflict in Israel and Palestine. This conflict has its roots in genocide, racism against Palestinians, oppression of Jews, colonialism, and exploitation from many different sources across the world, but a rational, just, and lasting solution, respectful of both peoples, can only be accomplished by gradual and steady steps of building trust and cooperation between the two peoples.
Racism toward Palestinians and anti-Jewish oppression toward the Israelis, both of which are widespread in the world, have confused the real issues that must be faced and solved.
UER will offer a set of tools for working through and eliminating racism and anti-Jewish oppression so that this conflict and its real issues can be directly addressed. In this way, a solution that provides for full Palestinian independence and full security for both Israel and Palestine can be attained on a just and lasting basis.