CAUCUSING
All people of color and white people are affected by racism and must work together to dismantle it. However, how we are affected and the work we must do is different.
Caucuses are times when people of color and white people meet separately in order to do our different work. You'll have the opportunity to join other REI training alumni who are committed to raising their awareness of how race and racism move and act within us and in the world.
In these meetings, we explore together how we have been impacted by living in a white dominant society and attempt to heal from those impacts. We also seek ways to work together to bring about change.
People of color work to understand the subtle and explicit internalized and externalized impacts of living in a racist society. We dialogue, reflect, remember and tell the truth to heal so that we can strengthen our voice and re-establish and increase our collective power. We work to remove the cycle of oppression and internalized racial inferiority.
White people meet to examine and deconstruct their internalized racial superiority, to develop a deeper awareness of the power, privilege, and property we have access to in a racialized society in which we are members of a dominant culture, and to hold each other accountable. We work to recognize, wrestle with, and abolish white supremacy.
In our separate caucuses, and sometimes together, we work to embrace the power we have to bring about change, working as allies to remove the cycle of oppression and dismantle racism.
Why separate caucuses?
Working to explore and understand the personal impacts of living in a racist society can be painful and difficult. Such work requires a compassionate and safe setting in which beliefs, attitudes, and emotions can be explored.
Racial identity caucusing provides a safer space where white people can talk without fear of offending people of color, and people of color can talk without the burden of rationalizing and proving the validity of their experiences to white people.
Unity has an important place in this work, but when it comes to unpacking the personal struggles with and effects of racism, experience has shown us this may best be done in separate caucuses.
Contact information
WAKE COUNTY:
People of Color Caucus - Genda Dockery at dockerygen@hotmail.com
White People Caucus - wakewc@gmail.com or Craig Herb at craigherb608@gmail.com
DURHAM COUNTY:
People of Color Caucus - Jesse Huddleston at jhuddleston47@gmail.com
White People Caucus - durham.white.caucus@gmail.com