Learning Circles
When you join a GRID Learning Circle you become part of a community that is always learning, growing, and engaging with fresh ideas.
GRID Book studies are safe, intimate gatherings (virtual) where we challenge ourselves—and each other—to think; go deeper; and apply what we learn to our daily lives and interactions.
You do not have to be a huge reader to participate: book chapters are a jump-off point for broader discussion and exploring supplementary materials.
This spring let’s gather around two thought-provoking books:
- So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo; and,
- Deep Diversity—a Compassionate, Scientific Approach to Achieving Racial Justice, by Shakil Choudhry
So You want to Talk explores the profound impact of white supremacy on Black peoples. For the white and ‘white adjacent’ reader on whom white supremacy has bestowed privilege, the work is reconciling with the idea that they partake in and benefit from this system. For the Black reader, the study affirms what they have known all along—that anti-Black racism is real and that without radical change, their children will inherit its harmful legacy.
Deep Diversity uses as much the science as it does personal and intimate examples of how we see and understand each other racially. An intriguing read, the book offers tools and strategies to unlearn, learn and re-learn new ways of thinking and acting.
What brings these books to life is the innovative approach we take to our book studies. Its not just reading a book: its holding space in and outside of the hour we spend together, for conversations and self-reflection that promote personal growth. Get your team together and let’s talk!
So you want to Talk about Race
Ijeoma Oluo’s So you Want to Talk about Race explores the devastating impact of white supremacy on Black peoples. For the white and ‘white adjacent’ reader on whom white supremacy has bestowed privilege, the work is reconciling with the idea that they partake in and benefit from this system. For the Black reader, the study affirms what they have known all along—that anti-Black racism is real and that without radical change, their children will inherit its destructive legacy.
Here’s what participants said about our fall study of So you want to Talk about Race
The facilitator took on the brave and undesirable roll of educator for a group of white people interested and invested in learning their painful role in perpetuating the constructs of white supremacy and racism through a book study that explored racism in western society.
“So You Want to Talk About Race” was the hanger for the discussions, but the layers of personal and local context that the facilitator so generously shared with us became a meaningful garment of shared experiences. By intimately connecting with each of us conversationally, we were able to safely explore the depths and subtleties of our white supremacy and make commitments to work as allies in the deconstruction of these constructs.
The facilitator’s honesty, vulnerability and leadership through this guided learning plays a critical role in the slow, painful unravelling of white supremacist ideologies.
Amy Rolf von den Baumen
Thank you for this journey. You have been both deeply motivating and courageous in it and I am grateful. As a barrister and criminal defence lawyer specializing in mental health law, I have my own area of advocacy anti-racism is important to me. But I have also lived a privileged, even protected life. I am thankful for the opportunities this privilege has afforded me but I realized with each week of the book study, the desperate need for me to be far more aware of the crisis in communities of colour.
I will be watching and trying to be more conscious of opportunities and circumstances into which truth must be spoken, particularly when it comes to matters of race. Every form of motivation and awareness is valued and I look forward to continuing the journey.
Thank you – forever grateful.
Allan R. Horton, M.A., LL.B
I just wanted to thank you for all the time you have put in to help us understand (through the Oluo book study) what is beneath “Black Lives Matter”.
You, by reading this book, have opened my eyes to the constant belittlement, the total fear of carding which is targeting black, Brown, or Indigenous peoples for the very purpose of harassing because of their skin colour. The immediate mindset is that ‘you must be doing something wrong, so I will stop you’.
What I think would be a good challenge (is) for us white folk is to seek relationships and friendships [with Black people], to hang out, to learn and to grow. It is my feeling that, [its only when] you actually bond with people from another culture [that] you become an advocate, a true friend, and a community that walks with mercy, justice and humility.
DF