When it comes to racial justice work, many of us (especially if we are POC) are finding ourselves in what we call a “Double Bind,” or an experience of feeling stuck between a rock and hard place. The double bind of working with race in this moment goes like this: In order to confront race, we need to name and create accountability for white fragility and the injustices created by white privilege. Yet, in this process POC (as teachers/facilitators, students or clients) are often left having to hold for the fallout of deconstructing racism. White affect and experience are recentered, and this recapitulates the experience of marginalization and erasure of Black, Indigenous and POC experiences. Whether you identify as white or POC, how do you work productively with this complex situation?

When we hit a double bind, we usually do not perceive a possibility that feels expansive or liberating. For this reason, double binds are particularly challenging to work with, both within ourselves and when we encounter them in society. As we continue to grapple with racial injustice, both in the US and globally, each of us must go through a personal process of growth and transformation to see, acknowledge and work with the double binds we face daily. This is why EYC is offering a free Embodying Racial Justice webinar series in April. We want to contribute to repair and agency around issues of racism, inequity and injustice. We also want to offer you a framework of understanding. To truly transform a broken system, we must fully engage in our own personal transformation and education, so we may be better leaders in our classrooms and our lives.

Launching EYC’s Embodying Racial Justice series on April 2nd, is a webinar that explores anti-racist pedagogies and practices, embodied justice and how to navigate the double bind of white privilege. We will deconstruct white privilege in our society and in the spaces where we lead that inevitably place us, as educators and facilitators, in a double bind. In this webinar, you’ll learn:

  • What is a double bind and what does it have to do with working with intersectional oppression
  • How to perceive in your body when you’re navigating a double bind in the classroom
  • How to name and create accountability for white fragility and the denial of white privilege in the spaces where you lead and facilitate
  • How to create spaces of accountability for racial injustice within your classroom so that POC (whether that includes yourself or your students) are not left having to hold for the fallout of deconstructing racial privilege

April 2, 2021 at 12:00pm PST: REGISTER HERE

Then on April 16th, we will tackle working with racialized trauma in the classroom or other spaces you lead. Through our examples and experience, we will help you learn the relationship between trauma in general and racialized trauma. Together we’ll explore:

  • The definition of trauma and its effects upon perception
  • The importance of sensation and the body in working with trauma
  • What kinds of experiences cause and recapitulate racialized trauma for BIPOC
  • How institutions perpetuate racialized trauma, and how you can facilitate spaces with attention to when racialized trauma is getting recapitulated, whether you are BIPOC or not

April 16, 2021 at 12:00pm PST: REGISTER HERE

And finally, on April 30th, we will unfold concepts around intergenerational trauma, the somatic field, and repair. Intergenerational trauma is trauma that’s been handed down through the generations. If you have ancestors or relatives that had to make particularly painful tradeoffs for survival, because they suffered through war, genocide, or slavery, for example, you may carry generational imprints from those experiences, and these may surface in the form of double binds. You’ll learn:

  • Why deepening our perception beyond the level of individual experience is key to working with intergenerational trauma
  • What is the Somatic Field, and why is it key for working with racialized trauma
  • How to deepen your own knowledge of ancestral dynamics as a facilitator

April 30, 2021 at 12:00pm PST: REGISTER HERE