|
Hello! In this email, you will find info for our monthly meeting and a very special community-wide book club. Please use the black buttons to either register or gain more information. We are excited to share both of these events with you and we hope to see you soon! The ARC-C Team Community-Wide Book Club Multiple dates starting February 2, 2022 In-Person or via Zoom Our group is super excited that our members Louise Brown-Smith and Alan Brown will be leading a community-wide book club for Black History Month. The book, Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi, will be discussed both in person and via Zoom. Kurt Wheeler and a group of Caz High students will be leading teens in a simultaneous discussion of the teen version of the book, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You. Look for an article in the Cazenovia Republican and a posting on the Caz CSD website! You can visit the Cazenovia Library to obtain a copy of the book or purchase it on your own. To sign up for the book club which starts February 2nd, please visit our website for meeting dates and details! ARC-C Monthly Meeting Thursday, February 17, 2022 at 7 PM Via Zoom | Register Below! ARC-C has been doing a bunch of good work in the community. We're excited to share our progress! This meeting will be perfect for you if you haven't attended for a while or if you're new to the group. If you're new to anti-racism work, you're not alone. We're here to answer questions and provide context, either via email or during the meeting. Our monthly meeting will consist of:
"Your desire to be seen as good can actually prevent you from doing good, because if you do not see yourself as part of the problem you cannot be part of the solution."
–Layla F. Saad, Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor By Louise Brown Smith
CRT has recently become a hot topic in almost every part of our country, and one year ago most of us had never even heard of it. Is it an academic concept used by legal scholars to delve into racist processes built into our legal system...or is it a divisive curriculum used in public schools that teaches children to be unpatriotic? During the past few years our awareness has increased dramatically regarding housing segregation, criminal justice policy, and the legacy of slavery on our Black citizens. At the same time we do not have widespread agreement about what we or our government should do in response. Critical Race Theory is a theory that was developed in law schools about 40 years ago by legal scholars, Derrick Bell, Kimberle Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado. The theory is that racial discrimination is not merely a result of individual bias and prejudice but is deeply embedded in legal systems and policies. Remember the 13th amendment to the Constitution that forbade slavery except for imprisoned individuals? Today for the same crime our judicial system still imprisons Black individuals more often than white individuals, and for longer sentences. There have historically been exceptions built systemically into our laws which have almost universally been exploited to the disadvantage of Black people. CRT has developed a variety of legal strategies to increase equity in our laws and policies. CRT’s critics, mostly conservative and white, charge that this theory leads to divisiveness between people who have been oppressed and those who are the oppressors. They think that teaching a history of America where children learn that our ancestors participated in colonialism and unnecessary violence is unpatriotic. They do not want their children taught to think that our citizens today need to apologize or provide any kind of reparations. They are concerned that our children will be taught that they are “bad.” They do not want policies that they think discriminate against their children or themselves. With such a difference in understandings of CRT, and with our cultural environment of income inequality, diverse ethnicity, cultural differences, and unapologetic opinions our vehemence seems inevitable. In order to dampen the divisiveness that CRT arouses in us it is important for us to understand all of this. There are ways that CRT can help us understand how systemic racism has developed throughout Cazenovia’s history and how it still can be found today in our schools, churches, businesses, and cultural organizations. We can respond in ways that will build equity and compassion in our community. The Anti Racism Coalition of Cazenovia will be exploring CRT in its next meeting! Please come and invite your friends! Our ARC-C January Event, “What Is Critical Race Theory? What Does It Mean for Me?” is coming up: Thursday January 20, 2022 from 7:00-8:30 p.m. Join us for a conversation about CRT: we’ll work to distinguish CRT as a wedge issue and as a legal framework for understanding the relationships between race, racism, and power. Dear ARC-C Community,
We hope this finds you each well this new year! Please save-the-dates and join us at these upcoming Anti-Racism Coalition of Cazenovia meetings: UPCOMING EVENTS Our ARC-C January Event, “What Is Critical Race Theory? What Does It Mean for Me?” is coming up: Thursday January 20, 2022 from 7:00-8:30 PM!! A current political dividing line involves being against — or for — Critical Race Theory (CRT), particularly in our schools. Join us for a conversation about CRT: we’ll work to distinguish CRT as a wedge issue and as a legal framework for understanding the relationships between race, racism, and power. Our goal will be to understand more about what this theory is (and is not) and what that might mean for each of us and for our schools. Please come and invite your friends! Click here to register and to receive the Zoom Link for January 20, 7PM Event Read, Watch, Listen, Engage One or more of these linked resources may help you prepare for our CRT discussion:
ARC-C will continue a year-round commitment to Black Life. We’ll launch reading groups (for adult and youth) on Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning or Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You; our February monthly meeting will feature collaboration with Caz High School students who’ve created proposals for bringing Cazenovia abolition/antiracism history to life; we’ll begin the CNY Abolition Study Group designed by the Abolition Journal (described below), and more! Stay tuned! Join in the CNY Abolition Study Group (register early -- begins Sunday, Feb 20) What does it mean to be an abolitionist in 2022? Advocates describe it as both a dismantling and world-building work to create communities that are just and safe, that are free of prisons and police. It's a bold vision that abolitionists say requires complete community transformation and, as Ruth Wilson Gilmore states, "building life-affirming institutions." This study group is titled "Together We Lift the Sky" and is designed by the Abolition Journal. It offers a seven-session study group guide for people who are new to abolition. Our group will meet every third Sunday, from 3:00-4:30 PM EST beginning on February 20th (and then on 3/13, 4/3, 4/24, 5/15, 6/5, and 6/26); reading prep (podcasts, short essays, videos etc) will require up to 5 hours of reading and reflection per session. Register now and share with others who are interested in learning about abolition and antiracist community building! ARC-C NEWS Check out our new ARC-C Website ! See what we are up to there — and coalition with us! ARC-C Steering Committee and Subcommittee Brief Updates ARC-C has been invited to present Anti-Racism Recommendations to the Cazenovia Town Board at the January meeting. ARC-C has consolidated its sub-committee structure into two central sub-Committees: 1.) Education (Public Schools & Community) and History Sub-Committee and 2.) Town Culture, Police Reform, and Policy Sub-Committee. If you’d like to join one of these, please reach out to us at [email protected]. Please Continue to Support Clary Middle School in Syracuse! ARC-C Member and Clary Teacher, Allison Enders, sends deep thanks to the ARC-C community for supporting Clary students last spring as they finished a difficult year, providing donations of art supplies, classroom items, and fare for an end-of-year celebration. The students felt a lot of love and joy, and they are still still using many of the supplies this fall. Allison will regularly invite those in ARC-C with means to participate in other teacher-led initiatives to support students. Please see Allison's letter to ARC-C, with her item lists, here or contact Allison directly at: Allison Enders <[email protected]>. If you are still reading, you are wonderful. Keep on reading: below the jump is a recent post from ARD: Anti-Racism Daily and a podcast from Be Anti-Racist with Ibram X. Kendi. Be well until our CRT gathering on the January 20th! The ARC-C Steering Committee |
RSS Feed