Main 2010 Conference page Keynote Speakers Registration page
2010 Overcoming Racism Conference Workshop Descriptions And Presenters
Organized by time of presentation and then alphabetical order
Friday AM Workshops
11:15-12:45
Title: Decolonizing the Church: Show Me a Denarius
Description: What does colonialism look like in the Christian Church? How did Jesus of Nazareth represent a decolonized mind? What would be the Christian mind, if it were not married to the colonial (imperial) project? Join us in reflection and dialogue and an examination of ways ASDIC’s Model of Transformation may contribute to the on-going work of decolonization.
Presenters: Herbert Perkins, PhD and MDiv, and Margery Otto, JD, ASDIC Metamorphosis, Anti-racism Study-Dialogue Circles
Title: Demystifying the Leadership Style of the African American Female
Description: This presentation illustrates how African-American females have developed modes of operation, survival and a leadership style that is unique, in spite of the negative social factors of colonization, slavery, racism, and sexism. By acknowledging the leadership styles forged by such social factors, greater insight into how African-American female leadership has influenced and impacted society is gained.
Presenters: Verona Mitchell-Agbemadi, President & CEO of Cultural Perspectives & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in diversity inclusion, cultural intelligence, research, and developing partnerships for institutions working with diverse communities. Along with certification in Women as Public Leaders, Ethical Policy Forum from the College of St. Catherine Leadership Institute in St. Paul, Minnesota, Verona holds a B.A. and a M.A. degree in Organizational Leadership, with emphasis on cross-cultural and global leadership.
Title: Discussions that Encounter
Description: The first meaningful action in recognizing and challenging the legacies that oppress us is open discussion. This workshop demonstrates tools used in facilitated forums open to all for over four years in Minneapolis and suburbs to raise awareness, establish relationships and facilitate open conversations that must occur across the "races." Segments of Traces of the Trade will be viewed to provide background for discussion about who benefited directly and indirectly from the oppressive legacy of slave trade and the impact on contemporary race
Presenter: Rev. Dr. Arthur Agnew, anti-racism leader and Pastor, Bethesda Missionary Baptist Church. Discussion that Encounter facilitators, Lou Schoen, Minneapolis-based Episcopal/Interfaith racial justice consultant/educator/ facilitator, and Bill Keatts, anti-racism activist and facilitator.
CANCELLED Title: Internalized Supremacy and Internalized Oppression; A Dynamic Worth Exploring
Description: The interplay between people experiencing Internalized Racial Supremacy (white people) and those suffering from Internalized Racial Oppression (people of color) will be explored in this workshop. It will investigate the historic dynamic that occurs and how internalized racial supremacy and internalized racial oppression interact. We will explore some strategies to break the destructive cycle and help participants shift negative interactions to positive experiences and relationships.
Presenters: Caty Royce, is a career community organizer, working on strategies that make structural change for economically fragile communities and communities of color. Metric Giles I is a public policy organizer for the Community Stabilization Project; Giles has dedicated his life to bringing people together and stopping racism from harming communities. He intentionally brings together different racial, cultural and ethnic groups to recapture vacant land parcels. James Trice is a 20 + years veteran in community organizing, nonprofit organization management consulting, and policy advocacy and training. He has worked as a community organizer and is currently the principle founder and owner of The Grassroots Public Policy Institute, which has a mission to assists Africans, African-Americans, and others to master policy and policy advocacy.
Title: It Isn’t H1N1, But It’s Just as Deadly: The Negative Effects of White Privilege for People of Color
Description: Breaking News: there is a worldwide pandemic affecting the world more deadly than H1N1. The disease is called White Privilege an offspring of Racism that continues to infest our society. Join us as we explore the manifestation of this dreaded disease and explore some antidotes to combat this illness.
Presenters: Marcellus Davis, Director, Diversity and Multiculturalism, Anoka Ramsey Community College, Raul Ramos, Senior Access and Opportunity Specialist Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Diversity and Multiculturalism Division, Kenneth Turner, Program Director for Integration & Equity, Robbins dale Area Schools ISD 281 and Alexander Hines, Director, Inclusion and Diversity Office, Winona State University.
Title: Mediating Historical Trauma in the Classroom
Description: Historical trauma is always present in the classroom. Radical educators like Paulo Freire and bell hooks have found ways to use the pain and rage they find in the classroom to motivate students to build positive change. In order for this transformative process to take place, educators need to be able to detect the ways in which their teaching triggers students' experiences of historical trauma, causing pain and suffering that is not necessarily a part of their pedagogical vision. There are sensitive ways to handle historical trauma in the classroom, without avoiding the topic. Ways of to detect and adjust how historical trauma comes up in an educational setting are presented
Presenter: Sarah Combellick-Bidney is an assistant professor of political science at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. She has published work on social movements in the context of globalization and development, especially feminist encounters with environmentalism. She teaches courses on gender and globalization, law and society, and comparative politics.
Title: More than Skin Deep: Uprooting White Supremacy One Cell at a Time
Description: Our intention is for people to leave this workshop with a better understanding of: 1) the historical legacy of whiteness via a conceptual framework and an introduction to Tran generational epigenetic inheritance, and 2) how white supremacy is embodied, the impact and role of “holding” on to the perpetuation of racism and white supremacy, and how to undo this trauma to more effectively challenge racism and whiteness.
Presenters: Susan Raffo is a writer, community organizer, craniosacral therapist and global somatic practitioner. Heather Hackman teaches university courses in social justice and multicultural education, heterosexism and homophobia in the US, race and racism in the US, and oppression and social change, and consults (via Hackman Consulting Group) widely on issues of racism and white privilege.
Title: Reducing Disparities at the Minnesota Department of Human Services: A Priority
Description: Racial disparities are a long-standing legacy in Minnesota. Learn how one State agency is working to find ways to reduce disparities in the access to and outcomes of its services. Reflect on questions like: What partnerships are needed? What role may data collection play? What steps will actually work? What are the biggest challenges?
Presenter: Carole Wilcox Johnson is the Supervisor of Prevention and Research with Minnesota’s Department of Human Services, Child Safety and Permanency. Her leadership has contributed to the prioritization of racial/ethnic disparities reduction within the public child welfare system through data analysis, shared leadership with parent and community leaders, and systemic partnerships and strategies and Cultural Community Representatives, Antonia Apolinário-Wilcoxon, Antonia leads two agency wide priorities for the Minnesota Department of Human Services: Reduce Disparities and At-Risk Adults. She has led efforts in organizational change by engaging senior managers in additional professional development to support outcomes accountability and develop/reinforce cultural competency among line staff.
Title: White Allies Engaged In Overcoming Racism Against The Dakota People Of Minnesota, And Against Historical Suppression, And In Truth-Telling
Description: This panel will feature four white women allies who are engaged in activities and/or in careers against Racism against the Dakota People specifically, and against Indigenous Peoples generally. These women will show how white allies can help.
Presenters: Dr. Chris Mato Nunpa, Ph.D.Retired Associate Professor Indigenous Nations & Dakota Studies, Southwest Minnesota State University, Denise Breton, Diane Elliott, Mary Beth Faimon, and Barb Nimis.
Main 2010 Conference page Keynote Speakers Registration page
Friday PM Workshops
2:45-4:15
Title: An Anti-Racism Process at a White, Protestant Church
Description: Why would a person of color decide to join a predominately white religious congregation? And why would a white religious community decide to adopt a process to become anti-racist? Come find out how and why this happened in a church in New Brighton and we’ll discuss how it could happen in your community or organization.
Presenters: The presenters are members of the New Brighton United Church of Christ Anti-racism team including: Rev. Amy Wick-Moore (Associate Minister of Faith Formation and Education, United Theological Seminary graduate); W.J. Moussa Foster (peace and justice worker), and Pamela Cook (currently divinity students at UTS); and Gary Kwong (PhD Chemistry).
Title: El Cruce De La Frontera (Crossing the Frontier)
Description: An oral presentation on the background of Mexican people, including an explanation of the different groups under “Latin” culture and a history of Mexico and its relationship with the United States. Also, how past and current immigration polices allow for the oppression of undocumented workers.
Presenters: Arnoldo Curiel is an Assistant Professor at the College of Saint Scholastica where he provides multiple trainings for youth and adults focusing on social justice.
Title: A Frame Is Worth a Thousand Words: Communicating for Change
Description: Whether we’re writing letters to the editor or conversing with coworkers, getting our message across requires finding the right frame to hold it. When our message challenges the oppressive frames of systemic racism, we might first need to build a better frame. This workshop offers tips for doing just that.
Presenters: Karen Hering is consulting literary minister at Unity Church-Unitarian in St. Paul. She leads programs engaging writing as a spiritual practice and a tool for political change. In 30 years of professional writing and communications experience, she has worked with churches, community and advocacy organizations, public libraries and literary groups.
Title: HIRE Minnesota: Lessons Learned from Challenging Institutional and Structural Racism in Public Decision-Making
Description: We spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars yearly to create jobs, yet people of color in Minnesota are disproportionately unemployed. HIRE Minnesota members will share efforts to overcome structural and institutional racism that prevents people of color from benefiting from public investments, and will facilitate discussion on lessons learned in our first two years of organizing to address these unemployment disparities and hiring inequities.
Presenters: Marcus Harcus and other HIRE Minnesota Coalition members
Title: Is This Land My Land?
Description: Participants will learn about the treaty history and conquest of Native lands in Minnesota. With this understanding in place, participants will trace the true ownership of the land where they make their home in Minnesota. We will close with an interactive discussion about steps we can take collectively to help make land reparations in our region.
Presenter: Nora Murphy, is an Irish-American freelance writer who has worked in the American Indian community since 1995. For the past decade she has researched and written about how her great-great grandparents homesteaded land in central Minnesota that was stolen from three Native tribes--the Dakota, the Ojibwe, and the Ho-Chunk.
Title: The N-Word: Is There a Message in The Madness?
Description: This session looks at the history of the “N-word” utilizing books and media clips and challenges participants to examine personal and professional histories with the N-word. We will examine their first introductions to the word and explore the pictures and different feelings associated with the word. We will look at how current events, media, popular music have used the word over the years and if the word has had any impact on the millennial generation. Suggestions for further understanding the various realities associated with the N-word and how to challenge and encourage all people, but specifically young people, about the ramifications of casual usage of this troublesome word.
Presenters: Eddie Moore, Jr., Ph D currently serves as Director of Diversity at The Bush School in Seattle, Washington.
Title: Understanding IRO & IRS- A Cognitive Behavioral Approach
Description: After some background on our department’s Anti-Racism work, including the role of our Anti-Racism Leadership Team (ARLT), Richard Coleman will deepen our understanding of the legacies of internalized racial oppression (IRO) and internalized racial superiority (IRS). Using a cognitive/behavioral lens, he describes how we develop and experience these mindsets, how we can become more aware of them, and how we can use authentic dialogue as a transformational tool.
Presenters: Richard Coleman, Manager Child Protection Ramsey County Community Human Service, Don Jones and Tonia Lofton, Member of Anti-Racism Leadership Team
Title: White Privilege & Racism: Is racial justice possible in higher education?
Description: current and former students from the U of M’s undergraduate social justice minor will facilitate this interactive workshop, with Lisa Albrecht, its founder. We will address classroom and programmatic strategies we use to make visible the historical legacies of white privilege and racism both personally & institutionally.
Presenter: Lisa Albrecht and University of Minnesota social justice Minor students. Lisa is a scholar activist and educator who founded the U of M’s undergraduate social justice minor. Her work focuses on educating white people about how to work for racial justice.
CANCELLED: Title: White Property Interest in Gifted and Talented Identification: A model for understanding and a call for change
Description: Applying Harris’ (1993) analysis of white property to the disparity in gifted identification rates in a local school district—where about half of all white students are identified as gifted—workshop participants will map changes necessary to assure that all children receive the educational opportunities that best serve their interests, talents and needs. Download paper at http://escholarship.org/uc/item/247908gb
Presenter: Elaine Dunbar, sociologist
Main 2010 Conference page Keynote Speakers Registration page
Saturday 150 Minute Workshops
12:30-3:00
Title: Confronting Racism
Description: This workshop is designed for those who want to acquire skills in dealing with racism as it occurs in their personal lives. Part of challenging the legacies of racism is acquiring skills to confront racist statements, people, or ideas. The workshop will develop the participants' active listening skills, as well as help them practice skills to respond to overt and covert racism. We hope participants will gain tools that will allow them to confront racism in their lives, thereby working towards the goal of eliminating racism and addressing the legacies of oppression.
Presenters: Anita Patel, Vice President for Racial Justice and Public Policy at the YWCA of Minneapolis and Mariam Hannon, Racial Justice Program Coordinator at the YWCA of Minneapolis.
Title: Contested Histories, Fort Snelling and Narratives of Colonization
Description: History is told through sites, texts, stories, and art. How history is told reveals the agenda, interests, and ideologies of those telling it, and how history is told may perpetuate the legacies of oppression. Fort Snelling is central to the region's contested histories. Response from Indigenous panelists (Dakota and Chippewa) and analysis of official historical representation will counter colonial narratives towards developing broader historical consciousness. Interactive presentation with audience participation.
Presenters: Davis Parker, panel moderator, is a member CPUC Antiracism Circle and currently works with the National Youth Leadership Council. Dr. Chris Mato Nunpa, panel respondent is a Wahpetunwan (“Dwellers In The Leaves”) Dakota from the Pezihuta Zizi Otunwe, “Yellow Medicine Community” and a retired professor whose work is focused on Sesquicentennial of the Dakota-US War of 1862. Jackie Crow Shoe (kakato’saakii), panel respondent has worked in the areas of child welfare, domestic violence, sexual assault and does independent consulting. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota. Dr. Herbert Perkins (Okogyeaman), panel moderator, is co-founder of ASDIC Metamorphosis.
Title: Decolonize What? And How? – A Workshop for White People
Description: White identity and culture are products of the power-motivated colonial enterprise that enslaved Africans and conquered, occupied and destroyed Indigenous people and cultures throughout the world, including Minnesota. How are we perpetuating that colonial reality? What does decolonization require? What are appropriate strategies? How can they be accomplished?
Presenters: Lou Schoen, Minneapolis-based Episcopal/Interfaith racial justice consultant/educator/facilitator, regional Anti-Racism Network Coordinator; co-facilitator, Minneapolis Discussions That Encounter and Margery Otto, Co-Director, ASDIC Metamorphosis (Antiracism Study-Dialogue Circles and other transformative workshop opportunities, creating conditions for new ways of being in relationship across lines of racial oppression and giving rise to more effective social change).
Title: Introduction to OAP Racial Justice Initiative – Defining Racial Justice and Levels of Racism
Description: This workshop will strengthen the capacity of participants to engage in analysis and action to advance racial equity. Participants will examine different strategies in the OAP Racial Justice Initiative and the impact those strategies have had by staying focused on institutional and structural levels are the local and state levels. The OAP Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity and the 2009 Pocket Guide to Budget Proposals will be offered as strategies to give legislators “tools” to advance race equity legislation and “act” their way to becoming Racial Equity Champions.
Presenters: Salvador Miranda is Associate and Training Director, at OAP (Organizing Apprenticeship Project) He has been a community organizer for 30 years, Miranda was a founder of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless. Miranda led the creation of the Mercado Central in Minneapolis and helped build the Latino congregational organizing strategy for ISAIAH. He is a board member of the Latino Economic Development Corporation.
Title: The “Myths of Whiteness”: Identification of the Myths That Keep Racism in Place
Description: Based on the work of Dr Peggy McIntosh, this interactive workshop explores some of the myths of whiteness; meritocracy, manifest destiny, white gracelessness, monoculture, and white moral elevation. Whole group and partner exercises will be utilized to explore personal and institutional racism culminating in the development of an action plan.
Presenters: Sharon Goens is the Racial Equity Conversation Coordinator for the Saint Paul Foundation’s Facing Race initiative. She holds a master’s degree in Counseling and Psychological Services and is a Licensed Professional Counselor and currently volunteers as a Circle Keeper, restorative justice practitioner and mediator.
Title: New Self-Respect: Enhancing Psychological Resistance to Racial Oppression
Description: For people of color, one of the legacies of racism is internalized racial self-hatred. This interactive workshop will focus on re-working personal narratives of racial inferiority. Using a framework of stress and coping, we will work collaboratively to identify adaptive strategies for resisting racial oppression.
Presenters: Hussein Rajput, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and Director of Counseling Services at Hamline University.
Title: Unlearning Zionism: What Anti-Racist Activists Need to Know
Description: We’ll use experiential education to explore how the dominant discourse around Palestine, Israel and Zionism upholds institutionalized racism. We will learn about different colonial projects and the issue of Palestinian Sovereignty in the context of imperialism, contextualizing the struggle in Palestine as an Indigenous struggle. Anti-racist activists will be invited to connect their work to the Anti-Zionist Palestine Solidarity Movement.
Presenters: Josina Manu Maltzman is an anti-Zionist who is committed to Palestine Solidarity. Working from the belief that it is the responsibility of people with privilege to dismantle systems of oppression, Josina finds that this is a spiritual act as well as revolutionary one. Celia Kutz is a trainer, facilitator and community organizer with the International Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) using experiential education to illuminate and challenge injustice. She believes in a future where her religious tradition is not intimately tied to a colonial project that seeks to marginalize others.
Main 2010 Conference page Keynote Speakers Registration page
Saturday 90 Minute Workshops
12:30-2:00
Title: The Dakota Death March: Genocide, Historical Suppression, And Truth- Telling
Description: The Dakota Death March refers to an event that occurred back in November 07-13, 1862. 1,700 Dakota People, primarily women, children, and elders, were forced-marched 150 miles from the Lower Sioux area to the Concentration Camp at Ft. Snelling. Descendants will talk about their grandmothers, violence, disease, despair, and genocide.
Presenters: Chris Mato Nunpa, Ph.D.Retired Associate Professor Indigenous Nations & Dakota Studies, Southwest Minnesota State University
Title: Demystifying the Leadership Style of the African American Female --repeated
Description: This presentation illustrates how African-American females have developed modes of operation, survival and a leadership style that is unique, in spite of the negative social factors of colonization, slavery, racism, and sexism. By acknowledging the leadership styles forged by such social factors, greater insight into how African-American female leadership has influenced and impacted society is gained.
Presenters: Verona Mitchell-Agbemadi, President & CEO of Cultural Perspectives & Associates; a consulting firm specializing in diversity inclusion, cultural intelligence, research, and developing partnerships for institutions working with diverse communities. Along with certification in Women as Public Leaders, Ethical Policy Forum from the College of St. Catherine Leadership Institute in St. Paul, Minnesota, Verona holds a B.A. and a M.A. degree in Organizational Leadership, with emphasis on cross-cultural and global leadership.
Title: We Can’t Change the Past, But We Can Shape the Future.
Description: This workshop will present a project of a local campus that takes multiracial participants on a nine-day bus tour of the civil rights historical sties. The participants build community by learning and modeling critical engagement, historical analysis, and dialogue with the purpose of addressing persistent racial inequality in US society.
Presenters: Leon Rodrigues, Chief Diversity Officer and Special Assistant to the President at Bethel University. Tanden Brekke, Associate Campus Pastor at Bethel University, and Amanda Fox, Senior Admissions Counselor and staff leader of REPRESENT at Bethel University asked to consult throughout the institution when topics of diversity and reconciliation are being considered.
Title: White Noise: Raising White Children to Resist White Supremacy One Generation at a Time
Description: This workshop is presented by a group of white parents who have been working together on intentionally observing and shifting the ways in which their white children become white. We will be presenting practical tools combined with broader reflection.
Presenters: Susan Raffo is a writer, community organizer, and body worker. Raquel Volaco Simoes coordinates the GLBT Host Home Program, a program that partners homeless LGBT youth with adult volunteers. Susan Svatek is a displaced southerner, union members and mom.
CANCELLED: Title: White Property Interest in Gifted and Talented Identification: A model for understanding and a call for change --repeated
Description: Applying Harris’ (1993) analysis of white property to the disparity in gifted identification rates in a local school district—where about half of all white students are identified as gifted—workshop participants will map changes necessary to assure that all children receive the educational opportunities that best serve their interests, talents and needs. Download paper at http://escholarship.org/uc/item/247908gb
Presenter: Elaine Dunbar, sociologist
Main 2010 Conference page Keynote Speakers Registration page
Saturday 60 Minute Workshops
2:15-3:15
Title: African American Registry®: “The black experience, preserved, presented and accessible”
Description: Diminishment of the knowledge, accomplishments and cultural values of Africa and African America is central to the on-going legacy of racism. The African American Registry, www.aaregistry.org, uses high quality scholarship and merges historical facts and heritage with affirmation, critique and self-reflection. It serves educators, parents and all others seeking knowledge through the black experience.
Presenter: Benjamin Mchie is founder of African American Registry. He is an Educational Consultant, Historian and Media Professional and Collector. A Speech Communication graduate, in 2010 Mchie was interviewed on the BBC on the life of Dorothy Height and TV Asahi on the black response to the 1940’s Japanese American internment.
Title: El Cruce De La Frontera (Crossing the Frontier) --repeated
Description: An oral presentation on the background of Mexican people, including an explanation of the different groups under “Latin” culture and a history of Mexico and its relationship with the United States. Also, how past and current immigration polices allow for the oppression of undocumented workers.
Presenters: Arnoldo Curiel is an Assistant Professor at the College of Saint Scholastica where he provides multiple trainings for youth and adults focusing on social justice.
CANCELLED: Title: Internalized Supremacy and Internalized Oppression; A Dynamic Worth Exploring--repeated
Description: The interplay between people experiencing Internalized Racial Supremacy (white people) and those suffering from Internalized Racial Oppression (people of color) will be explored in this workshop. It will investigate the historic dynamic that occurs and how internalized racial supremacy and internalized racial oppression interact. We will explore some strategies to break the destructive cycle and help participants shift negative interactions to positive experiences and relationships.
Presenters: Caty Royce, is a career community organizer, working on strategies that make structural change for economically fragile communities and communities of color. Metric Giles I is a public policy organizer for the Community Stabilization Project; Giles has dedicated his life to bringing people together and stopping racism from harming communities. He intentionally brings together different racial, cultural and ethnic groups to recapture vacant land parcels. James Trice is a 20 + years veteran in community organizing, nonprofit organization management consulting, and policy advocacy and training. He has worked as a community organizer and is currently the principle founder and owner of The Grassroots Public Policy Institute, which has a mission to assists Africans, African-Americans, and others to master policy and policy advocacy.
CANCELLED: Title: Multicultural Art as a tool for Families and Educators to recognize and challenge racism
Description: Presenters will demonstrate the use of color in artwork coupled with accompanying discussion questions as tools for transformation of individual thought patterns and facilitation of open discussion to challenge systemic racism. The practice of art in family and educational environments provides a unique setting for transformative experiences that can be used to challenge the oppressing legacy of racism.
Presenter: Al Smith is a well-traveled African-American with J.D. and M.B.A. degrees and over 25 years of experience in technical and business consulting. Anne Brink is artist and educator, Anne has taught art to kids for more than 25 years and is committed to using art/creativity, coloring books, and other fun activities to overcome and eliminate racism.
Main 2010 Conference page Keynote Speakers Registration page