Uprooting White Supremacy in Organizations

FAQs

Can I sign up for this training as an individual? / Will our training have participants from other organizations, or is it just for our organization?

This training is designed for (individual) organizations. You can’t sign up as an individual person. Your organization (or potentially a project/department within your organization) signs up for the training, and you will be the only participants. That allows us to tailor the discussion to the specific needs and focuses of your group.

Will my facilitator be BIPOC / a white-BIPOC team, etc.?

We have mostly transitioned away from having facilitators of color hold this training; it is now primarily led by white trainers.

The Uprooting White Supremacy training is a synthesis of knowledge and experience collectively built by AORTA members via our work with organizations. We trust our white facilitators to hold and share this material with nuance and to skillfully guide organizations through these conversations; we believe that anti-racism education should not always fall on people of color by default.

This training is designed for info-sharing and discussion. Individuals won't be put on the spot to share vulnerably (or at all); we have not designed this particular training as a space to hold conflict/tension or discussion of relational dynamics that are specific to your organization. Nevertheless, we know that for a variety of reasons it may feel better to have these discussions with a facilitator of color or with a BIPOC/white facilitation team—we respect and will honor these requests within our capacity.

How do we determine where to pay on the sliding scale?

We have included organizational budget and staff salaries as a guide, but we acknowledge that a wide range of circumstances can impact what an organization can afford to pay for a training. We encourage clients to pay at the highest tier that feels both generous and affordable.

Tell me more about your Solidarity Rate—how do I know if we qualify?

Our solidarity rate is the low end of our sliding scale—the rate at which we are not fully covering our costs to provide the training, and are using our internal resource to support organizations as an act of solidarity. We offer this rate only to organizations that meet 3 criteria:

1) Have annual organizational budgets of up to $600,000;

2) Are led by people of color, immigrants, and/or working class and poor people. “Led by” means that organizational leadership is predominantly made up of people who hold these identities.

3) The organization is primarily engaged in movement building work and/or work to build a solidarity economy. For our purposes, “movement building” means the work of mobilizing people and groups to work collectively to create social change that directly benefits oppressed people. Building a solidarity economy means working in service of a society and economy that prioritizes people and the planet over profit. Organizations eligible for our solidarity rate are often volunteer-driven and could include workers’ centers, mutual aid projects, member-driven mass organizations, grassroots community organizations, and more.

Some organizations with low budgets may not be eligible for our solidarity rate, for example because leadership is predominantly white and middle class, or because their work is not specifically focused on movement building or creating a solidarity economy. This may include small businesses; professional networks; nonprofits focused on social services, arts, education, legal services, etc.—these groups may or may not identify their work as movement building. We ask that you reflect on the nature of your work and self-identify whether you qualify for our solidarity rate.

Can I see a sample agenda to get a sense of the flow of the training and what we’ll be doing?

Yep!

This training sounds great, but we’re not *only* struggling with white supremacy—we need to uproot all systems of oppression in our organization!

This training focuses on racial dynamics specifically, but our framework is intersectional. Many of the power dynamics and challenges we focus on also show up in relationship to other identities (gender, class, LGBTQ+, dis/ability, etc.) and systems of oppression. Understanding some of the subtle and sneaky ways that power and oppression play out in organizations will help in your work to create an anti-oppressive organization broadly.

Is this training participatory? Will we have small groups or caucusing?

The training is structured as a presentation with frequent Q&A and space for comments/discussion. Because we have limited time, and aren’t able to moderate multiple small groups, we typically remain in a big group for the whole training. This is intentional; in a day-long training, we would invite deep discussion and focus in on the specific problems arising in your organization. In an online training, we are careful not to pressure participants into conversations that we can’t responsibly land, as people often enter these spaces holding trauma from oppression and white supremacy in the workplace. We encourage you to schedule an intentional follow-up conversation (or multiple conversations in project teams, caucuses, or other small groups) to debrief the training within your organization, note what resonated most, and talk about changes you want to make in your work.

Are you going to tell us how to create an anti-racist workplace in 10 simple steps?

If only it were that easy. :) Often, participants in this training (understandably) crave tools and solutions. We do have some of those to offer! However, this training mostly focuses on understanding and identifying the problems—because we can’t implement meaningful solutions when we don’t have a shared understanding of the problem and what it looks like. Very commonly, efforts to uproot white supremacy in organizations are thwarted because people have very different understandings of the problem they are trying to solve—they may be using the same words, but they mean very different things. Understanding the problems that white supremacy creates is a key step in transforming our organizations to be actively anti-racist.

How can we make this training as effective as possible?

A training can’t create meaningful change in your organizations all by itself; it’s designed to support and help guide ongoing anti-racism work. Some suggestions for maximizing the impact:

• Schedule a followup conversation with staff (or multiple conversations within departments, project teams, etc.) to debrief the training and note what resonated most for your organization and potential steps you can take to create change. Some organizations may benefit from debriefing in pairs with a trusted colleague before a larger group debrief, and/or creating an anonymous survey for staff to share these reflections.

• Make sure that organizational leadership prioritizes attending the training.

• Prepare participants to engage in conversation and ask questions to get the most out of the training.

How many people can attend the training?

We can adapt the training for up to 500 participants. Above 100 participants, we charge an additional 20% of the training fee for tech support.

Is there any prep work we should do?

We don’t ask participants to do any pre-reading or other prep—we know it can be challenging for everyone to do prep in advance, and we want to make sure everyone is able to enter the training feeling fully ready to participate. It’s always a good idea to share the training description and our website with participants in advance, and to make sure everyone arrives knowing there will be ample space for questions and discussion.

Can we record?

For an additional 10% of the training fee, we can record the training and the chat to make available for internal use in your organization for 30 days. Recording tends to be most useful when the training is scheduled for a time when not everyone can participate live, but folks who can’t be present will view the recording within a few days or weeks. We discourage groups from using the recording for onboarding of new staff or other long term use; the training is most effective when a group can participate in the same general timeframe and discuss/debrief together. This is why we limit the time that the recording is available.

One consideration around recording is that for some groups, knowing the training is being recorded can be a deterrent to participation. This depends on the group, but should be considered in deciding whether to record or not.

Can we get further support from AORTA after the training?

Yes, if we have capacity! See “Uprooting White Supremacy Consulting” at the top of this page.

Thanks for all this info! I’m interested in registering, but I have more questions.

No problem! If you have further questions or would like to discuss your specific organization's needs before registering, please email uprootingwhitesupremacy[at]aorta.coop.