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Inquiry Series
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Current Year: '25-'26 School Year
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- September: What is keeping us together, focused, and motivated to do this work in 2025?
- October: Revisiting the Helms White Identity Model
- November: Learning from White Anti-Racists of the Past
- December: How can we identify and challenge white supremacy culture in ourselves and our institutions?
- January: How can we create classroom culture that resists white supremacy and that nourishes Black joy?
- February: How can we co-create joy with students?
- March: How can we prepare our schools to support students in the face of ICE terror?
- April: How can we build lasting partnerships with co-conspirators?
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Current Year: '25-'26 School Year
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April Staff Pick: John on Partnership (November 2021)
Essential Question: How can we build lasting partnerships with co-conspirators?
If this is your first year doing this series, you might consider using our Inquiry Series 3 material for the year or hosting an orientation meeting using our September material before moving on to the current month.
Don't forget to talk back!
Overview:
When deciding on a resource to revisit for our Inquiry Series this year, I thought of the themes we have discussed which have kept me feeling engaged and rewarded in this work. I was thrilled to have Lily turn our thoughts and practice back towards Joy, because our relationships, workplaces, and communities desperately need all of that magic that we can possibly harness. By deliberately bringing Joy to our work, it turns the fight into something that sustains us. We can face ongoing attacks and challenges to an antiracist practice if we have spaces in which to smile, laugh, dance -- and as Lily’s students reminded us -- eat ice cream.
They also said that they would feel Joy if they could make eye contact with one another. Which reminds all of us that this work is best done in partnership. We won’t be able to take care of each other without meaningful relationships, and we can’t form those relationships by toiling alone behind a closed door. In November of 2021, we began our resource by stating the belief that we cannot meaningfully participate in the lifelong work of tearing down white supremacy and building equitable structures and systems if we are not in partnership with others.
Creating partnerships with friends, colleagues and neighbors takes work and time, and is one of the most joyful and sustaining parts of anti-racist work. Partnership can take different forms, sometimes as co-conspirators actively engaging in joint anti-racist action, other times as allies more passively lending support (emotionally, physically, economically). The nourishing relationships we build in this work are often what keep us going - through the risks and obstacles of white supremacy.
We must be mindful that we have a lot of learning and unlearning to do, full of humility and commitment to accountability. We must not over step others' boundaries and expertise, and must choose not to enact the tenets of white supremacy culture within our partnerships. One way to help avoid this is by forming authentic and truth-telling relationships with our Black and Brown colleagues.
Growing up in our white supremacist society has not given us the tools to build fruitful, joyful anti-racist partnerships. By revisiting this resource, we hope to help Inquiry Series participants reflect on current habits of partnership in order to grow in this work. At BARWE, we believe that our ongoing internal work should always be directly in service of making us better active co-conspirators in the fight for racial justice.
The article we have chosen for this month, Becoming Trustworthy White Allies, provides clear and thought-provoking examples to help guide us in this lifelong work.
Discussion Guide:
Encourage your colleagues to read our primary resource this month, Becoming Trustworthy White Allies
Some possible discussion questions:
Secondary Resources: If you feel one of these is better suited to your group, feel free to use it as a primary. We have placed an asterisk next to readings with BIPOC authors.
Facilitation Reference Guide:
Feedback Form:
Please check out our NEW talk back form! We are asking readers to respond to a SINGLE question based on your reading, reflecting, and discussion this month. Please talk back to us. We'd love to hear from you!
Thank you all for your feedback so far, please keep it coming!
Pass The Hat:
In addition to being accountable to our colleagues and students of color, we believe it is important to be financially accountable to people of color who are doing this work on a daily basis. Each month, we will recommend an organization led by people of color, in education and beyond, doing the work of pushing for justice.
This month, we recommend you consider donating to Asian Americans United. Asian Americans United was founded in 1985 by a small group of volunteers seeking to create an organized response to rising issues of anti-Asian violence, substandard housing and the need for educational services for non-English speaking Asians in the city. Since that time, Asian Americans United’s mission has been to grow leadership in Asian American communities to build our neighborhoods and unite against oppression.
At the end of each monthly discussion, pass a hat (or a box) and collect donations for the designated organization. You can then have one group member go online and donate in the name of your school. If you want, you can add “Building Anti-Racist White Educators” after your school name.
Essential Question: How can we build lasting partnerships with co-conspirators?
If this is your first year doing this series, you might consider using our Inquiry Series 3 material for the year or hosting an orientation meeting using our September material before moving on to the current month.
Don't forget to talk back!
Overview:
When deciding on a resource to revisit for our Inquiry Series this year, I thought of the themes we have discussed which have kept me feeling engaged and rewarded in this work. I was thrilled to have Lily turn our thoughts and practice back towards Joy, because our relationships, workplaces, and communities desperately need all of that magic that we can possibly harness. By deliberately bringing Joy to our work, it turns the fight into something that sustains us. We can face ongoing attacks and challenges to an antiracist practice if we have spaces in which to smile, laugh, dance -- and as Lily’s students reminded us -- eat ice cream.
They also said that they would feel Joy if they could make eye contact with one another. Which reminds all of us that this work is best done in partnership. We won’t be able to take care of each other without meaningful relationships, and we can’t form those relationships by toiling alone behind a closed door. In November of 2021, we began our resource by stating the belief that we cannot meaningfully participate in the lifelong work of tearing down white supremacy and building equitable structures and systems if we are not in partnership with others.
Creating partnerships with friends, colleagues and neighbors takes work and time, and is one of the most joyful and sustaining parts of anti-racist work. Partnership can take different forms, sometimes as co-conspirators actively engaging in joint anti-racist action, other times as allies more passively lending support (emotionally, physically, economically). The nourishing relationships we build in this work are often what keep us going - through the risks and obstacles of white supremacy.
We must be mindful that we have a lot of learning and unlearning to do, full of humility and commitment to accountability. We must not over step others' boundaries and expertise, and must choose not to enact the tenets of white supremacy culture within our partnerships. One way to help avoid this is by forming authentic and truth-telling relationships with our Black and Brown colleagues.
Growing up in our white supremacist society has not given us the tools to build fruitful, joyful anti-racist partnerships. By revisiting this resource, we hope to help Inquiry Series participants reflect on current habits of partnership in order to grow in this work. At BARWE, we believe that our ongoing internal work should always be directly in service of making us better active co-conspirators in the fight for racial justice.
The article we have chosen for this month, Becoming Trustworthy White Allies, provides clear and thought-provoking examples to help guide us in this lifelong work.
Discussion Guide:
Encourage your colleagues to read our primary resource this month, Becoming Trustworthy White Allies
Some possible discussion questions:
- Morrison notices that white people tend to be “eager to impose our solutions and interventions [who] replicate old patterns of missionary zeal as we plant our ally flag and run the risk of jeopardizing those we are presuming to “help.” To combat this, she suggests becoming engaged in a sustained way with organizations that are already being run by BIPOC leaders. What BIPOC-led organizations are you currently engaged with? If none, spend time researching groups you could reach out to.
- Look back at the concluding paragraph of Morrison’s article. What feelings come up for you as you read this paragraph? With these words in mind, how will you approach partnering with BIPOC colleagues, neighbors and organizations?
- Reflect on the idea of a truth-telling relationship. Do you have any friendships like these? Is there another BARWE member you can foster this kind of relationship with?
- In our current historical moment, you may have thought about the risk and perceived risks that come with being anti-racist. But this work also brings great rewards, one of them being true partnership with others. As white people, what are the risks of NOT doing this work? What do we stand to lose by keeping racial divides in our society?
Secondary Resources: If you feel one of these is better suited to your group, feel free to use it as a primary. We have placed an asterisk next to readings with BIPOC authors.
- 5 Ways to Approach Racial Equity at Work
- Reflections From a Token Black Friend*
- Robin DiAngelo’s Accountability Statement
- Building a Culture of Accountability*
- 4 Ways White People Can Be Accountable for Addressing anti-Black Racism at Universities*
- Dreaming Accountability*
- From Cancel Culture to Collective Accountability
- So You Want to Start Organizing*
- How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion (video)
- Interdependence and Decentralization chapter from Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown - we encourage you to buy the book!
- Making The Transition From Ally To Co-Conspirator
- How Unions Promote Racial Solidarity In The United States
- Are White People At Black Lives Matter Protests Helpful or a Distraction?*
- BARWE Summer Series Resources - scroll to page 2 to find resources on Anne Braden and other white anti-racist activists
Facilitation Reference Guide:
- Set a day and time for your group to meet - Make sure to send reminders. If you’re meeting in person, snacks are always a good idea!
- Prepare yourself to facilitate by reading through our Norms and Discussion Protocol.
- Prepare yourself for April by setting a date and time, inviting colleagues, and looking out for our next Discussion Guide on May 1st.
Feedback Form:
Please check out our NEW talk back form! We are asking readers to respond to a SINGLE question based on your reading, reflecting, and discussion this month. Please talk back to us. We'd love to hear from you!
Thank you all for your feedback so far, please keep it coming!
Pass The Hat:
In addition to being accountable to our colleagues and students of color, we believe it is important to be financially accountable to people of color who are doing this work on a daily basis. Each month, we will recommend an organization led by people of color, in education and beyond, doing the work of pushing for justice.
This month, we recommend you consider donating to Asian Americans United. Asian Americans United was founded in 1985 by a small group of volunteers seeking to create an organized response to rising issues of anti-Asian violence, substandard housing and the need for educational services for non-English speaking Asians in the city. Since that time, Asian Americans United’s mission has been to grow leadership in Asian American communities to build our neighborhoods and unite against oppression.
At the end of each monthly discussion, pass a hat (or a box) and collect donations for the designated organization. You can then have one group member go online and donate in the name of your school. If you want, you can add “Building Anti-Racist White Educators” after your school name.