Next course happening virtually starting in July of 2020
Email peoplesschooldc@gmail.com for updates
—
2019 Course
Dates and Time
June 20-October 17
Every Thursday
6:30-8:30pm
Location
The Emergence Community Arts Collective (ECAC)
733 Euclid St NW, Washington, DC 20001
Upstairs studio – Parking lot in back alley with wheelchair accessible elevator
Course Description
This free 15-class course on the many different forms of racism and white privilege in the US, specifically focusing on forms beyond the “explicit” and “easy to see”, through a multi-media lecture series presenting 100s of anti-racism concepts, perspectives, strategies, resources, speeches, videos, books, articles, and ways to get involved in modern day efforts to dismantle white supremacy. This course is a People’s School of DC initiative.
Class Topic and Subtopic Schedule
6/20: Fragility and Systems
White Fragility • Racism as a System • Rise of Race Neutral Racism • Racial Disparities
6/27: Discrimination and Privilege in History
The Impact of Historic Racism and White Privilege • History of the US Race system • Slavery and the Failure of Reconstruction • White Terrorism and Lynching • History of Immigration Discrimination • History of Voter Suppression
7/4: No Class – Holiday
7/11: Solidifying Segregation and Inequality
History of Segregation, Desegregation, and Re-segregation • White Resistance • Housing Discrimination and Spatial Racism
7/18: No Class
7/25: Racial Histories and Whitewashing History
Racial History of Welfare • Racial History of Unions and Right to Work Policies • Racial History of Gun Ownership • Racial History of Standardize Testing • Racial History of American Medicine • 50 years after the Kerner Commission — Whitewashing US History • The Lost Cause of the Confederacy Movement • The Birth of a Written US Black History • Radical Historians and New Social Scientists • Critical Race Theory (CRT) • The 21st Century Textbook Fight
8/1: No Class
8/8: White Privilege
White Privilege • White Culture (Whiteness) • Color Blind/Post Racial Myth • White Resentment/Whitelash • White Guilt, White Centering, White Tears • White Savior Complex • White Feminism and Intersectionality • Tone Policing, Civility and White Comfort • Liberal Racism
8/15: Implicit and Internalized Racism
Explicit vs Implicit Racism • Stereotypes vs Racial Biases • History of Racial Stereotypes • Misrepresentation in Media • Effects of Stereotypes • Understanding Your Own Bias • Microaggressions • The Anti-PC Movement • The N-Word • Dehumanization • Cultural Appropriation — Internalized Racism • Racial Trauma • Non-Physical Racial Violence • Weathering • Historical Trauma • Emotional Labor * Coping with Racial Trauma
8/22: Rise of Mass Incarceration
Law and Order Dog Whistle • Modern Racial Disparities in the Justice System • Institutional Racism in US Criminally Justice System • The New Jim Crow • War on Drugs • Racial History of US Police • Modern Policing Issues • The Criminalization of Civil Rights Activists • COINTELPRO
8/29: Prison Industrial System
Racial History of Prisons • Private Slave Labor Prison Systems • History of Bail Bonds • Felon Disenfranchisement • School-to-Prison Pipeline • Alternatives to Calling the Police • Campaign Zero: Policy Changes to End Police Violence • Restorative Justice
9/5: White Supremacy and Colonialism
White Supremacy • Colonialism and Neo-colonialism • Native American Colonialism • African American Colonialism • Decolonizing • Types of Neo-Colonialism • Neo-Liberal Economics • White Terrorism
9/12: Rightwing Politics
Dog Whistle Politics • Southern Strategy • GOP Pathway to Trump • Trump • Trump Supporters • Tea Party • Rightwing Media • The Religious Right
9/19: Xenophobia
Xenophobia • Anti-Immigrant • US Policies that Caused Immigration Crisis • Problems in Current Immigration System • The Fear of Demographic Changes • Latin American Discrimination • Islamophobia • Anti-Semitism vs Anti-Palestinian• Asian American Discrimination • Intersectionalities of Xenophobia
9/26: Gentrification and Environmental Racism
What is Gentrification? • History of Affordable Housing Crisis • Affordable Housing Crisis Today • Eviction Crisis • Impact of Home Sharing Rental Platforms (Airbnb, etc) • Possible Solutions• Strategies for Community Organizing to Fight Gentrification — What is Environmental Racism • Current Environmental Injustice Battles
10/3: Food Justice
What is Food Justice • The History of the US Food System • The Real Farm to Table: Farm and Food Worker Rights • Environmental Racism in Our Food System • Food Apartheid • Food Sovereignty • Urban Ag: Intentional vs Non Intentional
10/10: Strategies to Effectively Challenge Racism
12-Tips for Confronting Racism and White Privilege • Barriers to Discussing Racism and White Privilege • Anti-harassment Strategies • Organizational Anti-racism • Duality of Inclusiveness • For Kids • Institutional Change • Anti-Racism Tools and Exercises
10/17: Hands on Practice Confronting Racism
Details and instructor TBD
Teacher Bio
All the classes in this course (except for the last class) will be taught by Josh Singer. Josh has spent the last 3 years researching and creating this course. After growing up in a very white segregated Sundown town, Josh Singer has spent the last two decades of his life attempting to learn about his internalized white supremacy and the systems of white supremacy he lives in, through various experiences from participating in dozens of anti-racism courses and initiatives, teaching high school history, studying in a history masters program, a decade of community organizing, managing several social justice projects and resource websites, working as a food justice advocate, and writing a weekly social justice column.
Registration and Updates
There is no official registration and anyone can come to any class. But there are only 40 seats in the classroom and it will be first come first serve. If you are interested in attending a class please follow the Facebook event for any class updates and changes or email peoplesschooldc@gmail.com for future updates.
People’s School of DC
This course is a People’s School of DC initiative. The People’s School of DC is a community education cooperative to organize social justice education from a people’s history perspective. The goal of the People’s School is to develop, organize and implements social justice resources and education opportunities, without traditional academic barriers, in the greater DC area. If you would like to learn more on how to teach or get involved in numerous other ways please visit this link or email peoplesschooldc@gmail.com.
Feedback
This course, like most anti-racism work, is an on-going process that is always open to, and grateful for, feedback, suggestions, missing topics and different perspectives. Please feel free to contact the presenter at anytime at peoplesschooldc@gmail.com, to help improve this course.
—
The People’s School of DC 