Mode of Program Participation
Community Organizing and Educational Programming
Participation Type
Workshop
Session Title
Racial Justice in Appalachia: Organizing White People for Change
Session Abstract or Summary
This workshop explores the challenges and successes of organizing white people for racial justice in Appalachia. As the vast majority in the region, the participation of white people is critical to the struggle to end racial oppression and white supremacy. Using interactive exercises from SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), participants will explore their own attitudes and experiences in action for racial justice, as well as the history of white anti-racists in the United States and the region. At a political moment when the white working-class has been blamed for the rise of the racism and xenophobia embodied by the candidacy of Donald Trump, it is crucial to understand the efforts of white people to organize other white people against racism. The workshop will also consider the experience of KFTC (Kentuckians for the Commonwealth) in incorporating a racial justice perspective into its work as a grassroots, multi-issue, social justice organization.
Presentation #1 Title
Racial Justice in Appalachia: Organizing White People for Change
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
This workshop explores the challenges and successes of organizing white people for racial justice in Appalachia. Using interactive exercises from SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), participants will explore their own attitudes and experiences in action for racial justice, as well as the history of white anti-racists in the United States and the region. At a political moment when the white working-class has been blamed for the rise of the racism and xenophobia embodied by the candidacy of Donald Trump, it is crucial to understand the efforts of white people to organize other white people against racism. The workshop will also consider the experience of KFTC (Kentuckians for the Commonwealth) in incorporating a racial justice perspective into its work as a grassroots, multi-issue, social justice organization.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Dr. Meta Mendel-Reyes is a professor in Peace and Social Justice Studies at Berea College in Berea, KY. A former labor organizer with the United Farm Workers in California, she is currently Vice Chair of KFTC (Kentuckians for the Commonwealth). She has also been on the leadership team of SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), which organizes white people for racial justice, for 2.5 years. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, and is the author of Reclaiming Democracy: The Sixties in Politics and Memory.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Sam Hamlin was born and raised in a railroading family in Ironto, Va. She left the region at 19, has been homesick for the mountains and its people ever since. She's excited to be coming home this year. She has a background in community organizing around education, reproductive rights, transit justice, and immigrants' rights and has been on the SURJ leadership team for 2.5 years. She is currently studying adult education in North Carolina.
Racial Justice in Appalachia: Organizing White People for Change
This workshop explores the challenges and successes of organizing white people for racial justice in Appalachia. Using interactive exercises from SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), participants will explore their own attitudes and experiences in action for racial justice, as well as the history of white anti-racists in the United States and the region. At a political moment when the white working-class has been blamed for the rise of the racism and xenophobia embodied by the candidacy of Donald Trump, it is crucial to understand the efforts of white people to organize other white people against racism. The workshop will also consider the experience of KFTC (Kentuckians for the Commonwealth) in incorporating a racial justice perspective into its work as a grassroots, multi-issue, social justice organization.
