Anti-racist trainings and reading groups give us theories and principles, but putting these principles into practice is a daily challenge for us all. The work of dismantling our culture of white supremacy requires the constant unearthing and undoing of old, racist patterns of socialization, which typically do not yield without a struggle.
Anti-Racism Circles (ARCs) are made up of three or four people who share a commitment to an anti-racist journey and who choose to wrestle thoughtfully together with the nuts-and-bolts realities of putting our commitment to anti-racism into action. ARC groups will be safe spaces in which sincere questions can be asked and considered critically but without judgment, and in which performative political correctness is set aside in favor of an authentic (even if often messy and awkward) dedication to racial justice.
Those who participate in ARCs acknowledge that a genuine commitment to anti-racism means being uncomfortable, feeling uncertain, taking risks, and making mistakes. Although we play lip service to these in our culture, too often hesitancy and failure are met with shaming responses that can easily lead to discouragement and disengagement. ARCs are designed to be an alternative to “call-out culture”. Instead, they will be part of “call-in culture” - they will provide the deeply caring, but determined and unflinching support that we all need to stay engaged in the work, even when (not if!) we stumble. The purpose of ARCs is not to begin or even to end at a place of perfection, but simply to support each other in finding our feet and continuing to walk the path of justice.
However, it is essential to emphasize that while ARCs are intended to be shame-free zones, they are not intended to offer false, facile comfort to their participants. Like other restorative and problem-solving circles, ARCs are places where real, rigorous work will happen. They are designed not to make people feel better, but to help them do better.
Similarly, ARCs are not designed to offer “quick fixes” - instead, they are intended to be a long-term commitment to regular, rigorous reflection on our own thoughts and actions. “To reflect” literally means “to bend back” - this work is meant to bend our own minds and hearts away from the injustice of entrenched racism and back toward justice through sustained, deliberate effort undertaken in a spirit of deep humility.
ARCs will meet at least once every two weeks. However, since anti-racist work does not always occur on a schedule, and sometimes questions arise that are urgent, the intention is that group members will reach out to one another for support whenever they have an important issue to process. Making themselves available to help group-mates in this way is part of the commitment members make when they join an ARC.
ARCs will warmly embrace people of color who wish to participate but are conceived of as spaces where white people can do significant anti-racist work without placing additional burdens on the members of our community who belong to racially marginalized groups.