White Learning Space begins

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth are trying on a white learning space for staff as a next step in achieving the Audacious Goal and living into the Vivid Description we developed in our Organizational Change Initiative. We know there is work for white folks to do within KFTC to unlearn racism and white supremacy culture, and it is in our mutual self-interest to become better anti-racists. Dismantling racism and white supremacy culture within ourselves, our organization, and Kentucky, is necessary for winning on all of the issues we care about, and we are wholly aligned in anti-racism as a guiding principle on our path to victory and liberation.

To help KFTC achieve our goals, the People of Color Caucus recommended a white learning space as a strategy to support our journey to become an antiracist organization and win our vision. “White learning spaces provide an entry point for white people to begin the process of dismantling their privilege and become anti-racist co-conspirators with people of color. The solidarity to be achieved through critical analyses and actions is crucial for this process within KFTC toward becoming a major disruptor of systemic racism in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.” - Pastor E

The skills we’re learning in our white learning space will contribute to all of our program of work areas while complimenting our organizational healing and development of support for staff of color. We’re piloting the learning space with staff so that our staff can better support each other (of our 24 staff team members, 18 of us are white and 6 of us are Black women,) and better support KFTC members and the organization as a whole in having race-based conversations within our committees, chapters and local communities. We sought out an experienced faciliator to help us along our white learning space journey, and met Champion Fleming, a white, trans, gender expansive leadership coach and organizational development consultant working with national and international non-profits and labor unions who are committed to anti-racist strategies that lead to cultural and political change.

The white learning space for staff will continue through June, at which point we’ll evaluate and plan to open a white learning space for KFTC members as well. Big Sandy chapter member Kathy Curtis is curious to learn more through the white learning space: “One of the ways our society keeps white people poor and black people separate is to get them to fight with each other. I knew the racism I was taught was not the truth, but I didn’t realize how that perception or hierarchy of power was ingrained in me. When I think of racism I think of radicals like the Klan and burning crosses, but racism is also in our ideology, concepts, and policies. My first thought has sometimes been racist without me even realizing it. Living in Eastern Kentucky, with its low population of BIPOC folks, there aren’t a lot of people I can sit down with and have these conversations. The women of color I know are very gracious, but are tired of having to explain to white people about racism. White people educating white people themselves and working through this stuff without having to go to my black friends and figure out how I’m supposed to feel or respond is really valuable. We can be guidended by BIPOC communities in what we’re learning and unpacking, but it’s not their responsibility to train us or teach us to be better white people. When you unlearn something, what do you put in its place?”

We’re excited about the ways that our organization will grow and our audacious goal and vivid description will flourish with support from this learning space, and we’re looking forward to continuing along this journey with our full membership soon. Stay tuned for more!