Have you ever been in a conversation where the topic of racism was brought up and the only options you felt you had were to fight passionately or stay silent? In today’s environment, the ability to reflect on our own identity and build our capacity for race-based stress is a practical way to be more effective in interpersonal interactions, as well as broader social justice work.

The topic of this session is a book called White Fragility: why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism, by Robin DiAngelo. The format of the session will start out with a fishbowl discussion, in which a small group of people who have read the book will discuss it and respond to questions, and the rest of the audience listens in. Then we will open it up for a larger debrief with everyone about how these concepts might shape us and our community here at Pearl Church.