Thank you for attending the collaborative three-part series, Black in Sharon.
If you attended a post-session Community Conversation, please fill out the Feedback Survey!
Want to learn more about how to be anti-racist? See the Resources section of our website. Also for ideas for action steps that were offered by participants, see the IDEAS section below.
TAKE ACTION
Join or follow the Sharon Pluralism Network (SPN)
SPN will be focusing this year on developing and continuing this community conversation about racism. Watch for future programming this fall!
Contact: Margie Mitlin - margie@sharonpluralism.org
Join or follow Sharon Racial Equity Alliance (SREA)
Follow our Facebook Page, our private Facebook Group, Instagram, and Twitter to keep in touch and find out about future community events.
Join a Committee and Get involved! Email us at equity.realism@gmail.com
The Outreach, Engagement, and Education Committee (OEE) is focused on the community of Sharon, and is working on new anti-racist initiatives now that the Black in Sharon series has come to a close:
Focusing community conversation on the experiences of Black people in town
Creating opportunities for community engagement around anti-racism
Organizing local opportunities to rally for racial equity
The K-12 Committee is focused on promoting equity in our schools, and has three sub-committees working on:
Following select board and school committee meetings and promoting racial equity in local policy-making
Advocating for a diversity, equity, and inclusion officer for Sharon Public Schools
Reaching out to parents to build anti-racist coalitions at each town school, advocating for more equitable school policies via the school committee, creating different systems for support for Black students in SPS, and assisting teachers who are developing training/curricular programs to increase anti-racist awareness in classrooms.
SREA's Committees will also be reviewing a lot of the great ideas from participants, some of which ties into plans already underway, and some new ideas! Here is a summary of the possible projects suggested during the Black in Sharon series:
Role-Playing Bystander Training for adults and for teens:
Actively practicing how to interrupt racism in our daily lives
Accountability Groups
for white people to meet and discuss dismantling implicit bias and white supremacy.
NOTE: The OEE Committee has discussed this as a potential project.
Book and Video Discussion Groups
to support our continued learning while we do this work in our community.
Perhaps a town-wide book group that would help explore the topic of race: e.g. the novel Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi
NOTE: The OEE Committee has discussed this as a potential project.
Race Journal:
Keeping a race journal for 30 days, writing down everything one noticed during the day that struck deeply about race--especially when one is complicit in white privilege.
Bias Training for Teachers
on anti-racist practices
Organizing a push by parents for the schools to have training for all teachers. NOTE: SREA's K-12 Committee is working on this. Also, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for the town that SREA petitioned and advocated for has the recommendation of bias training in its mandate.
Hire Wee the People
Hire Wee the People, a Boston-based social justice project for kids, parents, and educators exploring activism, equity, and resistance through interactive workshops, to lead a community program at the Library.
Bring a Friend to the next community program. Encourage members who frequent social justice initiatives in the town to bring a friend with them next time!