About:

About this class - This is a 10-week online class using the Zoom platform. 

Race and Allyship—A Course for White People

Oppression is embedded in every social system in the US and we see evidence of this on a daily basis in our news, on social media, in  our workplaces, in our schools, and in our communities. We witness too many incidents that point to the reality that the US is too often not a safe  place for indigenous, black, trans, or other minoritized bodies.

Are you someone who wishes that you had the skills and tools to show up as an effective ally? Does fear of making a mistake or saying the wrong  thing keep you paralyzed from being an effective advocate? Are you ready to be challenged to strengthen your emotional literacy so that  marginalized people can give you feedback, unfiltered? Do you have the desire to be vulnerable when your words/actions have impacted those  with less social power negatively? Do you find it hard to confront close friends, family, co-workers when they create experiences of non-belonging  for people with marginalized identities? Do you spend too much time navigating guilt and shame instead of taking action to help create a better  and more inclusive world?

This 10-week intensive will immerse participants in Nonviolent Communication theory and practice with the goal to strengthen advocacy and  allyship skills. Participants will identify their social location in US social systems to practice transforming their relationship to conflict and power.

This course is for anyone who is ready to learn how to transform fear, paralysis, and defensiveness into actionable empathic listening and allyship  in their everyday lives.

Participants will develop ways to:

● Listen and receive difficult-to-hear messages

● Process their intentions and articulate impact

● Frame behaviors and thoughts outside of the good/bad binary

● Express vulnerability without getting caught up in shame and self-judgment

● Integrate empathy and non-judgmental principles into everyday life experiences

● Relate to failure to promote growth and learning

● Weave competing needs to create collective belonging and to de-center unhealthy power

● Center relationship and connection in difficult or uncomfortable interactions

● Develop awareness of positionality and how it impacts relationships

This is a 10-week online class using the Zoom platform.  Sundays: Feb 20, 27, March 6, 13, 20, 27, April 3, 10, 17, 24, 1-3 pm CST

Amena Chaudhry Amena is a DIEAB* consultant and Equity Coach, who uses principles of Nonviolent Communication, Circle Process, and other participatory leadership theories to equip people and organizations with the knowledge, skills, and tools to develop deeper and authentic relationships. A nimble and innovate social justice practitioner, Amena’s Equity & Inclusion portfolio is a mosaic of her Learning & Development experience in both the corporate and higher education sectors, Restorative Justice experience in non-profit and government sectors, alongside her consulting practice and focus on C-Suite Executive 1:1 coaching.

Amena is passionate about challenging the assumptions we are socialized into about human nature and believes that all humans have a desire to be in good relationship with each other. She leans on this principle in her equity and inclusion work to help individuals and groups to shift from opinion-based conversations to building relationships built on deep listening and authentic, thoughtful sharing.

*Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Access, and Belonging

HND Value Statement

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this {article, book, exhibition, film, program, database, report, Web resource}, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or Humanities North Dakota.

However, in an increasingly polarized world, we at Humanities North Dakota believe that being open-minded is necessary to thinking critically and rationally.

Therefore, our programs and classes reflect our own open-mindedness in the inquiry, seeking, and acquiring of scholars to speak at our events and teach classes for our Public University.

To that end, we encourage our participants to join us in stepping outside our comfort zones and considering other perspectives and ideas by being open-minded while attending HND events featuring scholars who hold a variety of opinions, some being opposite of our own held beliefs.