Design Impact hosts a monthly discussion open to anyone in our building called Disrupting White Supremacy. During these one-hour conversations, we meet to listen, learn, and reflect on how we internalize and perpetuate white supremacy*, as well as how we can disrupt it in our lives. No pre-work or previous attendance is necessary, and participants take turns hosting each month.
We’ve shared our discussion questions for those who would like to host similar affinity groups in their own organizations.
\Why Affinity Groups?
Though our conversations started as an interracial group, we decided to split the discussions into two affinity groups: white people and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We host conversations in affinity groups for a few reasons:
- Affinity groups provide a safe space. Affinity groups offer a community where people with shared experiences can more freely talk about their experiences without fear of judgment, criticism, or a need to educate others.
- Affinity groups encourage us to go deeper. We found that in our larger group, our disparate experiences across race meant that our conversations stayed surface-level. Affinity groups offer us an opportunity to unpack our conversations and dig deeper.
- Affinity groups respond to different needs. For example, the BIPOC group’s conversations often touch on healing and internalized oppression; the white affinity group uses part of their time to discuss anti-racist actions.
Download the Reflection Questions
- Disrupting White Supremacy – White Affinity Group:
Reflection Questions & Group Norms - Disrupting White Supremacy – Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) Affinity Group:
Reflection Questions
Discussion participants co-created the discussion format and questions. Feel free to modify these questions to fit your group’s needs.
