Racial Justice Lunch and Learn Meetings
Children’s Institute offers our staff voluntary Racial Justice Lunch and Learn Meetings. Attendance is consistent and strong; some staff attend regularly; others attend occasionally; we all have something to share and we are all learners. We've also invited Children’s Institute Board Members and our colleagues at Roc the Future and Common Ground to join with us as we work toward our personal and collective Cultural Humility goals. With funding from the Greater Rochester Health Foundation, we are making the content and format of these learning sessions accessible to the community.
Racial Justice Lunch and Learns are offered because they were easily doable within the workweek and help us move our organization forward. As Children’s Institute staff strives to understand America’s, our organization’s, and our own personal history with racism, especially as it pertains to anti-Black racism, several of the Racial Justice offerings were selected to provide knowledge “building blocks.” Videos were chosen to highlight key issues, writers and leaders, or current events such as COVID-19, the killings of George Floyd and Daniel Prude, the Black Lives Matter protests, violence against Asians and Pacific Islanders, or the national response to Critical Race Theory.
Almost all links for the Racial Justice Lunch and learns are free, available content on YouTube (usually Ted Talks) and do not in any way belong to Children’s Institute. “Additional resources”–articles and podcasts–are shared as relevant to the day’s topic and are mostly accessible links to all. However, at times a link may be behind a paywall (e.g., New York Times article) and is not (yet) available to anyone who is not a subscriber.
Our offerings to date are far from comprehensive in terms of addressing the history of race, power, and privilege in this country. However, as Children’s Institute continues to learn together, we will share additional content addressing racism targeting Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Muslims, and other communities of color. If your organization finds useful content, please share that as well by sending it to eleopold [at] childrensinstitute.net (Ellen Leopold). We thank the United Way 21 Day Challenge for two videos that we chose to show as part of our Lunch and Learns.
Format outlining our processes for the Zoom Lunch and Learn Meetings
Lunch and Learn Meetings:
America's Caste System – Isabel Wilkerson
American History and the Lies We Teach
American Latinos, Latinas and Latinx Young Adults Center Their Stories
Anti-Racist Educators and Relationship-Centered Restorative Schools
At Work, Who Gets Heard and Who Gets Seen
Black Women - Hair, Identity, and Bodily Autonomy
Clarissa Uprooted: Youth and Elders Uncover the History of Black Rochester
Critical Race Theory – is and isn't – Part 1
Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project – Part 2
Deconstructing White Privilege with Dr. Robin DeAngelo
Dismantling White Supremacy in Education Part 1
Dismantling White Supremacy in Education Part 2
Dolores Huerta, Co-Founder of the United Farm Workers
Eminent Domain and Landmark Property Stolen Part 1: How Seneca Village Became Central Park
Eminent Domain and Landmark Property Stolen Part 2: How Chavez Ravine Became Dodger Stadium
Examining Social and Emotional Learning through an Equity & Identity Lens
Exodusters, Black Cowboys, and Buffalo Soldiers in the Black West Part 1
Missing White Women Parts 1 & 2
MLK Talks 'New Phase' Of Civil Rights Struggle, 11 Months Before His Assassination
Racism, Policing Practices, and Driving While Black
Redlining, the Federal Housing Administration and the Wealth Gap, Part 1
Redlining, the Federal Housing Administration and the Wealth Gap Part 2
Social Determinant of Health and Tackling Health Disparities
The Case for Reparations Part 1
The Case for Reparations Part 2
The Dangers of Whitewashing Black History
The Great Migration – Isabel Wilkerson
The New Jim Crow and US Mass Incarceration – Michelle Alexander
The Story and Implication of Seizing LA’s Bruce Beach from its Black Owners
Tulsa Race Massacre Survivors Testify
US Boarding Schools and the Abuse of Native American Children
White People Must Do Their Own Work in Anti-Racism and Social Justice
Why English Class is Silencing Students of Color
Why is Anti-Asian Racism on the Rise in the US?
(Please stay tuned for more meetings to be posted)