FACE Talks: Fostering Antiracist Conversations and Engagement

Can a conversation be the catalyst for positive change, bridging gaps between people of different backgrounds?

Yes! Join Roxy Manning for a 6-week course to practice skills for antiracist conversations, based on Roxy’s new book How to Have Antiracist Conversations.

Class meets 9:30am-12:00pm PT (Find your local time) on the following dates:

• Week 1 – Wednesday, July 17
• Week 2 – Wednesday, July 24
• Week 3 – Wednesday, July 31
• Week 4 – Wednesday, August 7
• Week 5 – Wednesday, August 14
• Week 6 – Wednesday, August, 21

Are you ready to take your commitment to activism and social justice to the next level by honing your skills in effective dialogue and collaboration?

The ability to engage in impactful dialogue is a vital tool for building bridges, fostering solidarity, and effecting positive social change. Based on Roxy Manning’s book, How to Have Antiracist Conversations, FACE Talks is designed to empower people, both of the Global Majority and white, with the tools and techniques necessary to engage in the Authentic Dialogue Framework, four distinct types of dialogues that facilitate connection, understanding, and collaboration in the pursuit of social justice.

Dialogue to be Heard: Develop the skills to express your experiences, emotions, and aspirations without fear, and learn how to actively listen and validate the experiences of others.

Dialogue for Healing: Acquire the skills to engage in dialogues that facilitate your personal healing and emotional well-being, with a particular focus on addressing the emotional toll of systemic injustices.

Dialogue for Shared Understanding: Increase your capacity to understand and acknowledge differences in perspectives arising from diverse social locations, thus enabling you to engage in more empathic and inclusive dialogues and actions.

Dialogue for Solution: Learn how to initiate dialogues aimed at resolving conflicts and finding equitable solutions that benefit all stakeholders.  

Course Details:

• Week 1 – Introduction to Antiracist Conversations
• Week 2 – Dialogue to Be Heard
• Week 3 – Dialogue for Shared Understanding
• Week 4 – Dialogue for Healing
• Week 5 – Dialogue for Solution
• Week 6 – Removing Barriers to Effective Antiracist Conversations

Where do we meet?

The course will meet via online video conference (zoom). Recordings provided.

How is the Course Structured?

The course will include lecture and demonstrations, and breakout rooms to practice and embody antiracist dialogue skills.

Breakout Group Options for Global Majority Participants

• We acknowledge the unique challenges encountered by Global Majority people when engaging in this type of work in spaces that tend to be white dominant. These can include being asked to educate white participants about racism, discrimination, and social justice issues, being seen and treated as representatives of their entire race or ethnicity rather than being seen as individuals, and experiencing microaggressions such as having their opinions or experiences dismissed or minimized.
• Given that skills practice in breakout groups is a major component of this course, we want Global Majority participants to have choice about their group make-up when practicing this work.
• One strategy we will implement to support choice for Global Majority participants in this class is to offer the choice of opting into breakout groups that are for Global Majority people only.

What Skills and Capacities Will You Learn and Practice?

This course is born from Roxy Manning’s new book, How to Have Antiracist Conversations.  

You’ll practice and learn:

• The four dialogues of the Authentic Dialogue framework and considerations in choosing and preparing for each dialogue.
• Learning and practicing Roxy’s Authentic Dialogue framework, including dialogues to be heard/seen and to invite mutual understanding
• Conversations with resistors
• Conversations across power differences

Sliding Scale Tuition Options:

Tuition for the 6-Week Course

• $700 – Supporter Rate: If you have financial assets, or identify as middle or upper/owning class, then this is the rate for you. Paying at this rate supports the discount and scholarship fund, making this course accessible to more people including Global Majority people.
• $600 – Support Roxy’s Sustainability Rate: If you are able to contribute at this level, you contribute to more spaciousness for Roxy to continue to develop and expand her ideas and work – activities that are not paid through classes or workshops.
• $500 – Requested Standard Contribution: This is the true cost of the course. If you are able to pay this amount and still meet your basic needs, then this is the price for you to choose.
• $400 – Discounted Rate: The Discounted option is reserved for those who sometimes struggle with limited financial resources and would benefit from supported access to this learning experience.
• $300 – Scholarship Rate: The Scholarship option is reserved for people experiencing financial hardship.

If you are a member of the Global Majority or experiencing financial hardship and you need additional financial assistance to attend, please submit a request for tuition assistance.

• Your tuition payment is non-refundable and transferable.
• In the event that the course is postponed or canceled a full refund of tuition will be offered
• This work is not therapy and is not a substitute for therapy. If you have a sense that you would be destabilized by yourself or others speaking about difficult events, then this course may not be for you. While we hope that the processes and information that we share can be of use in your journey, we do not have the resources to support extreme psychological difficulties.

About the Instructor:

Roxy Manning brings decades of service experience to her work interrupting explicitly and implicitly oppressive attitudes and cultural norms within individuals, communities, and organizations. Rooted in her experience as an Afro-Caribbean immigrant, Roxy brings a diversity of perspectives to her work that generates profound insights for transformative change. Roxy has worked and consulted across the U.S. with businesses, nonprofits, and government organizations wanting to move towards equitable and diverse hiring practices and workplace cultures, as well as with individuals and groups committed to social justice internationally.

As a facilitator, she’s thrilled by the process of holding opposing voices and ushering groups from discord towards values-driven solutions that work for everyone. Her own inner work coupled with her professional experience has grown her capacity to meet people with varying levels of education, disparate life experiences, and the most intense feelings in ways that help them feel heard, respected, supported, and loved. As a psychologist, she maintains a private therapy practice, and works in San Francisco serving the homeless and disenfranchised mentally ill population. As a Certified Trainer and assessor with CNVC, she works with folks from the Global Majority who are interested in NVC certification and creating ties with the global NVC network to create local communities that thrive.