How to Have Antiracist Conversations: Embracing Our Full Humanity to Challenge White Supremacy
Description
Utilizing Dr. Martin Luther King’s Beloved Community framework, activists will be empowered to create change and equity through fierce yet compassionate dialogue against racism and systematic white supremacy.
Can a person be both fierce and compassionate at once? Directly challenge racist speech or actions without seeking to humiliate the other person? Interrupt hateful or habitual forms of discrimination in new ways that foster deeper change? Dr. Roxy Manning believes it's possible—and you can learn how.
In this book, Dr. Manning provides a new way to conceive of antiracist conversations, along with the practical tools and frameworks that make them possible. Her work is grounded in the idea of Beloved Community, as articulated by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as a goal to aspire to and even experience now, in the present, when we refuse to give up on the possibility of human connection within ourselves, with potential allies, and with those whose words and actions create harm. This book fuels courage and provides tools to confront everyday forms of racism. It walks the reader through an effective, efficient model of dialogue that utilizes concepts of nonviolent communication and helps normalize talking about racism instead of treating it like a "third rail," strictly avoided or touched at one's peril.
Readers will
• Be empowered to identify what kind of antiracist conversation they want to have—for example, do they only want to be heard, or do they want to negotiate a change in policy?
• Learn how to engage in antiracist conversations whether they are the Actor (person who says or does something racist), the Receiver (the target of racism), or the Bystander.
• Learn how to notice the underlying needs and values that motivate all human actions and how those values can open up pathways to transformation.
Examples of antiracist conversations highlight different ways to initiate dialogue, raise awareness, speak one's truth, and make clear, doable requests or demands for change.
Drawing on her experience as a clinical psychologist, a nonviolent communication practitioner, and an Afro-Caribbean immigrant, Dr. Manning provides a model of antiracist dialogue with practical applications for individuals and organizations.
Praise for How to Have Antiracist Conversations: Embracing Our Full Humanity to Challenge White Supremacy
“This book is for anyone on a racial justice journey. Readers will come back to it often as they move beyond dualistic right-wrong thinking about racism, toward an ability to skillfully reduce the occurrences of racism around them while, most importantly, centering and improving the experience of Global Majority people. Thank you, Dr. Manning, for providing these tools which so effectively blend the approaches of nonviolent communication with the principles of anti-racism. Your willingness to share your expertise and lived experience is creating positive change in communities across the country.”
—Lee Warnecke, Southern Poverty Law Center
“We are living in an age of racial reckoning. Racial healing is a real possibility, but so is racial conflict. How to Have Antiracist Conversations is a road map to racial healing, grounded in the practice of nonviolence and a commitment to reconciliation. In times of such uncertainty, this book is a much-needed guide for us all.”
—Kazu Haga, author of Healing Resistance and Fierce Vulnerability
“Roxy’s book is a timely, clear, and systematic how-to that is vital in responding to the most pressing issues of our time. If you are committed to social justice, structural changes, and uplifting communities around the globe, read this book!”
—Kobi Skolnick, founder of Lead for Impact
“If you intend to make shifts in your individual understanding of race as it impacts your life, Roxy Manning’s book is a support in taking the first step: conversations with you. If you are collecting tools that support your contribution to compassionate conversations about our collective humanity, this book will help you build a powerful toolbox.”
—Ericka Huggins, abolitionist, author, and poet
