White Racial Awareness Process training

[Haruo]

Tomorrow (9 to 3) I'll be at , one of our Evergreen sister churches, for a WRAP training session. training, sponsored by the Euro Caucus, developed by the and led by the intriguingly named Lucky Lynch. According to the Evergreen website, WRAP will "offer Euro members an understanding of how racism affects Euro-Americans"... Maybe then I will be able to answer Jonathan's dangling query of some weeks past. It looks like Evergreen and some Episcopalians in Texas are the main beneficiaries of WRAP training so far.

Saturday will be the Evergreen Building Bridges Event, similar to what we used to call "Tools of the Trade" in ABCNW. Eric Law, founder-leader of the Kaleidoscope Institute, will be the featured speaker, so if tomorrow's session raises questions overnight, I can put them to the source.

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: Haruo when you say "Saturday will be the Evergreen Building Bridges Event, similar to what we used to call "Tools of the Trade" in ABCNW. " I wonder if any one else here has ever heard of what you refer to as "Tools of the Trade"?

I would like to see some sort of similar programs on this side of the country, if any one is aware of one or more please let me know.

However, I am some what uncomfortable the title as presented in this thread. It seem to imply that only whites need "racial awareness process training". I do not believe that is the position advanced by ABC-USA. And it does not reflect the attitude of either Dr. Wright - Riggins or Dr. Medley.

[Haruo]

Both a little more on WRAP and the program of the Building Bridges Event can be found in the . Perhaps by looking at the Event program you can tell if it's similar to anything you have available in your Area or Region or whatever. I just sorta assumed in my insular (or is it parochial) Western Washington Way that all ABC regions or their subdivisions offered such get-togethers. As I mentioned, we used to have "Tools of the Trade" along similar lines in ABCNW (and I believe they still have it).

As far as being a bit uncomfortable with the title of WRAP, I would think something was wrong if it didn't at least raise a few red flags. I may find out differently tomorrow, but my impression going into it is not that it is meant to imply that only Whites (or "Euro folk", as we call them) need racial awareness training, but that the kinds/foci of awareness training that Whites are likely to need are quite different from the kinds Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, First Peoples, etc. etc. are likely to need. Our historical experience of the racism endemic in the culture is quite different, and we are often encouraged by the system to think that we have not been affected by racism (even if we are sensitized to how we, or our ancestors, have inflicted its effects on others). I'm quite interested to see if the training seems to me, in retrospect, to have been worth the effort of waking up early. (I'm a swing-shift worker, so getting up for a 9 am event on Friday and again for an equally early event on Saturday, on a weekend when I also have a song to sing (or three) on Sunday morning, is a lot to ask of myself, maybe more than I should. We'll see.

[Ed Pettibone]

[Haruo]

[Haruo]

Okay, I've got to get to bed, as my ride will be here in about 8 hours to go to Building Bridges, but in the meantime let me just say that I found WRAP very very interesting. Lucky Lynch, whom I had pictured in my mind as a male, either Black or Asian, turned out to be a White woman. There were probably about 20 people present, all apparently predominantly Euro in skin tone , fairly evenly split by gender, and almost all my age (54) or older. Lunch was a baked potato with a variety of toppings. Dr. Gay and I were the only Fremonters; probably eight or ten churches in Evergreen or in a couple cases maybe ABCNW were represented, as well as one stray Lutheran. More later when I have time to reflect and recast.