Bridging the Divide: Confronting Anti-Blackness in South Asian Communities

Event Date: Starts on Friday, April 11 · 6:30pm CDT

In collaboration with the South Asian Solidarity Movement (SASM), this community workshop event will center issues of African American and Asian American caste systems and various race relations.

The anti-racism space tends to operate in a Black and White Binary, oftentimes erasing the fact that South Asian Americans are also complicit in upholding and perpetuating the systems of White supremacy and anti-Blackness. This interactive workshop and community conversation will examine how the subconscious and omnipresent systems of whiteness and anti-Blackness manifests and is perpetuated in South Asian American communities and families. Participants of this community building learning experience will have an opportunity to engage in learning and critical cross-racial dialogue about how South Asian Americans across varying ethnic groups can come together to meaningfully stand in solidarity with Black Americans. Participants will engage in self reflection and explore key concepts and allyship strategies that can prepare South Asian Americans to be catalysts of racial inclusion within their own families and communities. Facilitated by South Asian Solidarity Movement members, Cindu Thomas-George, Rebekah James Lovett and Shanta N. Kanukollu and will feature guest speaker Dominique Roland aka MC Zulu.South Asian Solidarity Movement is an initiative led by a multigenerational team of Chicago leaders committed to promoting inclusion, equity and engaging in cross-racial solidarity within the city of Chicago and beyond.

*This program is supported by a Healing IL grant from the Field Foundation and Illinois Department of Humanities.

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