Community Conversation About Racism

Community Conversation About Racism
Posted on 02/07/2019
On January 24th, at our first Community Conversation about Racism, we had about 80 adults and about 45 children in attendance. When we started planning for this event, we had no way of anticipating how many people would show up. Our school council meetings typically have between 5 and 20 people present, and while we hoped for a greater crowd than that, we just didn’t know. Huge thanks to the parents who stepped in and ordered more pizza when we ran out!

Our facilitators, Allyson Livingstone and Gene Thompson-Grove, had planned a meaty agenda for us, though they clearly had to modify when they saw the size of the crowd. They started by having us a build connections with one another and share why we showed up for this conversation about racism. Next we spent time setting norms for the work together. We ended with what is really the beginning-- identifying where racism shows up at Cambridgeport.

Our next session will give us an opportunity and additional tools for identifying and addressing racism at Cambridgeport. I recognize that some people felt that this conversation did not go far enough in addressing the racism that individuals have experienced in this school. I hope that if you felt this way, you will continue to come out for these conversations so that we might work together to build a better community for all of our children. Our children also had the opportunity to engage in this conversation in a separate session with Wee the People leader, Francie LaTour. She led a session for children titled What is Racism?, helping them to recognize where racism shows up in systemic ways, not just interpersonal ways. The session was hands-on and arts-based, and incredibly engaging for the children.

This was the first in a four part series. Everyone is invited to attend every session. However, you do not have to attend every session to attend one session. If you did not come on January 24th, please still come to our next session on Wednesday, February 27th.  

Details about our next Community Conversation about Racism at Cambridgeport:

When: Wednesday, February 27th, 6-8PM (dinner served at 5:30)


Where: Everyone will eat together in the cafeteria, then the children will have their session in the library and the adults will have our session in the gym (with tables set up).


Food:  We will serve pizza, pasta, and salad starting at 5:30.

RSVP: If you plan to attend, help us out by RSVPing. But you can always still come even if you don’t RSVP. 

See flyer >>
Website by SchoolMessenger Presence. © 2024 SchoolMessenger Corporation. All rights reserved.