Last Saturday I participated in the Village Zendo’s “White Work on Racism” (WWOR). There were 23 or so participants. It was about how we formed our perceptions of who was good and who was bad, what aspirations we were raised to have, and so on. The next WWOR meeting will focus on class/caste. The leader mentioned the book Caste, I believe it is by Isabel Wilkerson.
The meeting started with a few minutes of sitting. Then a leader talked and gave a prompt, and anyone who wanted to respond would raise their hands (they called it “popcorn participation”). That part was like meetings at Treeleaf. A video was shown of a cheetah attacking a deer - it showed that the deer recovered by shaking, and our instruction then was to shake ourselves.
Then the facilitators broke us up into groups of three with a list of questions. One person would ask the questions (they were posted in chat on the ZOOM screen), another would respond, and a third person would pay attention to emotional responses to the interview and write those responses down. The roles would rotate every five minutes, so each of the three would take on each of the roles, and then there were five additional minutes where we could discuss what had happened within the threesome. I usually have a problem with feeling awkward when participating in small group discussions but found this format to be more natural to respond to.
Then the facilitators brought us back together on one screen, and again, if people wanted to say something about the experience, they could raise their hands to be called on. I’m glad I participated and want to participate in future meetings.
Sorry I ran quite a bit over three sentences.
Gassho,
Onkai
Sat/lah
