The Mad River Valley Anti-Racism Initiative (MRVARI) will be meeting this Sunday. This is a discussion group that has been meeting monthly for well over five years. While open to all, our discussions are generally geared toward the learning and evolution of white people.
Some things are harder to talk about than others. The problem of systemic racism in our society is one such example. Because the roots of this thorny subject extend deep into the perversions of a greedy, violent past, most Americans have simply learned to avoid the subject. For white people at least, talking about race often seems to risk kicking up painful, ultimately unhelpful feelings of guilt, confusion, and unease.
But the truth is: talking about hard things helps. Respectful exchange brings oxygen into the room, freeing our minds, and creating a space where learning, compassion, growth, and change become possible. No one is immune to the toxic effects of systemic racism. And learning to tolerate the discomfort of fraught conversations is a healthy place to start loosening the ties that bind.
Please join us this Sunday 3/24, from 6:30-8:00 pm, at the Village Meeting House (1st floor of Waitsfield Church) for our monthly meeting. You don't need to have attended before. Just bring your good heart, your open mind, and a willingness to keep your attention more on what you don't know than on what you think you do! Hope to see you there.
Wrenn Compere, facilitator
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