In response to the enormous upsurge in racial justice struggles, AWARE-LA (Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere; a somewhat grandiose title), which birthed White People for Black Lives, the Los Angeles affiliate of SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) has been busily integrating hundreds of new members who have been activated and energized in the streets in response to leadership from Black Lives Matter, the American Indian Movement, Centro CSO and other BIPOC organizations. Their long-running (15 years plus) Saturday drop-in dialogues are one of the main methods of bringing people in to ongoing deep relationships and struggle, and are now weekly via zoom.
https://www.awarela.org/saturday-dialogue
Saturday Dialogue is a gathering for white anti-racists who want to discuss issues of identity, community, privilege and racism in our lives with the intention to strengthen our practice as anti-racists in alliances, relationships, and interactions with people of color.
Regular, recurring dialogues throughout the year focus on the intersections of multiple identities, including Race and Class, Sexuality and Race, and Gender and Race. Other workshops focus on relationships, Radical White Identity and Community, and issues such as police and the prison industrial complex, immigration, and gentrification.
WHEN AND WHERE IS SATURDAY DIALOGUE?
We currently have four monthly Saturday Dialogues, which used to meet in various places throughout LA County, and are temporarily meeting online through Zoom. We also have one monthly “Online Sunday Dialogue” which was originally made available for folks who cannot make it to meetings in LA, or on Saturdays. Sign up here to receive reminder emails about Saturday Dialogues. We strongly encourage you to attend a Saturday Dialogue Orientation before attending a Saturday Dialogue. See below for more info.
Click the links below to register for the dialogue(s) you want to attend. You must register for each space each time you want to attend, as all of the zoom links are personalized and different for each person/gathering.
- Every 1st Saturday (Westside SD), 1:00pm – 3:15pm
- Every 2nd Saturday (Encino SD) , 10:30am – 12:30pm
- Every 3rd Saturday (Eastside SD), 1:00pm – 3:00pm
- Every 3rd Sunday (Always Online), 3:00pm – 5:00pm
- Every 4th Saturday (Pomona Valley SD), 11:00am – 1:00pm
We can provide ASL interpreters upon request. To ensure availability, please make your request at least 72 hours prior to the event you wish to attend.
WHEN IS SATURDAY DIALOGUE ORIENTATION?
Date & Time: Second & Fourth Wednesdays, 6:00pm – 7:00pm PDT
Location: Zoom, register here
Details: We strongly encourage you to attend a Saturday Dialogue Orientation before you attend a Saturday Dialogue. Please join us! In this orientation, we’ll talk about the purpose of Saturday Dialogues and why AWARE-LA organizes as a white anti-racist community. We’ll go over what a typical Saturday Dialogue agenda looks like, and talk about the different type of content that we do throughout the year. We’ll also tell you about the organizational structure of AWARE-LA, and then close out our time together with an opportunity for newcomers to ask questions of our facilitation team.
Accessibility: We can provide ASL interpreters and closed captioning upon request. To ensure availability, please make your request at least 72 hours prior to the event you wish to attend. Contact: awarela@gmail.com with questions
