Come As You Are
An Anti-Racism Workshop for White Men. No Prep Required.
New Dates Coming Soon!
Not sure where to start? We get it.
You are invited to join us as we wrestle, together, with shame, responsibility, accountability, and healing.
It’s an honor to do this work with you. Why? We hear that white men want to show up better for People of Color. We hear men say they want to be less reactive, more in their bodies, and that they desire to stop intellectualizing everything. We’ve heard men share how they aren’t sure where they fit into anti-racism work. In these circles, men describe how easy it is to NOT engage in anti-racism work. Men want to be more clear on what to “do,” and how to be. Most importantly, men want to step out of isolation and into community. That vulnerable act deserves safety and care.
AND, life is busy and people need small bites and regular support that’s different from our full 10-week Men Connecting: Understanding Whiteness program. Guys asked and we listened. We’ve created this workshop—Come As You Are—in response to this ask. It’s intended to be a taste of the full program (By the way, the next MC:UW cohort starts in April).
Our commitment is to support us all (yeah, all of us...facilitators included) in having conversations that help us to not simply understand our whiteness in the mind, but feel in the heart and body as well. We’ll create a judgment-free space that allows us to be in inquiries that move us out of isolation and stagnation, and into something bigger—together.
Program Details:
New Dates Coming Soon!
Timing: 3 hours; unable to join this time? Join the waitlist below.
Gatherings are typically held virtually on Zoom (computer or tablet with a camera required)
Our meetings will include personal reflection as well as small and large group discussion
We will use the body, as well as the heart and mind, to explore our experience around race
An opportunity to connect 1:1 with other men following the workshop, with a framework offered to support connecting
The workshop is limited to twenty men in order to foster greater trust, vulnerability, and closeness
Guys - it’s impossible to do this work alone.
So, who are your people?
Does this sound like you?
I am sympathetic to the cause but don’t have a lot of spaces to have conversations about race (especially with white men)
I don’t know where to even start with conversations about race. I feel my white-maleness makes it hard to ‘find a way in’.
I’m worried about being judged for what I do or don’t say. I’m worried about being ‘put on blast’ if I say the wrong thing.
I’m interested in leading these hard but important conversations with friends, family, and colleagues, but I’m not sure if I can.
I notice myself feeling shame, guilt, and all-around discomfort when confronting issues related to my whiteness and its impact on others
I believe that I personally have something to gain in this work, but it’s hard to put my finger on what that exactly means.
I just want to dive into some really honest conversations that are different from what I’m used to doing in my day to day.
Feeling unsure?
(Gently) ask yourself these questions:
“Who is a fellow white man I can call when I’m feeling shut-down/ashamed around whiteness or patriachy?”
“When I examine the growth/development I’ve experienced around race/gender, is the person doing the labor of teaching me a women? Perhaps my partner? Did they consent to that responsibility?”
“When was the last time I was in a room (physical or virtual) where several white-bodied men shared vulnerably about their wrestling with race, and how they fit into a changing world?”
“How will my life be better (right now) if racism and patriarchy ended? What is possible?”
Still unsure, but want to explore a bit more? Reach out for a short call to discuss if this might be for you.
But…what do we actually do?
Over the course of the three hours together, we’ll…
Ground into our bodies through movement, mindfulness, and perhaps some singing (mumbling totally welcome)
Build a container of trust and safety that allows each of us to deepen in our authenticity in conversations about race
Engage our creativity through “sessioning”, a powerful self-reflection technique in both small and large groups
Explore challenging questions in a unique format that helps us question what we often take as “just the way it is”
Connect in a supported way to other white-bodied men who are looking to engage more deeply in this work in community
And probably a few other things! We like to improvise :)
Invest in Yourself:
We believe that everyone should have access to programs like this, so we don’t want money to stand in the way. We also know that some have more to offer than others. That said, we offer a sliding scale of $50 - $200. Those who are able to pay more make it possible for everyone to attend. If the low end is out of reach for you, please reach out to us. We have a limited number of scholarship spaces available.
“How do I decide on how much to pay?”
Think about it like this: how much feels like an investment, but doesn’t keep you up at night? We want you to feel like you’ve got some skin in the game, but not stress about it. 20% of all earnings from this workshop will be donated to the Grief to Action, a project by Holistic Resistance to create a place for People of the Global Majority to safely grieve the carnage they experience on a day-to-day basis.
Your Facilitators
Gregory Flynn (he/him)
“I don’t think I realized how alone I was (and felt) in this work until I stepped into my first anti-racism workshop (getting away from just reading the books), and saw how few other white guys there were. Building community around this work has been a gamechanger for me. It’s become crystal clear that I need others around me to be able to engage in this work.”
Aaron Johnson (he/him)
Aaron Johnson is an earth builder, teacher of closeness, and activist. He focuses on work with the Chronically UnderTouched, particularly African Heritage people. As co-founder of Holistic Resistance, Aaron takes the time to hold the stories of Black people around homophobia, transphobia, internalized racism, those that are Chronically OverTouched without consent, and incest survivors.
Aaron will be joining the online session, but not the in-person session.
A Little Background:
In 2020, we created the Men Connecting: Understanding Whiteness program to give white-bodied men a space to challenge themselves around race, give and receive support in the generally challenging conversation, and to disrupt some of the conditioning we’ve received as men when it comes to engaging in topics around race. Since then, we’ve had four amazing cohorts, continued the conversations in monthly gatherings, and more.