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Core Community Racial Justice Trainings
AAJIL’s Core Community Racial Justice Trainings are for EVERYONE. We offer them in order to equip you with histories and critical frameworks that can deepen the work of antiracism in your lives and in your communities. This three-part series intentionally integrates what is often left out of general racial justice education: Asian American experiences and decolonial values. They represent our beliefs and values as an organization and are the foundation for organizing emergent community-led labs for mutual care, community-building, collaboration and innovation.
This is a three-level program, with Fundamentals designed for people who care about racial justice but feel like they are just starting out on their journeys. Foundations is for those who are further along but who could use a deeper dive— this level focuses on aspects of systemic racism that ideologies of whiteness strategically invisibilize: the function of Asian racializations and oppressions within a white-dominant societal complex built upon anti-Indigenous and anti-Black infrastructures. Fundamentals and Foundations together aim to show why all of us need to know both our own histories as well as the histories of communities who don’t look like us. They represent our beliefs and values as an organization and are the foundation for organizing emergent community-led labs for mutual care, community-building, collaboration, and innovation.
Formations is the third level of our core trainings program that focuses on a small cohort of community lab organizers who emerge from the Foundations level. Formations offers them a unique community leadership development program that is built upon emergent strategy, decolonial values, and an ethics of solidarity. For Formations eligibility, participants need to: 1) have participated as a member of at least one AAJIL community lab in the past 2) attend all three Foundations trainings.
Level 1: Fundamentals
Connecting Histories: Collective Stories
In this workshop series, participants will be introduced to different historical and political formations of the Asian American identity. In this session, through dialogue and group interaction, participants will connect their own personal histories to larger themes in the Asian American experience.
*Recommended for those who have limited or no experience with exploring Asian American identity.
Aug 14, 2023 from 5:00pm - 7:00pm PST
Connecting Histories: Social Identities
This second session will explore Asian American identity formations, with participants reflecting on their intersecting social identities, while analyzing consequences of stereotypes and bias.
*Recommended for those who have limited or no experience with exploring Asian American identity.
Aug 21, 2023 from 5:00pm - 7:00pm PST
level 2: Foundations
History of Asian American Identity
This session explores the origin and history of “Asian American” identity, both as a racial construct and as a political movement, as well as the origin of the model minority myth and its function within white supremacy.
August 26, 2023 from 11:00am - 12:30am PST
Institutional Racism and "Modernity"
This session takes a deep dive into understanding systemic racism, with a focus on institutional racism as the historical engine of global “modernity.”
Sept 2, 2023 from 11:00am - 12:30am PST
Coloniality, Anti-Blackness, and White Supremacy
This session unpacks the connections between global histories of settler colonialism, militarization, and capitalism with anti-Blackness and white supremacy.
Sept 9, 2023 from 11:00am - 12:30am PST
Level 3: Formations
Following Foundations, AAJIL provides an 8-month community leadership development program for the cohort of volunteers who step up to lead our community labs for the year. This program is free, and leaders will receive a certificate of honor upon graduating from the program.
For Formations eligibility, participants need to:
1) have participated as a member of at least one AAJIL community lab in the past
2) attend all three Foundations trainings.
Our sessions cover
Power and Purpose
The Cycle of Liberation
Emergent Strategy
A Decolonial Guide
Creating Change and Maintaining Self
The Non-profit Industrial Complex
Community and Coalescing
Designing a Community Lab
Facilitation Training
Creating Defining Moments
Connection and Support
Applications are due on September 17, 2023.
