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Unlearning Circles

Our next Unlearning Circle:

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Characteristics of White Supremacy: Individualism

 

Please join us on zoom March 27th at 8 pm ET, 7 pm CT, 5 pm PT, for our Undoing White Supremacy in Kink Community Unlearning Circle. In this unlearning circle we will return to another characteristic of white supremacy culture: Individualism. (See resources below for more about these characteristics as defined by Tema Okun and Kenneth Jones.) The website says this about Individualism. "Our cultural story that we make it on our own, without help, while pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps, is a toxic denial of our essential interdependence and the reality that we are all in this, literally, together." Come discuss how individualism impacts our leather, kink, and BDSM communities and perpetuates racism in our lives.

Hope to see you there!

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Past Unlearning Circles:

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Characteristics of White Supremacy: Perfectionism and Individualism

 

Join us February 27  at 8 pm ET, 7 pm CT, 5 pm PT for UWSINKC’s second Unlearning Circle of 2023 where we will focus on Perfectionism and Individualism as characteristics of White Supremacy Culture.

Both Perfectionism and Individualism act as a barrier to changing the conditions of racism in ourselves, our institutions and our cultures. We will explore why these white supremacy culture characteristics get in the way of building anti-racist practices in our BDSM/Kink/Leather communities. We will also discuss ways that the BDSM/Kink/Leather communities may already have values that undermine these characteristics. What can we embrace as we seek to undo the harmful effects of white supremacy?

 

From Tema Okun’s website, White Supremacy Culture, we find this description:

“While white supremacy culture affects us all, harms us all, and is toxic to us all… Our experience of white supremacy culture and our navigation of white supremacy culture is very different based on who we are and our lived experience, our race, our class, our gender, our sexuality, our religion ... all the ways in which oppressions intersect.

This brew is a cancer, a dis-ease, an addiction, an infliction and it

infects everything with and without our awareness.”

 

In our unlearning circles, we engage in large and small group discussions to address racism at individual, cultural and systemic levels. We will explore ways perfectionism and individualism keep us from fostering connection and justice. We will ask ourselves, What are the cultural practices in the BDSM leather kink communities that uphold white supremacy and what are the tools that we have to interrupt it?

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We hope to see you there!

UWSinKC invites you to give us feedback about the Unlearning Circles (ULCs) - what you like about our format and ideas you have for ways ULCs could better meet your needs - things you’d like us to try, explore more, and what might be altered.

Please take a few minutes to email UWSinKC@UWSinKC.com with the subject line: feedback ULC.  

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Resources

People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond - Antiracist Principles

https://www.pisab.org/our-principles/

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Characteristics of White Supremacy: Perfectionism

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Join us  January 30th at 7 pm CT, 5 pm PT for UWSINKC’s first Unlearning Circle of 2023 where we will focus on Perfectionism as a characteristic of White Supremacy Culture. Perfectionism is a barrier to changing the conditions of racism in ourselves, our institutions and our cultures. We will explore why perfectionism is a quality of white supremacy culture and how it gets in the way of building anti-racist practices in our BDSM/Kink/Leather communities. We will also discuss ways that the BDSM/Kink/Leather communities may already have values that undermine the power of perfectionism. How can we embrace our imperfection as we seek to undo the harmful effects of white supremacy?

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From Tema Okun’s website, White Supremacy Culture, we find this description:

“While white supremacy culture affects us all, harms us all, and is toxic to us all… Our experience of white supremacy culture and our navigation of white supremacy culture is very different based on who we are and our lived experience, our race, our class, our gender, our sexuality, our religion ... all the ways in which oppressions intersect.

This brew is a cancer, a dis-ease, an addiction, an affliction and it infects everything with and without our awareness.”

​

In our unlearning circles, we engage in large and small group discussions to address racism at individual, cultural and systemic levels. We will discuss antidotes that we can employ to replace perfectionism with other qualities that foster connection and justice. We will ask ourselves, What are the cultural practices in the BDSM leather kink communities that uphold white supremacy and what are the tools that we have to interrupt it?

 

Resources

People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond - Antiracist Principles

https://www.pisab.org/our-principles/

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