The Anti-Racist White Affinity Group (ARWAG) is a gathering of Lawrence staff and faculty seeking to understand and challenge racism. Recognizing that anti-racist work is disproportionately borne by people of color, ARWAG is a setting for white people to take responsibility for educating ourselves about racism and for challenging white supremacy from the inside. Organized as a study group, ARWAG will read and discuss materials that help us understand how racism operates, especially in its insidious forms that are harder for white people to notice in action—white privilege, unconscious / implicit bias, and structural racism.
To join the ARWAG Moodle group and get information on upcoming meetings and readings, please contact Emmy Wilson (Emily.r.wilson@lawrence.edu) or Jenna Stone (stonej@lawrence.edu).
We change our meeting day and time each term. For Winter Term, our meetings will be Thursdays 1/24, 2/7, and 2/21 at 4:30.
Interested in finding a space to talk and learn about race, but not sure if ARWAG is for you?
If you are a faculty or staff member who identifies primarily as white, and…
- if you aren’t entirely sure what “privilege” is or how you may have benefited from it;
- if you are uncomfortable talking about race;
- if you have questions about race or privilege that you’re embarrassed to ask about;
- if you feel that you treat everyone equally and don’t understand why that is not enough;
- if you have noticed that you have unconscious biases about race but don’t know what to do about it;
- if you have noticed ways that you participate in structures or systems or networks that are race-neutral on the surface but, in practice, perpetuate racist outcomes;
- if you want to be part of the solution and work toward a more racially equitable and just society;
If one or more of these sound like you … then this study group is for you.