A RACIAL HEALING CIRCLE IS NOT a one time solution, a “check the box activity,” because a racial healing circle, done well, STARTS a process and reinforces processes of racial healing. Racial healing circles are not an event for blaming people or trying to shame people. That is not what a racial healing circle is, quite the opposite. Racial healing circles are also not divisive activities. To the contrary, they unify. Racial healing circles are not an opportunity for a deep-seeded, contentious discussion about race, after all the purposes is unity so a racial healing circle is not an opportunity for deep discussions, it’s more about humanity. A racial healing circle is not a training class. It’s not something that you go to and zone out and black out your video and your microphone or just kind of listen to it quietly. It’s very participative. A racial healing circle is also not a cross cultural competency workshop which seems to be a possible label for things that people keep calling things. Though peoples cultures will enter into the circle as they decide. A racial healing circle is not a methodology that aims to traumatize or re-traumatize people. It is a methodology that helps with healing. I would also say a racial healing circle is also not necessarily a place where race will be discussed because what is discussed depends on the attendees. Finally, I would say a racial healing circle, though it does start the healing process, is not therapy. though every time I participate or facilitated one I am transformed. – Dr. J. Goosby Smith
A RACIAL HEALING CIRCLE IS an invitation and an opportunity for individuals to come together in a welcoming confidential space to engage with each other through personal storytelling and deep listening. Circles are guided by trained facilitators who themselves demonstrate a high degree of emotional self awareness, humility, empathy, humor and joy. Through a 90 minute or sometimes longer session, facilitators encourage the sharing of personal stories in large and small groups and with partners. Through the act of self reflection and deep listening we are able to learn to honor and respect the experiences of those in our circle. We’re able to lift up what unites us rather than what divides us. We are able to recognize that the person who disagrees with us is not our enemy. We are able to affirm the humanity in all of us and to see ourselves in each other’s stories. In racial healing circles we are all equal; there is no hierarchy among the group. As we engage with each other in these circles and we take these stories with us into our lives, we begin dismantling the false belief of hierarchies of human value. This idea that human beings can be divided and ranked based on their physical characteristics is replaced with the belief of the interconnectedness of humanity. – Tessa Updike