Study & Action Program

A Training for White People Ready to Unlearn White Supremacy & Take Action

Welcome! SURJ Bay Area is excited to invite you to participate in our free online Study & Action Program, which has been streamlined into three impactful sessions this fall. Doing the work to unlearn white supremacy and take accountable, principled action toward racial justice is needed now more than ever.  This condensed version of our curriculum is designed to help you dig into the history of white supremacy, learn about the newly organized SURJ Bay Area campaigns, and plug into specific ways that you can bring your skills to the fight for collective liberation.

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Why Participate in Study & Action?

Throughout history, social movements have engaged in political education to inform how and why we organize, mobilize, and take action for justice and liberation. This fall series of Study & Action is condensed into three sessions that get to the core of what we need to know so that we may respond to urgent calls to action with integrity. Whether you ultimately plug into our Palestine Solidarity campaign, our Invest in Community Campaign working toward reimagining public safety, or choose another way to take action, this series will help you deepen your understanding of the current moment in a supportive group setting of like-minded people.

Study & Action participants get trained to: 

• Examine how white supremacy shows up in our own lives

• Talk to loved ones about public safety, white supremacy, mass incarceration, prison closures and reinvesting in our communities
• Work together to take action to end the ongoing genocide in Palestine 
• Educate others about both Palestinian liberation and combating antisemitism
• Clearly define our personal stake in ending white supremacy 
• Envision a future of collective liberation
• …and more!
  

What To Expect

The Study & Action series will have a total of three live sessions, hosted on Zoom every other Thursday from 7:00-9:00 pm (PST), from October 10 - November 7, 2024. 

• Session 1 (Thursday, October 10): Framing White Supremacy and Anti-Racism
• Session 2 (Thursday, October 24): “Public Safety” and Repression in the US and Palestine
• Session 3 (Thursday, November 7): Collective Liberation and Your Path Forward
  

In each session, facilitators will lead discussions on the topics of the history of white supremacy; the links between capitalism, slavery, and incarceration; and the Palestine solidarity movement. We will engage in small and large group conversations, journaling, role playing, and other creative activities. A portion of each evening will be devoted to learning how you can take action to support collective liberation, including how to plug into our SURJ campaigns. 

Your Commitment

Study & Action participants are asked to:

• Commit to attending each 2-hour sessions (three sessions total). Live participation is a very important part of the program and the sessions will not be recorded.
• Have access to a computer with reliable internet to attend Zoom sessions. Every session is hosted on Zoom with auto captions with a live transcript enabled.  
• Allow enough time to read/watch/listen to the pre-session assignments (~2-3 hours prep time per session). We offer captioned videos or transcripts of any videos without captions, transcripts of podcasts, and audio recordings of any text-based resources that are included as homework or during the sessions. 

• Be open to taking action with SURJ Campaigns, SURJ Action Hours, or other initiatives as you are able (i.e. calling or emailing representatives, making public comments at virtual hearings, attending rallies if you live nearby, etc). None of these out-of-session actions are mandatory, as we realize they might not always work for your schedule, but we encourage you to own your power and get involved!

We are committed to making our program as accessible as possible. If you have other access needs, please let us know by emailing us at [email protected]. Also get in touch if you have any questions about Study & Action.

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Past Participant Testimonials

“I feel that I'm empowered to engage in collaboration around social justice actions with greater ease and self assurance and to continue to develop in my sense of ease and self confidence. I'm grateful.”

“I feel more grounded in owning my reason for doing racial justice work collectively, to build towards the world that I want to be a part of. I've often been (and still am to a degree) motivated by guilt to do what I think I ‘should’ do and this work together helped me see my role more clearly.”

“The learnings touched other parts of my life, the intersectional pieces were helpful for me to see the value of co-liberation futures. “

“The resources were amazing . . . I loved the community aspect and the vulnerable space the facilitators fostered.”