Conversations on Race and Racism

in partnership with Food for the Spirit

Providing authentic, grounded, and respectful training to support teachers and school leaders who wish to have conversations about race and racism with K-12 students.

Conversations on race and racism are often missing in mostly white (especially rural) schools. While this omission is understandable given the lack of racial diversity and uncomfortable nature of the conversations, it has disastrous results. When we don’t have the conversations, “we’re the ones training the future racists,” (commented a former Western NY superintendent). The most horrifying example yet is the tragic May 14, 2022 mass shooting in Buffalo. 

Having these conversations in the classroom can be hard and uncomfortable and without adequate support, some teachers find them downright impossible. It’s critical that teachers and leaders have the tools and support to approach these conversations with empathy and grace.

Our workshops offer this support.

  1. Participants feel comfortable sharing with each other and being vulnerable.

  2. Participants grow skills related to listening and supporting others, expressing empathy and understanding for experiences and perspectives different from their own.

  3. Participants identify one to two ways they can address issues of race or racism in their own classrooms.

Workshop Outcomes

Workshop Details

Workshops are:

  • participatory and immersive

  • designed to model structures and activities that participants can use as foundations for conversations in their classrooms and schools

  • meant for everyone, including students, teachers, support staff, and leaders.

  • half day, full day and multi-day workshops

  • standards aligned (Standards connections are listed below.)

When we have vulnerable, open conversations about race and racism, there are tangible and multiplying positive impacts on students and communities.
These impacts include:

  • preparing all students to live and work in a multiracial, globally-connected world.

  • creating safer spaces and communities for people of color, including students.

  • growing crucial life skills in communication, perspective taking, and empathy for all involved.

Facilitators

All facilitators are members of the Finger Lakes Accountability Network (FLAN), which is an initiative of Food for the Spirit.

The Finger Lakes Accountability Network (FLAN) is a multi-racial and multi-generational group of people who meet regularly and build relationships with each other in the western Finger Lakes Region of New York State. Committed to the interracial work of cultivating a culture of curiosity, courage, and commitment to dismantling systems of oppression, members of FLAN start by looking within ourselves, focusing on the necessity and joy of racial healing, as well as ecological justice and equitable food systems.

The workshops were developed as a collaboration between two FLAN members, Anneke Radin-Snaith, Living Is Learning & Rebekah Williams, Co-Founder of Food for the Spirit. Anneke and Rebekah work with other members of FLAN as co-facilitators.

Anneke has recently transitioned from 25 years in teaching and educational leadership to working as a life coach and facilitator. As as middle school social studies teacher in a small rural school, she often wrestled with how to have conversations on race and racism. During her time as Director of Technology, Instruction, and Professional Learning, she was part of district and regional conversations around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Throughout her career, Anneke has held a commitment to social justice and anti-racism work, including time working for AmeriCorp I Have a Dream Foundation, to co-founding Our Worlds Connect, which seeks to connect rural and urban youth.

Rebekah Williams is an organizer and trainer from Western New York and co-founder of Food for the Spirit (F4tS). With nearly thirty years working in nonprofits, Rebekah has experience encouraging youth leadership, social and racial justice, environmentalism, and the arts. Rebekah has a BA in Social Structure, Theory and Change from SUNY Empire State College; and she has completed training with the Buffalo Montessori Teacher Education Program, Center for Economic Democracy in Boston MA, HEAL Food Alliance and Movement Generation in Oakland CA, North American Students of Cooperation in Chicago IL, and Training for Change in Philadelphia PA.

About Food for the Spirit (F4tS):

Food for the Spirit (F4tS) is a nonprofit organization that uses the arts and creative facilitation to cultivate racial healing, ecological justice, and equitable food systems. We do this by encouraging dialogue around issues of race and racism in the food system; facilitating the development of place-based networks, collective advocacy, and collaboration; and supporting community storytelling, shifting narratives and public understanding. Partnering with people and communities in Buffalo, Western New York, the Finger Lakes, and beyond, F4tS develops and supports networks where people work together to address the issues they experience. Ultimately, F4tS brings methods and strategies from movement leaders and systems-thinkers to support the development of local communities. For more information visit: https://foodforthespirit.org .

Anneke Radin-Snaith

Rebekah Williams

Connections to New York State Standards

  • Theme #5:

    Development and Transformation of Social Structures, Role of social class, systems of stratification, social groups, and institutions, Role of gender, race, ethnicity, education, class, age, and religion in defining social structures within a culture Social and political inequalities, Expansion and access of rights through concepts of justice and human rights.

    http://www.nysed.gov/common/nysed/files/programs/curriculum-instruction/ss-framework-k-12-intro.pdf pg 11

  • Speaking & Listening Anchor Standards

    Comprehension and Collaboration

    STANDARD 1: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners; express ideas clearly and persuasively, and build on those of others.

    STANDARD 2: Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats (including visual, quantitative, and oral).

    STANDARD 3: Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.

    http://www.nysed.gov/common/nysed/files/programs/curriculum-instruction/nys-next-generation-ela-standards.pdf pg 6

  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

    The Board of Regents and the New York State Education Department have come to understand that the results we seek for all our children can never be fully achieved unless we re-focus every facet of our work through an equity and inclusion lens (see also New York State’s Every Student Succeeds Act Plan). This understanding has created an urgency around promoting equitable opportunities that help all children thrive. New York State understands that the responsibility of education is not only to prevent the exclusion of historically silenced, erased, and disenfranchised groups, but also to assist in the promotion and perpetuation of cultures, languages and ways of knowing that have been devalued, suppressed, and imperiled by years of educational, social, political, economic neglect and other forms of oppression.

    https://www.regents.nysed.gov/common/regents/files/421brd1.pdf pg 7, lines 161-172

  • Goal 3: Demonstrate intentional decision-making skills and behaviors that consider social, emotional, and physical safety and well-being in personal, family, school, and community contexts.

    3C: Take action to support the wellbeing of their school and community, including taking stands against bias and injustice.

    hhttps://www.p12.nysed.gov/sss/documents/SELBenchmarks2022.pdf p12