Race-Based Affinity Group Dialogues

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion offers ongoing opportunities for the Harvard Chan community – students, faculty, and staff – to participate in a series of race-based affinity group sessions.

What are race-based affinity groups?

Race-based affinity groups, or race caucuses, provide an opportunity for people to explore, unpack, and engage in conversation on the various interpersonal dynamics, beliefs, and thoughts that shape our racialized experiences as members of a community. Because of who we are, our racial identities and lived experiences will inform the conversations and work that we do in affinity groups. These can be spaces for processing, healing, or deep interrogation of our own beliefs.

Because of the presence of anti-Black racism, we want to create space to explore this aspect of racism as well. When participating in race-based affinity groups, there is work that we must do both within and across racial groups. The creation of these affinity groups is to provide space for dialogue among a group of individuals of shared identity and critical identity intersections.

Schedule

Below is the 2020-2021 schedule of affinity group reflection sessions for Harvard Chan faculty and staff. (Similar student-only sessions, as well as opportunities for the entire Harvard Chan community to engage in dialogue, will be held at a later date.)

Each session will be held from 4:00 to 5:15 pm ET and will be led by an ODI staff member and/or designated facilitator. Advance registration required.

BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or People of Color), Multiracial, or Biracial faculty and staff	White-identified faculty and staff
Tuesday, October 20 Focus: Knowledge of strategies of self-care and community care and networking while navigating racial terrain	Wednesday, October 21 Focus: Self-awareness on one’s own positionality and power
Tuesday, December 8 Focus: Knowledge of how to engage in difficult moments around race	Wednesday, December 9 Focus: Personal awareness of areas needed for communication with peers of color
Tuesday, February 9 Focus: Discussion of how internalized anti-Blackness manifests in communities of color \| Register	Thursday, February 11 Focus: Knowledge of how to move through discomfort to discuss race \| Register
Monday, March 29 Focus: Techniques and frameworks for leading race dialogue within and across indigenous and communities of color \| Register	Thursday, April 1 Focus: Knowledge of skills for leading and having race dialogue across racial difference \| Register