Steps Toward Becoming Anti-Racist

On April 22, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant Brenda Suazo led SPARRC (SAAS Parents for Awareness, Race Relations and Community) in a thought provoking and impactful workshop titled “Steps Toward Becoming Anti-Racist: Uncovering Personal Racial Biases.” The goal of this workshop was to provide parents with a deeper understanding of different types of biases, whether conscious or unconscious, implicit or explicit, and how one’s own biases impact their daily lives. This foundational awareness serves to empower individuals to explore ways to disrupt unintended and oppressive patterns of behavior, which is vital for creating a more diverse, equitable and inclusive community. For parents, recognizing one’s own biases and understanding where they come from will help inform the conversations they have with their children about race and racism. 

As is always the case with SPARRC events, valuable points were made such as defining microaggressions and understanding their relationship to power dynamics. Parents were also encouraged to commit to actions to notice biases that impact everyday decisions and behaviors, and to create safety nets to mitigate unwanted biased behavior. Brenda packed a lot of information in, and even still, it was pretty clear that such a nuanced topic deserves more time. SPARRC reflected that they will work to keep this conversation going in all of their future meetings and also hopes to offer a workshop like this again next school year. 

SPARRC is a learning space for SAAS parents of all backgrounds to discuss matters of race and equity. SPARRC regularly holds events like this one and always focuses on their role as parents and community members. For more information about SPARRC events and contacts, visit their Padlet site.  

Their next meeting will be on June 3rd at 6pm via Zoom. 

Branda Suazo is the Founder of Offshootz: a Seattle-based, woman-owned consultancy. They facilitate workshops centered around discussion and participation in understanding the impact of specific (un)conscious biases on individual, interpersonal, and systemic levels. Participants leave their workshops with tools, stories, and strategies to leverage awareness and challenge the oppressive impact of unconscious bias, especially as it relates to identity and the social construct of race. 

 Additional resources can be found here