GR3: GREAT RADICAL RACE READ

 

 

Radical Dharma’s Race Movement Project is amplifying this pivotal moment of reflection and reckoning by inviting the nation and beyond to join in the first-ever Great Radical Race READ (GR3), a five-week, transnational collective practice to transform race one circle, one conversation, one radical read at a time.

The READ (Race Education Awareness & Disruption) is happening right now with over 1,000 people reading to transform race and going #beyondthebookclub.

Planned prior to the twin pandemics of coronavirus and the scourge of white supremacy expressed through both police brutality and vigilante violence, GR3 is ever more poignant, timely and necessary right now. It has the potential to impact national education & conversation practice on a large scale.

FROM READING CIRCLES TO CONVERSATION: THE SUMMER RACE READ

Up until August 5th, there was a registration period for “Race Readers” to form reading & learning circles around one of five books that cover significant areas of race. Institutions, corporations and organizations that wish to dramatically increase awareness through this one-of-a-kind program are especially encouraged to enroll their members.

 

 

BOOKSHELF FOR GR3 2020

History
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

Systems & Structures
The New Jim Crow – Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Relationship How-To
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors

Healing & Embodiment
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem

Personal and Collective Transformation
Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Lama Rod Owens, and Dr. Jasmine Syedullah

For Teenagers:  The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas

For Children: A is for Activist, by Innosanto Nagara

Already reading a race book or have one in mind? Choose your own when you create a circle.

 

BACKGROUND: Program So Far

from EMANCIPATION to INTERDEPENDENCE to LIBERATION – GR3 campaign’s trajectory

EMANCIPATION – Juneteenth weekend

“We didn’t learn racism/anti-blackness/white supremacy alone. We can not unlearn it alone.”
This is the core message of GR3 that we began sharing as an invitation into a new Emancipation from the myth of individualism.

 

INTERDEPENDENCE – July 5th – 12 1/2-Hour Radical Read-a-thon

We re-connected in a time when so many have been isolated for a 12 ½ hour LIVE online read-a-thon (think old school Jerry Lewis-style) as we read Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation. July 5th was the time to acknowledge the deep Interdependence necessary for unbinding ourselves from the false dream-state of dominance over Blacks and, by extension, all oppressed peoples. Radical Dharma poignantly makes the case for the necessity to link personal and social transformation, as they are inextricable from one another.

MORE ABOUT the RADICAL READ-A-THON

In addition to live reading, the Read-a-Thon included interludes with conversational interviews with readers about their current work in the world, fundraising, testimonies from folks about the moment we are in and the conversation Radical Dharma is seeding.  We also offered educational resources for working internally and collectively towards liberation from white supremacy and racial injustice wherever they live in our lives. The funds we raised will support multi-pronged efforts to transform race through culture-shifting resources, virtual spaces for engagement, training mentors, and establishing collaborations that provide mentoring for people from initial engagement to sustained action.

LIBERATION – GR3 and the 2020 Election.  Readers registered through August 5th.   Support the GR3

GR3 will not only transform hearts and educate minds, it will also be leveraged toward a massive reshaping of the “race vote” through the powerful trifecta of reading, raising awareness, and relationship building.  In collaborati0n, we will be empowering voting and voter registration with a racially-aware lens to carve a path toward collective Liberation.

 

In the words of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, igniter of the so-called “untouchables” Dalit Movement — GR3 will “educate, agitate and organize” to leverage this singular moment in history toward an evolutionary leap forward in the movement for racial justice.