Talking About Race: A Workbook

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Several Women I Am Grateful to and Admire!

It has been a while since I have posted on my own blogs. During that time a friend of mine had several strokes while another passed away. There have been a handful of women I have relied upon for support as I adjusted to these changes and I want to thank them now:

My daughter, Amara Williams. Amara works with me in several different capacities and always with great enthusiasm, compassion, intelligence and charm! Thank you so much for your support, Amara!

My sister, Catherine McCall, MS, LMFT Catherine is a therapist with a practice in Atlanta and a presenter for RAINN (http://www.rain.org) Catherine has a memoir out titled When the Piano Stops: A Memoir of Healing from Sexual Abuse which has been out for a little over a year.

In the UK it has been on the best seller list under the title Never Tell for many weeks. You can read Mrs. McCall's articles published in Psychology Today. Go to their link (http://www.psychologytoday.com)for more information.

Cath, what a joy it is to have such a courageous author be my very own sister!! Congratulations on all of the work you have been doing and thanks for being there for me all the while.

Marian Haddad, author, essayist, teacher among so many, many other things has been quite a support person and I thank her for that right now! Ms. Haddad's new book Wildflower. Stone. is coming out shortly so you will want to keep an eye out for it.

Marian was a Pushcart Awards Nominee for Poetry last year. Her humor and expertise has been a a real blessing for me these past few months. Thank you so much, Marian.

Carolyn Battle Cochrane you amaze me! You will all be hearing a lot about Carolyn's newly released documentary BIRACIAL NOT BLACK DAMN IT as her work keeps "buliding the bridge that will bring the races together."

Carolyn has been interviewed by Tyra Banks, and CNN's Campbell Brown. Their quotes about Carolyn's work are on the cover of the 2 - set DVD, along with Yvonne S. Thornton, M.D. - Author "The Ditch-Digger's Daughters" - Pulitzer Prize Nominee and Lori Brown -Ed.D Educator/Entrepeneur - Opera Soup Productions, LLC. (And you will notice that my own quote happens to be included, too.) BIRACIAL NOT BLACK DAMN IT is one honest, thoughtful and timely documentary. For those who believe that we are in a "post racial" era you will have cause to think again as you view this film. And for many biracial teens and adults you will be the receivers of a platform that you might not have known existed for you before.

What can I say, Carolyn? Your work has touched my heart deeply and enhanced my knowledge of the workings within my own interracial family. I am indebted to you for your
devotion, expertise & sheer brilliance about a subject many shy away from, are actually afraid of or may believe is non-existent. Thank you! Thank you!

There are other women who also mean a great deal to me. As the weeks and months go by I will tell you more about them.

So as you can see Talking About Race continues. The subject is woven within my cherished friendships both within and without my own family members.

These past few months have been full, busy and perhaps most importantly, as fertile with new beginnings as they have been with stunning points-of-departure between old friends as only severe illness and passings can be. Certainly I am not alone. My cup is full. I hope that yours is too.

Talking About Race: The National Organization for Women (NOW) Conference

Talking About Race: The National Organization for Women (NOW) Conference

The National Organization for Women (NOW) Conference

During the July 4th weekend I had the opportunity to be a workshop presenter at the anti-racism committee at NOW's Conference at The Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers Boston. MA.

As anticipated, it was a wonderful experience.I met so many women who are invested in fostering racial equality in their lives, families and community!

It was a pleasure autographing books and listening to the speakers latest information regarding women in the prison system, affected by domestic violence and concerns regarding their health and welfare.

Dr.LeRoy Carhart, Silvia Henriquez, Amy Goodman,Loretta Ross, Susan Douglas and Nicki Tsongas were just a few of the Conference Speakers and Honorees present.

I left inspired and do want to thank one of NOW's Board Members, Jocelyn "Joyce" Morris, for her extreme kindness in extending the invite to me. To my delight hand-outs were dispersed of my definition of racism, taken from [pg. 115] in my book.

I returned energized, optimistic and eager to get to work with NOW to foster racial equality in our lives!

An update on Talking About Race

Talking About Race - One Woman's Story

My name is Kaolin. I am a Caucasian woman and the author of a book titled Talking About Race: A Workbook About White People Fostering Racial Equality in Their Lives. My family is biracial and while my children and I went through many trends regarding race/ism and diversity in school systems we were never completely satisfied with the results. We experienced racism often enough to have learned how to cope with the stress of racism in our lives. However, as many of you already know, one never really adapts to racism. With each occurrence we are required to assimilate every nuance of it, then process it and then continue to assimilate into a culture that might prefer to believe that it does not exist. In fact, due to President Barack Obama being biracial, I have been told that we are in a post-racial era, meaning racism is truly behind us. Many say we have enough evidence of that in the fact that our President is a man of color therefore we can move on, don't make waves or fuss about the legacy of slavery whose affects we have each inherited; or, the continued assaults on people of color that exist in politics, in our communities, in our institutions and often times in our own families.

In 1995 I transferred from Holyoke Community College to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. I went to school full time by day and worked full time at night for a residential program for children and families. While in school the racism the students of color were experiencing drew me to a halt and I had to pause and think about what to do about it. I heard from many white students that they were silent about racism when they would prefer to speak-up and out about it; I heard that they were fearful of racism and that they had seen it as an inevitable part of life they would eventually succumb to because they had come to believe they may be helpless to do anything about it.

So I designed a course titled Let's Talk About Race: Confronting Racism Through Education and through an independent studies program in the WOST (Women's Studies) department was able to teach it for a year.

In Talking About Race: A Workbook About White People Fostering Racial Equality in Their Lives you will find that the chapter titles map out a road for you to follow that involves your active involvement in the book. For example, I ask you to define racism in the beginning of the book and then again at the end of it. Why? Because your impression of racism changes as you read, and so do you. I ask you to recognize racism, resist racism, to talk about your insecurities regarding racism (we all have them) and to shape your own identity where racial equality is concerned. There were both students of color and Anglo students in class. So you learn a great deal about what our youth is going through about racism as they struggle for racial equality. The students quotes are embellished within the 120 page paperback and there is a fine glossary and workbook questions in each chapter with plenty of room for you to jot down your own ideas while you record your own race-story. Everybody has one.

I hope you will contact me with any questions or comments you might have about my book. Talking About Race: A Workbook About White People Fostering Racial Equality in Their Lives is being sold at Barnes and Nobles, Amazon books, Indie Bound Bookstores and http://cddbooks.com Log onto to my book site http://ltar.biz for more information or contact me by email at kaolinltar@comcast.net I look forward to your questions and comments about this work. And do join my Facebook Fan Page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Talking-About-Race/161062685786?ref=ts