Tapestry
A space for those who identify as White women that explores how White women have aligned with power structures that perpetuate patriarchy and racism, from slavery to the Karen. We offer classes, community events, and immersive trips.
We believe everyone deserves to thrive.
Ways to Engage
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A 9-week community cohort designed for individuals identifying as White women. Participants will develop a structural analysis of race, while conditioning the mind and body to further commit to racial equity. We’ll examine White women’s alignment with power structures that perpetuate patriarchy and racism, from slavery to the meme Karen. Foundations offers a unique exploration into the role and opportunity for White women to contribute to building anti-racist organizations and solidarity movements.
Conscious Revolution is offering White WomenFoundations as a complement to White Men for Racial Justice’s Seeing White: WMRJ Foundations 101 cohort offering. WMRJ and Conscious Revolution have been partnering together to bring this program to individuals identifying as White women.
Register for the current cohort or join the waitlist for a future one.
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Prerequisite - Seeing White: Foundations for White Women
Where our Seeing White content gave us a foundational understanding of external context, Me and White Supremacy gives us powerful resources to examine the internal manifestations of race and racism. We can't dismantle racism and white supremacy in our communities and society without dismantling racism and white supremacy in ourselves. Layla Saad's brilliant book and provocative prompts are powerful tools to turn our lens inward which will help us be more effective in our outward work across many important issues in all our spheres of influence.
Purchasing the book Me and White Supremacy and the Guided Journal is required for this cohort.
Enroll in the next cohort or join the waitlist for a future one.
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All Seeing White: Foundations for White Women cohort members are invited. If you have not participated in a Seeing White cohort, and identify as a white woman, we’d love to talk more about having you join us. Please email us to schedule time to connect.
Montgomery is home to some of the most profound memorial sites in our country, continuing our learning about our history, connecting our history to our present, and facilitating deep reflection. We’ll build deeper community with one another in ways not possible virtually, including with our equity advisors Dr. Zoe Spencer Harris and Taylor Paul. We also hope this experience contributes to our personal and collective healing.
We are modeling this experience off of the Montgomery trips offered by White Men for Racial Justice (WMRJ) over the past two years. Testimonials from these trips indicate that this will be a life changing experience.
Registration for the Spring 2025 immersive to Montgomery is now closed. If you’re interested in a future trip, please join the waitlist.
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2nd Thursdays of each month from 4-5:30 PT, 7-8:30 ET. Can register for each date HERE
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Be part of determining what’s next. Email Tara if you’re interested.
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So much learning to be done through reading and joining amazing programming across many incredible organizations
Some reading options specifically for White women:
White Women by Regina Jackson & Saira Rao
Dear White Women by Sara Blanchard, Misasha Suzuki Graham
The Trouble with White Women by Kyla Schuller
Continue to read/study Tema Okun’s White Supremacy culture work
Listen to Seeing White again from start to finish - we didn’t do all the episodes and you’ll likely pick up on different things in the episodes.
Reading Me & White Supremacy again - there’s so much in there. Read your journal entries again to see what’s still sticky, where you want to go deeper.
Join a local Showing up for Racial Justice group (SURJ)
Join Resmaa Menakem’s Black Octopus Society
From our Resource Guide - Considerations for Action
We commit to noticing when we fall into the common pitfalls of rushing to action, including white exceptionalism, saviorism, and centering. These pitfalls exist even when working with other White people, especially in multi gender spaces. We can minimize the impact of our inevitable mistakes when we ask ourselves a few questions to slow ourselves down enough to take more skillful, reflective action.
Have I really looked internally and am I committed to continually doing so?
White people tend to look externally, which can create challenges in two ways: i) We assume our own goodness. Our behavior may be creating harm or replicating a white supremacy culture or systems of oppression. ii) We lean into our identity as caregivers, savers of others, problem solvers, often focused on driving outcomes, not on relationships, which is especially risky when we don’t know what we don’t know. Resource: Sit with “Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture” by Tema Okun and Kenneth Jones; and Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad)
Am I continuously showing up with humility and curiosity?
We should assume BIack, Indigenous, and other People of Color know some things that we don’t, especially about race and racism. If something doesn’t make sense, ask to better understand, not to parse and prove your wisdom or worth. Resource: Sit with the “7 Circles of Whiteness” by Alishia McCullough, especially circle 7.
Is there an opportunity first to support BIPOC leadership?
Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color have been leading this work for generations. Our first step is always to seek out, listen to, and support BIPOC leadership, particularly in resourcing their priorities with financial and social capital. Also, consider seeking advice and listening to voices of other marginalized communities, including Women of Color and members of the LBGTQ community, who have been active in liberatory/anti-oppression work.
Am I doing the right work?
On any given issue, ask first what BIPOC leadership needs done. Then, consider what you might be uniquely suited to do and offer that. Resource: Sit with “Wanna be an ally?” from Gesturing Toward Decolonial Futures.
Given who holds most power, consider focusing on engaging other White women with the same explicit guardrails. Lovingly invite them into places of discomfort and to prioritize this work with their time, networks, and money.
Am I prepared to ‘get it wrong’ and make amends?
We will not be perfect in our actions and yet we recognize that action is important. Are you prepared to be ‘called in,’ to own your mistakes, and to stay committed to the work? Resource: Reflect on “The Four Parts of Accountability” by Mia Mingus.
Do I belong to a BIPOC accountable community of practice?
Developing racial competence and stamina is lifelong work and we benefit from having racial affinity groups like ours to guide our learning and hold us accountable for skillful reflective action. While we do this work together, there are other groups to consider as well, such as engaging with the Groundwater Network, Move the Crowd, The Equity Practice, Black Octopus Society, and Wabanaki Reach. We mention these organizations due to our personal engagement with them, however we also acknowledge that there are many other incredible BIPOC led communities of practice.
We believe that relationship must be at the center of all actions. Relationship is the destination as well as the journey. Relationship is the outcome as well as the process. This work requires White women to value being in right relationship OVER being right, OVER impact and outcome, OVER speed and scale. To build relationship, we recognize that we must SLOW DOWN; this is our ‘Golden Rule’ because relationships require trust and time.
Our Racial Equity Advisors
By being accountable to Black equity advisors, our community is more credible and our learning and action more thoughtful.
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Dr. Zoe Spencer says “I am wise enough to know that I know nothing at all.” She is a scholar/strategist/activist from Barry Farms projects in DC. She currently teaches sociology at Virginia State University. She is a published author and a highly sought after speaker and presenter. Most importantly she is a freedom fighter, a seeker of truth, and unapologetic in her purpose of making a better world for humanity, no matter how small the mark. She says: I am a microcosm of the Universe, in real life. I was put here to perform a task, maybe even to take this test…test my faith, test my humility, test my obedience, test my resilience, test my focus…test my willingness to simply admit that every blessing is given to carry out a divine purpose…And the closer I get to actualization, the more I realize that I am just a vessel, on loan to this Earth to see what I will do here, to tell stories, fight, love, and then leave…hopefully a legacy-a lingering spirit- that will live on-long after my body is no more.
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Taylor Paul was appointed by the governor to his juvenile justice and prevention board and just recently the governor’s department of criminal justice service board as well. Taylor Paul is cofounder of RVA League for Safer Streets, an unorthodox basketball program that focuses on problem solving, critical thinking and conflict resolution for high risk youth in the city of Richmond, VA. He’s also the founder of THE S.A.N.I.T.Y. Project (Standing Against Negative Influences Toward Youth), a program that takes aim at incarcerated fathers and their children. Paul Taylor served 23 years of a life plus 26 year sentence, and was paroled on his 11th try in 2017, returning to his community as Taylor
Paul, the opposite of the man who went in. He’s passionate about restoring humanity back inside of people challenging all racial biases and social injustices. Taylor Paul shared his story in the Richmond Post-Dispatch and more recently at Philadelphia Citizen’s Ideas We Should Steal Festival.