dismantling white supremacy
program overview
Affirming our commitment to racial equity, a commitment fueled by a desire to highlight and dismantle systemic racism and its cumulative impact on the Black community, Chicago African Americans in Philanthropy believes there is a critical opportunity to support learning and build infrastructure that dismantles structures that support and perpetuate racial inequity and promotes equitable leadership.
In partnership with Amanda E. Lewis, Director of the University of Illinois Institute for Research on Race & Public Policy and Geoffrey Banks, Program Officer, Chicago Commitment, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, CAAIP is pleased to offer our inaugural Dismantling White Supremacy seminar.
apply to attend
Over the 5-month program participants will engage in reading and conversation related to the following topics: defining race, ethnicity and racism; intersectionality; race and science; the history of race and citizenship; and the impacts of racial inequalities. By participating in the seminar social sector leaders will gain a concrete understanding of how race has been constructed in the United States and an ability to critique contemporary challenges of structural racism.
We are seeking participants who want to:
- Advance their understanding of structural inequity
- Advocate for and advance racial equity in their community and organization
expectations & outcomes
Participants are expected to commit to the following:
bi-weekly seminars and monthly workshops
Participants commit to attending 10 bi-weekly 3-hour seminars and 2 full-day Saturday workshops between January and June. Weekly seminars will include intensive discussions of the readings led by Amanda and Geoffrey as well as visiting scholars/experts. The two full-day workshops will focus on community building, discussion, and facilitation strategies to increase participants’ comfort and skill with applying ideas organizationally, sharing content with others, evaluating data to drive change, and working strategically to drive change.
weekly readings
Participants commit to preparing for seminars and workshops by completing approximately 3-5-hours of reading per week. Readings will be selected in advance and made available to participants in digital or audio format when available.
Participants commit to attending 10 bi-weekly 3-hour seminars and 2 full-day Saturday workshops between January and June. Weekly seminars will include intensive discussions of the readings led by Amanda and Geoffrey as well as visiting scholars/experts. The two full-day workshops will focus on community building, discussion, and facilitation strategies to increase participants’ comfort and skill with applying ideas organizationally, sharing content with others, evaluating data to drive change, and working strategically to drive change.
cost to participate
We are committed to making this seminar available to as many change leaders as possible, so the seminar fee is determined on a sliding scale in order to ensure equal access to individuals from institutions of all sizes. Our intent is not to turn anyone away from participating in the program and thus a limited number of scholarships will be offered to those without institutional support.
| organization type | training fee |
| All for-profit companies, foundations with assets over $10 million, AND nonprofits with budgets over $10 million | $5,000 |
| Foundations with assets less than $10 million, AND nonprofits with budgets between $4 million and $9,999,999 | $4,500 |
| Nonprofits with budgets between $1 million and $3,999,999 | $3,300 |
| Nonprofits with budgets under $999,999, government, and unaffiliated individuals | $1,700 |
key dates
Seminar application opens
September 1, 2021
Application due
October 15, 2021
Notification of participation
December 15, 2021
Payment due
January 15, 2022
Seminar dates*
Two Tuesdays a month from 5:30pm to 8:30pm
dinner will be provided
February 8th, 22nd; March 8th, 22nd; April 26th; May 10th, 24th, 31st; June 14th, 28th
Workshops
January 22nd and April 16th from 9am to 5pm
*A note on seminar dates: The seminar is intended to take place in-person, and every effort will be made to offer the seminar on the dates shared here. In the event that it is not safe for participants to gather in-person participants will be notified of a delayed start or changes to the seminar dates.
Seminar Leaders
Amanda Lewis, PhD
LAS Distinguished Professor and Director of Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy
Amanda E. Lewis is Professor of Black Studies & Sociology, and Director of the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research focuses on how race shapes educational opportunities and how our ideas about race get negotiated in everyday life. She is the author of several books including Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools and Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color-line in Classrooms and Communities. For the last four years she has led the State of Racial Justice Project at IRRPP, publishing multiple reports about the conditions and experiences of racial/ethnic groups in the city of Chicago.
Geoffrey Banks
Program Officer, Chicago Commitment, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Geoffrey holds a Master of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he completed additional work toward the PhD with a concentration in Race, Ethnicity, and Gender. As an Instructor, Geoffrey taught undergraduate level courses in Social Inequalities and Racial and Ethnic Groups. He received the American Sociological Association Teaching Innovations & Professional Development Award, the UIC Graduate College University Fellowship, and the UIC Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship. Geoffrey received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan with high honors in African-American Studies and History.