CORE COMMUNITY RACIAL JUSTICE TRAININGS

AAJIL’s Core Community Racial Justice Trainings are for EVERYONE. We offer them in order to equip you with histories and critical frameworks that can deepen the work of antiracism in your lives and in your communities. This three-part series intentionally integrates what is often left out of general racial justice education: Asian American experiences and decolonial values. They represent our beliefs and values as an organization and are the foundation for organizing emergent community-led labs for mutual care, community-building, collaboration and innovation.

This is a three-level program, with Fundamentals designed for people who care about racial justice but feel like they are just starting out on their journeys. Foundations is for those who are further along but who could use a deeper dive— this level focuses on aspects of systemic racism that ideologies of whiteness strategically invisibilize: the function of Asian racializations and oppressions within a white-dominant societal complex built upon anti-Indigenous and anti-Black infrastructures. Fundamentals and Foundations together aim to show why all of us need to know both our own histories as well as the histories of communities who don’t look like us. They represent our beliefs and values as an organization and are the foundation for organizing emergent community-led labs for mutual care, community-building, collaboration, and innovation.

Formations is the third level of our core trainings program that focuses on a small cohort of community lab organizers who emerge from the Foundations level. Formations offers them a unique community leadership development program that is built upon emergent strategy, decolonial values, and an ethics of solidarity. For Formations eligibility, participants need to: 1) have participated as a member of at least one AAJIL community lab in the past 2) attend all three Foundations trainings.

LEVEL 1: FUNDAMENTALS

In this workshop series, participants will be introduced to different historical and political formations of the Asian American identity. In this session, through dialogue and group interaction, participants will connect their own personal histories to larger themes in the Asian American experience.

*Recommended for those who have limited or no experience with exploring Asian American identity.

Connecting Histories

May 6, 2024 from 4:30pm - 6:00pm PST

Coming Soon - Fundamentals 2024 Part 2

In this workshop series, participants will be introduced to different historical and political formations of the Asian American identity.

*Recommended for those who have limited or no experience with exploring Asian American identity.

May 13, 2024 from 6:30pm - 7:30pm PST

LEVEL 2: FOUNDATIONS

History of Asian American Identity

This session explores the origin and history of “Asian American” identity, both as a racial construct and as a political movement, as well as the origin of the model minority myth and its function within white supremacy.

May 25, 2024 from 10:00am - 11:30am PST

Institutional Racism and "Modernity"

This session takes a deep dive into understanding systemic racism, with a focus on institutional racism as the historical engine of global “modernity.”

June 1, 2024 from 10:00am - 11:30am PST

Coloniality, Anti-Blackness, and White Supremacy

This session unpacks the connections between global histories of settler colonialism, militarization, and capitalism with anti-Blackness and white supremacy.

June 8, 2024 from 10:00am - 11:30am PST

LEVEL 3: FORMATIONS

Following Foundations, AAJIL provides an 8-month community leadership development program for the cohort of volunteers who step up to lead our community labs for the year. This program is free, and leaders will receive a certificate of honor upon graduating from the program.

For Formations eligibility, participants need to:

1) have participated as a member of at least one AAJIL community lab in the past

2) attend all three Foundations trainings.

Our sessions cover topics such as:

Emergent Strategy

Decolonial Values

Anti-Oppressive Approaches to Accountability

The Nonprofit Industrial Complex

Community and Coalescing

Designing a Community Lab

Facilitation Training

Creating Defining Moments

Cohort Connection and Support

Applications are due on September 17, 2023.