Please remove if this is not a community to have this discussion.

I am a white cis het man living in the USA.

I am considering starting a local in-person group for white men to process their integration of feminism, anti-racism, decolonization, queerism, and anti-capitalism.

My intention is to support the process of liberating along those lines by reducing reactionary resistance, developing more traitors to the power structures, developing more effective allyship, and healing individual humans through community building, education, compassion, and support.

Has anyone done anything like this or seen it done or have any guidance or critique on this?

  • bestmiaou
    8·
    1 year ago

    2 points from what i’ve read and seen about the general problems such spaces have:

    1. watch carefully who bounces off your space and who sticks around longer. you will often be able to at least tell you have problems even if it takes a while to figure out what is causing them.
    2. you need explicit alliances with local feminist, anti-racist, etc groups, and you might consider making participation in those mandatory for inclusion in your space. if relations with those groups shift negatively, that can also help you head off problems before they get bad.
    • freagleOPEnglish
      6·
      1 year ago

      I have the alliance of an all-white antiracist group that formed when the black members of a black and white anti-racist told the white people they needed to put in their own labor to work on their own people.

      I think waiting until I have an alliance with a local explicitly feminist group is an important step, thank you.

      I do want to try to attract people who might have bad relations which such groups because my goal is to be part of the “pipeline” that helps them heal enough to reduce their reactionary responses and get into humble listening mode. Maybe that’s impossible or maybe that’s dangerous. What do you think?

      • bestmiaou
        7·
        1 year ago

        i think it is good to try to get more people involved who want to help but have difficulty fitting in culturally (such as having some unexamined bigotry that causes social friction). the number one skill you will need is distinguishing between people who honestly want to help but they are having a hard time analyzing their own biases and people who think their biases are fundamentally correct and will not change. one of the important reasons to make those alliances will be helping distinguish those difficult cases.