Thread by @shayshinecastle

Totally forgot there was another item, bc there was no notes for it and no presentation: A quick discussion on racial equity training for city council.

Brockett: The racial equity guiding coalition has been talking for months about how we hold ourselves accountable for the work we've committed to do, specifically the bias and microaggression training we've been assigned.

The coalition is recommending that council members write a couple sentences about what the training meant to them, Brockett says. Those will be posted online, on the council's page.

Due date for this homework: Over the next couple weeks.
New electeds would be expected to do this moving forward as part of being on council.

Friend: What is the purpose of us writing these sentences? To demonstrate that we attended? That we learned something?

Brockett: "The idea is to have some accountability and that we've engaged in this work we've committed to do. ... Not just checking a box. "

Aimee Kane, equity program manager: It's really to demonstrate how the workshops have helped you in your role as a council member.

Friend: If someone does not write these sentences, is it an indication that someone did not attend these trainings?
Yes, Kane says.

Wallach: "I would prefer if this were prospective instead of retrospective." Like Friend, he feels he could have written better soon after the trainings. (He's attended two)

"I'd be hard-pressed" to recall the meetings and what I've learned now. "There's a little bit of artifice to this," Wallach says. "I'm just not sure this is a useful exercise many, many months later."

Weaver agrees. "I attended the sessions and found them interesting, informative and thought-provoking." But they "blend" with "all the work" council is doing on equity and police reform.

"It would be awfully hard for me to tease out how my thinking has evolved just on those sessions as opposed to holistically and how the convo nationally has me thinking on these issues," Weaver says.

Maybe we should do check boxes now and have future council members do the writing part, since we're so far out.

Brockett: "There were 1-2 ppl on the coalition who were concerned that a checkbox was too stark. They were concerned it would not feel good for some people."

Friend: Could we do a combo? Checkmark if you attended, and then invite us to share? I can prob cobble together something if you're giving me the prompts.

Swetlik, who was in the group that made this recommendation: "The checkbox felt like it really wasn't living up to the work." I get that "recalling specific things that changed your opinions from months and months ago" is hard.

But "it's very rare we sit in this room and talk racial equity," Swetlik says. We're trying to get at how you view this work, what it means to you, where we're going with it.

Friend: I do think it's really important we do get something out to the public. It's overdue; Sam and I attended trainings "practically in 2020" (January 2021)

"I certainly hope racial equity is inherent in all my votes and all I'm doing on council," Friend says. While I appreciate the invitation to write, "it also should be part of all we're living and breathing."

Just wants "space" for "if it doesn't feel right" to try and "distill something" from so long ago.

Wallach: "At this point, going back this year is going to be a bit artificial bc of the passage of time. To me, it's not valuable to just try and make it up."

Yates concurs. He did his training in February. "I'm struggling with ... how to recreate some of the things I learned at that point in time ... as compared to other things we've learned along the way."

So this council won't write anything, but new ones will, it sounds like.

My suggestion: Have Brockett and Swetlik write their own things, since they were in the group, and anyone else who wants to.

Also really fighting the urge to recap this thusly, "What did council learn from anti-racist training? They can't remember."

But I won't. Because that's mean.

I mean, I might. Haven't decided yet.

Anyway, that's it for this one and the meeting. I'll see you in a couple hours for your Wednesday morning recap!

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thank you!