‘Waking Up White’ conversation set for Monday
One of the biggest outcomes of being born in 1960 during the civil rights movement, according to Debby Irving, a racial justice educator, was being raised to be colorblind.
“I remember growing up, we were not supposed to talk about race or see race. We are all just human beings,” said Irving, a Cambridge, Mass., resident.
However, it was only after taking a graduate school course in her late 40s on race relations that she said she learned her long held views on race and the way people of color should be treated are wrong.
In fact, those views actually make racism worse, according to Irving.
From 5 to 6:30 p.m. on July 13, Irving will be giving a free virtual talk on Zoom about understanding racism, as it relates to her book, “Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race.”
The event is called Waking Up White: A Conversation on Bias, Privilege and Race. Community partners for nclude: the YWCA of Darien/Norwalk and The Darien Library, as well as the Town of Darien; A Better Chance Darien; Darien YMCA; Darien Community Association; The Darien Youth Center; The Darien Times; Liberation Programs; Person2Person; St. Luke’s Center for Family Justice; Everwell; Hayvn; State Rep. Terrie Wood; Darien Human Services; Dr. Tara Levinson, PhD, NSCP; and Christa McNamara, Darien
Board of Selectman.
To register for the event, visit the YWCA Darien/Norwalk website, and click Events & Activities.
“Waking up White,” which is self-published, is Irving’s first book. Published in 2014, it has been on The New York Times Best Seller List with about 300,000 copies sold.
To read more about Irving and her book, visit her website at debbyirving.com.
Following the conversation, there will be information about a community-wide book read with discussion groups that will be meeting in September.
“So much of the way we learn about racism, we learn through visuals,” said Irving, adding she’ll paint a picture of how “we white people were made ignorant and protected.”
During the talk, she’ll also address the effects of racism in light of COVID-19.