"In this moment in America, white women especially need tools to understand and navigate this shifting ecosystem and participate in a way that is respectful of Women of Color." — SL, thought leader and philanthropist.
Allyship Cannot Be Claimed,
It Must be Earned
Article - A Letter to Progressive White Women
After withstanding the exuberance of the post-2020 moment and the ensuing and mightily disappointing backslide against DEI and Black women’s leadership and position across many vectors of society, now is the time that white women, particularly progressives, make a new commitment.
What's the work and learning that needs to happen? This course provides resources for learning and reflection.
Entitled Allies, Advocates, Co-Conspirators, Friends, Sisters: A Playbook for Leading, Learning, and Liberation, this eleven-module self-paced course explores the complexities and possibilities of building authentic collaborations, relationships, and even friendships across race, culture, ethnicity, and class.
Through a combination of learning resources and self-reflection, participants will discover 10 "plays" that will help move them along a trajectory of the 3Ls: Learning, Leadership, and Liberation.
This course is intended for individual learning and reflection, allowing for safe, honest space for expanding one’s legacy viewpoints and opinions across ten “Playbook Tactics” that too often create discord among white women and those they would most like to align with across racial and other divides.
Course Components
This course examines vectors of privilege, the unhelpful histories and cultural norms, and even how science and pseudo-science can contribute to bias and discrimination. If we take the time to discard biases and de-center dominant culture norms, we might just change ourselves — and help change our society and world.
Tactics/Lessons
Tactic One: Understand Privilege and Position, But Don’t Freeze
Tactic Two: Say No to Monoculture – Unlearn Minimizing and Ignoring
Tactic Three: Banish Tone Policing and Stereotyping
Tactic Four: Run Away From Exoticism, Fascination, and Fetishization
Tactic Five: Interrogate Power, to Expand It
Tactics/Lessons
Tactic Six: Retire the White Savior Approach
Tactic Seven: Reject Tokenism
Tactic Eight: Check Your Performativism, Nice-Ism, and Virtue-Signaling
Tactic Nine: Stop Ignoring History, Culture, Geography, and Context
Tactic Ten: Don’t Fall into the Trap of Over-Intellectualizing
Example Curriculum
- Welcome! Read Important Stuff, and Get Started! (2:18)
- This Isn't Only For White Women, Is It?
- Ally, Advocate, Co-Conspirator, Friend, Sister: Which Are You? (11:31)
- Mapping Your Motivation: Emotions (0:58)
- Mapping Your Motivation: Legacy (0:50)
- Before We Start, An Important Message
- Bonus: Brave Sis Project Origin Story (9:29)
- Bonus: Diversity Fatigue - Just Say No!
- Bonus: Values and Attributes "Meditation" (11:40)
- Your Workbook
- Wait, I'm a Dude
- Quotable Quote (0:15)
- Tactic Three: Banish Tone Policing and Stereotyping - Intro (5:11)
- Tone Policing and White Supremacy "Norms" (33:38)
- More Resources
- Workplace Harm and "Why Can't We Be Friends?"
- Flip it and Reverse It - "You Talk Like a White Girl" (0:07)
- Wrap Up: Even (Especially) the Experts are Tone-Policed + How Do We Talk About Class?
- Take Action: Five Ways to "Arrest" Tone-Policing (0:07)
- Quiz
- Quotable Quote (0:16)
- Tactic Nine: Stop Ignoring History, Culture, Geography, and Context - Intro (3:28)
- A Baker’s Dozen of Myths, Mistruths, Half-Truths and Other Nonsense I Was Taught in School or from the TV Part One (26:53)
- Reflection on Part One
- A Baker's Dozen, Part Two (37:58)
- Reflection on Part Two
- A Baker's Dozen, Part Three (20:30)
- Reflection on Part Three
- Resources Galore!
- Take Action
- Bonus Video: Is Feminism Really White Supremacy in High Heels? (54:48)
- Flip It and Reverse It: There Were White Advocates (0:07)
- Quiz
- Quotable Quote (0:16)
- Tactic Ten: Don’t Fall into the Trap of Over-Intellectualizing - Intro (2:24)
- Face Facts! Don’t Flee, Fight, Fawn, Freeze, Philosophize, Freak Out, Fantasize, Faint, Flip, Act Foolish, or Eff Up! (14:20)
- Resources
- Flip It and Reverse It: Humor (0:07)
- On Beloved Community (12:15)
- Do the Work. (43:51)
- Final Reflections - From Thoughts to Feelings to Action! (3:38)
- The Origin of this Course
- Thank You!
Group Pricing
Group facilitations are predicated on each participant doing the course individually. Group purchase will include minimum 6/maximum 12 registrations, prep session(s) and 1-3 group facilitation sessions, depending upon group size, org budget, and organization type.
Prices are based upon organizational structure and size. Additional prep sessions, group facilitations, and registrations can be added for a customized fee. There is special pricing for equity-led organizations (those whose principal and/or 51+ of ownership/leadership is BIPOC, woman, and/or neurodivergent).
Team sessions will convene students to discuss specific questions or topics that arise, and to determine with their cohort learning mates what activations and processes will best serve group goals around interaction, leadership, and mission attainment or group goals.
These are designed to build collective accountability as well as team cohesion and understanding around belonging, mattering, and productive, supportive, and equitable collaboration.
Small groups of friends can also also use an optional group workbook for leading their own discussion groups.
Contact us at [email protected] to discuss your needs.
Taught by Rozella Kennedy, Founder of Brave Sis Project
Rozella Kennedy's work and life are dedicated to building cultures and communities of inclusion, celebration, co-creation, power-expansion/sharing, and impact.
She is the founder of Brave Sis Project, a lifestyle brand & social cause using women’s history, story-weaving, celebration, and socio-emotional awareness and mindset shifts to foster fuller solidarity, shared agency, and Beloved Community across racial, cultural, and class divides.
Her book Our Brave Foremothers: Celebrating 100 Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous Women Who Changed the Course of History (Workman/Hachette) is the recipient of a 2024 Nautilus Award.
Over the course of her career, Rozie has held executive roles in the arts, environmental, and social service sectors. A trusted thought leader, adviser, and friend, she is honored to serve on Opportunity Collaboration's Advisory Council, helming the JEDI+ committee. Through this association, she provides leadership across countries, geographies, and cultures, working with solutionists alleviating global poverty. She has recently served an Impact and Equity Director for a global social advisory consultancy, building a platform for equity, belonging, and impact for the humanitarian, development, philanthropic, and social impact sectors.