Caucus Basics
What is the term for gatherings where people with shared identities meet separately to connect, gather, and learn?
What is a caucus/affinity group?
People of color need spaces where they can be free from these two things that permeate other societal spaces they occupy.
What are mainstream stereotypes and marginalization?
These are the three areas white people must explore in white caucus work, according to the materials.
What are understanding white culture and white privilege, not relying on people of color to teach them, and increasing critical analysis around these concepts?
This is how internalized racism shows up differently for white people versus people of color.
What is internalized racial superiority for white people and internalized racial inferiority for people of color?
According to Meenadchi, these are the three conditions necessary for non-violence in communication.
What are experiencing oneself at choice, experiencing aligned somatic awareness of one's own body, and experiencing aligned somatic awareness of the collective body?
Name 3 of the five steps organizations should take to get started with caucusing according to JustLead Washington.
What are (1) Start with clear goals and committed champions, (2) Decide what resources are needed, (3) Learn and use shared frameworks, (4) Build solidarity and accountability, and (5) Expect and overcome resistance?
According to JustLead Washington, "caucus" originated from this language family, meaning "to meet together."
What is Algonquian?
This is the term used to describe when people of color adjust their language, behavior, and presentation to fit into white-dominated spaces.
What is code-switching?
This is described as "a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering defensive moves."
What is white fragility?
According to the ADRESSING model, these are the two categories people fall into across social rank.
What are "Targets" (marginalized groups) and "Agents" (dominant/advantaged groups)?
These are the four trauma responses the body can have when it decides how to respond to threat.
What are fight, flight, fawn (people-pleasing), and freeze?
This is what should happen at the end of each caucus session to maintain accountability between groups.
What is the people of color caucus may hear a report-out from the white caucus (if requested), and the POC caucus decides what to share with the white caucus?
The three broad goals caucuses serve in building anti-racist community.
What are building connection & support, building relationships, and becoming a body politic with collective organizational power?
According to Kelsey Blackwell, this is what people of color need to get off of when in their own spaces.
What is "the treadmill of making white people comfortable"?
These are the three broad categories of work that happens in white caucuses according to "How to Plan a White Caucus Agenda."
What are processing white feelings, retraining minds to learn new behaviors, and taking actions to shift power?
These are the skill sets people of color must develop according to the ADRESSING model, progressing beyond just "Surviving."
What are Empowerment, Strategy, and Re-Centering?
This is the core principle of Non-Violent Communication (NVC) according to Meenadchi.
What is that we all share universal life-affirming needs, and pleasant feelings arise when needs are met while unpleasant feelings arise when needs are unmet?
These are the common concerns white people raise about caucusing, according to the materials.
What are "If the point is unity, why separate?", "This will make me feel bad," "This is going to create more problems than it solves," concerns about segregation, or fears about what's being discussed?
White caucus work must take its lead from these people and operate with this type of transparency.
Who are people of color, and what is transparent communication about what's discussed in white spaces?
These are the specific patterns of white dominance that inevitably show up in integrated spaces, even when white people are examining their privilege.
What are being legitimized for using academic language, perfectionism, fear of open conflict, scapegoating those who cause discomfort, and urgency over inclusion?
White caucuses should focus on these three hard questions every session to avoid getting derailed.
What are (1) What are you doing to redistribute your privilege and power? (2) How are you addressing that "comfort is your enemy"? and (3) How are you building accountability to colleagues of color?
This is why BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) should be centered specifically, rather than just saying "people of color."
What is to acknowledge the unique and complex histories of Black and Indigenous communities in the U.S., including anti-Black racism and anti-indigeneity?
This is where conflict actually occurs in NVC, NOT at the level of needs.
What is at the level of strategy?
When asked "But when can we be together?" Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams says white people must set aside this feeling, because people of color have been separated for this long.
What is urgency, and what is 400 years?
This is the key distinction between historical segregation and modern racial caucusing according to the materials.
What is that segregation was a system of oppression designed by white people, while caucusing is a response to oppression that creates healing spaces and centers BIPOC liberation?
This term describes how discrimination raises the risk of emotional and physical illnesses among people of color, making it a felt reality rather than a conceptual one.
What is "embodied inequality"?
This is the difference between being an "ally" versus an "accomplice" in supporting people of color.
What is that allies are friends who help, while accomplices are partners in crime who engage in subversion of white cultural conditioning and take risks with people of color?
These are several specific dynamics that commonly emerge within people of color caucuses according to the JustLead Washington document.
What are tokenism, horizontal oppression, colorism, anti-Black racism, anti-indigeneity, invisibilization of Native people, the model-minority myth, or multi-racial identity struggles?
According to Meenadchi's trauma primer, these factors determine whether the same traumatic event causes the same traumatic response in different people.
What are timely response, ancestral memories, and the quality of support or care available?
These are the three sample organizational policies or guidelines that should be clarified when operationalizing caucusing, according to JustLead Washington.
What are (1) How complaints about discrimination/harassment should be directed to HR (not caucuses), (2) Confidentiality parameters and mandatory reporting requirements, and (3) Where suggestions for change should be directed?