Workshop targets ‘institutional racism’ among gays

[JI7]

<Wanting to shed its image as an organization solely for “rich, white, gay males,” Georgia Equality will host a “Dismantling Institutional Racism” workshop March 19.

Chuck Bowen, executive director of Georgia Equality, said the state’s largest gay and lesbian political group suffers from the perception that it caters only to wealthy white gays and doesn’t reach out to people of color.

“When I got here, I realized Georgia Equality needed to take sincere, proactive steps to work with underserved members of our community,” said Bowen, who joined the group in November.

“Clearly, this has been a problem with Georgia Equality,” Bowen said. “I don’t think we’ve strived to do this before. I don’t think it’s been intentional. We’ve just been focused so much on our political work that we haven’t strived to include people of other communities.”

The workshop will include exercises that define racism and prejudice. A primary objective is for individuals to move beyond the personal to an understanding of the ways racism functions as a social institution, and ways to dismantle it, primarily through white people becoming allies to people of color, Vazquez said.

“We need a commitment to unending self-reflection and growth in our understanding of racism as both institutional and personal,” Vazquez said in a statement. “This workshop continues a dialogue among people of conscience about the practical steps and personal commitments we must make if we are to consciously plan for diverse leadership.”>

http://www.southernvoice.com/2005/3-11/news/localnews/racism.cfm

[davidinalameda]

1. sounds great

racism exists in the GLBT community as it does elsewhere

[David__77]

2. This can only be done by attacking backwardness on all fronts.

Whether its economically backward elitist gay men (think: Log Cabin) or racist and mysogynist attitudes in the clubs and social scene, there are weaknesses in the gay community. It's not enough to think to oneself "I am an oppressed person. I deserve rights." One has to win over the people to a righteous position on lesbian and gay issues, primarily through educational efforts in the process of linking up with other progressive struggles against sexism, racism, class oppression and also against US aggression abroad.