The American Dream Isn’t Working for Everyone. Here’s a way to help people understand that.

May 19, 2019 - by PM Learning Staff

In our documentary I’m Not Racist…Am I?, a multiracial group of teens and their families spend a school year learning and talking about race and racism. What they went through has inspired audiences all over the U.S. to learn more about how racism continues to be institutionalized and how that affects our everyday experiences.

One of the film’s more powerful scenes shows the group playing a board game called The American Dream. It’s essentially the Game of Life meets Chutes and Ladders, with players becoming characters with different identities and then seeing how structural inequity, stereotypes, and microaggressions get in the way of achieving “Success.”

By the time the kids in the film played the game, they had spent quite a bit of time together listening to one another’s personal experiences, but this took things to a whole different level. Here’s what one of the kids, Sacha, said at the end of the game:

“For all the workshops that we’ve done, I’ve heard everyone talking about how they’ve been discriminated against because of their race. And I mean, this is the first time that I’ve really, fully been able to understand that. Because I’ve never been in their place. So I’ve never felt, never experienced that discrimination. So this obviously isn’t the real thing, but it kind of gives me an idea of how frustrating it is to have all these things working against you.”

Sacha’s revelation was shared by the other students and it resonates so deeply with audiences that every time we screen the film, viewers ask us, “Where can I get that game?”

Well now you can!

We’ve recently worked with the creator, Jennifer Yim, who developed the game as part of her doctoral work in psychology at the University of Michigan, to update the game and package it for schools.

This new School Edition can be used with students, faculty & staff, parents, and any other community members ready to engage in meaningful lessons and dialogue about the ways race, gender, income, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and nationality affect a person’s everyday experiences and long-term opportunities.

Despite all the talk and money spent on diversity and inclusion (D&I) in school districts, higher education, corporations and beyond, there’s still so much debate about what works, what doesn’t, whether these initiatives are just a waste of time, or, worse, if they backfire.

This is all really hard to measure and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. But what we have learned from recent research is that the types of D&I programs that seem to be the most effective involve two elements:

Perspective-taking
Goal-setting

The American Dream Game does both.

We’ve seen over and over again how players quickly make connections between their characters’ experiences in the game and what those experiences might feel like for real people in real life. And once you go through the experience of losing, no matter how well you roll the dice, or getting knocked back two spaces for every time you move ahead one — even if it’s only a game — you can’t forget that feeling and you can’t help but want to do something about it.

Here’s some early feedback we’ve gotten from our new School Edition:

“A fun, educational way to raise awareness of, and provoke discussion about, the intersectionality of identity and privilege, inclusion and exclusion. –Shanelle Henry, Director of Equity and Inclusion

“A highly interactive way to learn about race, bias, and privilege… As a facilitator, I’m grateful for The American Dream Experience as a learning tool, as a way to connect with colleagues, and as a springboard to conversations about life.”-Liza A. Talusan, PhD, CPC, ELI-MP, Strategic Consultant | Scholar-Practitioner | Facilitator and Trainer | Certified Professional Coach

The American Dream game is eye-opening, thought-provoking, and so engaging that players always want the experience to last longer. When was the last time you heard that about a diversity workshop?

Order it now for your classroom! Or, if you want to bring it to your workplace, find out more about that here.

PML Book Club – The New Jim Crow

June 13, 2018 - by PM Learning Staff

“Jarvious Cotton cannot vote. Like his father, grandfather, great- grandfather, and great-great-grandfather, he has been denied the right to participate in our electoral democracy.”

So begins The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking look at the systematic mass incarceration of African Americans for more than 150 years. Book cover of The New Jim Crow

We frequently hear versions of this question: “Slavery ended so long ago; why are we still talking about it?” As Alexander explains, the thirteenth amendment did abolish chattel slavery in the United States. But it also left open the possibility for involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime. She then lays out a detailed and incredibly-researched look at how that 13th amendment loophole established a framework for using mass incarceration to continue to deny equal rights and protections for African Americans.

We first read The New Jim Crow years ago, before we started production of our feature documentary I’m Not Racist… Am I?. But this is the type of book worth coming back to again, and again. There are also now more discussion and teaching guides to go along with the book and, of course, Ava Duvernay’s incredible documentary 13th.

So, as we’ve grown our team this year, we decided now was a good time to re-read. We hope you’ll join us – particularly if you’re looking to expand your understanding of the specific and concrete ways American racism plays out today. This is one of the way to address the “mind gap” in our path toward racial literacy.

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#NotJustStarbucks

June 13, 2018 - by PM Learning Staff

When Starbucks announced that it would conduct a companywide racial bias training following an incident of racism in one of their stores, we saw an opportunity to promote a productive discussion with our community. But we realized that the discussion needed to reach further than our circle. The nation needed to engage in the conversation about racism and bias to unpack what’s been brewing.

These incidents are not isolated. Flagrant displays of racism are recorded so frequently that news coverage feels trite. But the frequency of these incidents should not bore us. They should inspire us to take some action, if not to organize in opposition of racism, at least to talk about why racism persists.

In that vein, we hosted a series of virtual discussions via Facebook to make the conversation about inequity actionable using tools from our I’m Not Racist… Am I? Digital Course. Throughout the day, participants submitted questions, comments, and engaged with Point Made Learning staff on social media. Staff at NYU Silver School of Social Work, YMCA and other organizations joined in groups to take our digital course and discuss its content with their peers. As LeRhonda Greats added during our Facebook Live, “talking is ACTION, so is listening.”

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Bias and Racism: Let’s Talk About What’s Brewing

May 22, 2018 - by PM Learning Staff

POINT MADE LEARNING DECLARES THE IMPLICIT BIAS CONVERSATION ESSENTIAL FOR EVERYONE, #NOTJUSTSTARBUCKS

Point Made Learning asks all communities to talk about bias and racism on May 29.

Overview

NEW YORK, NY (May 22, 2018) – On May 29th — the same day that Starbucks will close 8,000 of its stores for employee racial-bias training — Point Made Learning (PML) is inviting individuals and institutions to participate in Bias and Racism: Let’s Talk about What’s Been Brewing, a day-long event designed to provide a framework for meaningful, informative, and constructive dialogue on race.

A Community Effort

Recognizing that interrupting racism will require entire communities to come together, PML is staging the Let’s Talk about What’s Been Brewing event to get individuals throughout the U.S., and not just Starbucks employees, to carve out time on May 29 to learn more about racial bias and then gather a group of peers, friends, or colleagues together to talk about it.

“We’re asking people to acknowledge the fact that the recent incident at Starbucks isn’t just a Starbucks issue. Racism in America is something we all need to address,” said Catherine Wigginton Greene, PML’s Executive Director of Content and Engagement. “So let’s use May 29 as an opportunity to brew our own coffee and engage in healthy dialogue about how we can make some real change.”

What to Expect

For the event, PML’s workshop facilitation team will host Facebook Live discussions throughout the day. In addition, PML will provide conversation prompts and guidelines, an action-plan toolkit, and resources for further learning to support discussion groups forming across the country. All content, tools, and resources will be available online beginning at 6AM EST on Tuesday, May 29, through 6AM EST on Wednesday, May 30.

Join the event on May 29th at ~~https://pointmadelearning.com/notjuststarbucks~~ (event has passed)

What We Do

Point Made Learning uses documentary film to facilitate productive discussions around the most uncomfortable topics we face in American society – starting with racism. We’ve taken an innovative approach to raising awareness and organizing communities through our unique combination of storytelling, real talk, and digital tools. We tell true stories and teach powerful lessons about race and racism. We believe true stories can strengthen human connections and inspire change.

###

If you would like more information, please contact:

Name: Lisa Flores

Email: Lisa@FloresDigital.com

Racism in Journalism, the Classroom, and the “1%”

March 20, 2018 - by PM Learning Staff

Here are some interesting things we read this week about race, racism and equity in the United States.

From Barb Lee

National Geographic Acknowledges Its Racist Past Coverage

This is a very good first step. Who else is ready to do the same?

“As National Geographic editors prepared an issue dedicated to race, they realized the 130-year-old magazine might face questions about its troubled history on the subject. So they asked John Edwin Mason, a University of Virginia professor who studies the history of Africa and photography, to dig through the magazine’s archives to examine its shortcomings in covering people of color in the United States and abroad. ‘Through most of its history, National Geographic, in words and images, reproduced a racial hierarchy with brown and black people at the bottom, and white people at the top,” Mr. Mason said in an interview on Tuesday.”

Parents, students say there is culture of racism at private high school in Arvada

This school in Colorado has started the journey. It’s never fun, but people should know what’s happening there.

Parent Nancy Felix describes the culture of the private school in Arvada, Colorado as one of “silencing, of denial,…of no repercussions, [of] no accountability from the current superintendent and principal.” In January, one of the teachers hosted a “chapel,” similar to an assembly, to discuss the topic of racism with students and parents.

“And that’s when the firestorm happened,” Felix said. The Fox News journalist states that, “white students and their parents reportedly felt uncomfortable with the dialogue and content of the presentation” and the teacher who hosted the convening was fired. Felix went to the principal and explained how she felt about the situation: “you can’t fire the only person these children have to go to that’s safe that they trust because he tried to do something that was, in my opinion, really good.”

The Marley Hypothesis: Who Actually Sees Racism?

Fascinating and promising.

“In a study published in Psychological Science last year, researchers at the University of Kansas and Texas A&M set out to test what they call the “Marley Hypothesis.” The theory is that minorities may perceive current racism differently because they have more accurate knowledge about the racism of the past. The dominant group, in contrast, may deny racism because they’re ignorant of history. The thesis is more or less an academic attempt to test the assertion of “Buffalo Soldier” by Bob Marley: “If you know your history/then you will know where you’re comin’ from/and you wouldn’t have to ask me/who the heck do I think I am.”

From Catherine Wigginton Greene

What the Second Amendment really meant to the Founders

Both sides of the debate about gun laws “invoke what the Founders would have thought,” and this article breaks down what they actually intended with the Second Amendment.

“At its best, the Second Amendment was a commitment to citizen participation in public life and a way to keep military power under civil control. At its worst, it was a way for whites to maintain their social domination.”

For Decades Our Coverage Was Racist. To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It.

The article starts by examining an issue of the National Geographic that ran in 1916, where Aboriginal Australians are described as, “savages” who “rank lowest in intelligence of all human beings.” It then goes on to illustrate the portrayals of people color throughout the 20th century. This story is the beginning of a series about racial, ethnic, and religious groups and their changing roles in 21st century life. The series runs through 2018 and will feature Muslims, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.

“Race is not a biological construct, as writer Elizabeth Kolbert explains in this issue (There’s No Scientific Basis for Race- It’s a Made-Up Label), but a social one that can have devastating effects. ‘So many of the horrors of the past few centuries can be traced to the idea that one race is inferior to another,’ she writes. ‘Racial distinctions continue to shape our politics, our neighborhoods, and our sense of self.’ How we present race matters.”

Additional

Extensive Data Shows Punishing Reach of Racism for Black Boys

New research conducted by Harvard, Stanford, and the Census Bureau finds that racism has far reaching effects for black boys despite their socioeconomic status in the United States. In most cases, black men earn less than their white peers who were raised in households with comparable income and familial circumstances. The data also concludes that this issue is exclusive to black men as black women with similar financial circumstances to their white peers earn about the same in annual income.

The research cites race bias as the primary reason for this disparity, debunking the notion that class is a deciding factor in economic mobility. Black boys are more likely to be disciplined on all levels from the classroom to the courtroom. Race bias towards black boys insists that they are more prone to violence and the denial of access to wealth is a direct result of that bias.

As professor and director of American University’s Antiracist Research Policy Center, Ibram Kendi, asserts, “One of the most popular liberal post-racial ideas is the idea that the fundamental problem is class and not race, and clearly this study explodes that idea… but for whatever reason, we’re unwilling to stare racism in the face.”

Cutting SNAP Benefits Further Marginalizes the Poor

February 26, 2018 - by PM Learning Staff

The Summary

Last week, President Trump proposed a major cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as “food stamps”, in an attempt to jumpstart his plan for welfare reform. It’s the administration’s latest effort to further marginalize Americans on the fringes or economic privilege without an introspective look at the limited access to resources that keep them on those fringes.

The new program would require able-bodied SNAP beneficiaries to work despite other limitations including access to transportation, job insecurity and child care assistance. It would also institute a program, called “Harvest Box”, through which SNAP beneficiaries would receive a box of USDA-approved groceries to supplement the cut to food stamps, a program that already allots low-income folks access to groceries of their choice. The President’s proposal has been scrutinized by advocates for public assistance and welfare programs but especially by SNAP beneficiaries who interpret a cut to the program as damaging regardless of its positive intention. It has also inspired a discussion about a “war on food” in which poor folks are systematically denied access to fresh groceries and healthy food options.

What Is In the “Harvest Box”?

The USDA anticipates that the Harvest Box will include “shelf-stable milk, juice, grains, read-eat-cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans, canned meat, poultry or fish and canned fruits and vegetable.” As the SNAP program currently

exists, recipients have the autonomy to purchase their own, fresh groceries. This reform in welfare benefits is intended to mobilize poor people upward, requiring them to work in order to earn their benefits in some cases. This amendment is made, of course, under the assumption that welfare recipients don’t already work.

Food As a Weapon of Control

Nina Martyris reflects on Frederick Douglass’s analysis of “food as a weapon of control” in a recent article for NPR. Douglass’s writing explores the ways slave owners employed hunger to establish a hierarchy between slaves, often privileging house slaves with food consumed by the master’s family and guests while field slaves were afforded an insufficient cornmeal dish, comparable to dog food. Douglass even mentions that he and other slaves would compete with the slave master’s dog for the evening’s dinner scraps.

Perhaps the most poignant moment in Martyris’s article is a recounting of holiday festivities on the plantation where slaves were not only expected to participate in the revelling but often required to engage in drinking competitions as entertainment for the master’s guests. Douglass mentions that refusal to participate reflected a sentiment of ungratefulness and that ultimately, “we had almost as well be slaves to man as to rum.” Slaves had no autonomy, let alone the jurisdiction to decide when and what they wanted to eat, yet the expected response for one, balanced meal a year was gratitude.

The Big Picture

Food options in low-income communities reflect what the community can afford, which often means fast-food restaurants comprise the majority of eating establishments along with locally owned restaurants and grocery stores that offer limited, fresh produce. The Harvest Box initiative might also perpetuate what the Food Research and Action Center calls a “feast or famine situation”, a term that refers to parents who will skip meals to increase food options for their children. And, of course, it might contribute to the myriad health issues poor people face including hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and a host of other diseases related to malnutrition.

There are many comparisons to draw here, though that is not to say the President’s proposal to cut SNAP benefits is comparable to chattel slavery. But there are comparisons to draw. Most important is the question of autonomy; do the oppressed have access to agency under a capitalist bureaucracy? This question is further complicated by this nation’s legacy, built on the free labor of slaves who, of course, had no agency in the matter of their work. In deciding how poor Americans are nourished, the Trump administration participates in a legacy of surveillance and population control that has changed its face over the course of the country’s foundation. SNAP benefits already limit food options for poor people but it still affords them the autonomy to choose. Under the President’s initiative, underprivileged communities will be further dependent on government resources for something as basic and necessary as food. And all of that despite the work they do to uphold the country’s economy. While data indicates that most able-bodied welfare recipients work, there is still an insidious assumption, from the Trump administration in this case, that they do not. As president of the National WIC Association, Donald Greenaway, put it, “removing choice from SNAP flies in the face of encouraging responsibility… the budget seems to assume that participating in SNAP is a character flaw.”

We must be vigilant about the way politicians will weaponize the oppression of women, the queer community, the poor and people of color in the future. In just one year we have witnessed an assault on all of the aforementioned communities; the exclusion of trans people from restrooms matching their gender, staunch support of a politician accused of pedophilia (on multiple accounts), and xenophobic legislation aimed toward expelling Middle Eastern and Latinx immigrants from the United States. This recent effort to punish Americans for their lack of access to food resources indicates a nearsighted understanding of wealth disparities in the United States and how they are inextricably connected to the same denial of those resources.

Race-Based Legislation, Implicit Bias Testing and Criminalizing Debt: What We Read This Week

February 24, 2018 - by PM Learning Staff

Here are some interesting things we read this week about race and equity in the United States.

“‘Resist White Supremacy’: A sign. A farm. And the fury that followed.”

Cox Farms has a history of practicing free speech through their business, a practice that has elicited controversy for the owners’ family. Their recent poster, as detailed in the article’s title, stirred their Northern Virginia town into a frenzy. Aaron Cox-Leow, daughter of the farm’s owner, expressed that, “when it comes to speaking out against systems of oppression and injustice, wwe see it as our moral responsibility to se our position of privilege and power… to engage visibly and actively in the fight for justice.”

“Secrets, statistics and implicit bias.”

Microaggressive behaviors reflect the ways we, as a society, have been conditioned to respond to specific demographics. For example, clutching one’s purse when a person of color enters an empty elevator is a response to our conditioned understanding of men of color as inherently criminal. Implicit bias tests seek to exploit those conditioned responses and use them to uncover our own biases, regardless of gender, race, and other intersections of our identity.

“Jones and Williams Discuss Racism During Focus Week Chapel”

From Barb Lee: “Go, Baptists! If I had not heard this “sermon” myself, I would not have believed that this happened in a Baptist Church in Oklahoma. Bam! Caught in my own biases again. This video is incredible for those of us who grew up in white Southern Baptist churches. This makes me hopeful.”

“ South Carolina Lawmakers Want to Ban Baggy Pants Because What Other Political Issue Could Possibly Be More Pressing?”

Link: https://www.theroot.com/s-c-lawmakers-want-to-ban-baggy-pants-because-what-oth-1823225714

The title speaks for itself. In an effort to further police people of color, politicians in South Carolina plan to criminalize sagging pants, overlooking the racially loaded implications of instituting such a law. It is a boldface attempt to criminalize citizens based explicitly on their race, though politicians from the area would like to convince us that the law will affect people across races.

“A Pound of Flesh: The Criminalization of Private Debt”

From the ACLU: “Arrests stemming from private debt are devastating communities across the country, and amount to a silent financial crisis that, due to longstanding racial and economic inequalities, is disproportionately affecting people of color and low-income communities.” Attached is the full report conducted by the ACLU. Read this article for a synopsis of the report.

Screening Organizing 101: I’m Not Racist… Am I? Comes to Des Moines, Iowa

October 30, 2017 - by PM Learning Staff

Since the release of the documentary film I’m Not Racist… Am I?, Point Made Learning (PML) has held more than 400 screenings and workshops across the United States. Facilitated by senior members of our staff, these events engage diverse audiences and help communities think, learn, and – most importantly – talk about race and racism in ways they don’t often get a chance to do.

Some of our events involve a screening of the 90-minute film, followed by a 30-minute Q&A. Sometimes we get a chance to go a lot deeper, when organizers make a commitment to plan a series of events that engage every segment of their city over the course of several days. It takes a ton of work to make that happen, but the impact can be far-reaching and significant.

For those of you thinking about hosting your own I’m Not Racist… Am I? screenings and workshops, we think that reading about what other groups have done might be helpful in your planning process. We’ve reached out to a few of the people who have been instrumental in some of our larger programs across the U.S. and asked them to talk about what went into planning and executing, what worked/what didn’t, and what they wish they’d known.

Keep reading to learn about our May 2017 programming in Des Moines, Iowa.

Iowa Public Radio interviews Catherine Wigginton-Greene, director of "I'm Not Racist... Am I?" — Iowa Public Radio interviews Catherine Wigginton-Greene, director of “I’m Not Racist… Am I?”

This past May, a number of community groups collaborated with Point Made Learning to bring I’m Not Racist… Am I? (INRAI) to Des Moines, Iowa. There, partnerships forged between church groups, high schools and Drake University made it possible for the film to screen three different times — twice at local high schools, and once at the Drake University auditorium. Among the audiences who watched the film were the faculty from every Des Moines area high school (approximately 600 teachers total), high school and college students, and community members interested in deepening the conversation about race and racism.

One of the screenings’ primary organizers, Sheena Thomas, got involved when members of Des Moines’ Anti-Racism Collaborative reached out to her because they were all part of a multi-church network called AMOS (A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy). Thomas was able to secure grant money to fund the screenings, and she was able to recruit local stakeholders to join in the planning process.

For the Des Moines community, screening the film was about more than hosting a neighborhood movie night; the organizers intended for INRAI to help people tackle difficult issues that affect many groups in their area. For example, Thomas said, the local high schools have a major issue with out-of-school suspensions and the “School to Prison Pipeline” that primarily affects minority populations.

“That is a huge problem here,” said Thomas. “Iowa has one of the highest incarceration rates for minorities in the pipeline … so there is a lot of work to be done here, and that was a rationale for bringing this in to the schools.”

According to Thomas, many people “just don’t get” why issues of race and racism are so important. “They don’t have to live with it in any way, shape or form,” she said, “so it’s hard to get them to understand, to see things differently, from another perspective.”

Like the stone Sisyphus was pushing up the hill over and over, the issues of racism and white privilege will not go away without more and more education.

Films like INRAI are a major aid in reaching those people and helping them find the alternative perspectives of which Thomas speaks. She said, “The films generated enough discussion and provocation that people were still discussing it long after the showing, and I thought that was really good.” She added that one of the organizers’ goals was “to develop enough sensitivity so that we’d have some leaders who wanted to pursue doing something on the subject,” and that has been the case — after the events, young adults created a Race Education Committee, an adult group formed to discuss these issues, and the Anti-Racism Collaborative held a speaker series for AMOS members to attend.

When asked why hosting events like the INRAI screenings is important, Thomas was direct: “Like the stone Sisyphus was pushing up the hill over and over, the issues of racism and white privilege will not go away without more and more education. That’s why.”

Inside the Planning and Promotion Process

In our discussion with Thomas, she discussed what it took to bring the screenings to life. Here are some of the highlights from our Q&A.

PML: Once you had the idea, what were the steps you took toward making it a reality?

Sheena Thomas: The Anti-Racism Collaborative was very good about saying, ‘Let’s have meetings,” and setting dates, and getting things done before each meeting which needed to be done. We worked on who we were going to market to … then it was working on the marketing and working to get interviews for (PML’s) Catherine Wigginton Greene to do with two TV stations and the public radio station. Also, we had posters that we put up all over for the screenings, around the churches and shop windows, and around Roosevelt High School. And I was able to get a billboard — several billboards — as places for community publicity.

PML: If you could do the process over again, what is one thing you’d do differently?

ST: I would start the public marketing earlier, and it would have been better to have Catherine’s interviews air a little sooner to give people in the public more info and time to plan. Oh, and because I thought we might be overrun or overwhelmed with people attending, I suggested sign-ups online. That may have actually deterred people from coming.

PML: Was there anything that happened which really surprised you? What was it, and why was it surprising?

ST: Getting to know the members of the Anti-Racism Collaborative, the students of the groups at two of the Des Moines High Schools, the faculty and administrators in charge of school climate and their eagerness and thoughtfulness were surprising to me. Also, the total backing we received from staff and foundation at Plymouth Church was amazing. One of the people on the foundation was instrumental in helping us get our marketing done.

PML: Overall, what were the biggest challenges you faced as an organizer? How did you respond to these challenges?

ST: My biggest challenge was working on the organizing in and around my job. There was a lot of emailing that had to be done and which did impinge on my work time at my shop and on my home time as well. I was very grateful for the others who were also organizing on their own.

PML: What advice do you have for other people who want to hold similar events? Say, your top 3 tips…

ST: One: Start early — 9 months before the event was good in our case.

Two: Get buy-in from several groups and collaborate in the planning. And share the costs.

Three: Market like crazy and use the resources offered by Point Made Learning when doing so.

If you are interested in hosting a Point Made Learning film screening or workshop, please send us an email: programming@pointmade.com

Also, check out our new I’m Not Racist… Am I? Digital Online Course — a valuable program for corporations and individuals who want to Look Deeper into race, racism, and bias.

Point Made Learning is the consulting and programming extension of Point Made Films, a production company focused on telling stories about the many layers of American identity. We use documentary film to facilitate productive discussions around the most uncomfortable topics we face in American society – starting with racism. We’ve taken an innovative approach to raising awareness and organizing communities through our unique combination of storytelling, real talk, and digital tools. We tell true stories and teach powerful lessons about issues that matter.