Bringing White Privilege Conference Back to Our Meetings

On the second day of the White Privilege Conference, around 40 Friends came together to discuss “How can we bring what we’ve learned at WPC back to our meetings?” Through the course of the discussion, Friends identified the different spirutual and secular communities that they felt would benefit from more conversations around White Privilege Conference, White Supremacy, and other forms of privilege and oppression, and also discussed different ways we could support each other after the conference came to a close. Below are some of the notes that came from this discussion:

What are our communities?

Friends identified and discussed different communities that they are a part of, different communities that they could bring this work to. Some of the communities Identified were:

  • Yearly Meeting
  • Residential street/neighbors
  • Board of Directors – Central Committee,
  • Monthly meeting
  • Inpatient psychiatry
  • West Philly
  • Schools
  • Pendle Hill
  • FLGBTQC,
  • Interfaith Community
  • Friends United Meeting
  • FWCC
  • QVS
  • Colleges
  • Congress
  • The City of Philly
  • Philly Hist. Soc.

How can we support each other?

We also discussed different ways that Friends could support each other and ourselves, in bringing back what we learned at White Privilege Conference to some of the communities we identified. Some of the things that came from this conversation were:

  • Building relationships beyond usual circles
  • Small reach-outs
  • Words of encouragement
  • Participating in groups movement that are POC led
  • Accountability w/ each other
  • Networking
  • Report back at MMs
  • Cultivating cultural competencies
  • White ally groups
  • Identifying your allies and peers for learning to talk about it
  • Adopting clear metrics and goals
  • Find out who to go to inside meeting
  • Do research!
  • Make mistakes!
  • Bring your racial justice lens to things you attend
  • Remember you can’t do everything
  • Go meet w/ people
  • Get a support Committee?
  • Through meeting
  • Thru wider community
  • Find personal ways in which to engage the work
  • Navigate the different systems off knowledge & energy
  • Give some time for processing
  • Have another meeting

Additionally, Friends broke out into small groups and discussed other questions related to the larger discussion. Some of these questions were:

Why are you here?

What communities do you belong to?

What communities do you want to bring racial justice work back to?

What have you recently learned regarding racial justice that you feel uncomfortable taking back to your community?

For questions or concerns regarding The White Privilege Conference or the “How do we bring WPC back to our Meetings” discussion, please contact the Ministry on Racism at ministryonracismsupportspecialist@fgcquaker.org.

Further Resources


Quakers’ Reflection of the 2013 White Privilege Conference
Challenging Racism

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