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what is transforming dominant culture?
Transforming Dominant Culture is a live virtual conversation series for white people who want to engage in racial healing and anti-racism with clarity and resilience.
In order to show up powerfully for social justice and equity, white folks need spaces to learn, grow, heal and process without creating harm or extra labor for people of color.
Doing this work in a courageous and empathetic environment allows us to show up for the greater work of social transformation from a place of increased capacity and true solidarity.
Explore white racial identity & its origins
Identify how our culture perpetuates inequality, exploitation & disconnection
Apply mindfulness-based skills to align our behavior & actions with our values & intentions
Our approach is threefold:
Program Details:
Schedule:
Dates coming soon!
Sessions 1 & 2:
Demystifying white racial identity
Explore the origins of white racial identity and the implications that still hold true today. Unlock a new sense of agency and understanding around issues like white privilege, white fragility and intersectionality.
Sessions 3 & 4:
Dominant culture & tools of cultural transformation
Identify dominant culture and how it perpetuates fear and stress in everyday life. Learn practices to help regulate our emotions, thinking and behavior in alignment with our highest goals and values.
Sessions 5 & 6:
Sage activism: From inner to outer transformation
Bring your best self to social change and anti-racism. Activate your higher faculties to build resilience and creative, energizing approaches to your activism and life as a whole.
These conversations are interactive and take place in real-time. Please be available to attend as many live calls as possible.
Please note there are 30-60 mins of pre-work per session.
Sliding scale $100-400. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Please contact us to inquire further about pricing.
What people say about TDC:
Emily Citrone
Leadership & Performance Coach, Emily Citrone Coaching
Transforming Dominant Culture takes a necessary look at how our current culture upholds white supremacy. It provides a safe space to explore how these cultural traits often hold us back in our own lives and keep us from making progress as a society. This is for anyone looking to do the inner work of addressing and dismantling white supremacy within themselves and the world around them.
Tim Bailey
Global Analyst, Columbia Sportswear
A holistic approach to understanding the personal and cultural dynamics that perpetuate racism, as well as the intersections with other oppressions. The process is revealing and gently guides one through the discomfort
to shed light on a path to overcoming the challenges. It is a journey for the self with a historical and contemporary backbone offering a brighter vision for the future. A unique and rewarding experience!
Ruby Tidwell
Senior Software Engineer, Kiva
I absolutely recommend this course to white folks with a working knowledge of antiracism and white supremacy culture. It's a deeper dive into how and why these structures exist and moves the work from an exclusively external or moral issue into one that is also deeply personal. Racism harms everyone, and we all have a role to play in evolving our culture towards a new model. This course offers a lens and path to do so.
We have inherited a legacy and culture founded in racial inequality.
When we recognize how we've internalized these, we can start interrupting harmful patterns and creating the world we want to live in.
Defuse fears and triggers so you can be grounded and respond intentionally in challenging situations
Channel painful emotions (guilt, shame, self-doubt, anxiety, overwhelm) into clarity, confidence & action
Gain skills to connect with people through empathy & curiosity & build common ground
What we offer:
Take action in ways that are resonant, energizing & sustainable
About your facilitators:
Tiana Doht (she/her)
Tiana has directed her passion for equity and justice through her work in non-profits, sustainable agriculture, education, and finally, as a coach. With an M.A. in Communities, Organizations and Social Change, she is a certified ICF and CTI coach with training in Positive Intelligence and trauma-informed approaches. She identifies as racially white, of British and German ancestry.
Like many, Tiana was catalyzed by the displays of racial violence in 2020 to learn more about structural racism in the United States and contribute to meaningful change. She created Transforming Dominant Culture as a blend of historical background, cultural analysis and her coaching expertise into a powerful and empathetic container for other white-identifying people to discover their most powerful entry points into this work.
Kyle Pearce (he/him)
Kyle has an English/French background and lives in Vancouver, Canada on the traditional territory of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil Waututh Nations. He operates a consulting firm, think: act consulting, that addresses inequities and discrimination in service design for marginalized communities, working with community organizations, businesses, and health care system leaders.
Kyle wrote his Masters thesis on the topic of whiteness, back when bell hooks, Toni Morrison and James Baldwin were the few voices calling for white people to explore their own identity. With a foundation of meditation/mindfulness practice and training in coaching, Kyle has worked with Tiana to bring powerful tools to help others who self-identify as white, to deepen our pool of internal resources and help dismantle racism from the inside out.
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Why is this program held as a white caucus?Structural racism and the harm done to people of color is central to the purpose of anti-racism work. We want to honor the de-centering of whiteness in the broader conversation of anti-racism, while providing a space for white people to learn, process and grow their capacity to do the work alongside people of color. In TDC, we focus on white racial identity and the experiences of white people with the acknowledgment that some work is best done in racial affinity groups or caucuses to avoid creating further harm or burden to people of color. This is also why we request that our participants arrive with a basic understanding of structural racism and the harm done to people of color, as we don’t cover these fundamental issues in depth in our program. If you would like to register and are in the early stages of your anti-racist learning journey, let us know and we can provide resources for you to check out before the start of our program.
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Will recordings of the calls be available?This series is designed to be highly interactive and centers the live discussions among participants. We encourage you to attend as many live calls as possible. If you have to miss a call, we will be recording the sessions so you can catch up. Please be aware that we will not be recording the break out group discussions, only segments held in the main room.
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Why would I choose to work with two white facilitators instead of facilitators of color?Both facilitators, Kyle and Tiana, identify as racially white people of European ancestry. We offer this program as a white caucus with the acknowledgment that our experience is influenced by our racial identity, and there are limits to our expertise in that regard. Because we do a deep dive into the history of racial identity and dominant culture through the lens of white-identifying folks, we feel that we are well-positioned to do this work. That said, we absolutely encourage you to work with leaders of color! We hope that everyone will participate in multi-racial groups and support BIPOC-led organizations and actions. The good news is, it’s not an either/or proposition - you can do both! TDC is not the whole pie, but a slice of the work that helps you orient and grow as a white ally, so you are better equipped to show up and contribute as part of multi-racial efforts.
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Can I register if I identify as mixed-race or multi-ethnic?We’d be happy to talk with you about whether this program might be a good fit. Please send us an email. We might be able to offer resources specifically designed for people who identify as mixed or multi-racial. One of our reasons for holding a white caucus is to avoid causing emotional labor or harm to people who don’t identify as white as we process the experiences and perspectives of white-identifying people. Multiracial dialogue is essential - it is simply a different kind of space than what we offer here.
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What if I don’t have any experience in anti-racism?We welcome people with no or minimal experience with anti-racism work. Our request for registrants is that you acknowledge that racism is a problem and are willing to address it. We’ll talk about ways to get involved and contribute during the program!
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Should I register if I don’t know much about structural racism?We invite you to register - and we strongly encourage you to check out some resources before the program start date to get a sense of how structural racism operates and the impact of people of color, as this is an essential context and purpose of this work. While we’re working to liberate all of us from dominant culture and systems that negatively impact us, we acknowledge that the harm done to people of color, both historically and in present-day, is grievous, disproportionate and distinct from how white people experience these systems. We do our work with this in mind, even as we examine the experiences of white people.
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How does your pricing work?Our sliding scale runs from $100 to $400 for a 9-hour series that includes educational resources and practical guides. We ask that you purchase a tier that reflects your financial capacity. If you would like to pay an amount not listed in the tiers, scroll down on the ticketing page and enter it under "Name Your Price." Please note that "Donations" is Eventbrite's terminology and does not entail that your contribution is tax-deductible.
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Do I have to do the pre-work?We have curated a selection of wonderful resources that condense lots of information into manageable bites. Our group discussions are heavily based on the pre-work. To maximize the value of the program, we encourage you to factor in the pre-work time (30-60 mins per session).
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How does TDC fit into the larger scope of anti-racism work?This program provides essential context and re-orientation for white-identifying people related to the issue of racism. Going beyond seeing racism as something that universally benefits white people and harms people of color, we explore how we all fundamentally lose out in racist systems and have a personal stake in creating a more equitable world. To do this, we start with ourselves. We hold the systems we’ve internalized up to the light and begin to understand their influence. This, along with practices of emotional intelligence and regulation, help white people show up more capably, openly and resiliently to anti-racism work in any area of life.
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What if I want to bring this work to my organization or company?We would love to have a conversation with you! Please contact us and we can explore next steps together.
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I am a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) facilitator and I’m interested in integrating this work into my offerings. How might I do that?We collaborate in various ways with DEI leaders and we'd love to have a conversation with you! Please contact us and we can explore next steps together.
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