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Session 7: Movements for Racial Justice 

Facilitator Guide > > Session 7: Movements for Racial Justice 

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session participants will:

  • have discussed the movements with which they are most familiar
  • have developed a deeper understanding of context, tactics, and outcomes of movements for racial justice

Suggested Agenda

  • 00 Welcome/Gathering Quote (share reactions within chat box)
    • Define social movement theory
    • Define justice and accountability
    • “If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there’s no progress. If you pull it all the way out that’s not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made. And they haven’t even pulled the knife out much less heal the wound. They won’t even admit the knife is there.” MALCOLM X
  • :03 Grounding Activity and Collective Agreements Review   
  • :10 Opening question: Using Mentimeter or another Word Cloud function, teens write in the 5 racial justice movements with which they are most familiar (Mentimeter Word Cloud): https://www.menti.com/u98rdb8xwt
    • Discussion Questions
      • Why do some movements get remembered when others get lost? (Suggestion to add talking points in facilitator notes)
  • :20 Put list of movements in chat. Present George Floyd and Rodney King as case studies. (Or choose top choices from word cloud or discussion) Discussion Questions
    • What was the context for the movement?
    • What tactics did this movement use?
    • What did this movement achieve?
    • What did this movement NOT achieve?
    • How was this movement stopped and who stopped it?
  • :50 Final Showcase Workgroups and Report Back
  • 1:25     Integrative Closing:
    • I liked
    • I wish
    • I wonder

Facilitator’s Section

Facilitator Notes

At least one facilitator recommended doing historical social movements earlier – the youth really enjoyed learning about the historical context of anti-racism to help them bring those concepts into later sessions.

Sofia’s Field Notes

  • Slides 1-6 in this powerpoint I made: Movements for Racial Justice
    • Includes Malcolm X quote that was really great and also helpful in explaining the four types of justice
    • Includes definitions
      • Social movement theory – explains the origin, growth, decline, and outcomes of social movements. It studies the relationship between social movements and changes in societal structures
      • Justice – there are three principles of justice: quality, fairness, and access. There are 4 types of justice: distributive (determining who gets what), procedural (determining how fairly people are treated), retributive (based on punishment for wrong-doing), and restorative (tries to restore relationships to rightness). Justice means different things to other people. In terms of the phrase ‘Justice for George Floyd,’ some thought justice meant defunding the police. Most just wanted for his death not to be in vain – but what does justice mean in that case?
      • Accountability – an acceptance of responsibility for honest and ethical conduct towards others. Some models show 4 steps to accountability: mustering the courage to SEE IT, finding the heart to OWN IT, obtaining the wisdom to SOLVE IT, exercising the means to DO IT = I think Malcolm X’s quote from earlier really focuses on this in a way. Seeing the knife and the stab wound, owning it is admitting that they are the ones who stabbed them, solving it means understanding how to heal the wound. Taking the knife out and healing the wound is doing it!
    • List of racial justice movements: https://classroom.google.com/u/0/w/NDY3MzMwNzY1MzE4/t/all
    • The How Can We Win? Video was incredible and super impactful. I liked them writing down the imagery and phrases that stood out to them.

Additional Resources