Dismantling Racism

The Dismantling Racism Study & Action Group for justice, liberation, and belonging at UC Berkeley is a volunteer-based community of practice, made up primarily of UC Berkeley staff but also welcoming students and faculty. 

Many members, particularly those who are not themselves targeted by anti-Black racism, have previous experience talking about race and racism through the Multicultural Education Program, workshops such as Courageous Conversations: Beyond Diversity or Undoing Racism, or something similar. The purpose of the Dismantling Racism group is not to debate whether racism, white supremacy, or white privilege exist, but to engage in the work of dismantling these systems, individually and collectively. 

Our Community Agreements include: 

• Racism exists, and exists at UC Berkeley. 

• Racism is an institutionalized system that maintains and reinforces racial oppression with or without overt white supremacist attacks or bigotry.

• All racial concepts are artificially constructed categories, created and perpetuated in the service of white supremacy, that impact everyone. 

• We can and must make change to achieve systems that are fair and just, starting here at UC Berkeley. 

• We strive not to replicate patterns of privilege and marginalization within our own group.

The Dismantling Racism Study and Action Group emerged from the melding of participants from the Whiteness, Privilege and Power (WPP) Study Group, which began meeting in fall 2015, together with participants from the spring 2019 Undoing Racism and Courageous Conversation workshops.

Our Community Agreements were developed as a way to ground our discussions upon a shared foundation and to cultivate trust among members of the group. We ask new and ongoing members give careful thought to these agreements and to reach out to discuss what questions and meanings they evoke for you.

One of the community agreements is "do our own ongoing work to recognize and root out our internalized racism." Continued study is essential to inform our anti-racism work. We have a list of Onboarding Resources that we ask new and ongoing members to study and discuss.

We hold meetings on the 3rd Thursday each month from noon to 1:30 and members frequently share resources on our email discussion board. 

If you are interested in joining our community, please visit https://groups.google.com/a/lists.berkeley.edu/g/dismantling_racism/about and click the "Ask to join group" button. (You must be logged into CalNet to be able to join.)

Co-facilitators:

• Lisa Ho

• Roxanne Pifer

• Rachel Roberson

• Judy Stern

• Rhejinald Walker

• Cassandra Dunn: former Co-facilitator

• Michele Rabkin: Co-founder and former Co-facilitator (retired)

• Rebecca Ulrich: Co-founder and former Co-facilitator (no longer at UC Berkeley)

The Dismantling Racism Study & Action Group for justice, liberation, and belonging at Cal recognizes that Berkeley sits on the territory of Huichin, the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo Ohlone, the successors of the historic and sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County. This land was and continues to be of great importance to the Ohlone people. We recognize that every member of the Berkeley community has, and continues to benefit from the use and occupation of this land, since the institution’s founding in 1868. Consistent with our values of community and diversity, we have a responsibility to acknowledge and make visible the university’s relationship to Native peoples. By offering this Land Acknowledgement, we affirm Indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold University of California Berkeley more accountable to the needs of American Indian and Indigenous peoples.