PERSONAL FINANCE AND RACIAL JUSTICE
WEEKLY TIMELINE
Monday 6:00pm - Come prepared for class by reading the prompt and doing any pre-work. You’ll be split into groups of 4 to spend the entire 2 hours discussing the prompt.
Thursday midnight - Publish your essay on Discourse. Every essay should have a title that is unique, that draws the reader in. “Struggling squaring providing for my family and serving public justice - Douglas Tsoi” is great. “Reparations - Douglas Tsoi” is not. You don’t need to restate the question, your fellow learners know that. Establish early on in your post what you’re here to say. Be mindful that your classmates are reading and responding to 4 essays, so have mercy. Measure your words to be both brief and complete. 200 words may be a good guideline.
Post by Thursday midnight. Format of your post should be [Title][Name].
Friday and Saturday morning - Read at least four (4) posts from your fellow classmates. Choose posts from classmates who you were not in the Zoom session with. Comment intelligently and generously. “Great job, I learned a lot,” is not an intelligent or generous comment. Offer feedback that deepens the writer’s understanding of what they wrote or what you still don’t understand. This is one of the most important elements of the course.
Comments due Saturday at noon. By Saturday noon, you should have the pleasure of feedback from four readers!
Saturday morning - Next prompt is published.
Sunday noon - Edit your essay by adding a paragraph “gathered reflection” (“GR”) that highlights what you’ve learned since you published it. Take into account what you’ve learned from other people’s posts as well as the feedback you received. This is your chance to go deeper. If you were going to write the post again, what would you do differently? Don’t edit your original post; just add your GR at the bottom of your original post. Finish your GR by Sunday at noon. Fellow students won’t read it (unless you specifically ask them). Do it anyway.
COMMIT TO OUR SHARED VALUES
CREATE TRUST AND PROTECT EACH OTHER
Commit to generosity, growth, and learning. Unless you have explicit, specific permission, don’t quote or use anything from your classmates outside of class. All interactions are from the heart. Say what you mean and stand behind what you say.
ALLOW IGNORANCE
You won’t know everything and neither will your classmates. Allow space for you, and others, to change their minds.
We have to really allow ourselves to create some space for people not knowing, not understanding, and just saying stupid things. I mean stupid as in ignorant … we have to figure out how to create room for that, rather than policing each other, so that people can actually get into the conversation.” – Rev. angel Kyodo williams
DO THE WORK
Do the work. The work is what transforms you. Feel into it. Then explain it in writing. Be on time, meet deadlines, do what you say you’ll do.
“We are desperately trying to make our abusers love and accept us when they do not love and accept us without them doing their work, and you can't do their work for them.” – Rev. angel Kyodo williams
IT’S OK TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE
Let’s get to a position of being both safe and uncomfortable. That’s where growth happens.
“We have to disrupt spaces that are not seeking truth, that are not upholding our potential for liberation, because they are invested in their comfort. Usually that comfort means they are invested in perpetuating white supremacy…. If you’re going to any place of spiritual enrichment in which you are not meaningfully experiencing discomfort, not all the time, but meaningfully uncomfortable frequently, you are not doing your work, and you are not walking the path of liberation.” – Rev. angel Kyodo williams