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CHALLENGING GENDERED RACISM OF BLACK MALES AND DRAWING ON BLACK MASCULINITY AS A COMMUNITY RESOURCE (2 DAYS)
IFT EXCLUSIVE EVENT WITH DIRECTOR TAIWO AFUAPE
Workshop Dates: 10th October & 14th November 2023, timings 15:00-20:00 (UK time)
Kimberle Crenshaw’s intersectionality theory examined the relationship between “race” and gender in Black women’s lives, and the ways in which black women are doubly disadvantaged by both gender and “race” (Crenshaw, 1989). In addition, multidimensionality theorists argued that as well as being privileged by gender, Black men were also subjected to racism that is gendered; that is, they experience discrimination by virtue of being Black and male (Mutua, 2013). As Close and Green (2010) put it, the Black man is “A demographic. A sociological construct. A media caricature. A crime statistic. Aside from rage or lust, he is seldom seen as an emotionally embodied person. Rarely a father”. Racist stereotypes of Black males in the UK and US continue to justify policies promoting punishment, exclusion, detainment, and marginalisation. Not enough is being said, let alone being done, about this pervasive injustice, despite the widespread anger and condemnation about the murders of Black males at the hands of the police in the US and in the UK.
However, it would do Black males a huge disservice to present them as objects, solely shaped and moulded by racism, and done to, by a racist world. Black people resist, challenge, deconstruct, adapt, adopt and create. How we manoeuvre a racist world is pure poetry, full of “ordinary magic” (Stern, Barbarin & Cassidy, 2021) like community building, creativity, joy, and cultural expression.
This training is split over two days allowing ample time for teaching, discussion, and exercises, as well as time to apply what is learned in practice between sessions. This time will enable participants to try out ideas, and engage reflexively with the learning, bringing back examples and instances from their practice to inform the learning on the 2nd day.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the two days participants will be able to;
- Understand what gendered racism of Black males is and how it manifests itself in their everyday lives
- Reflect on how gendered racism of Black males manifests itself in their work contexts
- Reflect on the interface and intersection between gendered racism of Black males and gendered racism of Black females
- Understand why challenging gendered racism of Black males is everyone’s business
- Be able to identify the elements of gendered racism of Black males in the taken-for-granted policies, procedures and approaches that we live by
- Develop some strategies and commitments for how we might begin to speak up, speak out and challenge the places where gendered racism of Black males rears its ugly presence
- Commit to diversifying descriptions of Black masculinity in their personal and professional spaces
- Develop ways of working that involve noticing, valuing, supporting, and working alongside black male compassion and wisdom
Speakers
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Taiwo AfuapeDirector: TrainingBeing a Nigerian British-born working-class woman is central to Taiwo’s work and IFT has been greatly influenced by Taiwo’s work, including her books and articles with colleagues that are central to many of our courses.
Taiwo has training in Narrative Therapy and is a Clinical Psychologist and Systemic Family Therapist with more than eighteen years post- qualification experience.
Previously Taiwo has set up community psychology services for transitional populations – women escaping domestic violence, homeless people, people misusing substances, travelling communities of Roma and Irish heritage and refugee people; has worked in a Human Rights charity for survivors of torture; managed an adult mental health Systemic Service in Newham and was Principal Systemic Family Therapist in an adult Psychology and Psychotherapy service in Kensington, offering training in diploma level systemic psychotherapy as well as family and couple therapy for adults with mental health problems and more recently worked in Camden CAMHS as a Systemic Family Therapist and Lead Clinical Psychologist. She has most recently been leading in Newham CAMHS. Taiwo brings a wealth of experience to our new courses including working with universities and AFT to ensure we move with the times and into the future for systemic family therapy including working with social justice in action with families and communities and developing community models of working within our courses.
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Travis HeathPresenterTravis is a licensed psychologist and is an Associate Professor at San Diego State University where he serves as Chair of the Department of Counseling & School Psychology.
Past work he’s been involved with looked at shifting from a multicultural approach to counseling to one of cultural democracy that invites people to heal in mediums that are culturally near. His most recent work involves incorporating the work of Black abolitionist scholars into psychotherapy, community healing, and uprising.
His writing has focused on the use of rap music in narrative therapy, working with persons entangled in the criminal injustice system in ways that maintain their dignity, narrative practice stories as pedagogy, a co-created questioning practice called reunion questions, and community healing strategies. He is co-author, with David Epston and Tom Carlson, of the first book on Contemporary Narrative Therapy released in June 2022 entitled, “Reimagining Narrative Therapy Through Practice Stories and Autoethnography.” The book is part of the “Writing Lives” series with Routledge publishing. Travis has been fortunate to facilitate workshops and speak in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong, India, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, United Kingdom, and United States.
