ASDIC Circles are designed to provide you with an in-depth experience to better understand the ways race and racism operate in all of our lives. They will give you greater clarity of thinking, strength of relationship, and effectiveness of action in addressing systemic racism.
The Circle requires a significant time commitment, meeting for ten weekly three-hour sessions. Our guiding text is The White Racial Frame, 3rd edition, 2020, by Joe R. Feagin, with additional readings provided in the ASDIC Manual. Each week we gather to create a safe place for risk-taking, community formation, and acting with care and confidence. The experience includes readings and videos, large and small group discussions, the sharing of our personal stories, and practicing skills to show up and speak up when racism occurs.
ASDIC received the 2010 Facing Race Ambassadors Award, given by The Saint Paul Foundation, and the 2010 Touchstone Award for Inclusiveness, given by the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation. ASDIC Circles are widely described as transformative in their impact on awareness and action.
We are accepting registrations for the fall Circle. It will be led by skilled facilitators trained in ASDIC principles and methodology. Unless arrangements are made to miss certain days, participants are asked to commit to participating in all ten sessions of the ASDIC Circle. Advance registration is required.
Dates and Time: Ten Thursday evenings Sept. 12-November 14 with Circle sessions from 7:30-10:30pm CST.
Location: We will be meeting on Zoom.
Readings: Over the course of our ASDIC Circle, we will study the book The White Racial Frame, 3rd edition, 2020, by Joe R. Feagin. Please obtain a copy of this book before the Circle begins. The 300-page ASDIC Manual is provided. Our guiding text, The White Racial Frame, is available from Amazon for about $40. We have some books on hand for anyone with limited funds.
Cost: No one is turned away for lack of funds. The actual cost of the workshop is $750*, with option to pay-as-able. Sliding scale amounts are also available. People who identify as BIPOC can attend the workshop for $150. However, if your institution is sponsoring the workshop, we ask for partial or full payment.
The actual costs of the workshop include curriculum development, materials provided, present facilitators, and scholarship opportunities to those who have limited economic means. If you need a reduced fee or an extended payment plan, please contact us at info@asdicircle.org.
*Payment may be made online or mailed to ASDIC, PO Box 984, Prior Lake, MN 55372. Checks should be made payable to “ASDIC.” For inquiries, feel free to contact us at info@asdicircle.org or 612-558-0452.
Here’s what participants have said about Antiracism Study Dialogue Circles:
“Community leaders are often reluctant to publicly admit what they do not know, such as the cause and effect of racism. ASDIC Circles provide a safe environment for the study of this issue. By bringing a group of leaders from diverse professions together, not only can leaders discuss issues at a level of common understanding (they face similar public scrutiny), but they can discover how the different entities interrelate and can collaborate to advance antiracism programs in the community. Educating and motivating staff to do antiracism work is a difficult endeavor. Through lessons learned and partnerships forged through ASDIC circles, leaders find they do not have to suffer it alone and can convey to staff, with conviction, not only the importance of the work to the community, but that the partners in our daily activities are also committed to the work.”
“The ASDIC experience is rigorous, compassionate, respectful and non-coercive. ASDIC participants undertake an intellectual and emotional examination of the historical social, political, and economic factors that continue to divide, limit, and exclude. Patient, kind, and supporting, the ASDIC Facilitators invite each participant to walk with them to explore the bitter and ugly places that are typically denied or avoided. Out of this process participants experience glimmers of a society beyond denial, shame, guilt, and rage – a society constructed on compassion, community, justice, hope, and love.”
Facilitator Sue Hammersmith's personal ASDIC testimonial.
“One powerful community antiracist action program is the Antiracism Metamorphosis (ASDIC) program (based in Minnesota). Multiracial activists have used well-crafted dialogue/study workshops to stimulate antiracist discussions & change efforts; successfully worked on educating & empowering diverse local groups to openly protest community patterns of white racism; created strong racial-equity curriculum materials for specific community groups; generated networking capital among antiracist change agents in Midwest; facilitated 100+ workshops & dialogue groups with 1800+ community participants in antiracist activism (teachers, students, nonprofit & government staff, members of religious organizations); provided a strong antiracist curriculum used in college courses; and helped to set up Overcoming Racism conferences providing support for antiracism trainers and organizations.”
