Tuesdays, January 3rd, 10th, 17th + 31st || 6:00-7:30 pm
Location || Wayfinding Academy, 8010 N Charleston Ave
Four weeks, $150 || Space is limited to 25 students || Scholarships Available

Donald Trump's election surfaces the core tensions in our dominant culture:  gender + race hatreds, class privilege, class war and corporate impunity. These issues were and continue to be raised by academics and philosophers, but the 2016 election season brought them to life outside rhetoric. We are now living in a moment of opportunity: the opportunity to better redress the widespread hurt in our society and to talk across our differences. Together, we can figure out actions to heal this "abscess," but first we must better apprehend the connections between Trump’s rhetoric of division and other ideologies that float around, alive and well, in our society.

In this course, we will aim to better understand the points of potential connection + tension that have surfaced in our politics and in our society. We will work towards a better understanding of the connections between ideology, the shifting landscape of the U.S. and politics, in order to help us offset the deleterious results of a combative, ugly election. Let’s turn lemons into a papaya tree.

Course Goals:

• Learning + doing deep inquiry with those who see things differently
• Identifying a shared values base
• Using this values base to create a way forward along the lines of y/our highest goals--action on climate change, community action on race relations, sharing feminisms, moving beyond gender, toxic masculinity, etc.

Week 1: Identifying the DIfferences + Tensions
What are they and what might you want to do about them?

Week 2: Talking Across Our Differences
Define + explore different approaches to participatory democracy, as well as an approach to talking across identified differences in the public sphere and in community

Week 3: Sexism, Genderisms + Interrupting Toxic Masculinity in the Face of Strong Female Leadership
A deep dive into the concept of Toxic Masculinity, thinking about the way its narratives emerge in our silence, our selves + our community, and what to do about it.

Week 4: Racism/s, Age Old Ideologies + Change
An in-depth look at the concept of White Fragility: where it shows up for us and/or the price we pay accommodating it.