HYBRID DAYLONG: Cultivating Capacity: Gathering of Anti-Racist White Folks

Cultivating Capacity: A Gathering of Anti-Racist White Folks for Reflection, Connection and Accountability

Sunday, March 9th 2025

9AM - 2PM PT () *Please note, Daylight Saving Time is on this day!*

HYBRID

With Crystal Johnson, JD Doyle, and Sarah Emerson

Closed Captioning Provided on Zoom

The center is fragrance-free and wheelchair accessible

N95/KN95 masks required

There is a lot of pressure in the current cultural context to move towards oppositional positions that reinforce separation.  Many people feel a loss of agency and power, which can lead to desire for dominance as a remedy.  We see increasing scapegoating of trans, immigrant, and poor communities to maintain the power of a small elite, and the hardening of views in all arenas of social engagement.  

As white anti-racist practitioners, we may also feel the pressure to “get it right,” or “fix it.”  To identify the “good” and “bad” in order to bring about “change.”  One of the risks we face is that we will fall into the very white cultural practices that we seek to undermine: including dominance, righteousness, and the comfort of “knowing what’s true.” 

In this gathering, with the sangha as our refuge, we can ask: What is our agency that is not dominating or controlling? Gathering in the intimacy and beauty of accountability we can mutually support and develop our capacity for complexity, our capacity to fully meet this moment together, holding the discomfort and fear, in the community space of accountability. 

This gathering will include practice, dharma reflections, and small and large group discussion.

Recommended Resources:

• Characteristics of white supremacy culture: https://www.whitesupremacyculture.info/characteristics.html
• Hospicing Modernity, Vanessa Machado de Oliveira
• When No Thing Works, Norma Wong

Cost

The teachings are regarded as priceless. So they are offered without a fee. You are invited to support the teachings and our efforts by contributing voluntary donations (the practice of “Dana”) for the expenses of the meditation center and the support of the teachers.

The ticket prices are listed as different tiers with suggested donations based on income ranges. For those who wish to give more, you may choose an "add-on" to your ticket. For those unable to give, there is an option for that.

Other ways to give:

To make a gift to sustain the work of East Bay Meditation Center, you may do so via Paypal: paypal.me/eastbaymeditation or our website: eastbaymeditation.org/dana 100% of our programming is sliding scale and no one will ever be turned away for lack of funds.

Thank you for the gifts of your generosity and for supporting the work of East Bay Meditation Center and our beloved teachers who have volunteered their time.

For in-person participation:

For those wishing to practice in person, space will be limited to 60 people to allow ample space for social distancing. Participants will be asked to wear N95 or KN95 face masks. (N95 face masks will be available at EBMC.) Please note: The teacher may be unmasked while teaching.

To attend in person, you need to be completely free of fragranced body and clothing products -- more information and a list of fragrance free products, including those that are especially good for people of color, appears on our website:

https://eastbaymeditation.org/resources/fragrance-free-at-ebmc/

East Bay Meditation Center is a scent free / fragrance free space and is wheelchair accessible.

For Zoom participation, these are our Universal Access Guidelines:

- Please do not use virtual or blurred backgrounds

- If you or your camera are moving around, please turn off your video

- Please say your name when you speak

- Facilitators will attempt to read any comments in the chat out loud

- Please mute when you're not speaking.

Sarah Dōjin Emerson is a Zen Buddhist priest and Dharma teacher at the Brooklyn Zen Center. She lived and trained at the San Francisco Zen Center and the Houston Zen Center and has taught at both, as well as the Stone Creek Zen Center and EBMC in the White and Awakening in Sangha program. She has a M.A. in Counseling Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies, and has worked in the fields of mental health and pastoral care with children and adults. She experiences Zen practice as deeply supportive to inquiring into, challenging and transforming systems of oppression, particularly racial inequities and the harm they cause in U.S.. Sarah also works in grief support- clinically, ritually and in community. She lives with her partner, Charlie Pokorny (who is also a Soto Zen Buddhist priest), their children (who are her most profound and constant teachers) and numerous pets in Brooklyn, NY.

JD Doyle (they/them) co-founded the East Bay Meditation Center’s LGBTQIA+ (Alphabet) Sangha over 15 years ago and co-lead the first Buddhist meditation residential retreats for transgender, nonbinary and gender expansive people. While JD is based in Oakland, CA, they offer meditation retreats and classes at many Buddhist Centers. Their training includes: Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s retreat teacher training, Community Dharma Leader training and the Dedicated Practitioner program. They’ve practiced Buddhism since 1995 in the U.S., Thailand, and Burma. For over twenty years, they worked as a public school teacher. JD identifies as white, neurodivergent, disabled and trans genderqueer. They are committed to celebrating the diversity of our human sangha, addressing the impact of racism on our communities, expanding concepts of gender, and living in ways that honor the sacredness of the Earth.

For more info: www.heartmindteaching.com

Crystal Johnson is a retired clinical psychologist, and a dharma practitioner and teacher who is a Community Teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, CA. Crystal has co-created and co-teaches programs for White dharma practitioners seeking to build awareness, knowledge, and skills to challenge the dynamics of White privilege and race-based oppression, and to create truly diverse sangha. Her classes have included White and Awakening in Sangha, a six-month program at the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, CA, Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership, a six-session course for the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, and White and Awakening Together, an eight-session course at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.  

Crystal is a graduate of the 1 year Commit2Dharma study program at the East Bay Meditation Center, and the 2 year Dedicated Practitioner and the 2 year Community Dharma Leader Program, both at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA.  She offers consultation for individuals and (White-dominated) organizations seeking to increase awareness of race-based harm and identify and address barriers to racial equity embedded in organizational culture, policies, and practices. She can be reached at [email protected].

Event Venue

Online