There’s probably plenty of heated political discourse to keep you and yours warm this holiday season.

If you need a strategy for dealing with these dinner table disputes, Make Yourself Useful’s second Anti-Racist Holiday Preparedness Party might be your ticket. Spearheaded by a handful of members from the activist collective, the party-cum-workshop will offer “tips for interrupting racism” and role-playing exercises to help folks hold productive discussions with their families.

“The holidays are already charged with a lot of things, but, until recently, straight, white, liberal circles have practiced avoidance. The holidays have been about finding something you can enjoy with your family,” says co-organizer Lynnea Domienik.

Make Yourself Useful aspires to shift the tide by connecting people, so they can share resources. Participants can expect to walk away with the tools they need to begin meaningful conversations with their loved ones.

“The holiday party is important because it helps folks deal with the emotional labor of these discussions,” says co-organizer Latham Zearfoss. “You can usually pick your battles, but with family, the battles often pick you.” Other facilitators include Ruby Thorkelson and Kerry Cardoza.

“We talk about which questions to ask, what kind of tone to use and ways of appealing to your family’s values,” says Domienik. “We provide ways to counter such comments as ‘It’s been a year, get over it’ and ‘All lives matter.’”

The group said it learns through the relationships with the people in its members’ lives, but also believes “in not putting the burden of education on people of color and POC-led organizations. Instead, we do our own research into literature and other media forms, as well as racial justice movement history, so that we are able to understand how to educate ourselves.”

One exercise is the Crucial Conversation Starter, which helps people think through whom they want to have conversations with and how to navigate what comes up. There will also be a texting tree, so people can reach out for support or ideas during the holidays.

According to Zearfoss, one of the ultimate goals of the party is creating changes in behavior.

“It aims to empower folks who are returning home for the holidays to call-in family members who display explicit or implicit racism,” says Zearfoss. He says Make Yourself Useful strategically uses “call-in” instead of “call-out.”

“It’s about a slower, less public method of accountability, versus a call-out, which is more geared toward shame and chastising,” Zearfoss says. “No human being is disposable. But, there is also a lot of socially ingrained racism. We’re asking how you can sit with those two things at the same time.”

Jenn Jackson, a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago studying black politics and social movements, says parties like this make good short-term strategies for confronting racist behavior during the holidays.

“It's the first of the first steps,” Jackson says. She says she believes racism persists because a lot of white people aren’t concerned with race in their daily lives. They affirm and coddle one another’s experiences, which creates an echo chamber and reinforces racial hierarchies, she says. In this respect, she says it’s critical for white people to do away with notions of “colorblindness” and challenge one another to recognize how race affects social structures.

“It's very admirable that more white people are interrogating their positions in systems of power,” Jackson says. “It's important, disruptive work. In the long term, however, these disruptive strategies have to become dismantling strategies.”

The party is in line with the group’s other programming. Make Yourself Useful meets monthly to support letter-writing campaigns and discuss readings by people of color. It also operates the Joyful Giving Database, a lengthy skill-sharing list where individuals can offer particular services or talents to organizations. While the collective is open to anyone, Domienik and Zearfoss say it is geared toward white people and is dedicated to fortifying organizations of color — it aims to act as an accomplice, not just an ally.

“We work to deprogram the mind,” Domienik says. She believes white communities need to critically approach the ideas about race they have ingested.

“I think there is a difference between people who act out racism and people who are actively trying to fight the messages they’ve heard throughout their lives,” she continues. “It’s important to critique who taught you certain ideas and for what purpose. We need to have conversations that confront what our families believe.”

The Anti-Racist Holiday Preparedness Party takes place 6:30 Thursday at Reunion Chicago, 2557 W. North Ave.

khawbaker@tronc.com

Twitter @kthawbaker

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