21-Day Juneteenth Freedom School Challenge©

This #21DayActionPlan has been co-curated by Drs. Eddie Moore, Fred Dixon, Khalid el-Karim, Shemariah J. Arki and John Igwebuike, Katarina Smiley and Delbert Richardson 

We changed things up for this challenge!

What is school without a workbook, homework, and art?! And that is just what we created for you! Download the workbook that includes the history of Juneteenth and a discussion of Juneteenth through art and imagery. Also, included are reflection questions and homework. The workbook pairs with the other nine activities to get you through 21-Days.
Download Your Workbook Now!

Get Started

The 21-Day Action Plan is created to work with the participant(s) – this is how habits are built.

  • Individuals

    Jump right in! You pick your start day and commit to one of the 9 action categories below on each of those days… yes, it is that simple to get started! The hope is that you will change things up based on your schedule, commitment, and understanding, so you will be able to attempt all activity types.

  • Groups or Organizations

    Use our Copyright and Recognition Page to get started on the planning and advertising, so your group is cohesive in your approach to the 21-Day Action Plan. Use our Facebook page or Prohabits to stay engaged with each other. As a group you can select which action type and resource to complete as a group or have individuals select for themselves. We have found engagement occurs either way. It is a good idea to plan a pre and post survey and discussion as a group to assess skills building and which challenge you will do next!

  • Adapters

    We encourage organizations to make the challenge fit their audience. Using the structure, intent, and resources within the 21-Day Action Plans, you can adjust daily design, prompts, or how you choose to reflect and engage as a group. Click HERE for adaptation ideas and examples of how communities are adapting the challenge to meet their specific social justice focus. Remember the required recognition. Reach out to us with your adaptations, so we can share with others.

ProHabits

Automated Interaction

Daily Tracker

Stay on Course

Facebook Community

Engage & Network

Choose One Activity Per Day

To further your understanding of power, privilege, supremacy, oppression, and equity.

Read: Encounter new writers and ideas from a range of media sources. 

Children's Books

Listen in on the kinds of open, honest conversations that too many of us avoid having.

The songs listed in Inspire are ways to celebrate and share your understanding of Juneteenth. 

Additionally, here is a way to listen to the storytelling and experience through sound. 

Watch and learn. We've offered everything from short videos to full-length films. 

Notice: Why didn’t I see this sooner? It’s easy to overlook what we’re not looking for.

Once people start to learn about white privilege and America’s systems of oppression through history, they often ask, “Why didn’t I see this sooner?” Juneteenth 2021 brings a new reason to celebrate as it is now a federal holiday. 


We have included two new options for this activity below: 

DO

  • Participate in the The 1619 Project The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.   

GO

  • Visit The National Museum Of African American History And Culture in Washington DC.  You may need three days to fully immerse yourself in the rich collection and archives.
  • Visit the Martin Luther King memorial in DC.  

Follow Racial Justice activists, educators, organizations, and movements on social media.

Consider connecting with any of the people /organizations you learn about in the above resources. Here are more ideas to widen your circle of who you follow. Pro Tip: check out who these organizations follow, quote, repost, and retweet to find more people/organizations to follow.

Black liberation activists, educators, and organizations on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Engage in racially mixed settings. Be a learner more than a knower.

 

This can be the hardest part for people new to racial justice work. Engaging in racially mixed settings can trigger age-old power and privilege dynamics. The goal is to be a learner more than a knower, exactly the opposite of what dominant U.S. culture teaches us to be.

Here are some Engagement Tips to guide you:

 

  • Enter the process to learn and bridge knowledge gaps.
  • Enter the process to practice mindful social habits like the ones below.
    • Work to stay engaged even when your mind and body start sending you signals to shrink or walk away.
    • Ask clarifying questions.
    • Acknowledge what you don’t know.
    • Validate others by listening closely and believing the truth and importance of what they are sharing.
    • Share airtime so that multiple perspectives are shared.
    • Step Up Step Back. If you are generally quiet, step up and practice speaking more. If you are generally a talker, practice stepping back and listening more.
    • Notice your biases and judgments as they arise. These are gold for you to excavate your subconscious!
    • Notice when you are uncomfortable. Reflect on why you’re uncomfortable and think about what you can do to build more emotional stamina in this area.
    • Honor confidentiality. Though you can share what you are learning in general terms, do not repeat stories in a way that can be traced back to the person who shared it.
  • Find a mentor within your own racial group to support and guide your growth.

If you are white, join a Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ) chapter in your area.

Google who’s who in your area by typing in ‘Racial Justice” or “Anti-Racist/m” + name of city/town, organization, or sector. A few website visits, emails, and phone calls later, you’ll likely have an idea of how to get on the mailing of one or more organizations in your area who are addressing issues of power and privilege. Once you connect to one, it’s easy to connect to many!

Research racial justice speakers and see who might be coming to your local university, church, community center, or speaker series.

Take a course or workshop. Community Colleges and Adult Education Centers are a great place to find a course about social justice issues.

Act: Flex your skills. Take action to interrupt power and privilege dynamics.

Though many white people want to jump to action sooner instead of later, action without a vigorous self-education and self-reflection practice can unexpectedly reproduce the very power and privilege dynamics we seek to interrupt in this work. Here are a few actions that you might consider:

  • Invite friend/s, family, and/or colleagues to do the 21 Day Challenge with you.
  • Prepare yourself to interrupt racial jokes. Click here for some advice about how.

Let people know you are not neutral!

Reflect on what you choose to do, what you’re learning, and how you are feeling.

Reflecting and Journaling is a crucial piece of the challenge. Plan to take time everyday to reflect on what you chose to do, what you’re learning, and how you are feeling. Difficult emotions such as shame and anger, though uncomfortable to feel, can guide you to deeper self-awareness about how power and privilege impacts you and the people in your life. At the very least, use the “Reflect” space on the reflecting journal tool.

Create a Soundtrack4Justice playlist that fuels you and/or can serve as a conversation starter with people of all ages.

Download the Apple Music Playlist Here.

Download the Spotify Playlist Here.

Download the Youtube Playlist Here.

 

Guidelines:

If you are using, revising or editing the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge © content created by Dr. Eddie Moore Jr. and his team at The Privilege Institute, giving credit to the creators is required. Remember, now more than ever, you/your organization must always give credit for the social justice tools/ideas created by BIPOC folks doing and leading Antiracist work. We’ve made it easy to give the proper recognition to be used on websites, social media sites, in email communication, during interviews and/or infomercials. Click HERE for our copyright information and tools to incorporate the required recognition in your plan. We are committed to offering the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge © free of charge. We are constantly enhancing the materials, monitoring social media pages, responding to inquiries/questions, and Moore.

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