U of M hosted lecture on how to use 12 steps of AA to recover from whiteness

[Valin]

Alpha News

Like AA, Combs said a weekly recovery meeting takes place every Wednesday night.

Anthony Gockowski

October 18, 2020

The University of Minnesota hosted an online lecture over the summer that taught viewers how to use the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous to recover from their whiteness.

“The Model of Recovery from White Conditioning, a derivative work based on the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, is rooted in love and accountability,” states an online description of the webinar. “It involves white people, working in our community to transform violent legacies of whiteness into healthier, white, anti-racist community … and it requires us to have the courage to start with ourselves.”

(Snip)

According to a PowerPoint presentation from her lecture, the 12 steps for recovering from “white conditioning” include:

Quote

1. “We admitted that we had been socially conditioned by the ideology of white supremacy.”
2. “We came to believe that we could embrace our ignorance as an invitation to learn.”
3. “We developed support systems to keep us engaged in this work.”
4. “We journeyed boldly inward, exploring and acknowledging ways in which white supremacist teachings have been integrated into our minds and spirits.”
5. “We confessed our mistakes and failings to ourselves and others.”
6. “We were entirely ready to deconstruct previous ways of knowing, as they had been developed through the lens of white supremacy.”
7. “We humbly explored new ways of understanding … proactively seeking out new learning and reconstructing a more inclusive sense of reality.”
8. “We committed ourselves to ongoing study of our racial biases, conscious or unconscious, and our maladaptive patterns of white supremacist thinking.”
9. “We developed strategies to counteract our racial biases.”
10. “We embraced the responsibility of focusing on our impact, more than our intentions, in interactions with people of color.”
11. “We engaged in daily practices of self-reflection.”
12. “We committed ourselves to sharing this message with our white brothers, sisters, and siblings … in order to build a supportive recovery community and to encourage personal accountability within our culture.”

(Snip)

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