The Abolitionists Challenge

An Anti Racism Program Presented by LaDonna Sanders Redmond

LaDonna Sanders Redmond, Somatic Abolitionist

The Abolitionists Challenge, presented by LaDonna Sanders Redmond, is a movement for anyone who identifies as a cooperator and is interested in gaining an understanding of how they can commit to anti racism and eliminate white supremacy in cooperative spaces and in the broader society.

As part of the movement, members in The Abolitionists Challenge will meet remotely for a guided discussion around books that explore issues of oppression and white supremacy in America. LaDonna will offer an anti racism program of directed readings, self-reflection and participation by cooperators in a program to help make cooperatives more actively engaged in bringing strength in our shared work in diversity, equity and inclusion. This will be a focused space in which cooperators will discuss the systematic structures of racism and the work people can do to dismantle them individually and in their communities.

Participants who attended earlier sessions of the challenge are encouraged to renew their commitment to anti racism and dismantling white supremacy by signing up for the newest session, which builds on the foundational elements from earlier challenges.

Education is foundational for change. All are welcome.

Enroll in the Challenge:

Series Starts April 4

REDISTRIBUTION RATE

$175/person
  • No payment plan option

FULL RATE

$150/person
  • Payment plan option available

SOLIDARITY RATE

$100/person
  • Payment plan option available

The Abolitionists Challenge is charged on a Solidarity Sliding Scale.  You can learn more about our approach below.

Book List

Reserve at your local library or order from these Black-owned independent booksellers.

 

Sneak Peak at the 2023 Booklist

The complete booklist will be shared with you following registration for the challenge.

Read.  Embody.  Act.

Why the Abolitionists Challenge?

  • Dismantling white supremacy cannot be done alone. The Abolitionists Challenge gives you the opportunity to be in community and learn alongside other people in the co-op movement dedicated to anti racism and working to end white supremacy.

  • Get guidance and direction in how to approach the reading from an experienced somatic abolitionist and cooperator.

  • Work at Your Own Pace. Participants will have access to videos, resources, and materials for six months.

  • Books have been carefully selected by an experienced cooperator, educator and somatic abolitionist.

What Do I Get?

  • Access to monthly discussions via Zoom hosted and moderated by somatic abolitionist LaDonna Sanders Redmond

  • Access to monthly practice and checkin sessions

  • Join the 21st century abolitionist virtual community

  • Curated list of audio, video, and print materials that cover a range of topics relater to racial injustice

  • Access to other special events and webinars featuring LaDonna Redmond

How to Enroll

You will have access to resources, a community of other anti-racist cooperators, and meeting invites to our monthly discussions on Zoom. Meetings will be recorded and available for up to 30 days after the final session..

The Abolitionists Challenge is charged on a Solidarity Sliding Scale.  You can learn more about our approach below.

Session Dates

Can’t make a live session? All calls will be recorded and shared so you can watch the meetings whenever it is convenient for you.

The first session will be Tuesday April 4th, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. EDT


Refunds and Cancellations

Full refund within 15 days of the beginning of the program

Partial refund prorated – until the end of the 2nd month

3rd month and beyond  – No refunds or credits are available

If there are extenuating circumstances – please reach out to us.

Credits will only be offered if you let us know.

Credit can be offered for future Abolitionist Challenges

Credits are not transferable and cannot be applied to other Columinate events, trainings or offerings.

Solidarity Scale

This year’s Abolitionist Challenge training is being run as a bit differently. We are no longer offering discounts. Instead, we are asking you to consider joining us in a way that supports abolition, cooperation and a solidarity economy.

As we work toward a society that is free from racism and all forms of oppression, we must be willing to pay our fair share for training that uplift these values. With that in mind, we have structured a payment scale that supports the work of abolition.

We are using sliding scales for the abolitionist challenge to both make it accessible for those with lower incomes & wealth and to center our values and politics on redistribution. Often, sliding scales emphasize the accessibility for those who can’t afford full pay on one end of the scale without calling into question the perceived normalcy of being able to afford to pay the full rate.

We believe in building an economy that doesn’t normalize wealth disparities and acknowledges the centuries of labor exploitation, slavery of Black people, violence, and resource extraction on which today’s economy and the wealth (particularly of white Americans) has been built.

We believe in a solidarity economy, one that centers racial and economic justice, and is based on care for all and not profit for some. We recognize that, under racial capitalism, where individuals and organizations find themselves on the economic ladder is not based in justice.

We are striving to be anti-capitalist in a capitalist system, to articulate the value of the labor we offer while working to make it accessible and just within a system that values cheap products, devalues feminized labor, and extracts wealth. We are in process on this and will continue to shift and tweak our methods with new learnings.

In order to practice our values and work towards building a solidarity economy, we practice redistribution internally and ask that you, Abolitionist challenge participants, engage critically with this practice as well.

This will guarantee that folks are paid a fair rate and a salary that aligns with our relative privilege and marginalization, regardless of the composition of a workshop and/or the rate tier.

Redistribution rates ensure we can offer solidarity rates and donation based programming for BIPOC, pay land rent, and contribute funds to Black & Indigenous-led organizing where we live without devaluing the labor of your marginalized facilitator.

A note about valuing labor

We encourage you to interrogate your sense of monetary value for different products and services.

Many of us have been taught to shop around for the cheapest price with the best ‘value’ – but what do we really mean by that? How are we assigning worth to different kinds of labor? Like many who work in sectors with feminized labor, we experience people pushing back on rates or tuition (some have even suggested that I should donate my time because I believe in what I do).

If your organization believes that anti-oppression work is important, we encourage you to reflect that in your budget. A good frame of reference  is to look at what you are willing to pay for technical skills such as computer programming, financial consulting, or engineering and hold up a mirror to how you value anti-oppression work and skilled facilitation of structural change processes.

Even so, we realize you or your organization/business will be committing to financial investment to attend.  Please review the following “tiered pricing” for our sliding scale so that you can choose the right pricing for this training.

How to Place Yourself on Our Sliding Scale

We encourage you to take both income and wealth into consideration, though one’s wealth status is the most important when determining a sliding scale rate.

Income is what you make (usually monthly) from a job, disability, social security, etc.

Wealth is the personal property (homes, cars) + savings + income generating assets (real estate, investments) minus liabilities (debts, loans) within your network and/or family.

Additionally, we encourage you to take your relative racial privilege and/or marginalization into account when choosing your rate.

Ask yourself…

  • Are you and your family homeowners or landowners?

  • Have you attended private education institutions or do you have an advanced degree?

  • Are your bills or credit cards on autopay?

  • Have you not had difficulty accessing and affording healthcare or health insurance for you or your family members?

  • Do you have zero to no debt and/or do you have disposable income?

  • Do you have a safety net composed of “financially stable” or wealthy family and friends?
  • Do you have U.S. Citizenship?

If your answers were…

Mostly YES

You should consider our

REDISTRIBUTION RATE

Our Redistribution rate means ‘paying your fair share’ for individuals and organizations who have had structural advantage and access to wealth.

Some YES, some NO

You should consider our

FULL RATE

Our Full rate represents the ‘true cost’ at which we would break even after paying our expenses. At this rate, we can fully pay our facilitators

Mostly NO

You should consider our

SOLIDARITY RATE

Our Solidarity rate is for individuals and organizations who are surviving. If this rate is still inaccessible to you, we encourage you to get in touch with us.

This questionnaire is inspired by Resource Generation’s “Class Privilege Quiz”.

“Accepting this challenge will allow you to recognize all of the biases that you have and all of the racism that you have been taught. You will no longer be in denial about the impact of white supremacy. You will be an abolitionist and stand against all forms of oppression.