With Misasha Suzuki Graham and Sara Blanchard
Listen, Learn and Act:
How to Bring DE&I Into Your Everyday Life
Tuesday, January 10, 7:00pm
[This event is free to all.]
Despite having the best intentions, many families don't yet hold the stories, knowledge, and tools close enough to feel able to navigate uncomfortable conversations about racism, identity and belonging, leaving children to make sense of their world and come up with their own ideas - however inaccurate or detrimental. The result is that research shows that by the age of 4, children in the United States associate white people with wealth and higher status, and unfortunately, by the time children start elementary school, race-based discrimination is widespread – just to name one example.
Misasha Suzuki Graham and Sara Blanchard are biracial – Japanese and White – Harvard graduates who've spent their lives personally navigating identity and belonging, and now layer on their backgrounds in law, history, psychology, and well-being, to bring hope for change to fellow parents who want to build a more equitable world for their children. They will discuss ways we can all shift our thinking and take specific actions to be more anti-racist, and tools to be able to (re)focus on equity and inclusion, throughout our everyday lives.
About our speakers
A graduate of Harvard College and Columbia Law School, Misasha Suzuki Graham has been a practicing litigator for over 15 years, and is passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession as well as in her communities. She is a facilitator, writer, and speaker regarding issues of racial justice, especially with regards to children, the co-author of Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism, and the co-host of Dear White Women. Misasha, who is biracial (Japanese and White), is married to a Black man, and is the proud mom of two very active multiracial young boys.
Sara Blanchard helps build community and connection through conscious conversations, which she does as a facilitator, TEDx speaker, writer, and consultant. After graduating from Harvard and working at Goldman Sachs, Sara pursued the science and techniques of well-being and is a certified life coach, author of two books (Flex Mom and Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism), and co-host of Dear White Women. Sara is biracial (Japanese and White), married to a White Canadian man, and is raising their two White-presenting girls to be compassionate, thoughtful advocates.
Together, they created Dear White Women, an award-winning weekly podcast dedicated to helping White women use their privilege to uproot systemic racism in April 2019; they published Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism in October 2021 with the Collective Book Studio, and now speak about their work at companies, firms, schools, parent associations, and book clubs around the United States.