Racial affinity groups mean different things, and many have different goals. For example, some groups meet for emotional support while others form to provide input to organizations. Brave Space is a mindfulness-based, peer-led study group, with structured guidance from Ruth King in the form of instructional lessons along with video and audio content. The focus is on investigating habits of mind in order to disrupt habits of harm that keep us from moving toward racial healing and harmony. Brave Space addresses the inner work of transforming racism.
Also distinct to this program is that we are not bridging differences or engaging across racial affinity groups, nor are we focused on solving social or organizational issues. Key to this program’s success is your ongoing commitment and willingness to engage in the work of inner awareness and racial healing, which is why we have designed a year-long curriculum that emphasizes both racial inquiry and relational development.
Brave Space is a rare opportunity to understand your racial conditioning and uproot racial habits of harm within caring community and over time.
Recorded September 2021, Brave Space Cohort 1 Graduation.
Cohort 1 consisted of 287 participants (44 racial affinity groups) worldwide.
Yes, you need to be part of a racial affinity group to register for the program. You cannot sign up as an individual. Form or join a group prior to applying!
Ideally, your group should be of similar racial, ethnic, and gender identities. Keeping the group small (no more than 8, no less than 4) will not only motivate members to stay committed, but we have found that smaller groups tend to experience greater cohesion and trust.
If your group is nine or larger, we recommend that you break off into smaller cohorts and register separately. Groups that fall below four or above eight members will not be eligible for the program, so do your best to meet this criterion.
On occasion, and especially among BIPOC kin, a Mosaic (or diverse BIPOC affinity group) may form.
Select members who are interested in an introspective and structured approach within community and over time.
Yes, And...
Yes, This program is designed to address the unique needs of "affinity" group members. We have found that affinity groups with similar backgrounds offer less activation as well as more focus and safety. For this reason, we encourage you to form groups with members of similar racial, ethnic, and gender identities, if at all possible.
We emphasize affinity because we mainly want to reduce any distractions or undue stress among members and stay as close to possible to sameness (which we know is a joke, but nonetheless a good starting place).
And, forming affinity is not so simple, because there is nothing simple about being humans. There are many reasons why deciding on affinity would be challenging and thus gathering folks to participate with you taxing. For those of you who choose to gather in what we will call a Mosaic group of like-minded folks who are thrilled to take this journey with you, we welcome you!
Whether affinity or mosaic, If you run into snags along the way, we can always provide additional support through our Racial Affinity Group Mentoring option.
A common question I get is: Why do we need to separate into affinity groups?
The short answer: To separate into racial affinity groups is not intended to divide us but rather to leverage the fact that within most contexts and often within our own hearts, we are already racially divided. In Brave Space, we intentionally separate to understand and uproot this chronic conditioning more deeply. And this intention and attention has a profound impact on how we show up and influence the world.
Brave Space is designed to provide a safe space for racial affinity groups to examine their racial conditioning.
Following are a few "Why" elaborations as well as a Mosaic group option:
Let’s start with BIPOC affinity:
I’ve found that BIPOC folks are often thrust into the ceaseless and urgent necessity for racial and social justice. Seldom do we stop, get to know the depth of our kinship, discover our distinction, learn from each other, or heal together.
We have not had time or taken time to share our intimate stories or the pain of our addictive emotional patterns, the loss of our people or of our heartfulness. Nor have we shared our stories of courage or revealed to each other our intense loneliness from our efforts to belong to each other.
Brave Space provides BIPOC affinity groups a rare space and desirable structure to discover how internalized oppression impacts us and hinders our connection to each other. Our overdue need to be seen and cared for by each other is readily available when the tension and activation common when sharing racial concerns within white dominate spaces is minimized.
If you feel fatigued from the generational and cumulative impact of carrying this weight, or you want an intimate community to uproot internalized habits of harm, know that Brave Space is a nurturing and healing space. It’s not a space to solely vent the horrors of racism or to advocate for social change. Instead, you have the opportunity to set that weight down and turn your attention inward and toward each other. You are supported in being seen and held within a structure of belonging aimed at ripening clarity, stability, and connection.
Brave Space offers BIPOC affinity groups a nurturing and spirited opportunity to become more racially aware, to care for each other, and to serve their communities with fierce clarity, stability, and care.
I’ve found that many white bodied people enter Brave Space for different reasons from their BIPOC siblings.
I’ve found that many white bodied people enter Brave Space for different reasons from their BIPOC siblings.
Whether white people know it or not, they have been racially conditioned to be socially dominant individuals, seldom aware of themselves as a racial group or to know the experiences of whiteness. Commonly, white people have not made understanding whiteness and its impact a priority. Yet the collective unconsciousness of white bodied people, as a group, has a profound impact on transforming racism in the world.
When white people are not aware of whiteness, this unawareness impacts white people’s capacity for intimacy and healing among other white people, and impacts white individual’s understanding of whiteness and its effect on other races. And while many white people I’ve worked with are interested in understanding whiteness, they feel estranged and awkward, and they lack a structure for exploring this journey with other white people. Brave Space is ideal for addressing these concerns.
Brave Space offers white people an opportunity to feel their membership in whiteness, and to shift from feelings of isolation to belonging. It is not a space to flesh out how you help BIPOC people or causes, to learn about other races, or how you behave in appropriate ways. In Brave Space, you turn your attention inward and toward each other. You are supported in understanding your own racial conditioning, and in being seen and held within a structure of belonging aimed at ripening clarity, stability, and connection within affinity.
Brave Space offers white affinity groups a nurturing and spirited opportunity to become more racially aware, to care for each other, and to serve the world with fierce clarity, stability, and care.
Mosaic Group Option:
Forming affinity is not simple, because there is nothing simple about being humans. There are any number of reasons why deciding on affinity would be challenging and thus gathering folks to participate with you taxing, but we hope you will give this good effort.
For those of you who choose to gather in what we will call a Mosaic group of like-minded folks who are thrilled to take this journey with you, we welcome you!
And Know This:
Whether affinity or mosaic, should you run into snags along the way, we can always provide additional support through our Racial Affinity Group Mentoring option.
And, if you’re concerned about what you’ll discover about yourself or how you will feel going through this intimate journey, know that Brave Space is not a judgmental or combative space. You’ll be guided in how to reflect with care and engage with compassion within your racial affinity group experience.
We encourage you to find affinity group members that you would prefer to experience Brave Space with. However, throughout the year, we schedule Meet-Up zoom sessions where individuals seeking additional members can join and see who might be ready to sign up. Please check our calendar for dates.
It can be a powerful experience for you to find your own affinity members. And, for many, it can feel awkward asking others to join you on this journey, so below we are offering some language you can personalize to invite your colleagues or friends to join you in Brave Space:
Dear Friend,
One of my goals over the next year is to take a deeper dive into understanding how I impact racial harm and harmony, within myself and in the world. I’m considering joining Brave Space, a 12-month mindfulness-based affinity group development program. Brave Space provides a foundation for an embodied understanding of our racial habits of mind that impact how we see and respond to race and racism in the world.
One way to think about Brave Space is that it is a learning laboratory that nurtures racial understanding, connection, and kinship while strengthening our capacity for compassion toward ourselves, our race, and other races.
There’s more I could say about why I think this is a powerful opportunity, but before I do, I want to see if you might be interested in joining me in this journey.
Our group will be between 4-8 people, receive monthly prep work, and will meet once a month. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, I’d love to have you join me! Let me know, and I can send you more information.
Once you have identified your members, we encourage you to meet as a group and get acquainted before you start the program (See details on Program Fees & Application Process).
Each participant should be willing to commit to the year-long program, including pre-requisites and meeting assignments. Monthly commitments include:
- Completing the individual assignments and reflections on the online portal (estimated at approximately 3 hour per month). You have access to the portal 24/7.
- Meeting monthly with your racial affinity group (estimated at 3 hours per month).
If you have 4 members in your racial affinity group, you should plan to meet for 1.5 hours each month. If you have 8 members in your racial affinity group, you should plan to meet for 3 hours per month. Group facilitators may modify this schedule.
We provide thoughtful guidelines for monthly meetings including guided meditations, a template to structure your time together, and questions for contemplation and group development discussion. In between monthly meetings, there is material for you to work through on your own schedule, at your own pace.
Brave Space offers an opportunity for group members to grow together as they dive into their racial conditioning. Given the vulnerability of the work and the emphasis on group development, we ask that you not add new members once you begin the program, as new members impact group growth, trust, and cohesion.
You can meet physically, virtually, or a combination of in-person and online gatherings; whatever format works best for your group. This flexibility will allow for members to participate who don't necessarily live in the same area or time zone.
Note: If you plan to meet virtually, it is your group’s responsibility to provide its own virtual meeting solutions, i.e., Zoom or another type of platform.
To foster connection, productive discussion, as well as active group participation, we will provide a three-hour template for structuring monthly meetings (to be modified according to group size). We also lay out a series of group tasks to help you stay organized and share responsibility for group management each month.
We suggest that you stick to the schedule we've provided for the first several months of the program. As your group progresses, you may modify the schedule based on group needs.
It is common for organizations to send several racial affinity groups through the Brave Space online program. If you are an organization and have a number of racial affinity groups interested in participating in this program, your organization may want to designate a coordinator (DC) who will interface with our organization for the application and group payment details. Click here to contact us.
We are happy to support any registration or sign-in inquiries. Teachable, our online learning platform, has proven to be intuitive and easy to use. Therefore, we ask students to first utilize the Teachable help features to resolve technical issues should they arise.
Brave Space is designed to enrich racial awareness and understanding. However, we do not track, measure, or evaluate your participation in this program. For these reasons, we do not offer CEUs.
Yes, you will receive a Certificate of Completion upon completion of this course.
This is not a train-the-trainer program. Your Certificate of Completion does not certify you to teach, replicate, or use the content in this program. Your certificate simply acknowledges that you have completed the course. Under no circumstances should you use the content of this program outside of this program.
Much has been considered in pricing Brave Space to ensure the utmost inclusivity and accessibility. We have made every effort to keep our fees for this 12-month program comparatively low and the quality of our programming high, yet it can still be challenging.
We encourage racial affinity groups to discuss alternate forms of support for the program. Some racial affinity groups have pooled financial resources to ensure every group member can participate. Other groups have raised funds through friends or social media. Groups that engage in such explorations have reported that it strengthens group connection.
We offer a 10% discount when you purchase Brave Space and Mindful of Race 101 as a bundle. And fortunately, through the generosity of select donors, the Mindful of Race Institute is able to offer limited scholarships to BIPOC affinity group applicants. To qualify, your racial affinity group must have 8 participants. Partial scholarship support is limited to 2 participants per racial affinity group. You can apply on your application form.
Payment Options for BIPOC affinity groups:
- $1940 - Base Pay for Brave Space Only
- $162 per month - Base 12-Month Payment Plan
- $2,060 - Bundle Discount: Brave Space + Mindful of Race 101
- $1,940 - BIPOC Scholarship Bundle Discount: Brave Space + Mindful of Race 101 (pre-approval required)
Still have questions, let us know: [email protected]
The Mindful of Race Online Academy has a No Refund policy. Once your payment is received, we do not provide refunds, transfers, or credit. No exceptions are made to this policy.
Please discuss this policy prior to submitting your application.
Yes. If your racial affinity group is interested in having a coaching session with Ruth King or one of her experienced affiliate of the Mindful of Race Institute throughout the year, please visit details on our Racial Affinity Group Coaching link.
Why in hell would you do this?
Brave Space brings us into clear intention and relational intelligence. Our work is a critical step in developing, from the inside out, racial literacy and skillfulness. To separate into same-race groups, in this sense, is not intended to divide us but rather to leverage the fact that within most contexts and often within our hearts, we are already racially divided. In Brave Space, we use separation to more deeply understand this chronic conditioning that feeds separation.
Regardless of how you identify racially, no one is exempt from the critical need to intimately examine their racial conditioning and uproot racial habits of harm.
While Brave Space is not a complete solution to racial injury and injustice, it provides a foundation for embodied understanding and wise response to racial ignorance and distress. We learn to lean in toward what is unfamiliar. Doing so allows us to more closely inspect our habits and defense mechanisms and learn to recognize our role in racial harming and healing with care, within community, and over time.
I look forward to supporting your journey! Ruth King