Jessie Washington

Jessie Washington and Patricia Ireland team up to present an interactive workshop/training with the goal of drawing new distinctions that empower people who care about social justice and equality. The workshop aims to illuminate the web of invisible and unearned benefits that people of white ancestry enjoy. Delivered with sensitivity and humor, this workshop will give participants a broader understanding of the relationship between racism and white privilege. Participants will come away with awareness and tools to challenge the individual, cultural and institutional structures that sustain white privilege. The focus is not on blame or guilt, but a chance to get smarter about power relations and how to leverage unearned advantage for the benefit of a greater social good. Jessie is based in the Washington, DC area.

Faith and Feminism: Have We "Thrown Out the Baby with the Bath Water?" The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention is considered to be the official "kick-off"of the Women's Rights Movement. It was planned by a small group of mostly Quaker women who felt that the time had come for "women to move in the sphere which Providence has assigned her." Our foremothers began their meetings with prayer and religious energy was the fuel that ignited their purpose and activism. In recent years, much of the feminist movement has not tapped into the transformative power of religion because, in many respects, organized religion "has been no friend to women.". How did religious faith catalyze the power of early feminists? Will the gap between faith and feminism continue to serve the larger purpose of the feminist cause? Jessie Washington and Patricia Ireland lead a discussion of these and other questions.

Jessie Washington is a theology student and former senior aide to the 2004 Carol Moseley Braun Presidential Campaign.