Join us June 8 for a community-wide conversation about race. The white race. Thursday evening June 8,7:00 pm, Debby Iriving, author of Waking Up White, will be presenting “I’m a Good Person – Isn’t That Enough?” at Temple Isaiah in Lexington. This program is co-sponsored by Temple Isaiah, Church of Our Redeemer, First Parish Bedford, First Parish Lexington, Follen Church, Grace Chapel, Hancock Church, and Pilgrim Church

Debby Irving is a racial justice educator and author. A community organizer and classroom teacher for 25 years, Debby Irving grappled with racial injustice without understanding racism as a systemic issue or her own whiteness as an obstacle to it. As general manager of Boston’s Dance Umbrella and First Night, and later as an elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she struggled to make sense of tensions in racially mixed settings she could feel but could not explain. In 2009, Debby took a graduate school course, Racial and Cultural Identities, which gave her the answers she’d been looking for and helped launch her on a journey of discovery. Now, leading workshops and presentations around the country, Debby devotes herself to exploring the impact white skin can have on perception and how individuals can help themselves and others change misconceptions and attitudes. A graduate of the Winsor School in Boston, she holds a BA from Kenyon College and an MBA from Simmons College. Her first book, Waking Up White, tells the story of how she went from well-meaning to well-doing.

Waking Up White is the book Debby Irving wishes someone had handed her decades ago. By sharing her sometimes cringe-worthy struggle to understand racism and racial tensions, she offers a fresh perspective on bias, stereotypes, manners, and tolerance. As she unpacks her own long-held beliefs about colorblindness, being a good person, and wanting to help people of color, she reveals how each of these well-intentioned mindsets actually perpetuated her ill-conceived ideas about race. She also explains why and how she’s changed the way she talks about racism, works in racially mixed groups, and understands the racial justice movement as a whole. Exercises at the end of each chapter prompt readers to explore their own racialized ideas.

Unfortunately, attempts to make sense of racial events and rhetoric too often lead to increased misunderstanding. While mainstream media often brings a good/bad, black/white version of events involving individual actions, Debby Irving encourages people to bring more nuance, historical knowledge, and personal reflection to the issue.

June 8 Waking Up White will be available for purchase and for signing by the author during the refreshment period following her talk and the Q&A.

Temple Isaiah is at 55 Lincoln Street, Lexington, and is handicap accessible.