#SwirlChat Transcript – Talking with Ken Tanabe, Founder of Loving Day

Here is the transcript from our last TweetChat on Friday, February 10th, 2012, when we talked with Ken Tanabe, Founder of Loving Day. If you didn’t get to participate and want to weigh in on anything we discussed with Ken, please leave a comment below and share your thoughts! Also, if you are in NYC, please join us for our joint Swirl-Loving Day event to see the Loving photo exhibit at the International Center of Photography on Saturday, February 25th at 3pm. You can buy your group rate ticket here – see you then!

You can find the transcript here, in a pdf. Note that the tweets read from most recent to last, so read from bottom up!

*Note that this chat was held on Friday, from 3pm-4pm EDT. The times you see in the transcript are indicative of the fact that the person who captured this transcript is located in Germany. Thanks Kim!

Please join our next live every-other-week TweetChat on Friday, February 24th at 3pm EDT!

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Multiracial families: Counted, but still misunderstood

Originally published at The Time Is Always Right

by Jen Chau

In the past couple of years, I have noticed a certain complacency that I never noticed before, in my eleven years of leading Swirl. The same passion and the same excitement around building multiracial communities had faded a bit. In the one year leading up to the Presidential election, we launched five new chapters (the norm had been a chapter every year or every other year). People were excited by the energy created by Obama’s campaign, and they were motivated and eager to be a part of creating supportive and inclusive multiracial communities.

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Introducing SwirlStarkville!

The Swirl team is happy to welcome its newest chapter on board – SwirlStarkville (in Mississippi)! And at its helm, Sheena Gardner (pictured at left).

The establishment of SwirlStarkville comes at a time when an increasing number of individuals are identifying as multiracial in a state which traditionally sees race in black and white. Because the chapter is located in a college town, the organization will focus primarily on serving the student population.

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Practice makes progress

Originally published at The Time Is Always Right

by Jen Chau

In my years of diversity work, I am pretty sure about one thing. The people who are “good” at talking about race issues are those who have practiced.

As a participant in discussions about race, I have heard certain white individuals (not all) lament, “I just don’t know how to talk about this stuff.” And then I have heard some people of color (not all) in turn, say, “I am tired of talking about this stuff every day.”

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10 Ways to Be an Ally

by Christopher Bowers

As I have gotten deeper into anti-oppression work I find that I am discovering  more and more subtleties and complexities than I ever considered. Learning to be a good ally is not a linear education with some sort of graduation or certification at the end. It is a process full of experimentation, humility, confusion, challenge, and clarity. This list is by no means complete. It’s really just a few suggestions on how to turn your mind towards solidarity.

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