POST-PUBLICATION UPDATE: According to the Theory of Enchantment site, the full course that I recommend at the end of this post is $175. What I refer to is only a partial course, which I was able to preview for free at the time it was available. Sorry for any confusion. I still recommend checking out the site, following TOE on Twitter and Instagram, as well as Chloe Valdary herself.
In the past few years, I have been immersed in a plethora of diversity and equity training. Our school district offered a fairly comprehensive online course on the foundations of antiracism. The school I was leading was part of a cohort working with The Holdsworth Center, in which we participated in presentations and data analysis around these issues. I have participated in Beyond Diversity seminars and facilitator training from Paul Gorski’s Equity Literacy Institute, as well as smaller forums and discussions as part of equity teams and workshops.
I read (or listened to) books, such as How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, Courageous Conversations About Race by Glenn Singleton, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Solving Disproportionality and Achieving Equity by Edward Fergus, and Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond. (There may be more.)
I listened to podcasts and episodes by Latasha Morrison, Jemar Tisby, and others because of my interest in how these topics intersect with Christian faith perspectives. I even admit to periodically listening to Truth’s Table, which I don’t know if I am supposed to do as a white male since it is “a podcast by Black women and for Black women.” Even though I am not their intended audience, I learn when I listen to these voices (and I recommend them).
It was not really until I discovered the work of people like Coleman Hughes, Kmele Foster, Thomas Chatterton Williams, and the contributors to the Journal of Free Black Thought (here on Substack) that I was introduced to the diversity of thought within this arena. Even the range of voices within the Black heterodox1 camp, from Brittany King to John McWhorter (author of Woke Racism), is varied and eye-opening.
In the midst of all of it, though, one of the best and most refreshing things I did was to go through the online course called Theory of Enchantment, created by Chloe Valdary. I found a unique kind of antiracism training enlightening and inspiring.
I highly recommend this course. It is really about humanity and what makes us, us. There are great reminders about moving beyond political abstractions and caricatures of people. There is quite a bit of reflection to help grow your sense of self-awareness. I learned more about vulnerability, Stoicism, pop culture, history, and literature as a result of this course. Ultimately, though, the lens of love sets this course apart from other equity and diversity training I have received. Other activists and platforms use words like “inclusion,” but this course provides you with an actual, practical framework to be inclusive.
I suggest we listen more than we speak and find value in hearing from diverse voices and challenging viewpoints. At the end of the day, I am not sure that I have any more expertise or authority than I did at the beginning of this journey. Some would prefer I don’t speak at all and others that I would do so more, not because of me, but because of my race and gender. I get that. All I know is that I need a lot of help and I could benefit from growing in my understanding of myself and other people, and the Theory of Enchantment seemed like a step in the right direction. I figure if it can help me, then maybe it is worth passing along to others who might also find it helpful.
Even “Black heterodox” is a label that some take issue with because it implies that another stance is the “orthodox” way of looking at things. I use it here to help with categories while knowing that categorizing itself is a problem and runs the risk of framing a group of people as a monolith when there may very well be more diversity within a racial group than there is between groups oftentimes. I hope and trust the reader gets the point.