Our Updated Allyship Course Coming Soon!
I’m excited and humbled to share the outline of the newly redesigned Brave Sis course: "Unengaged to Ally, Advocate to "Sister."
Course One: Foundations for Collaboration Across Race and Culture
This course is for women from white or white-adjacent backgrounds who want to build genuine trust and collaborate across difference, as well as for Women of Color looking for tools and clarity to navigate and lead conversations with aspiring allies.
Every module brings real opportunities for self-reflection, new vocabulary, honest dialogue, deep exploration, fun, and practical strategies for meaningful change. Together, we’ll challenge the fears and misunderstandings that hold us back, discover the motivations that move us forward, learn key concepts and tactics that break down barriers and bias, and develop tools for starting authentic, transformative conversations—so we can build stronger solidarity and connection for collective action.
- Why We Gather
We will kick off by setting clear intentions and outlining the purpose of our work together, including how this course connects to the larger Brave Sis Project mission and what you will receive in this curriculum. You will learn what to expect in each lesson, and receive clear expectations you can lean into for your own progression and accountability—as well as my intentionality in supporting your path.
2. Looking at Emotions, Motivations, and How We Got Here
Real change starts—and ends—with a deep and honest look within, so this lesson seeks to unpack the fears, desires, and tough questions that influence your (and our collective) willingness to show up, take risks, and stretch beyond the comfort zones. I’ve used this process with clients from high school student groups, to nonprofit boards, to small and large corporations, as well as in my private coaching and cohort groups.
Using an honest and intimate space (since you do the work in the privacy of your own journal – a digital workbook is also provided) you can consider how our personal stories and the broader historical context impact the emotions that arise around inclusion and unity work. When we address differences across lines of color and culture, we can interrogate our motivations (both the conscious and unconscious ones), and trace how family and community roots that have shaped our perspectives and responses.
3. Privilege and Position: Naming and Navigating
In this section, we’ll dig into what privilege and positionality actually mean, clarify where we hold privilege (because we all have some kinds!) and where we experience marginalization, and build skills to talk about these realities honestly—without shame or defensiveness. We will explore the universal brain mechanics of bias and how it has been weaponized over the centuries to create the society we now live in that prioritizes so much discrimination, divisiveness, and despair.
This is a very dense lesson, with a new framework I’ve built that helps us consider the interlocking systems of discrimination and deprivation (codified into law and practice) and ask ourselves how this system interacts with our own vectors of privilege (and lack thereof). Unearned advantage and structural power play out in all human relationships, and understanding that privilege is not about blame helps us get unstuck and resilient for the struggle. Through awareness and commitment, we can get more real about positionality, and take purposeful action.
4. Interrogating Monoculture: Challenging the “Default”
Oh my God, this one! A lot of what gets labeled as “professional,” “safe,” or even “friendly” in predominantly white spaces is really just dominant culture in disguise. In this section, we’ll identify these patterns for what they are, dig into their roots, and practice building community that truly honors difference. We’ll break down what monoculture means and how it impacts who feels included or excluded, take a hard look at how ideas of “normal” get built and enforced in organizations and society, and develop practical strategies for pushing back against monocultural norms so everyone has room to show up as themselves.
This is probably one of the topics that women in mixed cultural/racial groups most want to discuss, and from them, I continue to build a practice around this crucial topic so we may feel “seen”— and aligned and purposeful.
5. Banishing Nice-ism: Beyond Comfort to Brave Engagement
Too often, in order to keep up dominant-culture norms, we settle for being “nice”—choosing comfort over honesty and getting stuck in performativism (or worse). In this section, we’ll dig into what it really takes to practice compassionate candor. We’ll get real about how “niceness” is built on a foundation of racialized narratives around “femininity” and “purity,” and how as such, it actually degrades trust, honesty, and real progress. This is another workshop I’ve presented to groups of all sizes: how do you understand the difference between being nice and being kind? How does kind candor help build accountability? What practical skills can you curate for speaking up when you’re needed, handling conflict when it simmers, giving and receiving feedback (this is always a hard one!), and telling the truth with care—even when it’s hard.
6. Deconstructing Fetishization: Respect Over Objectification
Even when people mean well, it’s all too common for interactions to slip into subtle or blatant objectification. In this section, we’ll break down what fetishization and tokenization actually look like and where they come from, talk honestly about the harm they cause, and dig into real ways to move toward respect and genuine allyship and unity. We’ll examine how women of color often get exoticized or reduced to stereotypes in white-majority settings, develop our ability to spot and unlearn these patterns (in ourselves and each other), and center language and practices that build real respect, dignity, and authentic relationships.
Course Two: Sustaining Change, Deepening Learning, Leadership, and Liberation
This “advanced” course carries on from the basics and takes things further, hoping to help you lead real change in your organization, community, or family; modeling collaboration and allyship in a way that transforms culture—not just conversation; and building deep relationships grounded in accountability, transparency, and a true commitment to shared liberation.
1. Dismiss Tone Policing and Stereotyping
Tone-policing is probably the offense I experienced the most over my working life, and from what I’m observing, it remains a top-three problem in many so-called progressive spaces. How many times have I had a progressive white woman just trill off her opinion and life advice (“you should this, do this/not that,”—without my requesting or wanting their unsolicited advice! This topic links to monoculture standards, and it shows up when people critique the delivery of a message, focusing on someone’s emotions or tone instead of what’s actually being said. This tactic is so common in white-dominant workplaces, and it shuts down real talk, sidelines marginalized voices, and especially pressures Women of Color to hide their true feelings. How do you intend to build trust and community when the other person is unwilling to show their true self? Tone-policing is a common way to reinforce exclusion and uphold the status quo. This lesson gives us a chance to get honest about how dismissing someone’s lived experience only deepens wounds and slows progress. And we will build tools for listening to real stories—even when the truth is hard to hear.
2. Power: Understand It, Interrogate It, Shift It
Power imbalances show up when one group has more control, resources, or influence than another, creating real barriers and unfair advantages. In the U.S., whiteness is built into our social structures, driving deep racial disparities—and sadly, so-called feminism has often failed by putting the needs of white women ahead of Women of Color. This imbalance keeps systems of inequality alive in broader society and inside movements that claim to be about justice. In this section, we’ll get concrete about how power works day to day, in conversations and decisions—both in the rules and in the relationships. We’ll dig into who gets listened to, who sets the agenda, and why it matters. And we’ll push for ways to break down old hierarchies, move marginalized voices to the center, and make sure those most affected by any issue are leading the work to design real solutions.
3. Abandon Your White Savior Complex
The white savior complex!! Those who work in development, philanthropy, or the community services or cultural sector know the pain of this misstep too well. WSC happens when white folks—often unintentionally—center themselves as helpers or leaders for communities of color, sidelining the voices and leadership of those actually impacted. Globally, this means outsiders running projects without real collaboration; in everyday life, especially when white women take charge, it can show up as speaking for or making decisions for people of color (see tone-policing). This is how power imbalances get reinforced and genuine partnership gets shut down. It’s one of the subtler dynamics out there, but its effects run deep—in philanthropy, in activism, even in community work. In this section, we’ll dig into the roots of the white savior habit, work to swap performative allyship for real humility and responsibility, and focus on what it actually takes to co-create change with partners across difference—grounded in respect, listening, and honest collaboration. You will meet one of my favorite back-of-the-napkin characters, Sally Savior, and her friends.
4. Trash the Tokenism
Tokenism shows up when organizations or groups put people from underrepresented backgrounds in the spotlight just to look good or dodge criticism—without truly sharing power, inviting diverse voices into real decision-making, or changing the deeper culture. I can speak to this predicament from a place of deep personal experience. It’s about appearances, not progress, and it actually undermines true diversity by leaving folks isolated—and worst of all, nothing changes. This section will look at how to spot and move beyond tokenism toward meaningful, equity-driven inclusion; how to make sure presence actually comes with voice and leadership—not just a seat in the room; and what it takes to build cultures where representation leads to real change and authentic safety for everyone.
5. History Out of Hiding
When we ignore the historical realities that shaped racial and cultural inequity, it becomes way too easy to chalk up today’s disparities as accidental or deserved—and that kind of erasure does real harm. It props up stereotypes and clouds understanding of marginalized communities. Facing hard truths from our history is the only way to break the cycle of injustice and move forward with real equity. In this section, I will share a few examples of “hidden history” and open your reflection into the sometimes overlooked context behind our ignorance (I don’t even mean the willful shutting down of museums and the banning or censor of books)! We’ll talk about how selective memory and restrictions on honest teaching break down trust, and work on ways to lay the groundwork for true healing through truth-telling and shared historical understanding.
6. The Heartbreak of Over-Intellectualizing
Over-intellectualizing and keeping the conversation at arm’s length—habits especially common among white progressives—lead to endless analysis of racism without real emotional engagement or action. It might feel safer, but talking about change isn’t the same as making it—and that gap keeps injustice firmly in place. In this section, we’ll get honest about when deep dives into theory actually get in the way of real connection and progress; practice shifting back to heart-centered engagement that starts with our lived experience; and work on moving from talk to true accountability, prioritizing actual change and the messy, embodied realities over intellectual comfort.
Those who have been part of my cohorts and other work will recognize some of these lessons from the ‘Beloved Community” work I’d fostered over the past couple of years. But we are now in a different world, and beloved-ness is great, but we are dealing with survival now.
Let me just state for the record, a lot of the updating has to do with the obvious devastating dismantling of the systems, practices, and norms that we have so valiantly sought to build and codify in our society.
And a lot of it is now infused with what I’ve learned, heard, consulted others around, or sadly—as many of you know—experienced firsthand. I’m still healing from the enormous harm I endured in the American workplace, particularly the so-called “DEI” space, but with time, distance, reflection, and gratitude, I see myself coming through to the other side. And as I wrote to someone recently, if I can do it, baby so can you.
So can we.
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Pricing: sliding scale from $60-$500.
