Wednesday, March 29th, 2023 from 12:00-1:30pm PST
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There have been many supported theories as to whether and how psychedelics and plant medicines can further our understanding of racism and help in healing the racial divide that continues to be present in the U.S. Understanding privilege, power, and race have been crucial to these conversations. In this workshop-style virtual discussion, Dr. Darron T. Smith, who is a member of Chacruna’s Racial Equity and Access Committee, will guide us through these concepts and ideas. Did you know that White people are the least likely to believe that they have a race? This community forum will explore why so many White Americans fear “race talk.” This virtual conversation is also designed to help participants learn to identify how racism impacts their lives, and ways to work toward unlearning discriminatory actions, beliefs and behaviors, and to keep strengthening our bonds in the psychedelic community.
Darron T. Smith is a faculty member in the Department of Sociology at the University of Memphis. He is a physician assistant and US army veteran with over twenty years of healthcare-related experience as a PA educator and mental health treatment provider in psychiatry. Dr. Smith has trained with MAPS’ MDMA-assisted therapy. His research and scholarship examine US-based systems of racial oppression and systemic inequality found in all societal domains, including healthcare, the family (transracial adoption), healthcare disparities, religion, sport, culture, and politics. Dr. Smith’s current research and practice intertwine the study of applied neuroscience, race-based trauma, and mental illness by looking at the impact of EEG biofeedback versus MDMA-assisted psychotherapy on brainwave activity in individuals with racial trauma (PTSD) using EEG technology. He is featured in the CBS Sports Documentary, The Black 14: Wyoming Football 1969, and the Loki Mulholland film on transracial adoption, Black, White & Us: Love is Not Enough. He is the author of When Race, Religion & Sports Collide: Black Athletes at BYU and Beyond. Dr. Smith is a board member of the American Psychedelic Practitioners Association. He also serves as a curriculum advisor for the Alma Institute, an Oregon-based Psilocybin training facility. He also serves on Chacruna’s Racial Equity and Access Committee.
Brenda G. Juárez Harris is an applied sociologist, teacher educator, grant consultant, and former K-12 private and public elementary school teacher. In 2006, Dr. Harris completed a PhD with a focus on the sociology of education at the University of Utah in the Department of Education, Culture and Society. Dr. Harris has taught courses in Multicultural Teacher Education, Social Foundations of Education and Society, and Gender Studies in Colleges of Education and Medicine, and in Departments of Sociology at public and private universities. She has established parent groups in Utah and Alabama aimed at advocating for increased democratic participation, self-determination, educational equity, and academic achievement in public schools serving low socioeconomic and racial and language minority communities. Dr. Harris’ research interests focus on exploring the intersections between education, formal and informal, and democratic citizenship and social justice across geography, time, and institutions. Dr. Harris has published on topics of Spanish-English dual language education programs in public schools, social justice education, and Whiteness in U.S. teacher education, the role of culture in successful teaching for Black students, and the trans-racial adoption of Black children by White parents. Her work has appeared in The Journal of Black Studies, Critical Education, Democracy and Education, The Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Education, and The Urban Review. She is co-author of White Parents, Black Children: Understanding Adoption and Race published in 2011 by Rowman & Littlefield.
This talk will be recorded and immediately available for rewatch for all attendees.
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