Yesterday was the first meeting of the Applebaum reading group. We had about 20 attendees in the room and 15 or so online, including a research cluster, organised by Chris Meyns, in Utrecht. Darren Chetty facilitated the discussion (brilliantly), with a break-out session, and we spoke about chapter 1 ('Introduction') and chapter 2 ('White Ignorance and Denials of Complicity: Linking "Benefitting From" to "Contributing To"').
The conversation was productive and key points were raised about the diversionary tactics deployed by white people in conversations about race (e.g. '...sure racism is a problem, but what about class?') and the role of a white academic writing for (?) middle-class, white academia. My own involvement in the conversation was minimal due to microphone problems and an inability to multi-task. On the plus side, the technical side of things seemed to go quite well, with good points being raised in the 'Live Chat', and discussed in the room. We aim to have a better microphone and a webcam for the next meeting.
If you attended the session and have any thoughts that you'd like to share, please email them to applebaumreading@gmail.com and I'll upload them to the blog. Likewise, if you didn't attend, but have thoughts about the first two chapters that you'd like to discuss, please send them over.
Looking forward to the next session!
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