The Busting Binary curriculum was developed by Ana Lara and Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz. 

This curriculum has been developed to address the current limits of language and critical analysis within existing social justice paradigms as well as to provide participants and trainers with the tools for developing innovative approaches to the development of critical thinking. 

The workshops of the busting binary curriculum are aimed for both specific and general social justice audiences.  The specific audiences are “mixed-race organizers” and the general audiences are “social justice organizers”.  We have divided the workshops in this way because to date we have not seen work that deals specifically with mixed-race populations and the challenges faced by these populations. This is especially important given that many people of color within social justice organizations are “mixed-race”. 

Busting Binary Curriculum

We believe that the answers to changing the paradigms that exist within our social justice movements lie within the thinking of our organizers and our communities.  Because we come out of experiences of political-economic and social marginalization, we believe that it is important to put the leadership and experiences of those who share those experiences at the center of the conversation, and the approach to the conversation.  Until the majority of our social justice organizations mirror the make up of our society, what this means is that we draw the norms of our work from the multiple communities with whom we share those experiences:  communities of color, immigrant communities, lesbian/gay/bisexual/trans communities, working class/poor communities, womanist/feminist communities, indigenous communities, semitic communities, visibly and invisibly disabled communities, young communities. 

Point of Clarity: This does NOT mean we appropriate those experiences or norms, it means that the work is based on putting the realities and responses of those communities in the center of the conversation. 

We believe that starting in this center will lead to monumental social change. 

The ideas and exercises from this curriculum are inspired by the works of leaders within communities of color, including:  Sharon Bridgforth (Finding Voices), LLEGO (Cultura es Vida), VictorJose Santana/ROCA, Inc. (Medicine Wheel/Circle: Conflict Resolution).  Our materials cite any exercises directly implemented from curricula developed by these individuals or community organizations. 

To schedule a training or for more information on our curriculum, please contact Ana and Lisa directly at bustingbinaries@yahoo.com