Marian Fredal
Author, Activist, Speaker
What Marian offers, who she offers it to, and what resources are available.
Coming Soon!
Stumbling Toward Anti-Racism One Friend at a Time: A Memoir
If you’re White, like me, chances are good that you have no friends of color. According to a recent PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute) study, White American’s friendship networks are 90% White, on average. Two-thirds of White people list only white people as friends. An all-White friendship network was my story from childhood until early adulthood.
I didn’t like those odds, and decided to change what my life handed me. Starting from scratch (I grew up in a completely White community which was hostile to Black people) I came to understand that I had to learn that racism/ white supremacy was a big problem. I needed to learn the history my own experiences, that of my community and nation as a first step. And I needed to step out to make friends, real friends, who were different than me.
My book shows what I did to change my life, but not only that. I want the reader to understand my successes—and mistakes—and how I persisted despite myself.
Join me on a journey that changed me in ways I could never have imagined, above all to discover myself anew.
What I Offer
My passion involves assisting white people to familiar and comfortable engaging with race in our culture. The existence of racism, white superiority, and Anti-Black racism needn’t scare us or stop us. Mistakes will happen, they must. It’s how we learn!
I would love to connect with you or your group to explore these topics and much more. This could involve interactive sessions about our history, your early experiences around race, or feelings that come up when trying to do this work. It could involve talks about how to get started de-segregating your life, how to become literate in US racism (or more literate than you are), how to plan a Civil Rights tour. It could involve recurring sessions with your small group to support each other in our anti-racism journey.
