#VBLS15 BACKGROUND
This will be a working Summit to build the global grassroots movement for emotional emancipation--to help Black people overcome and overturn the lies of White superiority and Black inferiority: the root causes of the devaluing of Black lives. This Summit will engage attendees of the 45th Annual Legislative Conference of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in a search for strategies to overturn the lies.
In order to deepen the deliberative process, panelists and attendees are invited to serve in three equally vital roles:
1. Summit Framers—to set the thematic framework for the small group deliberations to follow;
2. Summit Circle Facilitators/Rapporteurs—to shepherd the process of small group deliberations to capture themes and critical points, and to ensure that concrete ideas and strategies emerge from each deliberation; and
3. Summit Discussants—usually referred to as the attendees or audience in a typical conference, but, for this Summit, members of the audience are asked to work in Deliberative Circles and play the critical role of reaching consensus on key issues, and serving as co-creators of strategies to help us free ourselves and our children from the lies--once and for all.