Workshop | Functional Intersectionality - Getting Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

This workshop will take a deep dive to collectively explore the consistent pattern of intersectional disenfranchisement that occurs along racial, gender, and socio-economic lines and experienced by people of the global majority.

Workshop facilitators will leverage their experience as a Black women-led organization based in the United States focusing specifically on building community relationships by using race and racism as a vehicle to engage people in conversation, and by extension, build community. Outside of the United States, gender and socio-economic disparities remain consistent; however, where racial lines are not dominant, there are still issues of classism, sexual orientation, religious and tribal affiliations that create barriers for collaboration and community building. Facilitators will discuss how much of this is deeply rooted in colonialism, and by extension, white supremacy.

The goal of this session is to offer tools that can help to dismantle colonialism and strengthen relationships among individuals working in the public sector. While we can not single-handedly dismantle colonialism, we of the global majority can create and expand without imitating our colonizers.

Shaina Pomerantz (she/her) is a bi-racially Black Jewish California native with deep familial roots in Portland. Her maternal grandparents, Charles and Johnnie Maxey settled in Portland, Oregon in the 1940s after fleeing harsh Jim Crow laws in East Texas. Through their guidance and love, Shaina was taught the importance of public service and community activism through the lens of education, advocacy, and civic engagement. She followed her parents, Donna Maxey and Steven Pomerantz, both alumni of Pacific University, into the field of education where she taught violence prevention and conflict mediation, reading, writing, and humanities. Her students have ranged from K-12, college, post-graduate, and elder/seniors. Recognizing her own color privilege as a light skinned Black woman, Shaina is committed to making space at tables and holding doors open for darker melanated Black folx. In 2022, Shaina stepped into her mother’s big shoes as Executive Director of RACE TALKS, expanding her responsibilities as Chief Operations Officer and Lead Facilitator.

Shaina considers herself a lifelong learner, and worked as an educator for over twenty years, serving in both traditional schools and community based organizations, with focus on poor and historically marginalized communities of color; she has had the pleasure of educating students in the Bay Area and New York City. Shaina worked in the Texas, Louisiana, and Oregon State Legislatures and her civic engagement and volunteerism includes the City of Portland’s Office of Equity and Human Rights Bureau Advisory Committee, Co-chair of the Portland Police Equity Advisory Committee, and Vice-Chair of the Citizens Review Committee. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco; Master’s in Organizational Leadership from Mercy College; and Juris Doctorate from Southern University Law Center.

Donna Maxey is a Black native-Portlander, retired Portland Public School teacher, and the proud mother of Shaina Pomerantz. Donna experienced first hand the immediate and subsequent impact of racial trauma when her family home and business in the Albina community of Portland were demolished under eminent domain. From this and countless other experiences that she has openly shared, Donna realized there was a need to create a space to heal racial trauma in Portland. Since 2011, Maxey has served as the Founder and Executive Director of RACE TALKS: Uniting to Break the Chains of Racism, which she funded through her retirement.

She has hosted over 200 unique monthly forums under the RACE TALKS umbrella utilizing experts from community based organizations, city, county and state government, all levels of education, and private enterprise. The forums have addressed timely Oregon-centric issues through the lens of race and racism, including ethnic and religious groups, houselessness, public safety, recreation & sports, disaster preparedness, the 2020 Census, and community/policing forums, to name a few. To date, RACE TALKS has hosted over 25,000 participants virtually and in-person.

In 2015, Donna started her own firm, Donna Maxey & Associates, LLC, which her daughter Shaina joined in 2017. Together they provide executive consulting, coaching, and facilitate dialogue on issues of racism, race education, leadership, community action, and equity, diversity and inclusion. Clients have included City of Portland & Multnomah County agencies, Oregon State Bar, Multnomah County Bar, Prosper Portland, Meyer Memorial trust, and Society for Community Research & Action (SCRA); other clients include Oregon-based universities, churches, school districts, historical societies, theater groups, financial education organizations.

Maxey has been a highly sought after keynote speaker and expert panelist throughout Oregon for over 20 years. In 2022, Donna Maxey stepped down as Executive Director, passing the torch to her daughter, Shaina; she is RACE TALKS’s Board President and continues to oversee the management of Donna Maxey and Associates, LLC as principal owner.

Learn more about RACE TALKS at racetalkspdx.com