Rev. Dereca Blackmon
Discover how to see and challenge the ways that inequality is embedded in our everyday lives — and how we can all help heal racism, promote justice, and honor every person with the respect and value they deserve.
If you’ve landed on this page, you’re probably pretty conscious around issues of social and racial justice.
Maybe you’re here because you’re wanting to know what else you can do to make a difference around racial equality, or because you’re still angry over the unwarranted deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and far too many others.
Whatever the reason, you probably agree that it’s been a long time coming for us to address our sordid history of racial inequality. The ongoing, day-to-day racism embedded in our society is often so subtle that white-bodied people often aren't even aware of it.
Yet, there are systematic disadvantages built into our culture that keep People of Color from benefiting from the freedoms so many of us take for granted.
The laws and policies built into the fabric of society persist in negatively impacting everything from hiring, education, and housing to voting, healthcare delivery, and our judicial system. Systemic racism today doesn’t overtly prohibit the freedom of Black people like it did for centuries in the U.S., but there are still countless insidious ways that society continues to inhibit the growth and advancement of People of Color.
Rev. Dereca Blackmon believes that racial healing begins when we, as individuals, do the work to understand the wounds that racism creates in all of us, no matter the color of our skin.
In this free online mini-workshop — which falls on Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates the end of slavery — you’ll gain greater understanding of the myriad ways we're still struggling with the scourge of racism more than 150 years after Black people were emancipated.
You'll explore why healing requires that we open our eyes to the devastation caused by racism and stop participating, both knowingly and passively, in a system that was designed to favor some at the expense of others.
Dereca will help you see why adding activism to your spirituality toolkit promises to awaken a new part of you. You’ll look at why holding a mirror to your own accountability is a crucial first step in unlearning everything you’ve internalized about race, freeing you up to contribute effectively to racial healing.
It's clear that simply making anti-racist declarations, or even just amending laws and policies, won’t create deep and lasting change. To truly combat racism, we must overcome the resistance of white fragility and examine the ways that white-bodied people unknowingly exercise the privileges they were born into.
In this mini-workshop, Dereca will lead you on a guided journey to identify your vision for true racial justice. This powerful exercise will enable you to move beyond just talking about equality and equity to actually taking steps to help move us toward true racial healing.
In this galvanizing 60-minute free online event, you’ll:
- Learn ways you can step up and make a difference in healing racism
- Contextualize oppression and see why justice requires collective liberation
- Look at how solidarity, allyship, and coalition-building can contribute to racial and social justice
- See why adding activism to your spirituality toolkit leads to awakening
- Connect to your core beliefs so you can articulate your own vision for racial justice
Dereca’s wise and loving spiritual guidance — along with her no-blame, no-shame approach — will undoubtedly elevate your self-awareness and your desire to help bring about racial healing. Dereca will also share how a personal epiphany after the 2009 murder of Oscar Grant by a police officer in Oakland, California, led her to become a minister.
When you join Dereca for this important hour, you’ll also be one of the first to hear about her new 5-week course where she’ll share powerful, game-changing ways you can turn awareness into action and advocacy.
Sign Up Now
Join this FREE video event with Dereca Blackmon and discover how to see and challenge the ways that inequality is embedded in our everyday lives — and how we can all help heal racism, promote justice, and honor every person with the respect and value they deserve.
Free Video Event
What People Are Saying About Dereca Blackmon...
“Feedback was really strong — a few said Dereca should run for President!”
Dereca supported the successful launch of our Allies Academy as a part of our larger Diversity and Inclusion initiatives at LinkedIn. To support our launch, she delivered an interactive, highly engaging, and transformational education event that was broadcast to LinkedIn employees across the U.S. Feedback was really strong — a few said Dereca should run for President! It is clear that Dereca invested a great deal of thoughtful work and preparation into customizing the experience. Her coaching and guidance along the way was also top-notch. I highly recommend Dereca if you are looking to make an impact in the space of diversity and inclusion with a meaningful experience for your organization.
— Tyrona Heath, Lead for Agency and Partner Education at LinkedIn and President of LinkedIn’s Black Inclusion Group (BIG)
“[Dereca] creates safe spaces for courageous conversations, and never holds back...”
Dereca Blackmon is one of the most real, authentic, and powerful teachers that I know! She knows how to inspire, inquire, and invite you into spaces, places, and growth within yourself that is priceless and transformative. She is a powerful presence of boundless love, creates safe spaces for courageous conversations, and never holds back for the sake of your expansion.
— Rev. Karen Fry, minister, speaker, and teacher
“Dereca is one of the most insightful, charismatic, and intelligent people... ”
Dereca is one of the most insightful, charismatic, and intelligent people amongst Stanford’s far-reaching student affairs staff. Speaking to Dereca has the comforting effect of speaking to your mom, but with the sharp, cutting insight of all things related to race, class, and equity.
— Ibrahim Bharmal, human rights advocate, migration specialist, and writer
“I will recommend her to every institution I work at in the future...”
My very first week at Stanford, I heard Dereca speak and I knew that she was someone I wanted to have as an instructor and mentor. She is someone who meets people where they are at and does not shame them into caring about diversity issues, but rather guides them to the reasons why it is important to their lives and their own success. She is deeply passionate about equity and justice, and the practices [necessary for] creating that in the world through her connections with others. Without a doubt, I will recommend her to every institution I work at in the future for their diversity initiatives, and I hope to channel her in my life moving forward.
— Gabriela Nagle Alverio, consultant at Inclusion Design Group
About Rev. Dereca Blackmon
Rev. Dereca Blackmon is a passionate speaker, facilitator, and national expert on topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion. For over 25 years she has consulted with a wide variety of corporate, educational, nonprofit, and community-based groups to facilitate “uncommon conversations” on issues of race, gender, class, and social justice. Her experiential training models cut through “diversity fatigue” and allow participants to engage in deep, authentic, and meaningful dialogues.
She served as the Assistant Vice Provost and Director of the Diversity and First-Generation Office at Stanford University, where she introduced groundbreaking work on authentic engagement, intergroup dialogue, and unconscious bias to over 30,000 students, staff, faculty, and alumni. She also taught several courses at Stanford, including Intergroup Communication with renowned cultural psychologist Hazel Markus, which typically has a waitlist of over 250 students.
Dereca co-led the effort to organize the Bay Area community response to the murder of Oscar Grant III by transit police. After mobilizing thousands of protestors and holding countless meetings and rallies, she began to question the strategy of organizing “against” rather than “for.” She entered ministerial school and has never looked back, becoming one of the nation’s leading speakers on spiritual activism.
Her training, activism, and youth development work have been featured in two books — Black Youth Rising by Dr. Shawn Ginwright, and Learning to Liberate by Dr. Vajra Watson — and cited in countless national forums, including The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and The New York Times.
