Presented Collaboratively by CPA’s
Social Justice Speaker Series & Ethnic Diversity Task Force:
Healing from the Root Cause of Anti-Black Racism
Presenter: Enola G. Aird, J.D. and A. Chandra Roxanne, MSc and the Community Healing Network of CT
Date & Time: Thursday May 29th, 2025 from 7:00PM – 8:00PM Eastern Daylight Time
Location: Live Via Zoom (Zoom Link: Emailed with ticket)
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tkKEuvQYQoqcvePGrETmGw
Zoom will require name and email address to enter the webinar.
Cost:
FREE to attend
FREE CE for CPA Members (Log into account to access discount!)
$15.00 CE Processing Fee for Non-members
Continuing Education: Eligible for 1 CE
Abstract:
It is the most powerful weapon ever formed against Black people. It is the thread that runs throughout the fabric of global systemic anti-Blackness. It is at the heart of the crime against the humanity of African people. It is the centuries-old lie of white superiority and black inferiority. This workshop will focus on the movement that is mobilizing Black people across Global Africa to heal from, and extinguish, that lie. The basic premise of the movement for emotional emancipation is that freedom from the lie of white superiority and black inferiority is an indispensable foundation for healing, wellness, and empowerment for Black people. The session will feature a mini-Emotional Emancipation Circle (EEC), the movement’s core strategy, originated by Community Healing Network and developed in collaboration with the Association of Black Psychologists.
Learning Objectives:
By the end of the presentation, participants will be able to:
1. Track the origin and continuing power of the lie of white superiority and black inferiority.
2. Describe Emotional Emancipation Circle movement: history, goals, theory of change and introduce a mini-EEC to participants.
3. Define & activate allyship to extinguish the lie that keeps systemic racism alive and Black People oppressed
Research Citations
Aird, E.G., Grills C.T., Auguste, E., (2025). Recreating the Circle: A Collective Vision for Radical African Healing in Community. American Psychologist, In press.
Grills, C. T., Aird, E. G., & Frierson, P. G. (2020). African psychology and the global movement for freedom from the lie of Black inferiority. Alternation, 27(1), 170-206.
Akbar, M. (2020). Beyond ally: The pursuit of racial justice. Publish Your Purpose Press.
Aird, E. G. (2008). Toward a renaissance for the African-American family: Confronting the lie of Black inferiority. Emory LJ, 58, 7.
Presenter Biography
Enola G. Aird is an activist mother, and Founder, President Emerita, and Elder Griot of Community Healing Network.
Launched in 2006, CHN is the only organization focused exclusively on mobilizing Black people to heal from, and extinguish, the root cause of anti-Blackness: the lie of white superiority and black inferiority. Under Aird’s leadership, CHN put into place key initiatives to build the global grassroots movement for freedom from the lie, including:
1. The annual celebration of Community Healing Days;
2. The Emotional Emancipation Circle self-help support group process; and
3. The Valuing Black Lives Global Emotional Emancipation Summit.
CHN is working to make 2021 to 2030 the Decade to Defy the Lie of Black Inferiority and Embrace the Truth of Black Humanity—to put the issue of freedom from the lie at the top of the agenda for Global Africa by the end of the year 2030. CHN’s contributions have been recognized by the MacArthur Foundation through a 2021 Equitable Recovery Grant. Aird is Co Lead of the Healing Cohort of the MacArthur Foundation-supported Global Circle for Reparations and Healing, which is advancing an international agenda for organizing, engagement, and advocacy for Africa and its Diaspora. In that capacity, she has conceptualized and is organizing the Global Circle’s groundbreaking March 26-28, 2025, Accra II Summit on Centering Healing for Africans and the Global African Diaspora in the Context of the African Union Theme of the Year 2025 on Reparations.
Among Aird’s publications are: “Recreating the Circle: A Collective Vision for Radical African Healing in Community” (with Cheryl Grills, Evan Auguste, et, al.), forthcoming in American Psychologist (2024); “Toward a Renaissance for the African American Family: Confronting the Lie of BlackInferiority,” 58 Emory Law Journal, 7-21; (2008-2009); “Breathe, Baby, Breathe: Clearing the Way for the Emotional Emancipation of Black People” (with Cheryl Grills and Daryl Rowe), Journal of Cultural Studies, 16 (3) (2016); and “African Psychology and the Global Movement for Freedom from the Lie of Black Inferiority” (with Cheryl Grills and Patrick Frierson), Alternation Journal, 27, 1 (2020), South Africa.
Aird is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Barnard College, and earned her law degree from Yale University, where she chaired the Yale Moot Court of Appeals. A former corporate lawyer, she has worked at the Children’s Defense Fund and is a past chair of the Connecticut Commission on Children. Born in the Republic of Panama of Caribbean heritage, Aird attributes her vision, passion, and commitment to the movement for emotional emancipation to stories passed down in her family about her maternal great-grandfather, Samuel Alleyne, a loyal follower of the Jamaican Pan Africanist Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
Afia Chandra Roxanne is the newly appointed Executive Director for Community Healing Network (CHN), an organization dedicated to the emotional emancipation and cultural healing of people of African descent. Roxanne’s connection with CHN is long-standing, having served as Outreach Coordinator and later as Special Ambassador who presented on emotional reparations at the Accra Summit I in 2022. A recognized emerging manager in venture capital, she is also an investor and the former Managing Director of a $20 million seed-stage fund focused on Black women and Latina founders. Her prior experience includes work with the National Science Foundation’s SBIR/STTR program and the Yale School of Management’s Program on Social Enterprise. Roxanne holds an MSc in Economy, Risk and Society from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a certificate in venture finance from VC University, a collaborative program of the Berkeley School of Law, the NVCA, and Venture Forward.
Post-Webinar Evaluation Form:
Post-webinar evaluation form will be provided during the event and must be completed to receive a Continuing Education (CE) certificate.
Closed Captions: Live audio captions are accessible for this event. If you need additional disability-related accommodations, please contact us by email us at info@connpsych.org or by phone (860) 404-0333. Requests should be made at least two weeks in advance of workshop date.
Refund Policy: Participants may direct questions to CPA by email at info@connpsych.org or by phone at (860) 404-0333. Registrants may cancel and receive a full refund up to two-weeks in advance of workshop date. An administrative fee of $30 will be charged for cancellation of registration within two weeks of the workshop date (Social Justice events will not be charged an administrative fee). Please note, no refunds will be granted within 24 hours of workshop date.
Continuing Education Approval:
The Connecticut Psychological Association (CPA) is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to offer continuing education for psychologists. CPA maintains responsibility for the program and its content. CPA will issue certificates of completion. APA CE rules require that we only issue credits to those who attend the entire workshop. Those logging into the Zoom webinar more than 15 minutes late or logging off before the entire workshop is completed will not receive CE credits (i.e. partial CE credit will not be issued).
CPA GRIEVANCE POLICY:
The Connecticut Psychological Association (CPA) is fully committed to conducting all activities in strict conformance with the American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists. The CPA will comply with all legal and ethical guidelines for non-discrimination in promotional activities, program content and in the treatment of CE participants. While the CPA strives to assure fair treatment for all participants and to anticipate problems before they occur, occasionally grievances may be filed. In cases where a participant files a written or oral grievance, the following actions are taken:
If the grievance concerns the content of the workshop a CPA representative will mediate and will be the final arbitrator. If the participant requests action, the CPA will either provide a credit for a subsequent CE offering or provide a partial or full refund of the CE fee already paid. Actions involving a credit, or a refund will require a written note documenting the grievance for record- keeping purposes. The aggrieved individual need not sign the note. If the grievance specifically concerns the CPA, the CPA will attempt to arbitrate.
Direct correspondence to: The Connecticut Psychologial Association, P.O. Box #1167, Old Saybrook, CT 06475 or by email to executivedirector@connpsych.org.
