Participation in Antiracist workshops

Some of the sample ethnographies that Hartigan uses in the first few chapters of his book are accounts document antiracist workshops. I am curious as to if anyone in the class has ever participated in one of these? and if you have, how did your experience compare to the text? And, on a personal level, does this seem to you to be a viable substitute for something like an international or multicultural festival?

Personally, it has always been a significant point of those who raised me and educated me through childhood to ensure that I was aware that my environment was "filled with diversity." Due to this, the discussion of race was not a prevalent one, and the idea of an antiracist workshop would have appalled the administration and the community because such a multicultural and diverse community would not be in need of such an event. Instead, I experienced monthly "multicultural nights" where the students and their families would bring food, music, and dance from their culture and share it with the rest of us. While I learned a lot, I am pretty sure that this is not "doing race" according to Hartigan. Rather, it seems to be finding a way to avoid doing race at all. Similarly, I have been involved in the Festival of Nations here in St. Louis for the past two years due to my internship and have found a more "grown up" version of the exact same construct, one which avoids race but champions the beauty of each nation or ethnicity as distinct. I have had this idea in my head for a while, but I think that now might be an even more appropriate time since some of you have been at the Discussion Circle this evening at the exhibit at the History Museum. I must conclude, even without being at an antiracist workshop, that international and multicultural festivals are constructs aimed at "colorblindness" that really end up doing a disservice to our youth and the rest of the population because it restricts us from examining one of the most important socially/culturally constructed matters that we face on a daily basis: race.