Healing White History: Courageous Conversations with My Ancestors
In briefAI summary — tap to read
Steve Baughman Jensen shares his project "Healing White History," in which he confronts his ancestors' roles in slavery, genocide, and systemic racism by researching their lives deeply and writing imagined conversations with them. Through this process, he grapples with inherited family narratives that honored colonizers and enslavers while erasing their victims, and he calls on other white people to undertake similar reckoning and repair work.
Key takeaways
- Families inherit not just DNA but also stories that shape identity and perpetuate systems of harm; examining these stories is essential to understanding how racism persists today.
- Writing detailed, character-driven conversations with ancestors—based on thorough historical research into their beliefs, daily lives, and contexts—makes abstract wrongs viscerally real and emotionally transformative.
- White people have responsibility (distinct from individual guilt) to understand how they benefit from racist systems and work toward repair and reparations, particularly when they discover enslaver or colonizer ancestors.
- Confronting family members about this history, though difficult and sometimes triggering "white fragility," can open healing conversations and catalyze joint action on reparations.
- White writers addressing racism must stay centered in their own perspective, acknowledge the fatigue this causes people of color, and remain humble about their limitations and potential to cause harm.
About Steve Baughman JensenSteve Baughman Jensen is a retired environmental lawyer and author working on a book exploring how white families inherited and perpetuated racist systems through family stories and ancestor narratives.
AI-generated from the meeting recording — AI can make mistakes, so check the recording for anything important.
New here? How our meetings work
Is this your first time visiting us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page. Each Monday, our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time. Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you. Please also complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
To properly attend this meeting, please:
-
Read and watch the content below in its entirety.
-
Complete the attendance survey.
Everyone is encouraged to leave a comment in the Disqus section at the bottom of the page.
Greetings members, Rotarians, friends and guests
Want to Learn More About Us? - Who We Are, What We Do, Why We Do It
Want to become a Rotarian? - Join us in helping to make the world a better place!
Thanks for joining our weekly meeting!
Ringing the Rotary Bell to start our eClub Meeting
Ferheen Abbasi - Member
Weekly Funny with Shags
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Steven "Shags" Shagrin!
If my body were a car, I would trade it for a newer model.
Every time I cough, sputter, or sneeze, my radiant leaks and my exhaust backfires.
Inspiration
This Sunday is Mothers Day, and it's worth taking a moment to think about those who are separated from their moms. The video is posted by an organization in New York called Hour Children that works to help families have hope for their futures.
Learn something new
Why Do We Have Toes?
Especially that darn "pinkie toe" that always seems to find something to slam into!
📬 Are you receiving the Members-Only Weekly Bulletin?
Our Club News and Member links are now on the Members Only ClubRunner Site and are emailed weekly as a Club Bulletin. Please make sure your email address is current on ClubRunner.
Members, be sure to read our Weekly Club Bulletin, which is sent separately to your email address from ClubRunner each Monday. In it, you will find updates and information about what our members are up to, club activities, projects, Happy Dollars, news from District 5170, and various ways you can support The Rotary Foundation. We also send your Dues notices using ClubRunner email.
Our Weekly Bulletin, sent every Monday, provides club information. To stay informed, please ensure your email is current on ClubRunner and add mailservice@clubrunner.ca to your address book so it does not go into Spam.
Program: Healing White History: Courageous Conversations with My Ancestors
Speaker: Steve Baughman Jensen
We bring you a new program every week on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education and how they contribute to service to others.
A few years ago, Steve Baughman Jensen discovered that his third-great-grandfather wasn't just a slave owner — he was a slave trader who "invested his surplus earnings in negroes." He also helped lead a paramilitary organization that sought to preserve and expand slavery. This is an ancestor Steve's beloved grandmother had celebrated. One whose framed poem hung in Steve's den. Steve has now written a book about confronting him — and other ancestors who passed down to me the false story that white people are better than everyone else.
Steve confronts his ancestors because stories build identities and drive systems, and his family’s story helped build systems that still harm people today. The conversations demonstrate how imagination can make these hard truths more personal, and therefore more real. At the same time, these visits with dead family members offer healing. They help Steve recognize the spots in his own thoughts and behavior where he's inherited not only genetics, but also a toxic story. They help metabolize grief and shame into responsibility.
Steve spent 23 years as a trial lawyer, seeking justice on behalf of individuals who became sick from toxic exposures. Mental health issues brought that chapter of his story to a close 10 years ago. Today, Steve is a writer, a racial justice advocate, and a proud husband, father, and grandfather. He believes in the power of stories to shape and transform us.
Members and guests, please welcome Steve Baughman Jensen!
To learn more, go to:
https://healingwhitehistory.substack.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@healingwhitehistory
To learn more about the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley, go to:
http://rotary.cool
Our Three Podcast Series
Our main program speakers are available as podcasts in addition to YouTube videos! Each week, they are available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, as well as many other platforms.
Our weekly podcast is now called:
Inspiring People — Stories of Innovation and Service
Inspiring Solutions for a Better World
Our original podcast, featuring some of the best of our previous speakers, is still available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and many other platforms.
Inspiring Women: Celebrating Trailblazers
Our newest podcast celebrates trailblazing women. It is available on Spotifyand Apple Podcasts, and many other platforms.
Upcoming program recording schedule
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always http://zoom.siliconvalleyrotary.com/. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).
If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
