2024 Visiting Author - Equality Diversity and Inclusion Series

Saira Rao

September 10th 2024: Screening of Deconstructing Karen

6.30pm in the Thomas Davis Lecture Theatre, Arts Block, Trinity College Dublin.

This event is free, but registration is essential via Eventbrite (opens Eventbrite.ie)

The screening will be followed by Q&A with Saira Rao, author, activist and producer.

September 11th 2024: Discussion & Meet the Author of White Women

Multiple sessions will be available, depending on demand. Events are free, but registration is essential (below).

10.00 - 11.30 in the Knowledge Exchange, TBSI, 152-160 Pearse Street Register Here (opens Eventbrite.ie)

14.00 - 15.30 in the Global Room, Hamilton Building, Trinity College Dublin Register Here (opens Eventbrite.ie)

 

Biography

Saira (NOT Sara) Rao grew up in Richmond, Virginia, the daughter of Indian immigrants. For forty years, she wasted her precious time aspiring to be white and accepted by dominant white society, a futile task for anyone not born with white skin. Several years ago, Saira began the painful process of dismantling her own internalized oppression. Saira is a lawyer-by-training, a former congressional candidate, a published novelist and an entrepreneur.

Saira is a founder of Race2Dinner, a disruptive movement that explores the question ‘what if white women could and would show up to help end racism?’. Race2Dinner allows white women to pay for, host and attend dinner parties, also attended by Saira and her co-founder Regina Jackson, at which racism is the topic of conversation. The Race2Dinner event led Saira and Regina to author the New York Times Bestselling book dealing with the same themes, called White Women – Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better, with the aim of reaching a wider audience. Race2Dinner is also packaging a primary school children’s book series called RaceToTheTruth.

Deconstructing Karen is a documentary film that focuses on Race2Dinner events and shows white women experiencing ‘radical honesty about racism, their daily role in upholding it, their conditioning to ignore it, and the essential part they can play in tearing down the systems that are killing black and brown people every single day’.

Saira is also co-founder and president of the international non-profit Here4TheKids, a movement dedicated to collective liberation and the abolition of oppressive systems. Here4TheKids has regional hubs throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, France and Ireland. Here4TheKids advocates primarily for banning guns, climate action and an end to genocidal and oppressive regimes.

Saira’s work has been featured in countless media outlets, including TIME magazine, The Guardian, New York Magazine, New York Post, The Huffington Post, MSNBC, Dr Phil and Fox News. Saira is a graduate of the University of Virginia, New York University School of Law and former clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.