Five Steps to Transform the Idea of Racial Equity into a Lasting Organizational Practice
Shifting from racial equity as a theory to an organizational practice means changing the way you work. Here are five actions to take to help you build a sustainable organizational practice.
Making the commitment is easy — it’s creating a sustainable racial equity practice that’s hard
There comes a moment when racial equity commitments need to shift from theory into practice. Proclaiming yourself to be something (anti-racist) or affirming that your organization will be (anti-racist) at a future date is relatively easy. Often, leaders are not sure exactly what they are committing to in those early proclamations. Experience has taught me that moving from commitment (words) into consistent, organizational practice (action) is the challenging part.
Here is one of my favorite quotes:
Let’s talk about racial equity as an organizational practice
I want to start by sharing one crucial starting point for adopting racial equity as a practice.
👉 Racial equity is an adaptive challenge.
By that, I mean adopting racial equity as a practice means that you have to change elements of your organization. Many organizations struggle because they adopt racial equity as a theoretical principle and do not fully understand that to adopt racial equity as a practice also requires substantive change (usually, different actions).
An important distinction here is that adaptive challenges require new thinking with new behaviors. Yet, organizations often turn to people like me for technical solutions. And by that, I mean training, tools, or new frameworks. All are necessary but do not address the initial challenge that racial equity presents, which is rooted in values and behavior.
Tools and frameworks can help an organization operationalize its equity practice, but they do not solve adaptive challenges like, “How do we adopt racial equity as a practice within our organization’s current budget context?”
To answer that question reflects what you believe and drives what you do.
And by that, I mean:
👉Who does your organization value?
👉How do you show that value (both internally and externally)?
The five parts of organizational racial equity practice
One of the aspirations for my work is to connect racial equity to actionable practice. If you are not sure what it means to practice equity, then here is a bit of guidance. First, let me say that none of what I am about to say will occur organically. Every step takes intentionality and action.
1. Adopt a shared why: No matter where your organization is on its journey, it is critical that staff understand why this work matters to your organization. Many of the organizational development issues I see as a consultant stem from a lack of a shared why. DEI leads, I would bet the same is true in your work.
Action: Devote staff time to creating a shared why.
2. Understand your sector’s racial backstory and current context: All sectors have a racialized history. Similarly, every organization’s work is shared by larger social structures. The same is true of organizations. In the words of Victor Ray, “There is no such thing as a race-neutral organization.” That is often hard to hear but true in my experience. We live in a racialized, gendered society, so yes, those norms seep into our organizations, companies, and philanthropies. Creating an equitable practice means understanding the impact and power of policies and practices to disrupt these patterns and the harm caused when organizations choose not to disrupt.
Action: Build out a racial history of crucial legislation in your sector (state and federal). Answer these two questions: Who benefited and who was harmed?
3. Make decisions informed by data: We always want to be sure that we are not privileging one type of data over another. Data is available in many forms. For example, quantitative data is important, but it’s only one way of understanding gaps in outcomes between groups of people. There are many others. Understand the outcome gaps in your area of focus and commit (with action) to closing them.
Action: Gather data on the outcome from your sector. How are different people fairing?
4. Center the needs of the most vulnerable: Within the systems you influence, who is the most vulnerable? Name them. Starting there will create better policy every time — both internally and externally. This approach is one of my biggest takeaways from Angela Glover Blackwell’s work.
Action: Review your organization’s internal policies and procedures manual. When was the last time it was updated? Consider a compensation study or equity audit. It is important to be (internally) who you say you are (externally).
5. Create accountability structures: Accountability helps us do what we say we are going to do. This responsibility doesn’t belong to the staff of color, nor does it solely belong to the DEI lead in your organization. In other words, if you, organization X, are not living into your racial equity or anti-racist commitment, who have you identified that can call you in or out on those actions?
“In this society, accountability is often synonymous with punishment, shame, and/or retaliatory harm,” says Ann Russo, Women and Gender Studies professor at DePaul University, in her essay on practices of accountability. “What if it became synonymous with taking responsibility for harm, making things right, being willing to understand, change, and transform the harmful behavior and its underlying motivations?”
Action: Create a set of organizational norms that each person is expected to adhere to based on your equity why. Ann Russo further notes, “Many organizations have a set of public-facing values that guide their work. But organizations must also define the internal behavioral norms that inform how the staff treats each other.”
An action step for you
This week, I encourage you to look at the work you lead.
👉Where can you use these five steps to build a more intentional racial equity practice?
👉Be honest about what you know and what you don’t know.
👉Ask for help if you need it.
For Helpful Tools
Check out my article called:
The Jagged Journey: How to Identify Your Organization's Racial Equity Stage
Other resources:
Building a Culture of Accountability by Piper Anderson
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