privilege
People of color, we need to address our own anti-Blackness and how we may be perpetuating injustice
This post addresses how non-Black people of color can and do perpetuate anti-black racism. It provides examples of ways non-Black POCs can benefit from anti-black racism and provides tangible actions that non-black POCs can do to address their anti-blackness. The author also provides an important reminder that black liberation helps remake a more just society for everyone. For more read here.
What is Decolonization and Why Does it Matter?
This articles defines decolonization as a goal of moving towards a tangible unknown through everyday acts of decolonization. The author provides examples of decolonization efforts, such as Indigenous resistance of oil pipelines, and examples of colonialism, such as the appropriation of Indigeneity within North American activism. For more read here.
Solutions Privilege: How privilege shapes the expectations of solutions, and why it’s bad for our work addressing systemic injustice
This blog post discusses the phenomenon of “solutions privilege”, in which people with positions of power and privilege criticize presentations about inequities as not being “solutions-oriented”. It provides examples of how people ignore solutions that are presented that involve resource redistribution, infantilize people of color and look to them to provide solutions rather than take on the challenging work themselves. For more read here.
White People: We Don’t Have Solutions for You
This blog post discusses how there is no easy solution to equity work and it necessarily requires white people to be entangled in often messy and challenging work. It also offers a critique of white people who really solely on people of color for equity solutions, without being willing to engage in the challenging work themselves. For more read here.
Systemic Racism Explained
This video provides a brief, but effective explanation of how systemic racism impacts people of color in the US today by exploring the history of residential segregation and other forms of segregation limited people of color’s access to wealth. It also discusses how systemic racism is perpetuated by implicit bias. For more watch here.
Examining Equitable and Inclusive Work Environments in Environmental Education
This report explores how Environmental Education organizations are engaging in equity, diversity and inclusion practices and identifies strategies and tools on how to improve those practices. The study draws on research conducted with majority white organizational leaders and environmental educators of color and highlights a disconnect between those group’s perceptions of DEI work in their organizations. For more read here.
White Supremacy Culture
This article offers definitions of culture, cultural racism and white supremacy culture that are helpful in understanding and clarifying the terms. For more read here.
What’s Missing From “White Fragility”
This article offers a critical look at Robin DiAngelo’s book, White Fragility and describes her experience attending one of Diangelo’s anti-racism workshops. The author discusses how the emerging field of whiteness studies acknowledges that whiteness and its power exists, but can fail to extend into more sustained antiracist action. For more read here.
The Environmental Movement Needs to Reckon with Its Racist History
This article calls for the contemporary environmental movement to address a deeply imbedded history of racism, which dates back to early conservationists, like John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt, who were also white supremacists. They also detail the history of the environmental justice movement and how contemporary environmental organizations and policy goals need to do more to address the tenants of environmental justice. For more read here.
Younger, college-educated black Americans are most likely to feel need to ‘code-switch’
This article explores data on code-switching from the Pew Research Center, breaking it down by race and education level. For more read here.
Color Brave Space – How To Run a Better Equity Focused Meeting
This resource from Equity Matters provides a framework for how to create a equitable community norms in a meeting space. They argue that standard “safe space” norms for meeting spaces end up maintaining existing norms making white participants too comfortable, rather than challenging them to create an equitable environment. For more read here.
Diversifying Boards Means Ceding Control—Are White Nonprofit Leaders Ready?
This article discusses the lack of diverse representation on the boards of nonprofits and how nonprofits do work “for” marginalized communities rather than “with” them. They suggest that those in leadership in nonprofits are not willing to genuinely engage in equity work because it would mean radically changing their structures. For more read here.