race
NADOHE Standards of Professional Practice for Chief Diversity Officers
The National Association of Diversity Officers in High Education has created this useful guide that covers everything from the need for a Chief Diversity Officer position to the scope of that person’s responsibilities and areas of competency. Though geared toward institutions of higher education, this guide is useful for any organization seeking to hire a Chief Diversity Officer. Read more here.
Intersection podcast
We could try to describe this podcast, but their own description says it best: “New Republic editor Jamil Smith explores how race, gender, and all the ways we identify ourselves and one another intersect. He brings in journalists, activists, politicians, and everyday folks like you to fuel the conversation.”
Listen here.
Unconscious Bias @ Work: Google Ventures
This video documents the unconscious bias training run by Google Ventures for Google’s employees. Though the training is in the context of gender and race bias in the high tech sector, much of the research and findings are relevant to the environmental and outdoor education sector. Watch here.
What’s Wrong with Cultural Appropriation? Here are 9 Answers that Reveal Its Harm.
Published in the wake of the Rachel Dolezal scandal, this piece discusses the difference between cultural appropriation, assimilation, and cultural exchange, and how cultural appropriation can harm nondominant groups. This article is useful for outdoor experiential education organizations that utilize icons, language, or traditions of specific cultures in their programming. It’s also useful for outdoor educators who like to teach using costumes and accents. Read more here.
DownloadWho Can Use the N-Word? That’s the Wrong Question.
In one of several though-provoking blog posts on National Public Radio’s Code Switch blog, Gene Demby lambasts those who seek specific rules surrounding what they can or cannot say. Bottom line: there are no rules around this stuff, just consequences. So do your research. Read more here.
DownloadDiversifying Mainstream Environmental Groups Is Not Enough
In this article, Bob Bullard & Robert Garcia challenge environmental organizations to think bigger than just diversifying their own ranks, and to actually provide resources to the grassroots organizations who are bringing environmentalism to local communities of color. Some refer to Bullard’s work as “Green 3.0.” Read here.
DownloadIceberg of Diversity Activity
This activity explores the meaning and implications of diversity, including visible and invisible facets of diversity and how we make assumptions about people based on what we see.
DownloadThe Power House Activity
This is a relatively safe approach to exploring privilege and power structures in a way that minimizes feelings of resentment and empowering participants to be allies. Use this as an alternative to the Privilege Walk if you want to lower risk. But realize that this activity is too safe in that it doesn’t require that participants talk about their lived experiences of privilege.
DownloadTwo Circles Activity
Participants will recognize the beliefs and stereotypes they were taught about their own and other racial and ethnic groups. They will also recognize that stereotypes are learned behaviors, something we are socialized to believe, and can therefore be unlearned by openly discussing and purposefully combating them. This activity helps to move participants from feelings of denial, shame or blame, to taking responsibility for unconscious behaviors.
DownloadWhite Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
This seminal work by feminist Peggy McIntosh continues to be the source for the “go to” activity on privilege-the “Privilege Walk.” Social justice facilitators typically ask participants to line up, then ask each of the questions in the series posed by McIntosh, with participants stepping forward if their answer to the question is yes and backward if their answer to the question is no. The activity can be high-risk, so don’t facilitate it unless you are with a group that has established mutual trust and rapport, and unless you can frame it up in a way that inspires learning and behavior change, and not shame and resentment. For more information about the activity along with a customized list of questions geared toward participants in the outdoor and environmental space, please search our list of activities.
DownloadStereotyping Activity
This activity is an effective introduction to how hidden biases impact our perceptions of people who are different from us, how our knee-jerk reactions can lead us to making the wrong conclusions about people, and how often we stereotype people even when we don’t intend to.
DownloadTips for having difficult conversations
We have compiled some tips and helpful phrases that can help you have that difficult conversation with someone, regardless of your relationship to them.
Download