These past months have been marked by collective trauma and the perennial aspiration that action might finally overtake “thoughts and prayers” in America’s legislature. We are more resolved than ever about the importance of Equity in the Center’s mission to dismantle white supremacy in institutional culture and society. To that end, we are changing our internal infrastructure to support more leaders and organizations in shifting mindsets, practices, and systems to build a Race Equity Culture.

As a start-up organization, we are experiencing a period of rapid growth and transition. In recent months, two valued team members, Rebekah Gowler and Jessica Kaneakua, have left. In that same period, several others, Niki Jagpal, Miyo Hall-Kennedy, Sandra Herrera, Juan Serrano, and Mara Brennan-Magidson, have joined. We deeply appreciate the contributions Rebekah and Jessica made to EiC — Rebekah co-designed the Race Equity Culture Fellowship, and Jessica created standard operating procedures for finance and HR where none existed before. We wish them both well in future endeavors and look forward to similarly impactful contributions from our new colleagues. 

During this period of growth, we also look forward to bringing on a Vice President of Operations (applications due by Friday, June 17, 2022) and a Manager of Operations. These new roles are designed to support EiC’s infrastructure as we define new strategies to scale our impact. You can help inform those strategies by completing this short feedback survey.

We are grateful to each stakeholder that has inspired and supported EiC’s work since our debut in 2017! Cross-sector support from race equity leaders, champions, and funders has been crucial in positioning us for this moment of transformation. Our team is excited to lean into the promise and purpose of the EiC network’s collective vision for race equity in organizations and society. Onward!

The post Reflecting on Our Recent Transitions and Looking Ahead appeared first on Equity in the Center.

Equity in the Center is now hiring for the VP of Operations, a role that will be critical to our start-up organization’s growth and sustainability!

The VP of Operations will be responsible for building and running cross-functional processes that touch every employee at EiC. This will set us up for success as we transition from an early-stage start-up to a more mature organization with an effective operational infrastructure. In addition, the VP will oversee Human Resources and Accounting in partnership with consulting firms.

The VP will directly impact how we succeed in the next phase of growth. Success in this role requires that they have functioned in a senior operations role of this breadth and depth previously and that they are a willing disrupter who is enthusiastic about the work of dismantling white supremacy at the personal, interpersonal, institutional, and structural levels.

Does this sound like you or someone you know?

Please read the full job description and apply here by Friday, June 17, 2022.

Only applications submitted via the above link will be considered. Please do not email resumes, cover letters, or inquiries to EiC staff or board members. The selection process is being managed by an external consultant to ensure equitable access and consideration for applicants.

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In these last three weeks, with three mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, Orange County, California, and Uvalde, Texas, we’ve seen, yet again, how deeply white supremacy and violence are embedded in the fabric of this nation. We are heartbroken for the victims and their families. We are angry that “thoughts and prayers” are offered, but action to prevent gun violence, which disproportionately affects people of color, is not. We are tired of witnessing weapons of war being used to kill people where they shop, worship, and learn.

We are clear that EiC’s commitment to dismantling white supremacy and working toward race equity in society is more important than ever. So, we hold our collective trauma and resolve to focus more deeply on the action and healing that will contribute to the safer, more equitable America we envision.

Resources & Info:

Statement on the Massacre in Buffalo from Nicole Lee, Inclusive Life

Call to Action from Whitney Parnell, Service Never Sleep (SNS)

White Supremacy is America’s Love Language by Patrick Washington, Word In Black

Nonprofit and philanthropy: Stop with the BS and get serious about fighting white supremacy by Vu Le, Nonprofit AF

Buffalo Massacre: An Act of White Nationalist Political Violence by Political Research Associates

How You Can Help the Uvalde School Shooting Victims by Anti-Racism Daily

Giving Gap’s Curated List of Black-Led Organizations Working on Gun Violence

Direct Relief to Communities Affected by Recent Gun Violence:

Families of Buffalo victims

Victims of Orange County church shooting

Robb Elementary Relief Fund

Mental Health & Wellness Resources via our colleagues at ABFE:

There is a Balm: Getting Mental Wellness Resources that We need – When we need them

Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective

National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network

Multiple Resources List for Different Identities

The post Statement & Resources on Recent Mass Shootings appeared first on Equity in the Center.

This post, originally published on December 17, 2020, is relevant during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM). Especially in the wake of the racist mass shooting in Buffalo, NY that took 10 lives and injured three more this past weekend, it remains important to call for the eradication of the anti-Blackness that permeates globally. The Asian American and Black communities have a history of solidarity to build on. Working together, we can build true racial solidarity and move all communities closer to equity.

COVID-19 has brought race and racism within and against the Asian American¹ community front and center in the public sphere. There have been an unprecedented number of anti-Asian American attacks documented since January, leading to public sector, nonprofit advocacy, and media attention. This spike in hate incidents and hate crimes, alongside protests against police violence across the country, has re-centered the persistent anti-Black racism in Asian American and Asian communities, as well as persistent racial tensions between Asian American and Black communities in the U.S. These tensions are magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is disproportionately affecting and killing Black and Asian Americans, and other people of color.

Many have highlighted the need to build Afro-Asian solidarity in the United States — with taglines like AAPIs for Black Lives and Yellow Peril Supports Black Power. But these calls are empty without an understanding of racism on the international scale. Additionally, solidarity efforts are hollow as long as Asian Americans continue to buy into, and perpetuate, the model minority myth — and its underlying meritocratic colonialism². Looking at the systemic meeting points of Asian America and Black America in the U.S., as well as Black and Asian communities in Asia, Africa, and Europe, it becomes clear that issues of racial interaction and solidarity-building extend outside American boundaries. Ignoring how race and hierarchy function outside of our geographic boundaries leaves us with little context for seeing the complexities of anti-Blackness in a globalizing world. What does this suggest for the future of intersectional, multiracial, and transnational movement work? How can we use the current moment of rising tensions and movement-making to build an Asian anti-racist paradigm — one that addresses the root causes of these obstacles, foremost being anti-Blackness?

We suggest that the answers to these questions lie in looking at race in the context of a colonial and postcolonial³ economic paradigm.

One of the major differences between China and other Asian countries is the fact of colonialism. China was not colonized by the West in the same ways that other ‘Third World’ countries were. It was and continues to be its own empire that colonizes other east and southeast Asian countries. This has significantly impacted the evolution of China’s economic and racial ideals. Because the Chinese do not have a subaltern identity⁴, the power dynamics that inform their racial views are starkly different than the evolution of Black identity and voice.

The facts of slavery and colonization on global Black economic and racial realities are well documented.⁵,⁶,⁷,⁸. It has been more than a decade since China overtook the U.S. as Africa’s largest trading partner. Chinese infrastructure investments in ‘developing countries’ totaled nearly $614 billion between 2013–18. In Africa, some see China’s investment and extraction campaign as modern colonialism. China now holds 14% of the total debt stock in sub-Saharan Africa and is the largest owner of public debt in the continent. Nations involved in Chinese investments risk losing control of their essential infrastructure and natural resources and continue to increase their debts to the international superpower.

With this economic backdrop, China has now taken on the role of extractor in Africa, and this power differential serves as the basis for racialization and othering of Black people in China and broader Asia. Black immigrants in China experience racism and anti-immigrant sentiment similar to South African apartheid and American segregation. In an article documenting how the coronavirus has exposed China’s long-entrenched racism, Hsiao Hung Pai notes that — because they were seen as the source of the COVID-19 virus — Black immigrants have been subject to surveillance, banned from entering shops and healthcare facilities, and quarantined. Recently, a McDonald’s put up a notice banning Black people from entering. All this as anti-Asian discourse and violence have spiked in the U.S. in the wake of the pandemic, enabled by an administration that continues to refer to COVID-19 as the ‘China’ virus.

Despite the paradoxical social contexts of the U.S. and China, it is clear that the racial structuring of the “other” is parallel. For Asian Americans in the U.S. and Black people in China, both are seen as sources of contagion in a COVID-19 pandemic, both are expected to assimilate into the dominant race, and both are located within diasporas related directly to U.S. and Chinese hegemony. Even though different nations and hierarchies are acting upon different racialized communities, it is ultimately the same oppression and scapegoating of the “other.” And this exertion of power on vulnerable immigrants replicates precisely the power dynamics of colonialism.

The answer lies not in parsing “race relations” but instead in assessing the root causes of the oppression that we exert on each other. This requires looking at each context — being Black and Asian American in the U.S.; being Southeast Asian in China; or being Black in Europe — as both separate and part of a whole system of racial categorization and oppression driven in large part by global economic power (or capitalist colonialism). In doing so, we must remember that — even though all diasporic Asians and diasporic Blacks have been reductively racialized the same: as Asian and Black respectively, these categories are false. The Asian and Black diaspora populations are some of the most diverse in languages, cultures, ethnic identities, religions, traditions, and migration patterns. Our first step in challenging colonial oppression is deconstructing the reductive race categories that have allowed racial supremacy to exist in an increasingly globalized and interconnected world.

How do we develop a truly transformational and inclusive approach to race? With our fundamental racial categories determined by whiteness, white supremacy⁹, and colonial dynamics, we first must question our relationship to whiteness and to each other. Both Asian American and Black communities have been and continue to be excluded from full participation and representation in the U.S. In so, a shared subaltern identity has been forged: as a “person of color in the U.S.” This identity has to be the foundation for AAPIs doing multiracial coalition work (as opposed to our work being driven by pity or charity). The oppression that is exerted onto Asian Americans is the same oppression that simultaneously drives anti-Black racism. Asian Americans engaged in policy therefore can and have the responsibility to be inclusive within a larger intersectional framework of other communities of color. It is further our responsibility to abolish the ‘model minority myth’ which is and has always been predicated on the assignment of Black communities as ‘problem minorities.’

From housing to economic justice and workplace discrimination, we call on Asian American community-based organizations to address the deep-seated anti-Blackness in and outside our communities. We need a fundamental shift in our approach to race.

We suggest three goals that Asian American organizations and people must take to fulfill their responsibilities as pursuers of justice and members of a multiracial society.

Abolish the model minority/problem minority myth

It is up to us to recognize the diversity of the Asian American community and build an understanding of the ways in which war, capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy shape Asian American identity. This requires us to build awareness of the levels of income inequality within the community; Asian Americans have the highest income inequality of any other racial group in the country. Economic indicators in our communities are skewed by highly concentrated income at the upper bound of the distribution; in short, we have hyper-concentrated wealth at the top that makes it appear that the entire community is doing well. In contrast, there is extended and concentrated poverty among certain communities: e.g., Bangladeshi community. Recognizing the economic and non-economic diversity of Asian American communities forces us to realize that capitalism and race are deeply intertwined. In the same way, the model minority/problem minority myth was originally formulated to rationalize the oppression of Black communities and other communities of color. The root of our solidarity building with each other must be founded in disrupting the economic system that keeps non-white communities marginalized.

Already, the changing demographics of Asian America jeopardize this myth of a model minority. The recent influx of Asian refugees and other brown, undocumented, queer, and working-class Asian immigrants fundamentally shifts the merit assigned to Asian America by whiteness. But not fast enough — we must do the work of calling out model minority/problem minority myth narratives at the family level and in the larger public narrative. We must understand that our humanity is tied deeply to repositioning ourselves alongside BIPOC, and not with the hope of assimilating into a white supremacist racial hierarchy.

Eradicate anti-Blackness in our communities

Founded on the model minority/problem minority myth that we have internalized, there is deep and impactful anti-Blackness at work in Asian American communities. Oftentimes, this anti-Blackness takes the form of colorism, where Asian and non-Asian individuals with dark skin and Black-perceived features are viewed as ugly, unintelligent, non-feminine, and problems. It is our responsibility to dispel anti-Blackness on the individual and systemic levels by speaking out and speaking with our communities. The model minority myth additionally codes Asian Americans as apolitical and silent, undermining multiracial collaboration. Fortunately, we can follow the lead of anti-racist Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have been doing this work for decades. By borrowing their tactics and sharing knowledge, we can have intentional conversations and build modern movements to engage Asian Americans on anti-Blackness, Black Lives Matter, and neo-colonialism.

Build coalitions and solidarity

As Asian American organizations work toward being in authentic relationship with Black-led organizations, we must ensure that our coalition work does not replicate colonial hegemony. To demonstrate a transformational approach to working in coalition, center Black-led organizing and relationship-building. Actively fight the capitalist expectation of extraction and competition in order to create mutually-beneficial and consensual partnerships where transaction is not the means nor the end. Enter the space with humility. Do the hard work of self-education about anti-Blackness in our communities and take steps to raise these issues and strategize around them. The possibilities for transformational and race-conscious coalition are tremendous. When we join together in coalition to fight, we win.

The authors thank Britt Yamamoto, Kabzuag Vaj and Charlie Piot for their thoughtful contributions and review of this piece.

Footnotes

¹ We acknowledge that the Pacific Islander community has seen disparate impact from COVID and experiences racism but made the intentional decision to focus our writing on the Asian American community as we cannot do justice to the complexities of race in the PI community in this piece.

² By ‘meritocratic colonialism’ we mean a belief that colonized communities are oppressed for their own good or because they deserve it.

³ The terms colonial, neo-colonial, imperialism, and racial formations under power differentials are very specific (e.g., in Africa, colonialism refers to the 1884–1960 time period in which states/colonies with specific racial dynamics were established in Africa versus the prior three centuries of European imperialism and the slave trade). While acknowledging this nuance, we choose the terms colonial and postcolonial intentionally because we contend that the exercise of power is the same today as under colonialism (see, e.g., neocolonialism and imperialism definitions)

⁴ A subaltern identity is an identity developed under oppression.

⁵ Coates, Ta Nehisi. “The Case for Reparations.” The Atlantic, June 2014.

⁶ Rodney, Walter Anthony, et al. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Verso, 2018.

⁷ Moyo, Dambisa. Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009.

⁸ Moyo, Dambisa, Winner Take All: China’s Race for Resources and what it means for the world. Basic Books, 2012.

⁹ We use Scot Nakagawa’s definition of white supremacy: “the parent ideology of contemporary racism and the historic foundation of American political-economy that is now experienced as structural racism, a historic construct.”

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Juan works in his current capacity from his home in Mexico City; he continues to partner with people and organizations that pursue racial equity and community engagement across the Gulf region and beyond.

Juan is an award-winning educator with 10 years of teaching and administrative experience. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Dillard University and an M.S. in Educational Studies from Johns Hopkins University.

Email Juan and say hello. Connect with Juan on LinkedIn. Learn more about the Equity in the Center team.

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Sandra has been working since she was 16 and spent years in retail/customer service before graduating with a BA in Media Studies from Hunter College and becoming certified as a UX Designer. Since then, she’s worked for a leading real estate website and in the non-profit sector, learning to hone her design and storytelling skills and lead with fearless empathy. A fan of the side hustle and giving back to her community, Sandra has been a freelance web and graphic designer for over five years, assisting local BIPOC-owned businesses and BIPOC entrepreneurs with their marketing. Sandra also has a huge passion for animals. In 2017, she became certified in TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return) to help her local neighborhood cats and occasionally rescues and fosters the friendly ones she comes across.

In her limited free time, Sandra loves spending time with her family, including her two cats and dog, and her small friend circle of badass women. She also enjoys being a plant mom, eating tamales and arroz con gandules, and reading any book that Silvia Moreno-Garcia writes.

Email Sandra and say hello. Connect with Sandra on LinkedIn. Learn more about the Equity in the Center team.

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Miyo has spent the last fifteen-plus years working across a variety of sectors, including the U.S. Navy, mental healthcare, K-12 education, and employment services for nonprofit organizations in California, Virginia, Chicago, and Las Vegas. Throughout their career, they have focused on building community and cultural capacity through mentorship, strengths-based modalities, and restorative justice practices. They hold an Ed.D. in Organizational Leadership from Brandman University, a certification in Youth Services & Addiction Studies from Harold Washington College in Chicago, an M.A. in Sociology from Roosevelt University in Chicago, and a B.A. in Sociology from San Diego State University.

Miyo currently resides in the Bay Area of California where they completed their doctoral dissertation on LGBTQ+ millennial identity-making and activism. They are passionate about living an anti-racist and anti-capitalist existence, focusing primarily on how economic, healthcare, and racial disparities function within the frameworks of intersectionality and identity-making processes. During their free time, Miyo enjoys watching and attending sporting events, spending time with their partner critiquing film and television, tracking down food (da kine I no can get on da mainland and specifically, my newest obsession of mochi donuts), and finding ways to create and have fun at the expense of no one.

Email Miyo and say hello. Connect with Miyo on LinkedIn. Learn more about the Equity in the Center team.

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The reality of racial disparities in the United States are and have been that underrepresented groups have been actively and intentionally excluded from financial, literacy, and wellbeing resources. The United States has and continues to perpetuate violence towards BIPOC folks in all areas of life. This can be seen in the data expressing that race is one of the biggest indicators of health, wealth, income, education etc. Our pricing model update is one of the ways our team is addressing these systemic inequities and disparities experienced by non-White identifying folks.

For organizations (groups of 15 to 49 people) purchasing tickets on behalf of their staff, purchase tickets in the tier that aligns with your organizational budget and sector. 

*Budget categories based on Rockwood Leadership Institute’s tiered pricing model

For individuals and small teams (up to 14 people) purchasing tickets, we ask that people with greater privilege purchase tickets at the higher end, which will allow individuals with historically less access to wealth to pay the lower fees.

*Budget categories based on Rockwood Leadership Institute’s tiered pricing model

Our services include convenings, working sessions, coaching, and partner training opportunities designed to shift mindsets, practices, and systems in the social sector to increase race equity and build a Race Equity Culture. Learn more about our upcoming working sessions and partner training opportunities

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Applications must be submitted via this form. Please do not email resumes, cover letters, or inquiries to EiC staff or board members. The selection process is being managed by an external consultant to ensure equitable access and consideration for applicants.

The post We’re Hiring appeared first on Equity in the Center.

Grantmakers across the country are working towards change and pushing the boundaries of what is possible in philanthropy. We have seen many examples of how this commitment to improving processes and practices has benefited grantmaking and, in turn, the communities grantmakers and organizations are accountable to.  

But there is more grantmakers can (and must) do to operate differently – more equitably and collectively  – as a sector. If grantmakers actually want to create a more just, connected, and inclusive society, they must make the critical leap from theory to practice, acknowledging their complicity in systemic racism and proactively transforming our organizations and sector to center race equity in all that we do. This necessary leap was the impetus for Equity in the Center® to partner with Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) to co-design and facilitate their newest learning cohort for GEO members, the Race Equity Culture Fellowship. 

A crucial part of doing philanthropy differently is making room to think and act in transformational ways to embody a Race Equity Culture. In our charge to support thriving communities and center racial equity, it is imperative that grantmakers understand and know how to adopt a Race Equity Culture within their organizations and, ultimately, across the sector. Inherent to this culture is an explicit commitment to dismantling white supremacy culture, interrogating assumptions and biases about how the work of nonprofits and grantmakers is conducted, and eliminating institutional and structural racism within the social sector. As stated in EiC’s Awake to Woke to Work publication, “When your organization has fully committed to a Race Equity Culture, the associated values become part of its DNA — moving beyond special initiatives, task force groups, and check-the-box approaches into full integration of race equity in every aspect of its operations and programs.”

Grounded in EiC’s framework, the Race Equity Culture Fellowship cohort will outline key organizational levers that are necessary for building, deepening, and sustaining racial equity practice within organizations. Participants will engage in intimate settings with like-minded peers who can provide resources to advance organizational change. Our goal is to strengthen grantmakers’ competency in advancing racial equity internally and externally in the philanthropic sector. 

Through retreats, small group coaching sessions, and team coaching, this cohort is specifically curated for racial equity practitioners, and DEI practitioners looking to deepen their practice towards racial equity, and who have committed to upending norms of traditional, institutional philanthropy. After developing a shared understanding of some processes and practices that can be used to build racial equity into the everyday work of the organization, participants will be challenged to implement change efforts and effectively story-tell regarding their successes and challenges. 

We are excited to explore how grantmakers are reimagining racial equity in their organizations. We are excited to pilot and build together. To learn more about the cohort, visit GEO’s webpage here. 

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