Pass the mike. While you might be savvy with social media, writing, or public speaking, that does not give you permission to control the narrative of other people. Rather than telling or interpreting the stories of people of color, work to amplify the voices of people directly. Offer your technical support so that people can tell their own stories.
Welcome feedback. Develop a no-retaliation system for community members to give you feedback on your role in the alliance. Demonstrate your receptivity to feedback by thanking those who have the courage to offer you suggestions and implementing those suggestions in a timely fashion. Circle back with your partners asking if the changes you have made are acceptable.
Cultural deference. Because white culture is so ingrained in our society, we can mistakenly assume that work habits like tight deadlines, written communication, and Robert’s Rules of Order are universal norms. Take time to get to know the communication styles, conflict management strategies, pace, and other characteristics of your partner organization and work to fit into that culture rather than impose your own.
Facilitate skills transfer. White privilege often affords European heritage people with the opportunity to learn technical skills, such as bookkeeping, grant writing, web design, legal advocacy, and business management. As you volunteer your time to apply these skills to anti-racism work, invite community members to work side by side with you to gain these competencies.
Pay well. Leverage your resources so that people of color are paid for their time as they organize for a racially just society. If you are an employer, hire people who might otherwise be overlooked in the capitalist economy: people of color, formerly incarcerated people, those without documents, elders, and those with disabilities. Offer jobs with training built in, a living wage, health care, and job security. Fund-raise so that people of color can be paid for their time as consultants, speakers, and organizers. Never assume that Black people should volunteer their time as part of alliance work.
Make it easy. Limit or eliminate the number of hoops that community members need to jump through to access the resources that you control. In the case of grantmaking, provide video/audio application processes instead of exclusively written applications. Offer multiyear grants for general operating expenses, rather than requiring innovating special projects each cycle. Coordinate with other funders to have a universal application and reporting process, and minimize the demands you make on people’s time. Organizers should not have to feel obligated to show up at your events because you donated money or other resources to their project. Include community members in the committees and boards that guide grantmaking and resources allocation.
Pass the oars. At all times people of color should be setting the agenda and determining the priorities in your alliance work. Check and recheck that you are not dominating the space or steering the ship. Because we have all internalized white supremacy to some degree, it is easy to collude in the “white expert” narrative and defer to white people’s ideas. White folks need to be proactive to interrupt this pattern.
Ask why you want to work with people of color. When organizations have the “diversity conversation,” it invariably turns to the seemingly intractable problem of “attracting people of color to our organization.” Perhaps a better initial question is, “How can we work with other white people to raise consciousness and shift policies that are causing the harm?” In response to an influx of white progressives traveling to work with the Zapatistas in Mexico, the latter issued a statement that read, “If you can remove the boot from our neck by stopping your society from funding our government who is doing [the harm] directly to us, then boy, wouldn’t that be a big relief? … Then, please go home and organize … not just against imperialism and massive military expenditures going down to support the war in Mexico, but against the shit that you need to reorganize as your own problems. Stop letting us distract you from the fact that your cities have third worlds in them, that racism and sexism, things that we are really beginning to get a grip on here, are rampant in your home. Go home and take care of that.”10
Participants in Soul Fire Farm’s Uprooting Racism training explore the history of racism and resistance in the food system. Photo by Neshima Vitale-Penniman.
Organizational Transformation
Given that fewer than 20 percent of nonprofit leaders are people of color, it is very likely that you will find yourself working in a white-led organization on social justice issues. There are several inherent problems with this arrangement, from the moral fallacy of the “white savior complex” to the exploitation inherent in “poverty pimping” to keep white do-gooders employed. Existential questions should also arise for predominantly white organizations as to whether the resources going into the organization could be allocated more effectively and justly by investing in Black-led projects. Even with these sticky and challenging questions, many white-led organizations take the courageous step toward internal transformation. For example, both the National Young Farmers Coalition and the Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming developed equity statements and corresponding equity practices as first steps toward uprooting racism in their organizations.
In order to transform your organization from one that is complicit in white supremacy to one that actively resists white supremacy, there are a number of actions you can take.
Decision Making and Power
Organizations working to end racism should have people of color in leadership at all levels, including on the staff, board, trustees, and volunteer leadership. Transforming an organization toward power sharing means first ensuring that everyone in the organization understands how power is distributed, how decisions are made, and how they can increase their decision-making power. Make training and mentorship available, along with clear steps for advancement open to everyone in the organization, including program participants. Too often, those with the most power in an organization or business are white, while those with the least decision-making influence are people of color. White people are responsible for making space so that people of color can lead.
Budget and Finances
Implement a cap on the wage and benefits gap between the highest- and lowest-paid person in the organization, so that there is equitable distribution of resources for everyone involved. Everyone in the organization should be able to see the budget and balance sheet at any time and have input on budget priorities. White-led organizations can work to actively transfer their resources to front-line organizations by contributing money, meeting space, customers, and staff time as well as making introductions to press and funders.
Accessibility
Work to increase accessibility of your programs and events to people of color. Provide transportation, childcare, food, wheelchair accessibility, all-gender bathrooms, and interpretation services. In some cases it is also appropriate to provide stipends for attendance. Review whether your decorations, music, and menu selections reflect a white-dominant culture. Consider hiring a guest lecturer, DJ, or caterer from the community you “serve” to bring their expertise to your events.
UPLIFT
Haymarket Fund
The Haymarket Fund was founded in 1974 to honor the Haymarket affair, a working people’s uprising in 1886 that paved the way for the eight-hour workday. The Haymarket Fund has donated money to almost every major social justice movement in New England. However, for decades they were a white-led organization distributing money to mostly white-led organizations. In 1998 they embarked on a deliberate journey to uproot the racism ingrained in every aspect of the organization. With the guidance of the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, they updated their mission, changed organizational policies, hired new leadership, and shifted organizational culture. While they will always be engaged in a learning process, Haymarket Fund is now led by people of color at all levels of the organization. People work together across racial lines to build relationships rooted in trust and accountability. Haymarket Fund published a manual detailing their transformation
process, called Courage to Change.
Culture and Commitment
Implement an equity statement and safer space practices that explicitly address racism, sexism, transphobia, ableism, classism, and other oppressions. Invest organizational resources into transforming the culture from white-dominant to culturally inclusive. This may mean devoting more time for self-care, reflection, and collaboration, shifting work pace, updating definitions of success, and investing in more time for training and support. Make space for people to bring elements of our cultures—music, stories, food, dance—to the organization. Be willing to name racism and directly address oppressive behavior.
Equity Statements by Predominantly White Farming Organizations
National Young Farmers Coalition, “Ending Violence Against People of Color in Food and Farming”: www.youngfarmers.org/ending-violence-against-people-of-color-in-food-and-farming
Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming, “Equity Statement”: ground swellcenter.org/equity-statement
Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, “Statement of Intent on Race and Equity”: nesawg.org /node/230882
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, “Statement on Race and Equity”: sustainableagriculture.net /about-us/mission-goals/nsac -statement-on-racial-equity
Programs
Your organization’s programs should be designed to build and share power with people of color, not to “serve” or “save” us. Address the root cause of problems, recognizing that this will eventually mean your project becomes obsolete. The people directly affected by oppressions should be the people involved in planning and designing those initiatives, and should have a pathway to take on leadership roles in the organization. Provide anti-racism training to all of your staff and infuse anti-racism topics into your community programs. If you are unsure what race has to do with your mission or goals, hire an anti-racism consultant to help you develop that equity lens.
Narrative
Update the narratives you tell about the work to uplift the contributions of people of color in the field. For example, many farming organizations omit the contributions of Fannie Lou Hamer, Booker T. Whatley, George Washington Carver, and the other visionaries highlighted in previous chapters. Actively participate in regional and national networks that are led by people of color. Use your social media, newsletter, and press platforms to promote the campaigns and stated priorities of people of color.
Behavior
Check your own white supremacist behavior and that of other white people in the organization. Racist structures are perpetuated through the accrual of seemingly minor exclusive and biased acts. Here are some common white supremacist patterns to challenge:
Speaking first, more often, or interrupting
Unilaterally setting the agenda
Assuming white people are more capable
Trivializing the experience of others
Dismissing the content of what people of color say, because of disliking the “tone” or “attitude”
Speaking on behalf of others
Assuming one person of color speaks for the group
Unilaterally controlling the organization’s resources
Reducing power struggles to personality conflicts
Assuming that misunderstandings are the root of problems in organization
Demanding proof or justification for perspectives of people of color
Appropriating cultural elements of people of color
Expecting gratitude and praise
Defending mistakes because of “good intentions”
Assuming that everyone has the same options and access to resources
Expecting people of color to educate white people about oppressions
Expecting to be trusted
Assuming that high-performing people of color are exceptional
Expecting emotional comfort
Participants in Soul Fire Farm’s Uprooting Racism training create action plans for transforming their organizations. Photo by Neshima Vitale-Penniman.
Calling In
One of the highest forms of love is accountability. Rather than dismissing, shunning, or shaming people who make mistakes, known as “calling out,” we can invite people into awareness. Rather than compounding a cycle of trauma by acting as persecutors of those who harm, we can invite one another to change our behavior for the better.11 The process of loving accountability is known as “calling in.” When someone in your organization or community engages in oppressive behavior, you have the opportunity to interrupt the harm. The steps for calling in are discussed below, adapted from the work of Mel Mariposa’s “A Practical Guide to Calling In.”
Preparing for the Conversation
Clarify goal. Ask yourself, “What is my goal? What am I hoping will change as a result of this conversation?” Clarify exactly what behavior you are hoping to shift as a result of this conversation.
Personal assessment. Ask yourself, “Am I the right person? What is our personal relationship? Is the subject matter something that might trigger me? If so, who might be able to support me, or to have the conversation on my behalf? Am I someone they will listen to?” If this conversation is about an incident involving a third party, make sure you have consent to discuss it with others. Do not assume that another person wants you to champion their cause.
Role-play. Before having the conversation, it can be helpful to role-play with a trusted friend. Generally speaking, organizations can implement calling-in role-plays using fabricated scenarios to normalize the process and increase the likelihood of accountable conversations.
UPLIFT
Ruby Sales
Black elder activist Ruby Sales tells her oppressors, with a firm and unyielding love in her voice, “You cannot make me hate you.”12 Mama Sales was born in 1948 in Alabama and attended segregated schools. She was arrested at age 17 for picketing a whites-only store, jailed for six days, and threatened by a shotgun-wielding construction worker upon release. Jonathan Daniels, a white Episcopal seminarian and fellow activist, pushed her out of the way and took the bullet meant for her, dying instantly. Sales dedicated the rest of her life to human rights work and currently directs the SpiritHouse project in Washington, DC. She is the living embodiment of Booker T. Washington’s commitment to love in the face of unspeakable horror. As he said, “I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.” Sales and Washington challenge us to love even when we are justified in our hatred, acknowledging that hatred diminishes our humanity.
Having the Conversation
Centering. Before you enter into a courageous conversation, ensure that you are centered and grounded. Take a few minutes to breathe deeply and call upon the support of your ancestors, the Earth, and other higher powers that you feel connected to. You may also choose to meditate, take a walk, or drink a cup of tea to get grounded.
Privacy. Arrange for a private space to have the conversation to ensure confidentiality. Ask, “Can we talk for a few minutes in private?” Have the conversation in person. Never call in via email and definitely not on social media. Tragically, public callouts have compounded mental health challenges and led to suicides in many communities. You do not want to cause more harm through humiliation.
Vulnerability. Start by sharing any fears or apprehensions you have around the conversation, and identifying anything that could be a potential obstacle. This has a disarming effect on the listener and reminds you both about your humanity.
Hopes. Share your hopes for the outcome of the conversation, and why you care enough to have this conversation with them. Let them know that you see accountability as a form of love.
Specific behaviors. Share the feedback about the specific behavior. Get clear around what specific behavior this person engaged in, rather than any assumptions, projections, or judgments around their motivations or character. The more specific you can be about the behavior and how the behavior affected you and/or others, the more you’re going to be able to giv
e this person feedback that can help them learn and grow.
Empathy. If applicable, share about a time when you made a mistake that harmed someone and remind the person that this behavior does not mean they are a bad person.
Ask questions. Asking someone whose behavior is having unintended consequences what effect they’d like to have, and working to understand why they have behaved the way they have, can create more space for compassion, and can further support them in growing and changing.
Next steps. Ask the person to propose appropriate next steps to remedy the harm. It may be as simple as stopping the behavior. In some cases an apology may be necessary. Encourage the person to offer an unconditional apology, even if they do not “agree” that they caused harm.
Resources. Offer resources for further learning, such as readings, training opportunities, and people with relevant experiences.
Participants in Soul Fire Farm’s Uprooting Racism training use role-play to practice courageous conversations and “calling in.” Photo by Neshima Vitale-Penniman.
Following Up
Setting limits. As much as we desire every accountability conversation to end with decisive behavior change, this is not always the case. If you are part of an organization with this person, you can work to enact organizational policies that have consequences for oppressive behavior. If someone is not willing to change a behavior, it may be time to take corrective action or ask the person to leave the organization.
Ongoing support. For individuals engaging in a change process, regular check-ins can be helpful. Ask the person how they see their behavior shifting, what questions they have, and what support they need. For example, a person who caused harm may decide that they want to apologize and make amends, and need support figuring out how to approach the conversation. If you have the emotional capacity to be there for them, do.
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