Is Anti-Racism Part of Your Professional Development Strategy?
Our team at DWL stands in solidarity with the Black community. The systemic racism that has enabled the recent killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Sean Reed, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Tony McDade and so many others is sickening and horrifying. Because our world, our selves and our work are intertwined, today’s post offers reflection on what anti-racism means to us as humans and how you can embed anti-racism into your work through your organization’s professional development strategy.
This time has been extremely humbling for me as a white woman, mother, partner, homeschooler, social isolator, friend, sister and work-from-home leader and colleague. I am continually exploring and learning about my own whiteness, my relationship to race, power and privilege. I fail at this regularly. It’s not a conversation that gets resolved. It’s ongoing. It’s uncomfortable. It’s messy. And it’s essential.
It’s essential because racism is everywhere. It’s in our lives. It’s in our field. It’s in our work. The systems and structures upon which our field and our work are built are rooted in white supremacy. For instance, even in our field of afterschool (and the nonprofit sector more broadly) we know that there is a racial leadership gap—most leadership positions are held by white people even though people of color have the same or better skills and experience.
It is not right. And it’s not anyone’s “fault”. It is because we are embedded in systems and structures that proliferate racism. And it’s because (we) white people who believe in diversity, equity and inclusion still are working through racism intellectually…not through our own bodies.
To make change, we need to go beyond diversity, equity and inclusion to actively oppose racism. As Ibram X. Kendi, the director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University says, “The opposite of racist is not ‘not-racist.’ It’s anti-racist”. Anti-racism is understanding how years of federal, state, and local policies have placed communities of color in the crises they face today, and calling those policies out for what they are: racist.
Read up on anti-racism and what it means. Here are a couple starting points:
Brookings offers guidance on how cities and states can tackle racism. This framework could be adapted to our work:
Acknowledge racism
Establish equity goals
Fund equity
Innovate
Measure equity impact
Yes, these are big goals to move toward. They take more than just you to accomplish. But if these steps are not happening in your organization, they can start with you. Within your sphere of influence, you have immediate agency to bring anti-racism work to your organization through your role of designing and implementing your organization’s professional development strategy.
By sheer definition, professional development is how we provide learning and support for our teams. What we do to train and support staff shows up in their work with children and families. Through PD, we can prepare staff with knowledge and skills that shift their everyday actions. Changing those everyday behaviors can be the key to changing biased attitudes over the longer term.
Thoughtful, well-planned professional development provides a way to start an ongoing dialogue that can help shift systems in your organization and rebuild them with an anti-racist foundation.
As a leader overseeing the professional development strategy in your organization, you may be thinking similarly to colleagues I’ve spoken to across the country. Here are a few things I’ve heard and then some responses and encouragement to build upon what you currently do to more intentionally address anti-racism within your organization.
“We have done an equity training so we’re good for this year.”
While an equity training is a start, consider how you can embed anti-racism work into your broader professional development strategy and support it in an ongoing way. Connect with a local, reputable equity consultant who can help you assess your current work, identify gaps and make a plan to educate and support your team on learning about white supremacy culture and anti-racism.
“We don’t really have anti-racism dialogue in our organization because racism isn’t really a conversation in our city.”
People are talking about racism. The question is: are you engaging in that dialogue and if not, why not? Are you providing the space for your staff to engage in that dialogue and if not, why not? Just because the people of color on your team are on the Zoom meeting and acting normal, it doesn’t mean they are okay. Chances are, they are not. As a white person, I’ve learned that I must first educate myself on my role in dismantling systems of oppression. If you are in the same boat, a good starting place would be reading White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo and How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi.
“Since our organization is part of a rural, white community and doesn’t serve Black people, we don’t really need to talk about racism.”
In my small, rural, poor, almost entirely white hometown, my mother called the library to ask for a copy of Kendi’s book. The librarian responded, “A book about race? Oh, we wouldn’t have anything like that.” That’s a problem. Racism is not just about Black people. It’s about whiteness. Understanding whiteness and how white supremacy shows up in our organizations is an important step to dismantle the structures of racism. Racism thrives on silence. It’s not easy to talk about, but it’s important to talk about. And, I figure, if Sesame Street is talking about racism, then we need to figure out how to have these conversations within our organizations.
You can do this. Many organizations have anti-racism as a critical part of their professional development strategy. For example:
School’s Out Washington, the statewide afterschool network for Washington state, has a defined commitment to racial equity that includes internal caucusing practices as well offering free Structural Racism workshops to their network.
The National AfterSchool Association with funding from S.D Bechtel Jr. Foundation and in partnership with CalSAC, DWL, Policy Studies Associates and Public Profit is currently supporting the leadership capacity development of leaders of color, strengthening relationships and building a national network of equity-driven leaders through the Professional Learning Community for Emerging Leaders of Color.
How is your professional development strategy advancing anti-racism? Please share.