White Accountability Spaces
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Managing Hiring and Layoffs? Use an Equity Lens
Many businesses and organizations are announcing furloughs and layoffs as a result of the economic upheavals caused by the pandemic. As America faces a profound time of racial reckoning while in the midst of a pandemic, now is precisely the right time to focus our Equity Lens intently on hiring and firing practices. It’s no time for excuses. I’ve heard many say: “Given the pandemic, we don’t have time to look into hiring practices.” That’s just using a laziness lens. As Diana Noriega, Assistant Executive Director of Anti-Racism and Equity at Good Shepherd Services stated on my recent radio show: “Crisis accelerates the process of the work. People get comfortable…
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Using Whiteness Accountability Spaces to Disrupt and Unlearn Racial Biases & Actions
Now more than ever, it’s critical that whites effectively partner with People of Color and other whites to interrupt racist dynamics to create more racially just, inclusive organizations. One of the most effective ways I know of to accomplish this is to begin by facilitating Whiteness Accountability Spaces in our organizations. Are you ready to deepen your capacity – and choose courage – by recognizing white privilege, getting honest about how you were socialized in a sea of racist attitudes and ways you may still react out of these? Are you committed to learn how to create racially just organizations and choose courage to disrupt daily racist dynamics? It…
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How to Use White/Whiteness Accountability Spaces to Begin Healing Your Racial Biases
My First Experience in a White Accountability Space Years ago, the first time I sat in a group of all white people, I wasted the experience. Really. My ego got in the way, taunting me, saying I couldn’t learn anything meaningful about racism without having people of color included in the group. In my own huff, I sat silently, hoping that no one would call me out as a racist. Then I had an epiphany. White people, including me, need this authentic space with only other whites so that they can freely share about our white fragility, our defensiveness, fears, and shame as well as our resistance to recognizing the…
