Leadership buy-in for meaningful racial equity growth: Encompass’ “All Aboard” chat session debrief
April 14, 2021
On April 13, 2021, we hosted our first “All Aboard!” chat with Encompass’ Executive Director, Aryenish Birdie and Managing Director, Michelle Rojas-Soto.
We created this series to have space to informally share our thoughts on pressing racial equity issues of our day. We call it “All Aboard!” because it takes everyone—in all of our unique positions—to make racial equity a reality.
To start the series, we discussed the importance of leadership buy-in to this work because it’s critical in building a race equity culture. You can watch the entire conversation here (30 minutes).
Here are the highlights:
A good place for leaders to start—while gaining racial literacy—is to develop a vision statement. To get you started brainstorming, consider these two questions:
What statements would be true if you were an equitable organization?
What does your organization look like once you’ve achieved equity?
Where does racism currently live inside your organization?
It’s important your vision statement is:
Ambitious and bold: Be visionary when thinking about how racial equity is tied to your mission and how racial inequity is getting in the way of your mission. Don’t hold yourself back if you can’t totally picture how you’ll get there, this is your vision.
Equitably distributes the load in your organization: Racial equity work should not reside solely in Human Resources or with a single person, team, or committee. All areas of an organization should be involved in equity work.
Accountability: It’s most important that you work with a sense of urgency for those who are most desperate for change. Think about those who aren’t in the room with you. What activities, policies, processes, and practices can you engage to bring you closer to that vision of equity?
2. Don’t get stuck! We often hear that people don’t feel good/smart/prepared enough to have conversations about racism. More than anything else, it’s vital that everyone engages with the work where you are. You (probably) aren’t going to get a Master’s Degree in Critical Race Theory, and yet, the work belongs to you. You need to make it happen.
You might say to your team: “I’m interested in having this conversation. I’m not quite sure it is going to go well the first time around, but who is willing to engage with me on this? And tell me when I make mistakes so I can get better in the process.”
We can’t wait to be perfect (there is no perfect). We have waited too long to get started. For those of us who are on the target end of racism, it’s already too late. Give yourself permission to make mistakes and hold yourself accountable to yourself and the team. Know this work will challenge you and make you uncomfortable—that’s when you know you’re in it! Make amends, don’t take things personally, and keep moving forward. Check out how others in our movement are finding their voice in our #EncompassEssay series.
3. Consensus is unlikely so don’t wait for everyone on your team (board, staff, volunteers, donors) to be on board before you begin. Consensus is a product of white supremacy culture. If we waited for consensus to make social progress in the U.S., women wouldn’t be able to vote, institutional discrimination against queer folks would be the norm, and interracial couples wouldn’t be able to get married. It’s likely that your entire team will not get on board. We are calling on you to be a leader and know that there will be resistance... continue on anyway.
When you have a vision statement in hand, identify the outcomes, and then work to develop action steps to make those outcomes a reality. Remember Encompass, or other racial equity consultants, can help you along the way.
Join us for our next All Aboard! Chat on July 13, 2021, where we’ll explore how it’s been one year after the racial justice uprising of 2020 and what’s happened since those BLM statements?
Register here or catch it on the blog later.