Striving Toward Racial Justice Issue #1: Introducing Racial Justice and Racism

TPCH released Striving Toward Racial Justice: A Call-to-Action for Pima County Community-Based Organizations, in partnership with the University of Arizona Southwest Institute for Research on Women in November 2021.  As we begin 2022, we are calling on community organizations and our housing partners to deepen our shared resolve to advancing racial equity.

Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing the Striving Toward Racial Justice series which includes 7 key actions community-based organizations can take to better understand and positively affect change to reduce racial disparities within our communities, services, and organizations. Each message will include background information about the key action, recommended strategies, and publicly available resources and tools to help your staff, volunteers, and leadership as you strive toward racial justice.

Don't miss our next issue introducing Targeted Universalism as a key strategy toward reducing disparity and advancing racial justice in community-based work.  Can't wait?  Click here to download the full Call to Action now. 

Striving Towards Racial Justice is not a toolkit, nor is it a step-by-step guide.

Rather, this call to action (CTA) provides direct information on the imperative to address racial injustice, and strategies your organization can implement to address racial inequities.

Organizations (inclusive of their clients, community members, staff and leadership) are best suited to determine their own best plan, and stakeholders must work collaboratively, and as equal partners. Many organizations may have already started racial justice work, but may feel that their efforts are being stalled, or that efforts have been ineffective. The suggested actions in this CTA may help reignite teams or provide a framework for this work.

Examining and collecting data on racial disparities that may exist internally among staff and externally among client groups is a critical component of the process. However, organizations must resist becoming entrenched in the data collection and examination process. With the mass amounts of data organizations often collect, every analysis will likely lead to additional data-related questions that could delay tangible action and work.

Race Forward describes racial justice as the systematic, fair treatment of people from different races, resulting in equitable opportunities and outcomes for all. Racial justice goes beyond “anti-racism.”

It is not just the absence of discrimination and inequities, but also the presence of intentional systems and resources which produce and sustain racial justice through proactive and preventative measures.

In Operationalizing Racial Justice in Non-Profit Organizations, Maggie Potapchuk outlines a path for operationalizing racial justice by reimagining and co-creating a just and liberated world. This includes:

1. Understanding the history of racism and the system of White supremacy and addressing past harms;

2. Working in right relationship and accountability in an ecosystem (an issue, sector, or community ecosystem) for collective change;

3. Implementing interventions that use an intersectional analysis and that impact multiple systems;

4 .Centering Blackness and building the community, cultural, economic, and political power of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC); and

5. Applying the practice of love along with disruption and resistance to the status quo.

Race Forward identifies four levels of racism; this model extends the notion that racism is limited to acts of prejudice or discrimination, based on race, executed by one individual onto another. The institution of racism and the historical impact of racism persist throughout society, from the individual level to the systemic level:

Internalized Racism refers to individual biases and ideas about race induced by our human predisposition to form in-groups and out-groups, and the personal impact of internalized racialized messages about our social groups. When these messages are combined with our natural tendency to follow cognitive scripts, we experience dissonance between our conscious values and unconscious biases.

Interpersonal Racism refers to internalized cultural messages that are shared through personal interactions. These messages are sustained through shared practices that often include some individuals and groups, and exclude others.

Institutional Racism refers to institutions and organizations adopting and/or maintaining policies and procedures that result in inequitable outcomes for people of color. Institutional racism may occur within schools, courts, the military, government organizations, businesses and any number of other organizations. Some of these institutional practices lead to disparities in employment, education, incarceration, healthcare and more.

Structural Racism refers to the way historical, social, psychological, cultural and political norms perpetuate advantages based on race. Examples include racial disparities across wealth, educational attainment, life expectancy, and access to resources.

Learn more about racial justice, levels of racism, and other key racial equity concepts at https://www.raceforward.org/about/what-is-racial-equity-key-concepts. 

Claudia Powell
Casey Chimneystar Limón-Condit
Marisol Flores-Aguirre
Anna Harper-Guerrero
Mildred Manuel
Andrés Portela III
Claudio Rodriguez