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Beyond Solidarity Statements : Questions to ask yourself
How will you engage with critique from Black people whose experiences with your organization are shaped by AntiBlack racism, who now find your solidarity statements hypocritical?
How will you engage with critique from Black people whose experiences with your organization are shaped by AntiBlack racism, who now find your solidarity statements hypocritical?
You can’t “train out” anti-Blackness and systemic racism, how will you actively engage in dismantling white supremacy beyond gaining access to the language of liberation?
How has your organization actively participated in Anti-Blackness and harmed Black folk?
How has your organization actively participated in Anti-Blackness and harmed Black folk?
How do you plan to practice abolitionism as an organization?
How will you share and give up power at the decision making level and leadership to Black folk from communities, and not just those you cherry pick?
How will you share and give up power at the decision making level and leadership to Black folk from communities, and not just those you cherry pick?
How will you confront deeply anti-Black norms of “professionalism” and cultural fit?
How has your organization actively silenced, dismissed, gaslighted and pushed out Black people for naming their experiences of Anti-Black racism?
How has your organization actively silenced, dismissed, gaslighted and pushed out Black people for naming their experiences of Anti-Black racism?
How do you plan to care for the wellbeing of Black staff and community members as you undertake this work and make mistakes that continue to harm us?
What resources will you commit in the long term towards addressing anti-Black racism?
What resources will you commit in the long term towards addressing anti-Black racism?
How will you navigate white centrism and white fragility as you engage in this work?
Will you pay reparations/make amends towards the Black staff, community members and stakeholders who were actively harmed by your policies, behaviours and interpersonal violence @ your org?
Will you pay reparations/make amends towards the Black staff, community members and stakeholders who were actively harmed by your policies, behaviours and interpersonal violence @ your org?
What is your history of doing this work? What are they ways in which you have failed?
How do you plant to centre Black safety and liberation over white fragility and comfort?
How do you plant to centre Black safety and liberation over white fragility and comfort?
How do you plan to engage and educate the often curated, racist audience/community of white and non Black folk you’ve developed?
How do you plan to build accountability and transparency into your culture? How will you engage meaningfully with critique + call outs now/future?
How do you plan to build accountability and transparency into your culture? How will you engage meaningfully with critique + call outs now/future?
What responsibility does your organization have towards broader social transformation?
Have you recognized and reconciled your institutional histories?
Do you ask Black communities to produce evidence of our traumas or do you uptake our experiences and expertise?
Have you recognized and reconciled your institutional histories?
Do you ask Black communities to produce evidence of our traumas or do you uptake our experiences and expertise?
How will you decentre and divest from white supremacy, capitalism, institutionalised patriarch and colonialism?
How will your approach be radical, transformative and intersectional?
How will your approach be radical, transformative and intersectional?
How will you centre Black voices and experiences that don't fit your definition of acceptable Blackness?
How will you engage with dissent and resistance to justice within your org and stakeholders?
How will you engage with dissent and resistance to justice within your org and stakeholders?
How will your interventions and futures centre and be led by Black folk without demands for unpaid labour?
How do you plan to engage in this work in a holistic and longterm way that does not include assigning the work to a diversity officer?
How do you plan to engage in this work in a holistic and longterm way that does not include assigning the work to a diversity officer?
I’ve worked with almost a million ppl over 14 yrs, predominantly in arts and culture, tech, VAW, and health equity. A lot of orgs are now thinking about what their next steps are, consider this a free consultation so that you don’t email folks who do this work for a performance
What skills are you individually and collectively cultivating so you can change yourselves for our collective future?
How do you plan to take responsibility for lateral teaching and learning?
How do you plan to take responsibility for lateral teaching and learning?
How do you ensure that your interventions are rooted in disability justice and do not amplify lack of access, exclusion, violence, and saneist/ ableist frameworks?
What policies, systems and processes have been put into place to confront ABR within your organization and to ensure that these changes become a part of your culture rather than more rinse-repeat reactive "diversity" intiatives?
How will you bring your boards along with you ? How will you scrap them all together to make space for communities at the decision making level?
How will you allocate resources to the work of justice more broadly?
How will you allocate resources to the work of justice more broadly?
How will you allocate resources to the work of justice more broadly?
How will you compensate Black staff and consultants more meaningfully? How will you address wage gaps and pay inequity?
How will you compensate Black staff and consultants more meaningfully? How will you address wage gaps and pay inequity?
How do you ensure that your interventions are rooted in disability justice and do not amplify lack of access, exclusion, violence, and saneist/ ableist frameworks?
How will you actively and simultaneously address transphobia, homophobia and cis-hetnormativity within your systems, organizational culture and interpersonal behaviours?
How will you address coercive power and reward power within your org culture, dynamics & systems?
How committed are you to standing your ground when it comes to dismantling ABR? What risks will you take (loss of partnerships, funding, standing , audiences etc) ?
How committed are you to standing your ground when it comes to dismantling ABR? What risks will you take (loss of partnerships, funding, standing , audiences etc) ?
How will you compensate Black staff and consultants more meaningfully? How will you address wage gaps and pay inequity?
How will you confront the intersection of institutionalized patriarchy and ABR that deeply impacts the physical, spiritual and financial wellbeing of Black women within organizations and mark them specifically as problems and proceed to push them out?
How have you centered white voices and the myth of a decorative "diversity" over the actual needs, experiences and realities of Black communities in the past?
How will you engage in this work without tokenism?
How will you engage in this work without tokenism?
What skills do you need and how will you develop them in order to hold one another accountable with regards to microaggressions, violence, abuse of power etc?
How will you honour the labour of Black staff (past/present) and community members whose suffering has instigated changes within your organization? how will you name and account for that cost?
Do you undertake anti-racism work and social justice work as an afterthought or a small part of your work? or is an anti-racist, anti-oppressive lens omnipresent in your work?
What are the ways in which you participate in implicit anti-Black racism? How is that minimized? how will you address that? How will you learn to recognize it without exhausting Black people?
How will you challenge the myth of inclusion to radically give up power?
How will you challenge the myth of inclusion to radically give up power?
How will you protect Black community /staff who will become targets as you undertake this work?
How will you confront academic privilege and classism in your psyches and approaches so that the most marginalized Black communities can be centered in interventions/reimaginations?
Do you centre professional experience & academic knowledge over lived experiences and insights?
Do you centre professional experience & academic knowledge over lived experiences and insights?
What Black folks have access to leadership positions in your organization if any?
How do you learn from the wealth of Black knowledge production and ongoing work of anti-racism and Black liberation advocates, activists and scholars?
How do you learn from the wealth of Black knowledge production and ongoing work of anti-racism and Black liberation advocates, activists and scholars?
How have you developed a monolithic understanding of Black identities, experiences & futures? how will transform that?
How have you contributed to a monolithic understanding of Black identities, experiences and futures? how will you take responsibility for transforming that?
How have you contributed to a monolithic understanding of Black identities, experiences and futures? how will you take responsibility for transforming that?
How will you address the very real barriers that Black folks engage with or potentially engaged with your institution are experiencing?
What is your understanding of intersectionality? how will it inform your practices?
What is your understanding of intersectionality? how will it inform your practices?
How do you learn from the wealth of Black knowledge production and ongoing work of anti-racism and Black liberation advocates, activists and scholars?
Do you invite the same few Black "expert" voices or are you engaging with broader Black communities and ways of knowing/being?
Do you invite the same few Black "expert" voices or are you engaging with broader Black communities and ways of knowing/being?
