Leadership | 05.10.22
Beginning your Anti-Racist Journey
by Amanda Walker, CPCS
We know that diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging are vital to creating and maintaining successful workplaces; therefore, being an anti-racist and embracing anti-racist thinking goes hand and hand with creating such an environment. So, what does it mean to be anti-racist? As hard as we each may work as individuals, we live and participate in a white-dominated social construct that reenforces white privilege. There is, therefore, no such thing as being “not racist”.
Many may ask themselves, “How do I start this journey?” Firstly, you have to get into the right mindset--open your mind, recognize when you are being defensive and check your assumptions, give yourself grace, and course correct when you need to.
One way to approach this is as process improvement, understanding that you will start with a baseline. For instance, if you want to reduce application turnaround timeframes, you do not just tell your credentialing team they need to half the number of days processing an application takes. You open up dialogue, investigate issues, delays, bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and analyze what the root of the problem is. Often through this process, what you believed to be the problem is not the issue at all and only through research, being curious, asking questions and being open to learning are you able to move forward effectively.
Similarly, racism holds different meaning for different people. You must educate yourself before you are poised to make any significant change. This means a lot of listening and learning to create a strong foundation from which to build. It is training yourself to look at things in different ways. As a leader, you also have to create space for others to grow with you. This does not necessarily mean meeting people where they are are. For a lot of people, particularly white people (myself included), talking about racism feels uncomfortable; so, if you dilute your message to meet someone’s comfort level, you’ll inevitably just go in a circle and make no progress at all. Instead, create the opportunity and time, and make learning resources available, then slowly build momentum. People will learn at their own pace, but your consistency will allow for sustained growth. Educate to understand so you can advocate.
Allocate specific time in schedules to focus on education, discussion and reflection that is unconnected to regular day-to-day work topics. This will create accountability for yourself and others and emphasize the importance of what you are trying to do. Do not underestimate small steps either. We created time at the end of each of our team huddles to present on an important and famous person of color. It is about a 5-minute presentation, and not always formal, but encourages curiosity and expands interest. Thus far, we have learned about some amazing people we would not necessarily have known about otherwise. The Black Employee Resource Group for our organization has some great resources for learning, from podcasts, to webinars, and movies. Once more interest grew, we put together an Anti-Racist learning schedule, which meets bi-weekly to create time to tap into these other resources and learn together. The group setting keeps us all accountable to maintaining the momentum, especially when work gets busy (COVID, I’m looking at you), and allows for real time dialogue. We participate virtually so it is less impactful to people’s days and the links to content are made available for those who could not attend.
As you slowly expand your pool of meaning, you will better appreciate other perspectives and find it easier to create that more diverse and inclusive environment you are striving for. Real change takes time and tenacity though, so even when you faulter stick with it. As the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”