21 week equity challenge guide

​We want to thank YWCA Cleveland and Cuesta College for their materials and resources as well as Dr. Eddie Moore and Debby Irving who first started the 21 Day Racial Equity Challenge. We look forward to you joining us in this commitment towards racial equity and social justice. Systemic change starts with each of us individually, and together we learn and grow.

Before you get started, if you haven’t done so already, please fill out the pre-survey to set your intentions and share your goals for the challenge with us. We also encourage you to use our online chat forum (available to those who complete the pre-survey) OR download the challenge reflection log a tool to ensure you are taking full advantage of what the challenge has to offer.
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Week 1-4

​Week 1: Personal Racial Identity
Before you get started, if you haven’t done so already, please fill out the pre-survey to set your intentions and share your goals for the challenge with us. We also encourage you to use our online chat forum (available to those who complete the pre-survey) OR download the challenge reflection log a tool to ensure you are taking full advantage of what the challenge has to offer.
CHALLENGE
OTHER RESOURCES​
​Week 2: Personal Reflection & Implicit Bias
​Racism is deeply embedded into the culture and history of the United States – so deeply embedded, in fact, that it can be hard to identify in ourselves. It goes beyond the individual acts of cruelty and violence often associated with ‘hate groups’ to perpetuate power structures that continue to privilege white people. These structures have overwhelmingly been built on the labor and unnamed contributions of people of color.
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The activities in this program will challenge what you ‘know’ about race and social justice. It is likely you will be frustrated or even angry as you uncover truths along the way. We encourage you to utilize this discomfort as a way of shaking loose from old ways of thinking and doing and consider how you can be part of building a more respectful and collaborative community.
CHALLENGE
  • Option 1: Unconscious Bias. Go deeper and take Project Implicit’s Hidden Bias tests, created by psychologists at top universities, to uncover some of your own unconscious biases. Remember, having biases doesn’t make you a bad person—it only makes you human.
  • Option 2: What to do when you uncover personal implicit bias. A Pediatrician who serves children of color discovered his implicit bias. Here's what he's doing about it (article).

OTHER RESOURCES
​Week 3: What is Privilege?
Privilege is the unearned social, political, economic, and psychological benefits of membership in a group that has institutional and structural power. How do you relate to these common examples of privilege in the USA?

Having privilege can give you advantages in life, but having privilege is not a guarantee of success. Privilege does not mean economic advantage, instead it is the ability to freely navigate the world in a way that is not available to people who are not white, able-bodied, cisgender, etc.

As the Challenge continues, we encourage you to use the reflection log to write down your thoughts. If you would like to share your reflections, join the online discussion! Click here to complete the pre-survey and get access to the 21-Week Equity Challenge forum where you can share your action plan with other members of the community.
CHALLENGE
​Week 4: What is White Fragility?
Have you heard of the term “White Fragility?” For White people, “White Fragility” refers to their discomfort and avoidance of racially charged stress, which perpetuates racial inequity.  Many people of color, multiracial, and Indigenous peoples are familiar with this concept, but may not be familiar with the term.
 
Dr. Robin DiAngelo describes white fragility as a state of being for White people in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves can include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors shut down conversations, and inhibit actions which, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.
 
As our first 4-weeks come to an end, we hope you have taken the opportunity to look inside yourself and expand your mind through the different challenges offered. As we move forward in this challenge, prepare to shift your focus from the personal reflection that we have been exploring to a broader view of racial equity and social justice.
CHALLENGE
  • Option 1: "I'm Not Racist." Watch Dr. DiAngelo's "Why 'I'm Not Racist' is Only Half the Story" video. Once finished, take a quick quiz from the publisher of "White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism," to see if you exhibit "White Fragility" traits.
  • Option 2: Reproducing Racism. Read a short article by Dr. DiAngelo that unpacks how we continue to reproduce racist outcomes and live segregated lives. TIP: We highly recommend reading Dr. DiAngelo's entire book. Better yet, read it with your book club and use this free reader's guide to discuss with your colleagues. 

OTHER RESOURCES

Week 5-8

Week 5: Racism and Mental Health
On March 5, 2019, the California Attorney General announced that the police officers who shot and killed Stephon Clark (age 22) in March 2018— will not face charges. The two officers fired on Clark, an unarmed African-American man, after a foot chase that ended in his grandmother’s backyard. The officers shot Clark seven times, including three times in the back, the official autopsy found.
 
Whether you agree or disagree with the decision of the California Attorney General, news like this is traumatizing and re-traumatizing to people of color. It is like a wound that never heals.
 
Research has linked racism to psychological distress, physical health problems, depression, anxiety, and trauma. The internalization of bias and oppression can cause great distress to minds, bodies, and spirits.
 
As Dr. Monnica Williams of the University of Connecticut has written: “What we really need is a large-scale shift in our social consciousness to understand the toll this takes on the psyche of victims so that even small acts of racism become unacceptable. We need those who witness racism to speak out and victims to be believed.”

CHALLENGE

OTHER RESOURCES
Week 6: Levels of Racism ​
Are you seeing and addressing how racism operates at different levels? Dr. Camara Jones, Senior Fellow at the Morehouse School of Medicine, says that in order to address racism effectively, we have to understand how it operates at multiple levels. Often what people think of first and foremost is interpersonal racism. Only seeing this level means that we fail to see the full picture that keeps the system of racism in place.
CHALLENGE
  • Option 1: Allegories on Race. Watch Dr. Jones' TED talk on the "Allegories on Race and Racism" where she shares four short stories to help us understand privilege and racism
  • Option 2: Systemic Racism. Check out this short video from Race Forward about the levels and the importance of looking at systemic, not simply individual, racism
  • Option 3: Racist or Antiracist. Listen to Ibram X. Kendi's interview with CBC Radio-Canada on his view on how we are either being racist or antiracist, there is no middle ground. Listen to the whole interview (51mins19s) or the portion on his understanding of race, harboring racist ideas and challenging racist assumptions (20mins34s).

OTHER RESOURCES
  • A Theoretical Framework. Camara Phyllis Jones presents a theoretic framework for understanding racism on 3 levels: institutionalized, personally mediated, and internalized
Week 7: African American Focused
Racism in America is systemic, and its legacy is woven so deeply into the fabric of this country that it permeates our communities in many forms today. To say that we live in a ‘post-racial’ society because we’ve elected a Black President, or see successful Black business people ignores the daily racism people of color encounter in this country. Racism is not something we can end by decree, and Black people today are disproportionately impacted by poverty, incarceration, and housing insecurity.   
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As you complete this activity, reflect on the ways you notice the legacy of slavery in our daily lives in 2020.
A quick read for context can be found here: From 1619 – 2019 From Slavery to Mass Incarceration.
CHALLENGE
OTHER RESOURCES
  • The Case For Reparations. Read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ article in the Atlantic on understanding, “The Case for Reparations" or listen to the audio version in the same link
Week 8: Latinx Focused
Do you know the difference between Latinx and Hispanic? The words “Hispanic,” “Latino”, and “Spanish” all have different meanings - watch Kat Lazo’s video to clear it up (4mins29s).
CHALLENGE
  • Option 1: El Detour. This challenge is also about celebrating diverse identities and cultures. Please take this day and expand your music list and listen to “El Detour” Radio on your Pandora station during your drive to/from work, in the office, or during lunch. Don’t have Pandora, no problem! Just search your favorite music streaming app to find Latinx music selections.
  • Option 2: Nine Latinas. Read about “9 Latinas you should be learning about in history class.” For all the women who deserve a place in our textbooks and for the women whose voices should echo- this is for them. Though not at all exhaustive, this list includes some of the Hispanic/Latinas who made their mark on history.
  • Option 3: The State of Early Education for Latinx. Read about or watch a short video from Salud America on Latinx experiences in early childhood.

OTHER RESOURCES