Aligning resources with equity
April 15, 2022
Hi again! I’m in the full swing of consulting life and have been remiss in keeping up with this newsletter. But, as I’ve said, I’m going to send this out irregularly and only when I truly feel good about the content. Before we jump right in, I want to share a brilliant read from Grace Anderson that I read right before finalizing this newsletter. Go read that and come back to this.
By 2018 I had spent about 4 years organizing in the movement. Working on projects locally and supporting organizing across justice issues. That year I started a more intentional move to Black-focused spaces feeling a bit tokenized from organizing in predominantly white spaces. By 2019 I’d found myself trying to focus on being in community with Black folks or at least finding more non-white organizing spaces.
This journey, plus the years prior helped crystallize a few major insights that now seem to be more dominant issues popping up across the movement spaces, and with the mainstream media dubbed “Great Resignation” a relevant reflection. Some of the major sentiments we hear today are employees feeling:
Undervalued
Being Tokenized
The compounding pandemics impacting intersections of people’s lives (Parenting, primary caretakers, indebted, housing instability, neurodivergence, medical injustice, etc.)
The shift to virtual without thoughtfulness
A societal desire to return to “normal”
Compensation that didn’t match workloads
Being asked to hold more and more
Some of these same sentiments were a common thread amongst Black, Indigenous, and Brown staff in the nonprofit space.
In 2019, I also attended a conference in Philadelphia hosted by People of the Global Majority in Outdoors Nature and Environment (PGM ONE). It was a conference for Black, Indigenous, and more broadly the People of the Global Majority. Equity and justice were at the center because the different identities of folks were centered. From disability justice and accessibility, even accessibility issues about the event itself were raised along with affinity spaces for all the varying identities people hold. It was a resonant space with workshops and thoughtful excursions. I loved the programming, but I loved being with what felt like “my people”.
More than that there was something I noticed in the margins of the formal programming. We would sit in circles, finally being in space with people we trusted and looked like us, and just talk. Share our dreams, our hopes, but mostly our shared struggles with white institutions and spaces. We all knew very well the problems we were facing. We all knew whether an institution was prepared to hold it down for us. And many knew it was time to leave because those places woouldn’t get to that equitable and inclusive place anytime soon.
It was such a brilliant display of Popular Education in practice, the belief that we all held within ourselves the answers we needed we just needed the space and process to surface and apply our solutions to the issues at hand.
Now I see all these insightful well-worded blogs and letters from institutions so “ready” to learn and take on the challenges of race inequity and that they're doing right by their history of harm…and they go out and spend resources and hire white-led firms, or start processes that involve no engagement or resourcing for the Black, Indigenous, and staff of color that have been at their organizations for years. Or they do rely on their insights without the proper compensation for the emotional and intellectual labor.
Much of the struggle I felt as a mixed-race, Black and Indo-Caribbean staff was one of scarcity. Scarcity of opportunities to dream of the world I wanted. Scarcity in the amount of Black, Indigenous, and Brown folks I was able to support and build deep relationships with. Scarcity of capacity, time, and space for the solutions I had to offer. And it was felt across the movement. Collectively we were all feeling a ceiling. Sometimes I even felt like being my full self was not in my best interest.
In the years since I’ve found myself listening more. In that listening, I’ve heard the answers and solutions from incredible leaders across the movement. Many of those moments of listening and learning from Black, Indigenous, and Brown leaders in the movement eventually led to seeing those moments of “I told you so” for the organizations and organizers they were directed at. Whether it was a month later or now in 2022.
And sure, maybe organizations that are predominantly white can find themselves with the right intention, process, and outcomes that make their organizations a welcoming and sustainable home for BIPOC staff. But maybe, rather than doubling down on the organizations that seem to fail time and time again, we focus on investing resources into the organizations that already embody what we’re hoping for with Black and Indigenous leaders. If we are to find liberation, it will be through the prioritization of first Black and Indigenous women.
As an independent consultant and in my current roles that’s not something I can control. What I can control is this offering to you, the reader. One thing we can start advocating more right away is a reframe and shift to investing first and foremost into junior level staff more broadly. With a special intention to junior level staff that are Black, Indigenous, coming from low-income backgrounds, first-generation college graduates, and immigrant backgrounds. Many times, these staff are often less equipped with the skills and support to secure equitable outcomes for themselves and significantly – financial equity.
One way investing could look like is the supervision they receive. While I have been lucky enough to be supervised by incredible folks who were trying to look out for my best interest and I had a pretty rad(ical), HR staff, at the helm at organizations I’ve worked for. Traditionally, these roles are ones that reinforce and actually prioritize the organization’s interest above the staff. Why not grant younger staff one more point of resource and support as a third party person who is looking out for their best interest and development above all? Having a supervisor that builds their leadership and equips them with skills for self-advocacy, can share lived experience and expert advice from different perspectives. I believe that staff already have many of the answers they need for race equity within organizations. I believe Black and Indigenous leaders have many of the answers for what it’ll take to shift our movements for the better.
We’ve seen this type of investment before. Is your executive staff struggling or navigating some difficulties? There are executive coaches for that. Are you trying to transform your organization, there are organizational development firms, race equity consultants, etc. The list goes on, but when it comes to direct, proactive, and anticipatory support for junior staff, that is a rare sight.
For me, I look around and see so many brilliant Black women who despite the barriers and hurdles of the non-profit industrial complex have achieved such incredible things. What you see should be even more validation to invest our time, attention, and resources into their leadership and visions and also into those of a newer, younger, and more radical generation.
Things I’ve loved lately led by Black women that I’d like to use my small platform to amplify:
Tamara Toles O’Laughlin – Climate Critical Earth
Jacqui Patterson – Chisholm Legacy Project
Dany Sigwalt – Power Shift Network, author (book + article)
Grace Anderson – Her writing and more here
Emira Woods – New Executive Director of Green Leadership Trust
