Equity 101

How to Show Up

• Decolonize your mind. Accept that white supremacy is real, and that institutional racism is practiced by people of all races.
• Be clear about why you are doing racial equity work. Clarity will keep your group grounded when the work becomes complicated and challenging, as it undoubtedly will.
• Define where you stand. Explore where your organization lands for each component: diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

Getting Started

There’s a lot to learn! Here are 4 resources you can use to start your journey. Browse even more resources below.

• Read: History of Racism and Movements
• Read: Awake to Woke to Work: Building A Race Equity Culture
• For Directors: Identify race equity champions at board and senior levels.
• For Direct Service: Join or create a DEIB Working Group.

More Resources

Understanding DEIB

• Diversity is the demographic and psychographic mix of a specific collection of people, taking into account all elements of human difference.
• Improving equity means promoting justice, impartiality and fairness within the procedures, processes and distribution of resources by institutions or systems.
• Inclusion is the degree to which diverse individuals are able to participate fully in the decision-making processes within an organization or group.
• Belonging is how employees feel at work. “Do they feel valued? Do they feel like they should be there? Do they feel that their insights, commentary and perspectives matter?”

In The Inclusion Paradox, global diversity inclusion strategist and thought leader Andrés Tapia defined diversity as “the mix” and inclusion as “making the mix work.” True inclusion, Tapia notes, is difficult and requires intentionality—it is not an outcome of diversity in itself. While it is possible to have diversity without inclusion, the real benefits of diversity (innovation, new ideas, creativity, financial gains) cannot be realized without inclusion. Similarly, when we think about belonging, we can think of it as an outcome of inclusion—and true inclusion cannot exist if individuals feel that they do not belong. Inclusion is an action; belonging is a feeling.

Racial Equity ToolsThis site is designed to support individuals and groups working to achieve racial equity via tools, research, tips, curricula, and ideas. Its audience is anyone “who wants to increase their own understanding and help those working toward justice at every level – in systems, organizations, communities, and the culture at large.”

• Fundamentals Offers information on relevant core concepts, theories, and histories.
• Plan Includes resources to help in planning actions for racial equity.
• Act Provides information on 17 strategy areas relevant to racial equity work.
• Evaluate Helps groups assess, learn from, and document their racial equity work.
• Connect Access online curricula, submit resources to share, and get monthly emails announcing new resources and activities.

Equity in the Center This group works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems within the social sector to increase racial equity. It envisions “a future where nonprofit and philanthropic organizations define, implement, and advance race equity internally while advocating and centering it in their work externally.”

• Awake to Woke to Work: Building a Race Equity Culture is the foundational work when organizations seek to advance race equity; it creates the conditions that help us to adopt anti-racist mindsets and actions as individuals and to center race equity in our life and in our work.
• Woke@Work Equity in the Center’s Woke at Work series is dedicated to highlighting tools and resources that support nonprofit and philanthropic leaders in building a Race Equity Culture.

Fakequity Blog A blog about racial equity and its nemesis Fakequity. As it puts it, “some of the posts may veer off towards equity’s siblings and cousins diversity, inclusion, culture, community engagement, accountability, etc. They are all related, and we need to understand and think about a lot of different things in order to move towards equity.”
Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society This group “brings together researchers, organizers, stakeholders, communicators, and policymakers to identify and eliminate the barriers to an inclusive, just, and sustainable society in order to create transformative change.”
PolicyLink PolicyLink is a national research and action institute advancing racial and economic equity by Lifting Up What Works.®
RaceForward This group’s mission is to build awareness, solutions, and leadership for racial justice by generating transformative ideas, information, and experiences. As they put it, “we define racial justice as the systematic fair treatment of people of all races, resulting in equitable opportunities and outcomes for all, and we work to advance racial justice through media, research, and leadership development.”
Watch: PBS News Hour ‘How to pursue racial equity within your workplace’
Watch: TEDx ‘On Diversity: Access Ain’t Inclusion | Anthony Jack’
Download Equity 101 Glossary
Download Awake to Woke to Work