GOOD MORNING!

Community of Practice

August 13, 2013

Creating an Environment to Advance Racial Equity

We may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; we may not look the same and we may not come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction-towards a better future for our children and grandchildren - President Barack Obama

To dramatically improve educational experiences, outcomes and life options for students and families who have been historically underserved.

National Equity Project Mission

The Problem We Exist To Solve

To achieve educational

equity for vulnerable

children, there is a need

to close the Opportunity Gap

not just its manifestation,

the Achievement Gap.

Morning Mixer

Find someone and share . . .

Why are you here today? Why are we here?

Here’s what we are going for today . . .

Get reconnected with each other and with our RETOC work

Talk, share, reflect and learn together as a ‘Community of Practice’

Consider some ideas for practicing ‘transformative leadership’ in your context

Practice having critical conversations for ARE

We believe people can solve their own problems.

All levels of a system must be addressed.

YOUR ORGANIZATION is a LIVING SYSTEM

Adopted from Dalmau Network Group

Technical

Relational

Problems and solutions are technical and relational.

Adopted from Dalmau Network Group

Technical

Relational

A system, any system, produces

what it is designed to produce.

from “Bridges, Tunnels, and School Reform: It’s the System Stupid: by Thomas Kelly Phi Delta Kappan, October 2007

A Systems Truism

“success is not a random act. it arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities”

Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers

opportunity and structures

Opportunity is defined as a fair chance to achieve one’s full potential.

Leading for Racial Equity

“Leading for equity is about the choices you make to be aware, acknowledge the inequity you see, the dissonance you feel and make the decision to provide support anyway.”

- LaShawn Route’ ChatmonExecutive Director, National Equity Project

And we will do all of that in a

COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

Community AgreementsAn invitation to try these on

• Show up (or choose to be present)

• Pay attention (to heart and meaning)

• Tell the truth (without blame or judgment)

• Be open to outcome (not attached to

outcome)

• ADDITION . . . Maintain confidentiality

REFRESH . . . Racial Equity Theory of Change Map

At your tables . . . SHARE

Thoughts or insights you have about any part of the map

Questions about your own role in the work that is implied here

What you are most excited to get started on (or continue) in your work and/or community?

How we think about, name & frame a problem impacts whether, and how

we choose to engage it.

DISCOURSE MATTERS

What is DISCOURSE?

• How we talk… frame problems… define success or failure

CULTURAL

• How we organize our time and work

TECHNICAL• Can either

reproduce OR transform…

OUTCOMES

MENTAL MODELS/BELIEFS

Discourse I

Dominant ways of seeing and engaging the work of education that maintain unquestioned existing beliefs, values, and practices and serve to reproduce social inequality.

Discourse II

Ways of seeing and engaging the work of education that challenge the status quo by naming uncomfortable and unequal conditions and dynamics while pushing for deeper inquiry and new thinking.

KEY IDEA

Interrupt Discourse, NOT People

Using a Lens of Racial Equity

Individual

Institutional

Structural

…allows us to uncover the policies practices and behaviors that sustains unequal outcomes for children

Forms of Racism

•Individual

•Institutional

•Structural

Structural Racism

Structural Racism: Refers to the ways in which history,

ideology, public policies, institutional practices, and culture

interact to maintain a racial hierarchy that allows the privileges

associated with whiteness and the disadvantages associated

with color to endure and adapt over time.

Systemic/Structural racism shifts attentions from the single, intra-institutional setting to inter-institutional arrangements and interactions.

This approach supports the needs of the particular while reminding us that we are all part of the same social fabric

• universal, yet captures how people are differently situated

• inclusive, yet targets those who are most marginalized

Targeted Universalism

Targeted UniversalismEquality isn’t the same as Equity

What are

you up agains

t?

What do you need to interrupt?

As a leader in your organization and community . . .

The Relationship between Implicit Bias and Structural Racialization

The Role of the Unconscious Mind

the unconscious mind plays an influential role in controlling our actions

The human brain can take in 11 million pieces of information in any one moment

We’re only consciously aware of maybe 40 of these - at best.

Brooks, David. The Social Animal: A Story of How Success Happens. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/may/08/david-brooks-key-to-success-interview

Unconscious Bias People are meaning-making machines.

• Individual meaning• Collective meaning

Only 2% of emotional cognition is available to us consciously

Racial bias tends to reside in the unconscious network

messages can be ‘framed’ to speak to our unconscious

We unconsciously think about race even when we do

not explicitly discuss it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrqrkihlw-s

Awareness Test

The Stroop Test

Our Brains in Action

Blue

Blue

Green

Please state the color of the text

Black

Red

Green

Blue

Black

Blue

Black

Red

Green

Green

Green

Red

Black

And now, in Greek

The Stroop Test

State the colour of the textIf you are a Greek speaker, this will show this works in any

language.If you are not – how much easier it is now! But why?

Neurological Origins of Prejudice

Limbic system – categorizes what we perceive

– The limbic system is a very old part of the brain; it can be found in animals.

– It is also very fast.

One part of the limbic system, the amygdala, is responsible for strong emotional responses (i.e., fight or flight)

The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World. By the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. (2009)

Reacting Before You Even Realize It

Neural pathways connect the amygdala/limbic system to the prefrontal cortex, which is where rational thought occurs.

Amygdala is fast; the logical action of the prefrontal cortex is slower.

By the time we are consciously aware of the person, and our stereotypes and beliefs about the person surface in our conscious mind, our emotional reaction has already occurred.

Counteracting Unconscious Prejudice and Stereotypes

With adequate motivation, cognitive resources, and effort, people can learn to focus on the unique qualities of individuals, rather than the groups they belong to, in forming impressions and behavior  

- Normalize the Idea of Bias

- Make time for Affective and Cognitive Processing

- Make Time for Individual Story

- Recognize and Check Assumptions

Source: Burgess, Van Ryn, Dovidio, and Saha, J Gen Intern Med (2007); Williams, 2012

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Counteracting Unconscious / Implicit Bias

Talking about these issues can feel socially threatening

A Challenge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc

How to Tell Someone they are a Racist

get with a partner(s) and share

What are the implications of unconscious bias for your own self-awareness and for your work with others?

What is your responsibility as a leader?

WHY WORK TOGETHER?

We are all caught up in an inescapable network of

mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.

Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Linked Fates… Transformative Change

Our fates are linked, yet our fates have been socially constructed as disconnected (especially through the categories of class, race, gender, etc.).

We are the same and different. Because we are the same, dialogue is possible. Because we are different, dialogue is necessary.

A New Paradigm

Shared Fate– This has been interpreted by some to be

synonymous with self-interest– This is too narrow -- as institutions shift, so

will individual or group interests– Need an overarching collective vision of

shared fate not predicated on personal or group-base interests

Targeted UniversalismEquality isn’t the same as Equity

Next Steps

Now that we have a framework of

connectedness and shared fate,

and targeted universalism where do

we go from here?

Need to separately consider:

– internal analysis

– communication strategy

– programmatic approach

Next Framing the Message• Framing is how a message is

intended to stimulate implicit and explicit references in the audience’s mind.

• Frames appeal to both conscious and “unconscious” attitudes.

• Labels are important; for example:- “Affirmative Action”- “Equal Opportunity”

Next Steps

• Must be explicit about both internal AND external communications strategy- these are not always the same

• Need to explore ways not only of “talking about race” but also “doing around race”

Next Steps

Next Next Steps: Analysis• Understand your audience & their

dominant frames– Different symbols animate different associates

with different groups

• Need to first understand what that frame means to different groups

– Example • freedom

• Don’t rely on highlighting disparities or structures alone

– May work best with some groups but not others

• Must connect the individual with the structures- tell stories that use the personal to lift up the structural

– Grapes of Wrath

Next Steps: Communication Strategy

This story must activate the correct frame for your audience– Priming- how an individual process information

depends on the frame that is activated

– Can be explicit or implicit

– Example: “illegal alien”

Next Steps: Communication Strategy

– Develop and implement solutions that benefit

ALL members of society• Linked fate

• Targeted Universalism

– Action- Linked intervention• Focus on “Turning Points”

• Multiracial and multiethnic coalitions

• Shared communications strategy

Next Steps: Programmatic Approach

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ACTION . . . What’s your next MOVE?

“Helping Trios” Consultancy

A structured process designed to help an individual/team think more expansively about a particular concrete problem or dilemma.

Let’s Practice Getting Ready for a Helping Trio

Option #1 Framing Messages with a positive prime

Think about a message you want to communicate within your organization and / or community.

What are you trying to do/make happen/influence at your work?

Why is this important to you?

What is challenging for you?

What would be most helpful for you right now?

Let’s Practice Getting Ready for a Helping Trio

Option #2 Consultancy

Think about a challenge, dilemma, question, or worry you have about taking leadership in your context.

What are you trying to do/make happen/influence at your work?

Why is this important to you?

What is challenging for you?

What would be most helpful for you right now?

Round 1 Partner ‘A’ (15 minutes)4 minutes ‘A’ shares dilemma while ‘B’ & ‘C’ listen and take notes

2 minutes ‘B’ & ‘C’ ask clarifying questions

6 minutes ‘B’ & ‘C’ conversation- B & C talk about what they heard

raise questions on behalf of their colleague, ‘A’ listens and takes notes

3 minutes ‘A’ responds to what he/she heard as desired— “What was helpful?” Then have an open conversation.

Round 2 & 3 Repeat for Partner ‘B’ & “C”

HELPING TRIOS

If it were as simple as just telling……

Between stimulus and response there is a space.

In that space is our power to choose our response.

In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

- Viktor Frankl