Tax Edition: POC Taxes & Where’s Our Refund?

4515121In the spirit of Monday’s tax filing deadline, this week members of the Fakequity team and a few members of our extended Fakequity Facebook family are requesting a “people of color tax refund.” I’m guessing if you’re a person of color (poc), you know what the POC tax feels like: that gut wrenching, emotional toll that you experienced today when you were profiled, doubted, dismissed, or looked at with fear/pity/disgust/discomfort. And, most likely you can also do the financial calculations on the how much money you’ve lost in earnings for lower waages, dealing with stress, or the extra time you had to spend proving yourself or gaining trust and respect.

Last October, Gillian B. White wrote an article for The Atlantic titled, Black Workers Really Do Need to Be Twice as Good. “African American employees tend to receive more scrutiny from their bosses than their white colleagues, meaning that small mistakes are more likely to be caught, which over time leads to worse performance reviews and lower wages.”

 

Gillian B. White wasn’t the first to write about this topic, and surely we won’t be the last. People of color have been talking, writing, blogging, and tweeting about the POC tax for a long damn time. Yet, too often, we are dismissed as being too sensitive and overly emotional, and told our message would be better received if we could deliver it in a more “rational and logical” manner.  Many times we try hard to be “less emotional” and “more comfortable” (ask yourself “more comfortable” for whom?) in order to be heard.  We ask our White allies to help deliver the [same] message, because we know in many case they will be heard differently. But honestly, we’re not doing anyone any favors by “making things comfortable and less emotional.” The impact of Racism – individual racism, institutional racism, and structural racism – is NOT COMFORTABLE for people of color, it’s taxing, both emotionally and financially for people of color.

There are financial implications as well. April 12 was Equal Pay Day even in the discussion about equal pay women of color have a huge poc tax burden. Check out How Equal Pay Day Excludes Women of Color for more dialogue on this topic. “This is not a day about equal pay for everyone—instead, it highlights the discrimination that largely white women face, and then puts the onus on all women to fix it.”

There are so many ways the POC tax manifests. It is an impossible topic to adequately cover in this short blog post. Since the Fakequity team spends a lot of time working on racial equity and social justice, we decided to stick with our roots and offer examples of how the POC tax shows up. We also crowdsourced some examples from our extended Fakequity family. In an effort to keep things real and truthful, we shared our answers uncensored.  This is our gift to ourselves, exempting us from the time it takes to make our message palatable. White allies, consider this a gift to you as well, our words and thoughts as we think and feel them.

Fakequity Team

  • I find it taxing hearing people use the word equity but not to talk about race. (Asian)
  • When organizations hop on the “bandwagon” of using race and equity language to articulate their values but haven’t even begun to think deeply about what it means or do the work to truly implement it.  When the white person in the training or meeting wants to tell me as a POC person about race and equity issues as if I either have no experience or knowledge or what I do have is not relevant.   When you would rather talk about poverty instead of race and equity.   When white colleagues want to discontinue the conversation about race when it makes them uncomfortable. (Black)
  • When I have to explain why I don’t and can’t meet with every majority white-led organization that just wants some equity “advice,” for free. When I have to respond to allegations of “reverse racism” or “why I don’t include the White perspective.” (Asian)
  • When I have to say the same thing multiple times, but still am not heard. When White comfort is more important than dealing with systemic racism.  When organizations hire the White person to talk about equity, because that is what is most “comfortable.” (Asian)

Sampling of Answers from the Fakequity Extended Family 

  • The lack of humility and self-awareness that allows some people, especially those who are privileged, to not see the effects of what they say or do. (Latina of Puerto Rican, Irish, and German origins)
  • Tired of folk knowing ALL of the language but still showing up in spaces with no idea what it should look like in day-to-day interactions. (Black)
  • I find it taxing when speaking about race or equity, it turns into tone policing. If not that, it’s a “why didn’t you tell me?” conversation to justify the intentionality behind the negative impact someone’s incomplete thoughts, mis-informed decision, or need to “care for others b/c said person knows what’s best for POCs as a non-POC.” (Black)
  • I find it taxing for white people to say” it is not about race it is about economics ” (Black, African American)
  • I find it taxing to continue to hear how people want to celebrate diversity with cultural potlucks. (Asian)
  • Working with people who think they are farther along in their DEI [Diversity Equity Inclusion] progress than they really are. (Korean American)
  • My latest thing is racism by white liberals. For example, one of my acquaintances is a white male and he is a strong supporter of black lives matter. BUT, his behaviors/attitude is full of Whiteness, and he can’t even hear feedback from us, people of color. Just because his wife is POC, it doesn’t mean he can appropriate our culture and become POC! (Japanese)
  • When the focus is on making sure we change the attitudes of each and every person rather than actual make things better for people of color. (Mixed Race)
  • I’m tired of people wanting to look diverse but not really act and uphold the principle of diversity. (Indian American)
  • Just simply talking about it. It’s emotionally and mentally draining. (Vietnamese)
  • Hearing a White boss say “What are you complaining about, I see diversity in the room,” but refusing to acknowledge the power differential – PoC work in the field and Whites have the corner offices. (Mixed Race)
  • When people don’t record my words exactly as I say them. My English may not be perfect but I know what I said. Don’t make it sound pretty, I don’t want pretty, I want to be real. (Somali)

Those examples are depressing – they are… just sit with that emotion for a minute or five. What do we want? I hear some [White] people whispering for actions suggestions, this is not that blog post, this is the “let’s sit with the POC tax” blog post. The simple-not-so-simple answer is we want racial equity and systemic racism/systems of white supremacy to be eliminated.  As we work towards that goal together, here are a few immediate things we’d like as a POC tax refund for 2015.

Financial Compensation: 
·         I want paid time off. Give me a break from all of the meetings, trainings and false conversations.
·         As a POC, I’d prefer a promotion or raise instead. As a tax return, I’d like a new bike too.
·         I got what I want. $52!!!
·         Funders who will fund our work at what we deserve so I can get a raise, cover insurance, housing, and child care cost, and still go to happy hour.

Comfort Items:

  • A new phone and some tacos

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    happy hour open tab please

  • I would like a subscription to the chocolate of the month club!
  • I want STEAKS…medium rare ribeyes
  • New couch
  • I want somebody to do deep cleaning of our house and meal prep for a week
  • Hot tub!
  • An open Happy Hour tab

Acknowledgment of the POC Tax:

  • The impossible: more “aha” moments for those in power.
  • Understanding
  • Equity and acknowledgement of the messed up systems we have created for ourselves.
  • Learn to listen to POC uncensored
  • White people to shut up and listen.

Here is to hoping our POC tax refund request in 2016 is less.  First time, I’ve ever wished for a smaller tax refund.

Posted by Heidi Schillinger and the Fakequity team and Facebook Crew

Stop Competing for Who’s Worse Off

Recently I spent the afternoon at a community conversation hosted by high school students. The students who led it and spoke were fabulous. They were insightful, wise, and spoke their truths with conviction and kindness. It was a conversation centered around their agendas and their leadership. Most of the students there are people of color.

During the conversation the students talked about what they want for their education. Their requests were reasonable and what a community should be providing – a rigorous education, safety, a decent building, transportation access, leadership opportunities, opportunities to perform and enriched through arts, opportunities to pursue a higher education, and a brighter future. As one of the students said “our school and our community are one,” we as a community need to provide a quality education to students of color.

What happens when we get tired of fighting…
The students who spoke were hopeful, they were grateful to their teachers, poised, and so glowing with youthfulness and energy. They were also real, they understood students in other parts of the city have different opportunities. They understand their neighborhood is changing and as a student said “I don’t want to come back to Seattle after college and know my neighborhood changed. … I don’t want to see my friends in Kent or Renton…” She understood the effects of gentrification and was asking the adults to help.

These students are seasoned advocates. They know how to ask, how to push, and how to be seen. They spoke about their needs and why they believe passionately in wanting better services. At one point a student said “What happens when we have no fight left? What happens when we’re tired? It’s about equity we need different solutions.” The student who said this didn’t sound bitter, tired, or jaded – he sounded real. I want to believe he knew part of his fight had to be saved for academics and for the things that high school is about – getting into college, that cool date, what to eat for lunch – but I also read into his words he is afraid to stop advocating and speaking up because if he stops other voices step into the void and take over.

Stop Dismissing Our Problems
Too often community conversations like this take place and we have to fight to be heard to keep the conversation focused on our needs. The conversation sounds like this hypothetical conversaton:

Person of Color: We need two additional counselors in our schools. Ninety-percent of our students are first generation college scholars. Many of them also don’t have internet at home, and their families often don’t speak English as well so researching how to get into college at home is a struggle.

White ally/policymaker/anyone who does this: Thank you for sharing your concerns. I want you to know I hear you and understand the problem. You should come visit my neighborhood, we have poverty there too. The school near my office only has three counselors.

Stop pitting needs against each other. We need to ensure funding and resources are reaching the most critical needs and it needs to be done with community input. Dismissing communities of color needs, or worse believing community of color needs don’t deserve to be heard, is damaging and leads to the fatigue the student spoke about.

The last time I saw this done I shook my head and thought “stop, just stop talking.” I

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picture by laserbacon @ deviantart

found it dismissive and patronizing to hear an outsider, and a supposed ally, come into a community of color space and say “oh, you should see our needs.” This is a classic instance of where the acronym of W.A.I.T. should be used – Why am I talking? Why am I dismissing another person’s need? Why am I trying to overshadow and over-talk a community of color request? Do I believe my needs are more important than the speakers?

Community of color conversations are not for outsiders, ‘allies,’ or nay-sayers to impose their values and tell others what to do or think. The role of an ally in these conversations is to check their privilege at the door, listen, and to practice empathy. They don’t have to agree with what is said, but it isn’t their space to question or be dismissive, there are other spaces for that to take place. There is a time and place for priorities to be set for data to elucidate the problem, but a community conversation centered in a community of color isn’t that place.

We’re Not Competing For Who’s Worse Off
Communities of color know what they need and don’t need. We don’t need allies and outsiders to come in and compete for who’s worst off. I remember a Buddhist story of a lady who complained to a monk everyday about how she was the worst off. For a while the monk listened and showed empathy and compassion, after a few days the monk said “You do have it bad, I want you to go out and find someone who is better off than you – then I will give you what you want to make your life easier.” So she went off and eventually came back. The monk asked what happened, she said “I realized I am actually fortunate, there are others who have harder lives.” Competing for who’s worst off is futile, we will get further by supporting each other.

Posted by Erin Okuno

Budgeting ain’t no April Fools Joke, Where’s the Equity?

6675892_origIt’s April 1. No joke and no joking about budgeting season budgeting season at my organization. Last year I put together my organization’s budget based on a lot of assumptions, sort of like April Fools but more serious. I was new to the job and our work had shifted so much the previous year’s budget was a decent frame, but didn’t provide the clarity needed to build a beautiful budget. This year’s budgeting process will be much more reflective of our racial equity lens and goals. Where we place and spend our money says a lot about our priorities and commitments. Martin Luther King Jr. said “budgets are moral documents,” and our budgets should reflect our commitments and accountability to our priorities.

Budgeting isn’t an activity I love. I didn’t get into nonprofit work saying “I’m so excited to change the world through budgets,” some may say this, but not me. I view budgets as a necessary part of being accountable and making sure we are doing what we say we are supposed to. I’ll admit sometimes I like to geek out with Excel and see what fancy formulas I can come up with; right after geeking out I freak out when my budget is horribly overdrawn because I created too fancy a formula and double counted an expense, not a great joke to play on yourself.

Get the Infrastructure Right, Get our Work Right
Quoting another great leader, Angela Glover Blackwell of PolicyLink, said “Get the Infrastructure Right, Get America Right.” If we think of a budget as part of the important infrastructure of our organizations and our racial equity work, then it needs to reflect our commitments to racial equity. I see it as part of my job to have our organizational commitment to racial equity reflected in our budget and organizational infrastructure.

So how does equity and budgeting go together? On the simplest level where you put your money and where you spend money should reflect our priorities. On my personal budget I really value eating so there are a lot of charges to small restaurants serving pho, tacos, bun bowls, and the likes. I should probably start valuing working out and cooking more too.

At an organizational level our biggest expense is staffing. Our staff make our work possible, and as such we need to pay them. This is why hiring is so important around racial equity. Majority of an organization’s budget goes to staffing cost and as such the staff need to be reflective of an organization’s commitment to racial equity.

Other places where our racial equity priorities are easily identified in our organizational budget:

  • Program Stipends: Stipends are important to honoring people’s commitment to the work.
  • Interpreters and translation: We value inclusion and participation of community members who need language support. Adequately budgeting for translators and interpreters is important.
  • Child care: For our larger events we often provide child care to ensure parents can participate.
  • Food: Majority of my receipts are for food. For me food is essential to building strong relationships and for getting to know our coalition members. I also try to use neighborhood, people of color, owned businesses as a way to continue to deepen our commitment to racial equity.

On more than a few occasions we’ve provided gift cards as a way to say thank you, or a nice staff lunch, or even better a trip to the ice cream store (they also have pinball and video games) to celebrate a milestone. A thank you can go a long way in relationship and community building. Allocating funds under appreciation or whatever the category code for your organization is important.

Where we spend money is as much a reflection on our commitment to equity and community building. I do my best to hire consultants of color who also share our values and invest back into the community. I also shop and spend our limited dollars in the neighborhood and with community minded business owners; can’t do this all of the time but where possible we do. Spending power is important and can amplify work in different ways.

How does your budget look?
Does your budget reflect your organization’s commitment to racial equity? Are you allocating dollars in a way that supports racial equity work? I hope so. When we get our infrastructure right our racial equity work moves a little faster.

Some suggested steps:

  • Ask your staff where they would allocate funds when using their racial equity and community building lens.
  • Is your budget flexible to allows for community driven program work and adjustments? Can you build in a little room to allow for changing communities, new work, and sometimes fun or “passion projects.” (Passion projects are projects we get excited about and keep us in the job.)
  • Ensure allocations drive and support racial equity work – are adequate funds budgeted for translations/interpretation, food, child care, professional development.
  • Where are you spending your dollars? Are they supporting people of color owned businesses, is the money staying within your community?
  • If you were to share your budget with your community and constituents what would they say? Does it match their views and visions for the organization?

Want to go deeper?
My black year, TEDxGrandRapids talk by Maggie Anderson. She spent a year living “exclusively off of Black businesses, professionals and products for an entire year.”

Posted by Erin Okuno, who is on the lookout to make sure she doesn’t get pranked this April Fools Day

I’m Standing Here – It’s Not About You

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photo by Erin O.

Earlier this week I learned of the Maori word Tūrangawaewae, translated literally to mean tūranga (standing place), waewae (feet), meaning “a place to stand;” places where we feel empowered and connected. I learned of this concept at a lecture hosted by the University of Washington’s Center for Child and Family Well-Being and their mindfulness initiative. Rick Hanson, PhD, lectured on happiness, resilience, contentment, and how to turn these into lasting experiences for our brain.

One take-away from his lecture is our brains are hardwired to remember bad experiences over good ones. This basic concept kept humans alive in prehistoric days: Oh, crap – that big animal is going to eat me, must remember to stay away from big animal. Good experiences are less likely to stick and we have to work harder to infuse these into our brains. The good experiences allow us to stand firm and to be understood. While this lecture wasn’t focused on racial equity, my brain jumped to filtering his talk through a race and social justice filter.

“It was so nice to be seen and understood.”
I attended Catholic schools and the good nuns made sure I learned the Prayer of St. Francis, although I confess I can’t recite it. The line “to be understood as to understand” stands out for me, I’ve never fully understood its meaning. The line often pops into my head during conversations where I feel like I have to press a point about racial equity, or even worse when I say something about race and the conversation moves on without acknowledging my comment. In so many ways the need to be understood and to understand comes from also feeling like we have a place to stand.

Heidi (of the fakequity team) recently facilitated a conversation for a Immigrant and Refugee Affinity Group. When she went home her partner was suspicious and asked why she was so happy, her reply “it was so nice to be seen and understood.” Heidi felt like she had a place to stand, a conversation where she understood and others understood her, and participants didn’t need to make a fuss to be seen or heard. There was also a sense of hope.

CiKeithia (also of the fakequity team) shared her experience attending a conference session called “The ‘Problem Women of Color’ Chronicle and Institutional Change.” During the conversation she realized how we have to armor ourselves. The session was a ‘rich experience;’ being surrounded by women of color having a conversation focused on their experiences gave her a sense of good.

During Dr. Hanson’s lecture on happiness he talked about how we need to work harder to ensure we remember good experiences. As I listened to Dr. Hanson’s lecture I made note about trying to focus more on the good and reveling in the moments where we make gains for communities of color. Dr. Hanson talked about how we need to slow down and record these moments, we need sit with the moment for 10-20 seconds so they can imprint on our brain. We need to overload on the good racial equity moments to over compensate for the crappy moments that stay with us more easily. Drop by drop, one by one, these small good moments will surround and isolate the bad incidents.

A Place to Stand
In Dr. Hanson’s book Hardwiring Happiness, he writes about 21 Jewels – practices to help create responsive brains. If you want the full list of practices buy his book or borrow it from the library. One of the particularly relevant practices is the sense of refuge, “anything that gives you a sense of sanctuary, refueling, uplift … rest and recharge… even as pain or difficulty swirls around you.” In our work we need to create refuges and places where we can stand and be ok.

Allies can help create these spaces. A colleague shared a story about how she led a People of Color centered silent retreat at her Buddhist temple. For her religion is a refuge, a place where she seeks renewal and uplifting experiences. As she prepared for the retreat several of her White friends asked to attend. After conversations her White allies saw the importance of having the retreat stay a People of Color experiences, their participation in the retreat was to offer service – prepare and serve food, tidy the space, and to create a sense of caring around their fellow members. This created a sense of healing and renewal for everyone.

Even as people of color we need to claim places to stand and respect each other’s spots. A colleague convenes African American families to talk about their children’s educations. I often attend because I want to support and learn. I often check in before attending to ask if it is ok for me to attend since I don’t want to take away from their conversation, it is their place to be. I also try to respect the ‘space’ by only offering my thoughts if asked and not taking what I learn for personal gain.

Places to Stand — Being Allies
Having a place to stand means we respect each other’s places to stand. We need to create our own places and be allies to each other:

  • Practice talking about the good. Dr. Hanson talked about focusing on the good and reveling in them and staying with it for 10-20 seconds or longer. Create a practice of starting or ending meetings with “One Good Racial Equity Moment,” or another friend sends out “FFGM” Friday Feel Good Moments emails. We need to practice feeling, not jumping to doing.
  • Respect each other’s places to stand. We need to be ok with not having attention and allowing each other space to stand. We each need a place to stand and be seen.
  • Be quiet. Having a place to stand also means being seen, heard, and understood. When we quiet ourselves, we are more open to understanding and seeing others.
  • Create places for children and youth of color to stand. Youth of color especially need places to stand and be seen. Open up safe spaces for youth of color to create a space for themselves.

Center for Child and Family Well-Being made Dr. Hanson’s lecture available online, starts at the 8.50 minute mark.

Posted by Erin Okuno

By the way you’re now White. How to make Asians invisible.

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When I became an executive director a colleague reached out to invite me to join the Asian Pacific Directors Coalition (APDC). I hadn’t really done a lot of work with the Asian community so it was a new experience to be surrounded by so many Asian leaders, many of whom had paved the way for me to be in my present job. At one meeting a colleague said “too often Asians are left out of conversations around race.”

At the recent Oscars the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite was trending because of the lack of diversity and several skits projecting stereotypes of Asians. Many in the Asian community hoped with the recent Supreme Court vacancy an Asian would be named to further diversify the court. Asians in the Seattle Metro Area are the second largest minority group and it continues to grow — this trend probably holds true in other parts of the United States, which means we are here and we cannot be made invisible.

Other racial groups are sometimes left out of data presentations, but for the purposes of this blog post I’m focusing on Asians because I am Asian and can speak to my Asian experience. I hope others will choose to share their perspectives as well, please email fakequity@gmail.com if you are willing to share.

“Hey, I’m missing from that chart.”
Recently I was looking at an education report, pretty standard stuff – charts on graduation rates, kindergarten readiness, etc. Where it got interesting was the chart labeled “opportunity gap.” I paused and started reading more carefully, but couldn’t make sense of the chart or the table. My colleague and I puzzled over it until we read the footnote and it became real. In the chart Asians were grouped with Whites in order to present their opportunity gap data. We went from “no way, they didn’t do that…” to “oh, shit they did…”

Several weeks later, in another meeting (for a separate organization) several charts were passed around to demonstrate how students of color are doing academically and where the ranking of the schools where students of color attend. These charts were much simpler to read so it took me only a few seconds to zoom in on the bar line labeled “White or Asian.” I could feel my blood pressure rising and the facilitator could see I was getting agitated. She graciously came over and asked what was going on. When the group reconvened I ‘soapboxed’ and passionately explained why grouping Asians with Whites is a bad practice. Several in the room nodded their heads, while others stared blankly or their eyes glazed over with confusion.

Invisible Asians — Can you see me?
Many Asians, myself included, receive the benefits passed on to us with Asian privilege. For the most part I don’t worry about safety and I’m not treated differently because of language or faith beliefs. That said I can’t ‘turn off’ how I look, or control how people perceive me because of my Asian background. There are still systemic and institutional barriers holding many Asians back. Disaggregated Asian data shows many Asians are still struggling.

Data is an important way to demonstrate the disparities that continue to exist for Asians. Data can either be used for good or as my colleague Dr. Jondou Chen describes as ‘weaponizing’ data against communities of color. Grouping Asians with Whites plays into the myth of the ‘model minority.’ While many Asians are doing well, many others still struggle or have to work twice as hard to find the same gains as our White counterparts.

As an example my organization just completed a big data project. Through our partners, we surveyed over 600 families including many East Asians. Two of the questions asked were:

  • “How often have you received positive communication about your child?,” and
  • “How often have you received negative communication about your child?”

When we looked at this question broken out by race, Asian families reported receiving more negative communications about their child than positive. Could this be because of the ‘myth’ that Asian students are expected to do well in school, or is it because of language barriers, or teacher biases? The data set showed us where we need to dig deeper and examine the systems involved and work with partners to close and improve the gaps. Had Asians been grouped with Whites we wouldn’t have this level of specificity and Asian student’s needs would have been lost.

Within the Asian race category are 48 distinct ethnic groups – each with their own histories and cultures, different languages, and unique migration story. We must honor these legacies and richness in order to understand opportunity and achievement gaps or other gaps in health care, justice systems, etc. At an event hosted by partners in the African American community a gentleman said “I cannot learn your song, until I learn to sing my own.” In this case we cannot expect to close gaps until we understand the Asian experience and recognize the richness and the needs of Asian communities.

3927082Grouping Asian with White people  shifts the burden of closing gaps to Asians rather than identifying factors that continue to marginalize Asian communities. When we look at disaggregated data, such as this chart from the Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA) we can clearly see not all Asians are academically achieving at high rates. If Asians were grouped with Whites this data would be invisible and we would continue to wonder and at worst blame Asians for not academically achieving. With this data we can begin to look more closely at the systems holding Asians back.

Making Asians and People of Color Visible
We need to adopt practices that intentionally makes visible Communities of Color. We need to ensure Communities of Color own and have a say in how data is presented and used, here are some suggestions:

  • At a minimum stop grouping Asians with Whites, or other combinations. Disaggregated data is a best practice.
  • Learn about different Asian experiences, recognizing each Asian experience is unique and we need to create space for multiple voices, stories, and truths.
  • Listen to and work with communities of color on how data can be used to highlight needs and drive towards problems solving and resource sharing. Data use needs to build trust, not used against people of color.
  • Allow communities of color ownership of their own data — only collect data in partnership with communities of color, honor how the communities want to have their data used, check with multiple people from communities on how they are experiencing their data.
  • Continuously review data practices using a racial equity lens.

Many of these practices will benefit communities of color overall. We need to stop making communities of color invisible. We need to make visible Asian and people of color experiences and truths, to counter the narratives that play into myths and stereotypes around race. We need to work proactively with communities of color to identify what is working and where policy and community work is needed.

Posted by Erin Okuno, special thanks to Jondou Chen, PhD, James Hong, MEd, and Heidi Schillinger, MSW for background material and thought partnership.

The Week a Bad Thing Happened, and the Good that Came After, and the Challenge for the Week that Follows

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Earlier this week I was mugged; I’m fine – a little buss’ up, but fine. I won’t go into the details since they don’t really matter. What matters is the ‘equity story’ that comes out of it. Heidi (of the fakequity team) suggested sharing the story because it happened and the story didn’t end with “I was mugged.”

One Incident in One Place
I was mugged on a gorgeous sunny March afternoon on a route I travel often. My neighborhood is great, we have our good and we have our challenges. I love being able to walk to the park, the library, grab a bite to eat at the local Mexican, Vietnamese, or 9198231Chinese restaurants or a sweet from the Japanese, or Filipino bakeries. I love seeing the new affordable housing going up a half-mile from my house. I loved hearing from a colleague how a neighboring community is embracing a tent city that is moving in. At their community meeting instead of “we don’t want homeless here,” or “we’re worried about crime, trash, intoxication and drugs” as happened in other neighborhoods, the community’s biggest concern was “How do we get the [tent city] residents hot water? They need hot water!” Taken all together these are the things that define the character of my community. While it is true my neighborhood probably has a higher crime rate, higher poverty, and lower  education and health outcomes, do they define us – no. We don’t excuse the crime and we work hard to build stronger communities rooted and glued by culture, diversity, and relationships.

In racial equity work we have to remember one incident or one story doesn’t define a community. It is easy to think what we hear and see on Facebook, in the news, in rap songs, or hear from friends of friends is true. If I believed what I read on Facebook from our neighborhood group I would think my neighborhood is overrun by crime, off-leash dogs, and new houses (code for gentrification). I’d also believe everyone in my neighborhood was English literate, since US social media is predominately English based – I know this isn’t true and it is evident whenever I’m out grocery shopping, at the library, or in a school.

Writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote: “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” I’m not sharing details of the robbery because I don’t want to perpetuate stereotypes of my neighborhood, Asian victims (for the record I don’t think I’m a ‘victim’), or the person who robbed me. These details are for me to know and for me to process my own biases against and challenge myself to redefine. Stereotypes, biases, and incomplete stories are antithetical to racial equity work, they allow racism and injustice to continue. Instead we need to do the harder work of digging in and spending time building strong relationships that can question stereotypes and push us to evaluate the stories we tell ourselves.

Relationships First
I’ve been fairly open about being mugged. It happened, it sucked, and I needed a few things from my community such as – if you saw my purse dumped please let me know, if you needed to reach me use email since I didn’t have a phone, and I lost my wallet so lunch was on you. The response I got back was amazing. Friends, neighbors, and colleagues have been great. They sent messages checking in, a friend made me laugh when she correctly noted the robbers were probably disappointed to find random gummy bears in my former purse, and offers to help replace lost items. At some point I will return these favors, because I want to and because this is how we do things– we take care of each other, not because of a quid pro quo formula. Community building and racial equity work happens quickest and best when we spend the upfront time building personal relationships.

My Challenge and Your Challenge
My scrapes and bruises are still there, but will eventually go away. I can thank my friends for ensuring my headspace is fine. I’m fine because I had a strong community around me who made sure I was taken care of. Now they can worry about others.

Who I am worried about are the kids, overwhelmingly kids of color, in our community that slip through systems. I’m worried about the immigrants who may be a victim of a crime but may not report it because of a language barrier or they don’t feel they can trust government. I worry about families who are stressed about housing, food, and medical cost and as a result their children feel the stress. I worry about the little and big things that allow racism to continue. These are the stressors that also define our community.

My challenge and your challenge is to get our racial equity work right. We have to take care of each other AND we need to extend ourselves to take care of someone else we may not know or easily see. Challenge yourself to call out racism. Challenge yourself to analyze a piece of data and figure out who’s story and what story is it telling. Make a new relationship or invest in a community different than your own. Maybe these steps will help a kid, especially a child of color, feel connected, stay in school, and be more securely rooted—for me this is what equity work is about. Be safe and thanks for all you do.

Posted by Erin Okuno

Leading with Race: Are we Talking Racial Equity or Equity?

Every few weeks I have the conversation around why we need to focus on race. Someone will say “what about [fill in the blank foster youth, special needs, LGQBT, people who live in a particular neighborhood, vegans, lactose intolerant, people who hate spiders, etc.]? They are often left behind and have a lot of needs.” I understand why they are naming specific populations; they are being inclusive and thoughtful and doing their job as an advocate. When this happens I pause the conversation and say “yes focusing on [fill in the blank population] is important but we lead with race because if we don’t we may still miss people of color.” It is at this point I get confused looks.
We lead and focus on race first because if we don’t we may miss people and communities of color all together. We have to design our work to have a focus on race because when we lead with race we ensure we are capturing people of color, and inevitably white people will come along. Defaulting to regular practices leaves communities of color behind.

Here is an example:
My organization just wrapped up a big survey project. We received 639 survey results, majority from people of color and very representative of the demographics of our community (e.g. high rates of eligible for free and reduced lunch, many immigrants and refugees, etc.). We had the survey translated into ten languages and used interpreters to help lead focus groups and trusted partners to reach out into the community. Our design team was all people of color. We designed the project with a racial equity focus – everything from whom we recruited for the survey design team, what questions included in the survey and how they were worded, translating the lengthy surveys into multiple languages, having both an online and paper copies available and using focus groups, who collected the surveys, and our community feedback Summit were all designed to cater to experiences of people of color. All of these efforts helped to ensure we were reaching people of color. We didn’t leave it to chance, we led with race and as a result we got what we wanted, an over representation of diverse families included in our data set. Along the way we worked with many white people and they were included. In a later blog post we’ll share more details about the survey project.

Had we said “we believe in equity” and not led with race our whole process would have looked different and maybe we would have found people of color to complete the survey but probably not in the high numbers that completed it.

Here is another example in reverse:
A library just got a big grant to do outreach to foster youth. Educational outcomes for foster youth are lower than non-foster youth and the library has a lot of great services which can help. The library system uses their traditional models of outreach – fliers in English, talking to library branch staff about whom they should send emails and information to, and scan their collection of books on foster youth experience. After a few months of work they review their work and see they are making a difference, however a staff person grimaced and says “I think we’ve missed our mark, we’re reaching mostly white foster youth. Foster youth of color and immigrant and refugee youth aren’t included in our numbers.” Everyone around the tables said “ohhhh…”

Focusing on a high needs population, such as foster children, is important but it isn’t

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photo by Erin Okuno

enough. We need to use a racial equity priority or lens and focus deeper and ensure we are capturing foster youth of color. As you can see from the example above leading with a general purpose of ‘equity’ allows people of color to be forgotten.

We need to lead with race in order to make sure people of color don’t get lost or left behind. When we focus on racial equity we ensure people of color are talked about and focused on. It also means we are doing the harder work of capturing people of color who have more disparities and are further behind. By leading with race it also gives the project a better chance of having the work led by communities of color, versus having it happen to a community of color. If we only focus on broad strokes efforts or special populations we may default to practices which have historically left people of color behind. We need to lead with race, talk about race, and work with communities of color to ensure people of color are being served.

How to lead with a racial equity focus:

  1. Be clear with your team you are talking about racial equity. And be clear about how you think about racial equity.
  2. Recognize when your project defaults back to standard practices (i.e. email communication which works for those with internet access, English only, meeting times that are inaccessible to whom you’re trying to reach, serving food only some can eat such as pork, etc.).
  3. Look at your data and see if there are racial disparity gaps, do you need to further target your efforts to respond to the data, such as do you need to focus on Asians or Latinos.
  4. Design your project around your racial equity goals – location, food served, who to recruit, etc. should all be influenced by your racial equity lens.

When we lead with racial equity we see the results and we leave less to chance. Be bold and brave and do your part to lead with race.

Yo! Your red lanterns are dope, and not in the good way. Are you Culturally Competent or Culturally Enriching?

Every decade or so a new set of words gets created and their predecessor fades out of favor. Here are a few examples:

1980s/1990s/2000s words:9457391_orig
Diversity
Achievement Gap
Equality
Minority
Equity gone wrong

Today:
Diversity and Inclusion
Equity
Opportunity and Achievement Gaps
People of Color
Fakequity

Many of the new terms came about because the previous word was inadequate. The previous words hit on one part of a social justice concept but didn’t go far enough in capturing the sentiment of what was truly being communicated. Our communities and work have evolved and we need more than platitudes and simplistic efforts. Such as diversity isn’t enough. We can get a room full of diverse people but if they don’t feel included or aren’t given space and room to have a meaningful role in the work taking place the diversity is meaningless. Or a short while ago people of color were called minorities, but as demographics change, language has to keep pace to reflect the growing number of people of color; in a few decades the term people of color will be out of fashion and some new word will be used.

I’m proposing a new term, Culturally Enriching. No longer is it enough to be culturally competent, we need to strive for better. We need to create spaces and programs where children and families of color receive culturally appropriate, relevant, and enriching experiences.

Why Culturally Competent is Blah
There are many definitions of cultural competency, some of them elaborate and use technical jargon. For the purposes of this blog post I’m going to use the everyday pedestrian bare bones snarky interpretation of the term:

Culturally competent means we do the bare minimum: celebrate holidays and heroes, put up red lanterns on Lunar New Years, celebrate diversity with multi-cultural potlucks at the office, order a banh mi but pronounces it ‘ban me,’ use Google-translated documents to prove we made an attempt at translating documents, post hiring notices in ethnic media but fail to have people of color on the hiring panel.

The definition above are some of the attempts people make to prove they are providing a culturally competent environment. Don’t get me wrong, these attempts help and sometimes are enough. But too often people and organizations stop at these surface level attempts of community engagement or program development and miss the boat on creating truly great programs that enhance and allow people of color to grow, feel grounded and included, and embraced by a larger community.

As an example a friend shared a story about how a co-worker received a lot of praise for creating a new program to honor Pride Month. Last year her organization marched in the Pride parade for the first time ever. They held open houses and special programs with art and books showing LGQBT families. And they have a special storytime with a drag queen. Many of these efforts demonstrate an awareness of diversity and an attempt at having LGQBT families feel included. But the efforts stopped there and didn’t move to culturally enriching.

If the program organizers used a racial equity lens they would have realized that simply focusing on LGQBT families fell short of their racial equity commitments. They could have focused on LGQBT families of color to target their efforts even more. Focusing their efforts into Pride month also stops short of realizing LGQBT families don’t stop being LGQBT once Pride month is over, a more enriching experience would be creating welcoming environments and ensuring their regular programming allows for diversity to shine through all year long. Finally, the drag queen storytime—come on! Can we move past perpetuating stereotypes? I don’t have anything against drag queens, seriously I don’t, but having a drag queen storytime be the capstone of Pride month doesn’t create an enriching environment where children feel like they have a normal cultural experience.

A culturally enhancing experience would have been having books and program on LGQBT experiences readily available all year long. Having LGQBT staff of color working within the program, creating relationships with the LGQBT families of color and listening to what sort of programing they want to see, and embracing. Partnering with the LGQBT community to hear what programs and experiences they want to have and making adjustments to help provide these experiences. Some may feel differently and I welcome dialogue around this.

Culturally Enhancing
We can do so much better than just being competent.  We can do better than hanging red lanterns and celebrating the heroes and holidays, we need to create spaces where people can be their best selves. Closing opportunity gaps, turning the tide on global warming, stopping youth violence, and all of our other world problems means we have to be open to new ideas and we get those new ideas by creating environments where everyone is included and brings their best selves. Culturally enhancing programs look like this:

  • We invite people of color in and partner with them to create an experience where they see themselves reflected and valued. This means we open doors and share leadership and resources to allow people of color to create a culture that is embraces and honors communities of color.
  • We center our work in communities of color and allow people of color to control the agenda.
  • We move beyond stereotypes and surface level comments. We need to disrupt and shift the dominant narrative to include communities of color.

So what do all of those fancy words mean? It means we adapt and make things relevant to communities of color by centering our work in their experiences. It means we work to creating relationships where people of color feel and are valued and included and an equal partner in the work that is needed.

Yesterday, after my coalition meeting a white educator attendee stopped me at the door.  As we talked she said “this is one of the few meetings where space is intentionally created to be welcoming.”
Because our coalition focuses on race, culture, and the wealth found in communities of color we are creating something different, a more enriching experience for everyone, especially people of color. It was so nice to hear a positive comment affirming our focus on race and equity.

Posted by Erin

W.A.I.T. – Why Am I Talking?

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8283288I learned a brilliant new acronym W.A.I.T. – Why Am I Talking? So many times I want to yell this in meetings, but restrain myself because I know it would be rude and then I would have to ask myself the same question “why are you yelling about talking?”

Often times we are expected and paid to talk. In the nonprofit, government, and philanthropic worlds we are expected to share our thoughts, advocate for communities, ask others to think about different angles, or at the very least ask a question about the topic to prove we’re paying attention and not thinking about the latest episode of House of Cards.

Yet, in talking we have to ask who are representing and are we the best ones to speak about a particular viewpoint or community. This is a question we should ask ourselves often. Are we speaking about a topic because we are ‘centered’ in the work or is our speaking up detracting from others. We should ‘pass the mic’ to others because they are closer to the topic and the most impacted by a disparity.

Pass the Mic Please
Recently Macklemore, a rapper, released a new song about white privilege. He’s gotten a lot of attention and accolades for talking about race and his place as a white man in the music scene. Others have criticized him for not ‘passing the mic’ to a person of color and using his influence to elevate the voices of other rappers and musicians of color. Is he aiding the cause or using his position of influence to take attention away from others. Could he use his influence to help launch an artist of color career instead of publishing a song that benefits mostly himself? Like Macklemore we have to ask ourselves these same questions in government, nonprofit, and community work.

In the nonprofit world we are rewarded for being in the room and speaking up. We are paid for bringing people together to help solve problems. We are in the middle, we are closer to the community and hopefully trusted by the community to understand what is happening and what is needed, but why are we talking and should we speak?

So… Why Am I Talking? Is What I Have to Say Interesting or Noise?
Several colleagues have shared stories of organizations and agencies that claimed to speak for communities of color but aren’t from communities of color. A colleague who is a leader of color took a meeting with a white advocate who claims to champion equity. As they talked over lunch, a rift emerged over what the term ‘equitable funding’ meant to both of them. As lunch continued the rift widened and became a chasm. Their definitions of equity were very different, my colleague believing in racial equity the other person believing more in equality AND she believed she had more of a right to speak about equity because of her experiences growing up poor and her ability to mobilize (via the internet) passionate ‘allies’ to testify and speak out on ‘equity issues.’ Is this new organization adding substance to the conversation about equity or is it adding noise and taking away from communities of color? Can they ‘pass the mic’ back to communities of color who are organized and already understand equity? The other group can take on another topic or be a good ally and support someone else’s agenda.

Another friend shared a story about leading a conversation about racial disparities and using data to show the gaps between people of color and whites in different sectors (e.g. environment, education, health, workforce, etc.). Midway through the conversation a white person took over the conversation to talk about how she felt the conversation was one-sided and the data wasn’t fair because she isn’t like other white people – she grew up poor and comes from a religious minority. Essentially the person hijacked the agenda and turned the meeting into a support group for herself thus taking the attention away from the important work of looking at racial disparities. My friend empathized her but it would have been helpful if she talked about the data and waited until after the meeting to focus on her feelings and process her feelings around race.

It is important for people and organizations to speak and to use our voices to amplify messages of racial equity. Speaking out about racism and dialoguing about race breaks down barriers and helps us understand one another, but we need to use our voices appropriately and in ways that elevates and supports people of color and those most impacted by disparities.

Think Before We Speak
As you W.A.I.T. to speak think about these questions:

  • Ask yourself why, why are you talking? Is what I have to say interesting, it is helpful, is it genuine or are you repeating what a person of color has already said? Are you pushing your own agenda versus amplifying the voices of communities of color?
  • Is your definition of equity the same as how communities of color define equity? When co
    mmunities of color say equity, we often mean racial equity, not equality, or worse investment equity. If it isn’t the same then don’t talk about equity, talk about your agenda and why it is important to you—but DO NOT evoke equity or I will hunt you down and buzzer you every time you misuse the word equity.
  • Can someone closer to the community or the movement speak more authentically than you? We need to use our positions and networks to open doors and close the gaps between policymakers, funders, and others who can influence decisions and the community– others can tell their own stories.
  • Ask yourself “If I must speak am I adding to the conversation or am I processing my own crap about race?” We all have to learn about race and sometimes we need to talk it out, but save that for happy hour and not the middle of a meeting.

Thank you to colleagues from Coalition of Communities of Color for sharing the acronym W.A.I.T. I think I’ve E.L.M.O. (enough, let’s move on) it thoroughly and ready to move to the next topic to blog about. 

Posted by Erin Okun

Lunar New Year- “Ally Organizations” See Your Fortune Here!

Happy Lunar New Year! The Fakequity team sends you well-wishes during the Chinese Year of the Fire Monkey. For many this is a time of the year where we look at our Chinese animal horoscopes and plan for the year ahead. Depending on the website you read you may either get a glowing prediction for the year or something draconian such as “If you are born in the year of the Horse you better buckle down and work hard because the year of the Monkey brings unexpected changes and you’ll lose all your money.”

We give you the Fakequity “Ally Organization” Lunar New Year Horoscope, or maybe it is Fakequity Horrorscope. Think of the wheel like the traditional 12 animals of the Chinese Horoscope. If your organizational practices fall into one of these Fakequity “Ally Organization” categories your fortune will be shown to you. The predictions are just predictions; will you and your organization fall victim to the prediction or work towards determining your own racial equity minded destiny? Your organization’s year is in your hands. The fortunes can be mitigated if you do the hard work of engaging with the community, using a racial equity lens, centering work in communities of color, continuing to learn about race and equity, and calling out fakequity.

Being a genuine racial equity ally organization is challenging, and the Fakequity team hopes that these predictions open up conversations for ally organizations to recognize and then quickly work to change (or avoid) some of these typical fakequity ally organizational practices. Missteps and challenges are part of this work, and because ally organizations are closer to power and control the (unintentional) blunders feel especially painful, and actually continue to uphold systems of racial inequity. While these predictions are focused on racial equity ally organizations, they can also be applied to other equity areas.

The predictions brought to you by Heidi S. of Equity Matters, Dr. Christine N. (who has a knack at reconfiguring words and serves as an honorary member of the Fakequity team), CiKeithia, and Erin. Leave a comment and tell us what you think of your predictions. If you would like a PDF emailed to you please contact fakequity@gmail.com.

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