I have a practice of sorting complex issues into “baskets”. It helps me decide how much time, emotional energy and action – my “eggs”, if you will - to put into them. Using this method, I compartmentalized my reaction to the national racial awakening this past summer into three “baskets”.
Into the first basket – my “personal basket” - went honest feelings and undeniable biases about race and how growing up White in America had advantaged me. The basket is filled with overt and subtle public and private narratives I had been exposed to from birth. What new insights I learned about the history of systemic racism and its impact on our country went into this basket too. I began to see events and issues through a new lens. I topped off the basket with a recognition of responsibility to take action to advance anti-racism.
The second basket is marked “leadership”. I filled this one with the belief that like-minded non-profit leaders can and should work together to promote anti-racism in the organizations they oversee. Into this basket went a conviction that what is required is a multi-faceted, holistic approach which addresses every aspect of how an organization conducts its work. This goes beyond recruiting a diverse board and issuing statements of support for diversity, equity and inclusion to transforming practices, procedures, programs and culture and ensuring that solutions generated are persistently re-enforced to prevent regression to past practices.
The third basket is “grass roots”. Rather than retreat into the convenient bromide that an individual or small organization can’t “move the needle”, why not take the view that thousands of individuals and organizations across the country can make a difference nationally? Why not actively resist the temptation to allow the “tyranny of the urgent” to take over and make antiracism a personal and organizational responsibility and value? This basket has even more eggs: engaging in honest and courageous conversations; further educating ourselves; intentional listening; what we tell our children; how we vote; who we hire; what we lobby for; what we march in favor of; who we network with. Those eggs, hardboiled and unbroken, can make a collective difference.