SIBA’s 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge began on Monday, April 12. 90 booksellers and book industry professionals from across the country are participating, receiving daily prompts for learning, reflection, taking action, and digging deeper. Challenge prompts can be accessed on the Challenge homepage, to read and share with colleagues. We’re hosting a Challenge Bulletin Board where participants can share links and post comments. So far, the response has been inspiring.  We've also compiled a list of resources to check out as well, for future reading. 

We were inspired to offer the  Challenge when we learned of Food Solutions New England’s (FSNE) 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge during the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) 2020 conference, “How Local Businesses Can Survive and Thrive: Building Equity in the Local Economy Movement.” FSNE graciously granted us permission to adapt their framework for booksellers and the book industry. We’ve been working on the Challenge since the fall, compiling resources, discussing what we could contribute through format and design, to accomplish the goals of raising awareness around racial equity and racism, changing behaviors and patterns, providing helpful resources, and building community.  Once we completed the main work on the Challenge, it was vetted by Cultures Connecting, LLC. We very much appreciate their encouragement and professional counsel.

Putting together this programming required a lot of staff time and professional guidance. When SIBA first issued its statement against racism, it recognized it was committing to a course that would require deep involvement from the organization and deep engagement from its members. To that end SIBA has created a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Fund dedicated to supporting DEI programming and training to its members, and supporting and amplifying BIPOC voices our membership and industry. We’ve created a Donation portal to support SIBA’s commitment to amplify and support BIPOC voices in our membership and industry, and offer future DEI educational opportunities. We're deeply grateful to Sasquatch Books, Sourcebooks, and HarperCollins for their early and generous support for this initiative. 

Here in the SIBA Offices we have also been taking the Challenge, using it as a springboard for re-examining organization policies and habits that may not have changed since they were created decades ago. It has been a slow but exhilarating process, marked by busy discussions in chats and Slack channels. The general mood around the virtual office is “hopeful” and “excited.”

We will keep improving and updating the Challenge so that it becomes an annual event. If you are participating in this year’s Challenge and/or have ideas to share, we welcome your feedback, always.