Day 10: Institutional Racism

The SIBA 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge

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Posted By Nicki Leone, Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Updated: Saturday, February 11, 2023

"Each and every one of us has the capacity to be an oppressor. I want to encourage each and every one of us to interrogate how we might be an oppressor and how we might be able to become liberators for ourselves and each other." - Laverne Cox

Learn

Institutional racism shows up in both formalized and informal ways, from Human Resources policies that privilege white dominant norms of “professionalism” to cultures that instill a sense of belonging to those who feel more comfortable in norms of whiteness (go back to the prompt from Day 5 to dig back into this). Watch this 3 minute video summing up institutional racism in the US.

To disrupt institutional racism, it is helpful to name it, and also help an organization understand where it is on a journey to being anti-racist/pro-equitable belonging. Review both this continuum on becoming an “anti-racist” organization as well as this graphic of the “predictable phases of race equity work.”

Reflect

Where would you put your organization (bookstore or other organization in the book industry) on these two continua? Is this helpful? If so, how? Where would you ideally like to see your organization or group?
What would it take to get there? What is your next step?

Act

Consider doing this assessment of your organizational readiness to move on a racial justice agenda (there are questions for organizations of color, white organizations, and multi-racial organizations).
As you consider doing internal organizational change work, consider some of the holistic supports that are helpful in undertaking this work.

Dig Deeper

Check out “Awake to Woke to Work” to learn more about levers for change in organizations (see especially the images and charts on pages 11-19). Link isn’t leading where it once did, I’m thinking...
Read this short blog post from IISC President Kelly Bates on the experience of “undoing” that comes with doing racial equity work.
If you are doing “collective impact” work, consider this list of race equity-oriented questions for each of the five core elements.
See this example of anti-racism accountability standards developed for an organization.

Explore other links on the Challenge Resource Page. See how other Challenge participants are doing, and let them know how you are doing on the Challenge Bulletin Board

SIBA thanks its generous sponsors, who have made the 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge possible:

Although SIBA has modified when appropriate for a bookseller audience, the majority of prompts and resources come directly from the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge created by Food Solutions New England (FSNE), a regional collaborative network organized to support the emergence and continued viability of a New England food system that is a resilient driver of healthy food for all, racial equity, sustainable farming and fishing, and thriving communities. We are so grateful for their extraordinary work creating this program and making it available to other organizations.

Feedback? We welcome your thoughts.

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