DAY 11: Institutional Racism

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 4 to dig back into this). Watch this video on the impact of redlining in the US. To disrupt institutional racism, it is helpful to name it and also help an organization understand its progress toward anti-racism and 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.

• What do you already know about the ways institutional racism shaped and continues to shape your community? What more are you curious about locally?

• Where would you put your organization (bookstore or other organization in the book industry) on the above continua? Where would you ideally like to see your organization or group?

More Resources

• Awake to Woke to Work
• We Will Be Undone
• Seeing Collective Impact Efforts with a Racial Justice Lens
• Anti-Racism Accountability Standards: An Example for Organizations

Yesterday: Internalized Racism
Tomorrow: Equitable & Liberating Forms of Bookselling

Author Photo Credit: Shutterstock/Udo Salters Photography | Quote from Words of Change: Anti-Racism by permission of Sasquatch Books. Copyright 2020 By Kenyra Rankin. All rights reserved.

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

Many of the quotes used in the Challenge are excerpted from Words of Change: Anti-Racism by permission of Sasquatch Books. Copyright 2020 By Kenyra Rankin. All rights reserved.

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). We are so grateful for their extraordinary work creating this program and making it available to other organizations.