Tackling racism and discrimination is a formidable task, but it’s essential for creating a more just and equitable world. But it requires more than awareness campaigns, diversity training, or good intentions. True progress will come from a concerted effort to dismantle entrenched structural, institutional and societal systems that have inflicted deep harm for centuries and continue to do so today.

The Hard Truth:
Information alone won't save us

You can consume every resource, memorize every statistic, attend every workshop, and still accomplish nothing meaningful. Knowledge without action is performative at best, harmful at worst. Real change demands confronting an uncomfortable reality: most of us are complicit in the very systems we claim to oppose.

The Three Non-Negotiables

Genuine progress requires three fundamental commitments that cannot be substituted or shortcuts:

COMMITMENT → Personal commitment to do the uncomfortable work
This means showing up consistently, even when it's inconvenient, unpopular, or personally costly. It means choosing long-term transformation over short-term comfort.
SELF-EXAMINATION → Serious introspection about your own biases, blind spots, and complicity
This isn't a one-time exercise. It's ongoing, often painful work of examining how you benefit from, participate in, or perpetuate the systems you claim to oppose.
EXTERNAL ACTION → Systemic intervention that goes beyond individual enlightenment
Personal growth without structural change is insufficient. This requires concrete actions that disrupt and dismantle discriminatory systems.

Check Your Premise!
It may be misguided.

The premise that only certain groups can harbour racist beliefs or engage in discrimination is fundamentally flawed. Both racism and discrimination operate as complex, multilayered phenomena that transcend simple individual prejudices and encompass broader societal frameworks.

Racism and discrimination are often misunderstood as merely collections of individual biases or isolated incidents. However, this view overlooks their systemic nature — how they become embedded within societal institutions, historical contexts, and everyday interactions. Discrimination can manifest along multiple axes: race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and countless other dimensions of human identity.

The oversimplification of complex social dynamics reflects our collective discomfort with confronting ingrained biases and systemic inequalities. It's psychologically easier to adopt a defensive posture—to declare "I am NOT racist, you are"—rather than engage with the more challenging response:
"Why did they say that? What can I learn from their perspective, and what does my reaction reveal about my own assumptions?"

Some suggestions for
how we can do better.

Be a great teammate

IDEAS FOR IMPROVEMENT

Where to start:
A Framework for Action

There are a variety of steps one can take to drive meaningful change. Here are a few:

Education and Awareness (But make it count):
- Learn Systemically: Study the historical roots and current manifestations of racism. Understand how these systems shape society across multiple dimensions—race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and beyond.
- Listen Actively: Amplify voices of those with lived experience. Engage with genuine curiosity rather than defensiveness.
- Challenge Continuously: Question your own assumptions daily. Unlearn harmful patterns and actively seek perspectives that make you uncomfortable.
Advocacy and Action:
- Advocate Strategically: Support policies and initiatives that address systemic inequalities. Use your voice, vote, and resources for structural change.
- Act Locally: Take concrete actions in your immediate sphere—workplaces, schools, communities. Speak up against discrimination in real time.
- Empower Authentically: Create genuine opportunities for marginalized voices, not performative platforms. Empower marginalized communities by creating spaces for their voices to be heard. Collaborate with organizations working toward equity.
Community Building:
- Connect Across Difference: Build relationships that challenge your worldview. Foster understanding through honest, sometimes difficult conversations.
  Build bridges across different communities. Foster understanding and solidarity.
- Celebrate: Celebrate diversity and cultural richness. Learn from each other’s traditions and experiences.
- Organize for Change: Participate in sustained efforts that address root causes, not just symptoms.
- Hold Systems Accountable: Demand transparency and transformation from institutions, leaders, and yourself.
Systemic Intervention:
- Challenge Institutional Practices: Examine and change policies, procedures, and cultures that perpetuate inequality.
- Address Intersectionality: Recognize that discrimination operates across multiple, interconnected identities simultaneously.
- Measure Impact: Track concrete outcomes, not just intentions or activities.

The Path Forward:
Collective Responsibility

Combating systemic racism and discrimination requires systemic solutions. This means rethinking educational, legal, and social institutions to root out ingrained biases. It means policy changes that address intersecting forms of inequality. But fundamentally, it means the daily work of examining our own complicity and taking action accordingly.

Sustaining the Work

Persist Through Discomfort: Recognize that meaningful change is an ongoing process requiring sustained commitment, not episodic engagement.
Embrace Accountability: Welcome feedback about your blind spots. Seek it out rather than waiting for it to find you.
Focus on Systems: While personal growth matters, systemic change requires collective action that goes beyond individual enlightenment.

TOGETHER, WE CAN BUILD SOMETHING BETTER.

HOPE not hate represents a value system, a framework for society and how we want to live our lives within that. It is about community not individuals; peace not conflict; solidarity not self-interest; respect not abuse; resilience not fragmentation; togetherness not isolation; collaboration not competition.

Empathy and Understanding:
The key to unravelling racism

To effectively address racism and discrimination, empathy and understanding are indispensable. Empathy involves stepping into another’s shoes, feeling their struggles, and recognizing their humanity. It’s about seeing beyond our own experiences and acknowledging the diverse realities of others.

Engaging in open, honest dialogue is crucial. It’s not about proving who’s right but about listening, learning, and growing. Conversations about racism and discrimination should aim to enlighten and bridge gaps, not deepen divides. What is needed is more thoughtful and constructive discourse.

The Bottom Line

This work isn't comfortable, convenient, or quick.
It requires confronting how we've been shaped by—and continue to benefit from—systems of oppression. It demands that we act even when we're uncertain, speak up even when it costs us something, and persist even when progress feels invisible.

The fight against racism and discrimination is a collective responsibility that calls for sustained commitment across all communities. Real change happens when we move beyond performative allyship toward genuine transformation—of ourselves, our institutions, and our society.

Every action contributes to the larger movement, but only if it's grounded in authentic commitment to uncomfortable truth-telling and systemic change. The future we claim to want requires nothing less.

Based on

Beyond Squirming: Confronting Racism with Empathy and Understanding

By MARTIN KUSH

Challenging Discrimination and Implicit Bias.png

Our commitment to challenging discrimination and promoting equity is essential for creating a more just and compassionate world.

Deepen your understanding of the themes mentioned above with “Workbook, Challenging Discrimination and Implicit Bias.”

This resource offers practical exercises and insights for actively combating racism and bias.

The Implicit Bias Workbook offers a valuable opportunity for providers to reflect on their own implicit biases in a safe and contained manner. For service providers, understanding and addressing implicit bias is crucial for providing equitable care to marginalized communities. Here are some key aspects covered in the workbook:

Terminology: The workbook begins by clarifying essential terms related to bias and oppression.
Exploring Implicit Bias: It delves into the concept of implicit bias, which refers to unconscious attitudes or stereotypes that influence our behavior.
Systems of Oppression: The workbook examines how systems of oppression contribute to implicit bias.
Exploring Explicit Bias: Explicit biases are also explored, emphasizing conscious attitudes and beliefs.
Reflection and Application: Providers engage in reflection and develop strategies to serve clients more effectively.
Conclusion: The workbook concludes with insights and resources for further learning.

Implicit bias, once made explicit, allows us to make more conscious choices in our actions. With the help of this workbook, service providers can enhance their ability to provide compassionate and unbiased care to those they serve.

Racism and discrimination are holding us back, limiting our collective potential. Too often, we become obstacles to our own progress. An openness to what 'others' can bring to the table can make all the difference - if we only let it.

There are many ways in which we can work to improve ourselves and, by extension, the world.
This section offers a few.

1. Cultivate Openness and Humility

Be open to changing your mind
Ask "How did you reach that view?" instead of
"Why do you believe that?"
Regularly challenge your own assumptions and biases
Choose curiosity over winning arguments
Seek shared ground; avoid binary thinking
Look for shared values rather than thinking in absolutes

2. Create Inclusive Spaces

Listen more than you speak
Remember that everyone's perspectives are shaped by their experiences
Design environments that welcome people of all backgrounds and abilities

3. Understand Power and Privilege

Recognize your advantages and make them visible to yourself—consider keeping a written list
Accept that unlearning discrimination is ongoing work
Channel guilt into constructive action, not paralysis
Be the first to speak up when you witness discrimination
When confronted about problematic behavior, ask clarifying questions instead of becoming defensive

4. Learn and Connect Authentically

Take responsibility for educating yourself—don't expect marginalized people to teach you
Avoid making decisions about what's "best" for communities you're not part of
Embrace and celebrate your own heritage authentically
Support organizations actively working toward justice
Connect with others from your background who share these values

5. Engage Across Difference

See people as individuals, not as representatives of their entire group
Express concerns as personal observations rather than accusations
Build genuine relationships to overcome fear and misunderstanding
Focus on collective growth rather than individual perfection

The goal isn't perfection but progress—developing the skills needed to build a more just and inclusive society.

What if, instead of hating other's beliefs, we learned more about where they come from?

A tool for understanding views that are different from our own.

Many people encounter beliefs and values that seem irrational or incomprehensible when viewed through their own moral lens.

What appears as "crazy thinking" to one person often serves important psychological and social functions for another. These seemingly strange convictions can foster community bonds, provide life meaning, and create the unity and cohesion that humans appear to have evolved to need.

Rather than dismissing different viewpoints as inferior or illogical, understanding the underlying moral foundations can reveal why people hold such divergent beliefs. Everyone operates from their own set of values that feel self-evident to them, often supported by elaborate rationalizations. Recognizing this universal tendency can help bridge divides and find common ground across different worldviews.

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt's research in The Righteous Mind identified six fundamental moral values that influence human behavior and decision-making. While the exact number and universality of these foundations remains debatable, they provide a useful framework for understanding moral diversity across cultures and individuals.

The relative importance each person places on these different values shapes their moral intuitions and political beliefs. Following are the values (and their opposites):

Care/Harm
The drive to protect others from suffering and promote well-being. This foundation emphasizes compassion, kindness, and the reduction of pain or distress. Those who prioritize this value focus on helping the vulnerable and alleviating suffering wherever possible.
Fairness/Cheating
The concern for proportional treatment and justice.
This involves ensuring equal treatment, reciprocity, and cooperation while opposing exploitation and free-riding. It encompasses both equal opportunity and the punishment of those who violate social contracts.
Loyalty/Betrayal
The importance of group cohesion and allegiance to one's community, family, team, or nation. This foundation values solidarity, patriotism, and the bonds that hold groups together, while condemning disloyalty and betrayal of group interests.
Authority/Subversion
Respect for hierarchy, tradition, and legitimate institutions. This involves deference to established social structures, laws, and customs that enable society to function orderly. It opposes rebellion against legitimate authority and the undermining of social stability.
Sanctity/Degradation
The elevation of purity, temperance, and sacred values.
This foundation involves protecting certain behaviors, objects, or concepts from degradation or contamination. It encompasses religious reverence, bodily purity, and the preservation of what is considered sacred or noble.
Liberty/Oppression
The value placed on individual freedom and autonomy.
This includes freedom of speech, thought, and action, provided these don't harm others. It opposes domination, tyranny, and restrictions on personal liberty.

Applications and Implications

Understanding these moral foundations helps explain why people with different value priorities can look at the same situation and reach completely different moral conclusions. Rather than assuming bad faith or irrationality, this framework suggests that moral disagreements often stem from emphasizing different foundational values.

This perspective encourages intellectual humility and cross-cultural understanding by revealing the shared human tendency to construct elaborate justifications for deeply held moral intuitions. By recognizing these patterns in ourselves and others, we can move beyond moral superiority and work toward genuine dialogue across ideological divides.

A MODEST PROPOSAL TO REMEDY INTOLERANCE

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks characterized a hatred of difference — antisemitism being the paradigmatic example — as an assault on our humanity, whose “cure will only come when human beings learn not to fear or be threatened by those who are not like us; i.e. when we learn to respect and recognize the dignity of difference.”

A better understanding of “the other side” might alleviate some of the torment that exists on both sides of the divide when we think about the manifold and varied intolerances that presently exist.

So what is the solution? Some believe it lies in giving people who are willing to examine their prejudices an opportunity to recognize their own intolerances, cultivate an understanding of how their intolerances adversely affect others, and appreciate the dignity of difference.

Changing someone's mind is possible, but it's not easy and it's not frequent.

Some thoughts on

How to Actually Change Someone's Mind

Psychology teaches us that the most effective way to change someone’s mind is not to present them with rational arguments or beat false beliefs out of them.

It’s to appeal to their emotions and offer empathetic encouragement.

How will you embrace diverse perspectives and move beyond binary thinking today?

A COMPREHENSIVE FRAMEWORK FOR CHANGING MINDS AND ADDRESSING BIAS AND DISCRIMINATION

The Foundation: Where Neuroscience Meets Philosophy
Meaningful change in addressing racism, discrimination, and institutional bias requires a sophisticated understanding of both how our brains process new information and how we can engage in respectful disagreement.
This integrated framework combines three critical elements: neuroscientific insights about persuasion, philosophical principles of intellectual humility, and practical strategies for unlearning harmful biases.

That said, you might start by asking yourself:

To what degree am I committed to respectful disagreement and civil rights?
Can I see an opponent's position not as I justify it for them, but as they justify it for themselves?

The Core Principles

The Neurological Reality of Change
Our brains are wired to resist change when threatened but embrace it when rewarded. Traditional approaches that rely on shame, confrontation, or emphasizing dangers trigger defensive neural responses that shut down learning. Understanding this allows us to work with the brain's natural reward systems rather than against them.
The Philosophy of Intellectual Humility
Intellectual humility—the willingness to admit that our beliefs might be wrong or incomplete—creates the psychological conditions necessary for genuine transformation. This involves recognizing that certainty leads us to stop asking questions and become sloppy in our thinking, while embracing uncertainty allows for precision and growth.
The Power of Unlearning
Unlearning is not forgetting but intentionally questioning and dismantling ingrained beliefs. Many of our "objective" systems and theories actually reflect dominant cultural biases that limit their universal applicability. True growth requires shifting from shame-based thinking ("I should have known this") to curiosity-based thinking ("What else is there to discover?").

The Three-Part Methodology

Part I: Foundations of Civil Discourse

Recognize the Source of Dismissal: Moral outrage and righteous indignation that allow us to dismiss people who disagree stem from values or beliefs we're holding as certain. When we're certain, we stop asking questions and become imprecise in our thinking.
Escape the Certainty Trap: Instead of assuming our perspective is obviously correct, we must embrace the uncertainty in what we know while being precise in our reasoning. This creates space for genuine dialogue.
Practice Precision Over Dismissal: When disagreeing on heated topics, specify which principle or value is being violated.

Part II: Neuroscience-Informed Communication Strategies

Question with Curiosity, Not Confrontation
- Traditional: "You're being racist" (triggers defensiveness)
- Integrated: "I'm curious about your perspective. Have you considered how this might affect [specific group]?" (creates positive surprise and personal relevance)
Reframe Around Gains, Not Losses
- Traditional: "Discrimination hurts communities"
- Integrated: "When organizations embrace inclusion, they often see increased innovation, stronger performance, and broader support"
Make It Personally Relevant
- Traditional: Generic diversity training
- Integrated: "Since you value fairness, here's how these practices might create advantages for some while disadvantaging others"
Create Rewarding Discovery Experiences
- Traditional: "Your beliefs are wrong and harmful"
- Integrated: "There's fascinating research about how different cultures approach leadership—what else might we discover together?"

Part III: The Unlearning Process for Bias Interruption

Seek Clarity Through Questions
- "Tell me more about ______"
- "Have you ever considered ______?"
- "What if we explored how this might work differently for people from various backgrounds?"
Offer Alternative Perspectives as Discovery
- "I don't see it the way you do. I see it as ______"
- "What if our current practices unintentionally exclude people who share our core values?"
Find Common Ground and Build Forward
- "We don't agree on ______ but we can agree on ______"
- "Here are three approaches other organizations have explored..."
Set Boundaries While Maintaining Relationship
- "Please do not say ______ again to me or around me"
- "Could we revisit this conversation tomorrow after we've both had time to think?"

Addressing Systemic Issues

Question "objective" systems
- Recognize that seemingly neutral policies, hiring practices, and educational standards often embed dominant cultural assumptions that disadvantage marginalized groups. Approach this through positive inquiry:
  "What innovations might emerge if we explored how this system works for people from various backgrounds?"
Seek marginalized perspectives
- Actively seek perspectives outside your social circle to understand how systems impact different communities. Frame this as organizational discovery rather than correction.
Dismantle "universal" models: Institutional Transformation Process
- Curiosity Over Certainty: Help institutions shift from "We know this is right" to "What else might we learn about serving our community?" Challenge frameworks (like leadership styles or communication norms) that treat one cultural approach as the standard.
- Discovery Over Defense: When biases are revealed, frame them as learning opportunities. Organizations that examine their assumptions often discover they can better live out their stated missions. For example, when confronted about bias, shift from "I'm not racist" to "What can I learn about my blind spots?"
- Innovation Over Correction: Present new approaches as exciting possibilities rather than necessary fixes, emphasizing gains from inclusion rather than problems with exclusion.
Addressing Non-Affirming Institutions
- Examine foundational assumptions: Question whether institutional policies truly serve all members or primarily reflect dominant group needs
- Center affected voices: Include marginalized communities in reimagining systems rather than making assumptions about their needs
- Acknowledge historical harm: Recognize how past "objective" practices may have caused damage and need active correction
- Embrace institutional humility: Create space for organizations to admit past mistakes and evolve rather than defending flawed systems

Practical Applications

For Workplace Leaders
Instead of "We need to fix our bias problem," try "Teams with diverse perspectives consistently outperform homogeneous ones. Let's explore how we can tap into that advantage."
For Educational Settings
Instead of "These standards are biased," try "What if we explored how students from different backgrounds demonstrate excellence? We might discover new indicators of potential."
For Community Organizing
Instead of "This institution discriminates and must change," try "This institution has an opportunity to better live out its stated values of welcome and community."
For Personal Conversations
Instead of attacking someone's character, focus on specific behaviors and their impacts while maintaining relationship and creating space for growth.

The Transformation Framework

This integrated approach transforms:

Resistance into Curiosity: By making learning feel rewarding rather than threatening
Defensiveness into Discovery: By framing bias recognition as fascinating insight rather than moral failure
Institutional Stubbornness into Innovation: By emphasizing organizational gains and mission alignment
Moral Confrontation into Principled Dialogue: By using precision and intellectual humility

Key Insight

The most powerful approach to addressing bias and discrimination recognizes that lasting change happens not through force, shame, or guilt, but by creating neurological and psychological conditions where people's minds and hearts are genuinely open to new possibilities. This requires combining scientific understanding of how brains process change with philosophical wisdom about respectful disagreement and practical strategies for unlearning harmful assumptions.

Meaningful change demands fundamentally questioning the assumptions underlying our institutions and being willing to rebuild from a more inclusive foundation.
Success comes from making the process of examining and changing our assumptions feel rewarding, meaningful, and personally relevant—transforming the challenging work of bias interruption into an opportunity for genuine growth and discovery. This process, like personal unlearning, requires moving from defensiveness to curiosity about how systems can better serve everyone.

Based on work by LAUREN FLORKO, Ph.D. and BOBBY HOFFMAN, Ph.D.:
Learning to Unlearn: How to Rethink What We Think We Know

How to Change the Mind of the Most Stubborn Person You Know

There are ways to have a productive conversation with someone you disagree with.

By STEPHANIE VOZZA

A Gentler, Better Way to Change Minds

Stop wielding your values as a weapon and start offering them as a gift.

By ARTHUR C. BROOKS

How to ask questions that get people to open up

The quickest way to learn new info is to tap into the ideas of those around you, but most people don’t ask enough questions, says this expert.

By STEPHANIE VOZZA

All Bigotry Is Ignorance, But Not All Ignorance Is Bigotry

Helping toxic people relinquish their destructive beliefs

The key to finding common ground is to explain complex perspectives in a way that’s familiar and accessible. This requires compassion, patience, and creativity. Most of all, you have to be steadfast because even when you make progress, it’s tempting to slip back into old habits.

By WALTER RHEIN

How Curiosity Will Save Us

TEDx Talk Presented by MONICA GUZMAN

How do we overcome our fear of talking about racism?

From THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Why an author and professor wants people to disagree better.

RANDY BOYAGODA speaks with Matt Galloway of CBC's The Current about what civility means in the era of social media, and whether we actually want to hear each other anymore.

Which is More Effective: To Label it Racism or to Suggest it Another Way?

The R-word can set nerves on fire. How do we talk about racism without engaging others’ emotions and shutting down their ability to think clearly?

By JEAN LATTING

What is perplexing is the degree of vitriol and anger that can often easily be invoked by a topic.
The question that must be asked is:
Why are some people so angry, and why are they sometimes so rabid in their support of a cause?
Psychological and sociological factors that might be in play are explained in:

Why are Western pro-Palestinian activists so angry?

By DAVID JOHNSON

Be specific about values rather than attacking character

Make change feel rewarding
rather than threatening

Reframe around gains, not losses

Turn defensive reactions into opportunities for growth and learning

Transform resistance into discovery

Lead with curiosity,
not certainty

Shift from knowing all the answers to asking better questions

Precision over dismissal

Why “Dismantle”?

We use the term "dismantle" because it's not enough to individually avoid being prejudiced. Racism is a system that we all need to work together to dismantle, if we want an equitable and inclusive community and world.

Building bridges instead of walls

Addressing the Art of Self-Sabotage: How we block our own success and how we can do better

LEARN MORE

Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2019–2022

Government of Canada
This comprehensive federal initiative outlines how Canada is working to dismantle systemic racism and discrimination. It emphasizes empowering communities, building awareness, and demonstrating leadership across institutions. The strategy recognizes the importance of intersectionality and the need for long-term, coordinated action to foster inclusion and equity. It’s a strong example of how a nation can begin to build bridges across its cultural mosaic.

Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers: Fostering Collaboration for Social Change

Mark Belter (2024)
This article explores how cross-sector collaboration—between governments, nonprofits, businesses, and communities—can overcome societal silos and drive systemic transformation. It highlights the importance of trust, inclusivity, and shared goals, echoing your call for moving from reactive opposition to constructive building. It also offers practical strategies for overcoming common collaboration barriers.

4 Ways to Navigate Differences and Foster Inclusion in Politically Charged Times

Tough times reveal what kind of culture we really have. Here's how to build trust, not tension.
From INCLUSIVITY

The Misinformation Diet: Why Your Brain is Junk Food Addicted

This satirical essay argues that teaching basic fact-checking skills to college students is an effective way to combat racism and discrimination, since much online misinformation specifically targets marginalized communities. A Georgia State University study showed that just 150 minutes of media literacy training improved students' ability to identify unreliable sources by 18%, proving that critical thinking skills can serve as "kryptonite for bigotry" in our digital age.

What’s holding us back as a community, as a society?

Now, in the autumn of my years, I have more time to think about such stuff. I often wonder what the heck we’re doing here and why? Why do we so often seem to be putting sticks into our own spokes? Why aren’t we taking advantage of our cultural mosaic? Why are we putting up walls instead of building bridges?

We often appear to be blocking paths to our own potential for success through a variety of self-defeating patterns that fragment our collective strength precisely when we need it most.

The Barriers We Create

An Us vs. Them Mindset: Binary thinking that creates artificial enemies where partners could exist
Societal Silos: Isolated bubbles that prevent cross-pollination of ideas and resources
Hate: Destructive emotion that consumes energy better spent on solutions
Scapegoating/Finger-pointing: Blame-shifting that avoids accountability and blocks problem-solving
Failure to Diversify: Homogeneous thinking that limits perspective and breeds blind spots
Misinformation/Disinformation: Polluted information streams that erode shared understanding
Short-term Thinking Dominance: Political cycles, quarterly earnings, and immediate gratification that override long-term collective benefit
A Zero-sum Mindset: The false belief that one group's gain must come at another's expense, when many challenges require positive-sum solutions
Complexity Avoidance: Our tendency to seek simple explanations for complex problems, leading to oversimplified solutions
Trust Erosion: Declining faith in institutions, expertise, and shared facts that makes coordination exponentially harder

The Fragmentation Trap

These barriers create what we might call a "fragmentation trap" -
where our natural tendency to form in-groups and out-groups becomes counterproductive to solving problems that transcend traditional boundaries. Climate change, technological disruption, economic inequality, and public health crises don't respect the artificial divisions we create.

Now more than ever, at a time of existential threat, we need collaboration. We need to optimize our resources, pool our talents, and share ideas for a better future. We need to shift from reactive opposition to constructive building.

The Collaboration Imperative

Moving from support efforts to building is particularly crucial. We often get stuck in reactive mode - opposing what we dislike rather than constructively creating what we need. This defensive posture limits our ability to harness collective intelligence and resources.

The "cultural mosaic" metaphor reveals that diversity isn't just morally important - it's functionally essential. Different perspectives, experiences, and knowledge systems become competitive advantages when synthesized effectively. Homogeneous groups are more prone to blind spots and groupthink.

The Multiplication Effect

When communities work together rather than at cross-purposes, the benefits multiply exponentially:

Resources aren't duplicated or wasted in internal conflicts.
Innovation accelerates through cross-pollination of ideas.
Risk is distributed rather than concentrated.
Perhaps most importantly, social capital - trust, reciprocity, shared norms - grows stronger through positive collaboration experiences.

The urgency is real. The challenges we face require unprecedented coordination across traditional boundaries.

So the question becomes:
How do we build bridges faster than we build walls?

The Heart Behind the Wall:

How Compassionate Listening Dissolves Hate

The Heart Model:
Our Human Journey

How We All Begin

Every child starts life with natural qualities:

Openness - welcoming to all people
Curiosity - eager to learn and explore
Joy - finding delight in simple things
Love - abundant affection for self and others

What Changes Us

Life brings inevitable wounds that teach us it's unsafe to stay open:

Rejection and shame
Judgment and criticism
Hatred and abuse
Discrimination and exclusion

Building Our Castle

To protect ourselves, we develop defensive strategies:

Judge others before they can judge us
Shut down emotionally
Discriminate against those who seem different
Become more prideful and less humble
Use sarcasm and cynicism as armour

Recently, I was struck by the words of an interfaith minister at the annual Humility, Kindness and Love Conference – yes, there really is such a thing.
She very succinctly presented a compelling framework for understanding and addressing the root causes of racism and discrimination through the concept of belonging and compassionate listening. Her insights, rooted in the Compassionate Listening Project's "Heart Model," offer a profound perspective on healing division.

The Heart Model: From Openness to Defense

The framework describes a universal human journey in four stages:

Children's natural state: We begin life inherently open, curious, joyful, and loving—naturally accepting of others without prejudice.
The castle-building process: Life's inevitable hurts, rejections, and betrayals gradually cause us to close our hearts, constructing protective walls around our vulnerabilities.
The defended self: Behind these walls, we develop prejudices and judgments, interacting with the world from this guarded "castle" version of ourselves.
The perpetuating cycle: Our defended selves meet other people's defended selves, creating the illusion that this closed-off state represents our true nature.

Compassionate Listening as the Antidote

The solution lies in compassionate listening—creating space to truly hear others' stories, which gradually dismantles our defensive barriers and reveals our shared humanity.

This approach offers profound insights into ending racism and discrimination:

Hate requires distance and separation. The speaker noted, "an enemy is one whose story you have not yet heard." Hate can only happen at a distance. When we truly listen to others and understand their experiences, it becomes impossible to maintain hatred or prejudice.
Discrimination is learned, not innate. Since children aren't born with racial, religious, or class hatred, these divisions are acquired through painful experiences that cause us to close our hearts and create categories of "us" versus "them."
Listening reveals common ground. Through genuine listening, we discover that beneath our protective "castles," we share the same fundamental human experiences, hopes, and vulnerabilities. Our apparent differences become superficial compared to our common humanity.

A Grassroots Path Forward

This framework suggests that ending racism and discrimination transcends policy changes—though those remain important. True transformation requires creating spaces for authentic human connection where people can safely lower their defenses and rediscover their heart-centered nature. It starts with listening - not just hearing words, but truly engaging with others' stories and experiences.

There's profound wisdom in recognizing that "an enemy is one whose story you have not yet heard." When we genuinely listen to another person, really sitting with them and opening ourselves to their experience, hatred becomes impossible. Hate can only exist at a distance, sustained by separation and misunderstanding.

The solution to racism, discrimination, and division may be simpler than we think: we need to remember how to see and hear each other as the open-hearted beings we all once were and still are, beneath our protective walls. In rediscovering our shared humanity through listening, we can begin to heal the separation that fuels so much of our collective pain.

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How can we encourage more people to celebrate and appreciate diversity?
Ten helpful suggestions.

To encourage more people to celebrate and appreciate diversity, consider the following strategies:

Promote cultural exchanges and conversations:
Participate in cultural events, start diversity-themed book or podcast clubs, or host multicultural meet-ups to encourage dialogue, respect, and belonging. Invite people to bring in food, games, crafts, or other items that represent their culture to increase awareness and appreciation of our global community.
Celebrate different cultures:
Organize events that celebrate various cultural holidays, traditions, and cuisines to educate people about different cultures and make them feel appreciated and included. Attend virtual and physical cultural exhibits and performances to foster a deeper appreciation of diverse cultures by going beyond surface-level knowledge and encouraging empathy.
Explanation: This involves actively seeking out opportunities to immerse yourself in cultures different from your own. Local cultural festivals and events are fantastic venues for experiencing the music, dance, food, art, and traditions of various communities firsthand.
Benefits: It provides a sensory-rich experience that goes beyond textbook learning. It fosters appreciation for the unique contributions each culture brings to the community. It's also a great way to meet people from different backgrounds and build personal connections.
Example: Attending a Diwali celebration, a Lunar New Year festival, a Cinco de Mayo celebration, or a local Indigenous cultural gathering.
Encourage learning about different cultures:
Use educational resources, workshops, guest speakers, and cultural exchange programs to enhance empathy, reduce bias, and foster better relationships.
Explanation: This involves going beyond superficial knowledge of different cultures and delving into their significant holidays and traditions. Understand the historical and cultural significance of these celebrations and how they are observed by different communities.
Benefits: It demonstrates respect for other cultures and shows that you value their beliefs and practices. It allows you to participate in meaningful ways during cultural events and celebrations. It deepens your understanding of the values and beliefs that shape different cultures.
Example: Researching the origins and traditions of Hanukkah, Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Diwali, or National Indigenous Peoples Day.
Read books and watch media featuring diverse characters and perspectives
Explanation: This action focuses on diversifying your consumption of media and literature. Seek out books, films, TV shows, documentaries, and other forms of media that tell stories from a wide range of cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Benefits: It broadens your understanding of different perspectives and lived experiences. It challenges stereotypes and helps you develop empathy for people from different walks of life. It exposes you to different writing styles, artistic expressions, and cultural values.
Example: Reading novels by authors from different countries, watching films that explore different cultural traditions, or following social media accounts that highlight diverse voices.
Foster open, respectful dialogue with people from different backgrounds:
Encourage people to openly share their thoughts, ideas, and concerns in regular meetings or suggestion boxes to create a safe space where everyone feels comfortable expressing themselves.
Explanation: This encourages direct and meaningful interaction with people who have different life experiences, perspectives, and beliefs than your own. Engage in conversations with a genuine desire to learn from others and understand their viewpoints.
Benefits: It helps you challenge your own assumptions and biases. It promotes mutual understanding and respect. It can lead to deeper personal connections and friendships. It encourages critical thinking and open-mindedness.
Example: Participating in interfaith dialogues, attending community forums on social issues, or simply striking up conversations with people from different backgrounds in your workplace or neighborhood.
Implement diversity training:
Implement diversity and inclusion training programs to help people understand and appreciate cultural differences, address unconscious bias, and teach strategies for effective intercultural communication.
Explanation: Provide structured educational programs to increase awareness and understanding of cultural differences and biases.
Benefit: Improves workplace communication, reduces conflicts, and creates a more inclusive environment.
Example: A company-wide workshop on recognizing and mitigating unconscious bias in hiring and promotion decisions.
Acknowledge and honour multiple religious and cultural practices:
Introduce policies that recognize a variety of cultural and religious practices.
Explanation: Create policies that respect and accommodate various cultural and religious observances.
Benefit: Demonstrates respect for employees' beliefs, increases job satisfaction, and promotes a sense of belonging.
Example: Offering floating holidays that employees can use for their specific cultural or religious celebrations.
Embrace diversity in the workplace and community:
Initiate training programs on unconscious bias and cultural sensitivity, create inclusive policies, and organize or sponsor multicultural events.
Explanation: Integrate diversity and inclusion principles into all aspects of organizational culture and community engagement.
Benefit: Fosters innovation, improves problem-solving, and enhances the organization's reputation in the community.
Example: Partnering with local schools to sponsor a multicultural fair showcasing different cultures represented in the community.
Make diversity a value:
Celebrate diversity by making it part of everything you do, not just implementing it to check off a list.
Explanation: Embed diversity and inclusion into the core values and daily operations of the organization.
Benefit: Creates a sustainable culture of inclusivity, attracts diverse talent, and improves overall organizational performance.
Example: Including diversity metrics in performance evaluations for all employees, especially leadership positions.
Support businesses and organizations that promote diversity and inclusion
Explanation: This involves actively supporting companies and organizations that prioritize diversity and inclusion in their hiring practices, business operations, and community engagement.
Benefits: It encourages more businesses and organizations to adopt inclusive practices. It helps create a more equitable and just society. It sends a message that diversity is valued and that consumers want to support businesses that reflect their values.
Example: Patronizing businesses owned by people of color, supporting organizations that advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, or donating to charities that provide services to marginalized communities.

By incorporating these actions into your daily life, you can make a tangible difference in promoting diversity and inclusion in your community and beyond. These practices not only help you expand your own understanding and perspective but also contribute to creating a more just, equitable, and harmonious world for all.

"What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness."
- George Saunders

Three months after George Saunders gave a graduation address at Syracuse University in 2013, a transcript of that speech was posted on the website of The New York Times, where its simple, uplifting message struck a deep chord. Within days, it had been shared more than one million times. Why? Because Saunders's words tap into a desire in all of us to lead kinder, more fulfilling lives.

Powerful, funny, and wise, Congratulations, by the Way is an inspiring message from one of today's most influential and original writers.

I highly recommend this inspirational piece. It's simple and powerful, and might change your life. And it will take you 10, maybe 15 minutes to read.

CIVILITY: The importance of working for the common good

What does it mean to be civil?
Journalist Steven Petrow looks for answers in the original meaning of the word, showing why civility shouldn't be dismissed as conversation-stifling political correctness or censorship.

Learn 3 ways we can each work to be more civil -- and start talking about our differences with respect.

COMPASSION: Let's revive the Golden Rule

Just ahead of the Charter for Compassion launch, Karen Armstrong looked at religion's role in the 21st century: Will its dogmas divide us? Or will it unite us for common good? She reviews the catalysts that can drive the world's faiths to rediscover the Golden Rule.
More about GoldenRuleism.

See also

What Do I Owe You?
First, to do you no harm
Extended Compassion for Racial Healing
Moving Beyond Tolerance: Racial healing/equity through Extended Compassionate Education

We have the solution.

It's the execution that's the problem.

The Golden Rule is Universal

Here's a link to hundreds of versions of the Golden Rule. Found in many religious sacred texts, it defies language, culture, race, space and time.

The Golden Rule is the answer.

We know this.

This simple precept, when followed, has the power to end racism and discrimination.

A key concept in many philosophies and spiritualities, the Golden Rule admonishes us to "do unto others as we would have them do unto us." Its meaning is clear: treat others only in ways that you would want to be treated.

However, the golden rule is not always easy to follow. It can be a challenge to honour others as we wish to be honoured. Yet, when we do so, we bestow a gift of loving kindness on our fellow human beings. And, in honouring others, we honour ourselves.

It is as uncomplicated a tenet as one could wish for. When we live by it, harming another person becomes nearly impossible.

The Golden Rule is rooted in pure empathy and does not compel us to perform any specific act. Rather,

it gently guides us to never let our actions toward others be out of harmony with our own desires.
it asks us to be aware of the effect our words and actions may have on another person and to imagine ourselves in their place.
It calls on us to ask ourselves how we would feel if what we were about to do were directed toward us.
It invites us to do more than not harm others. It suggests that we look for opportunities to behave toward others in the same ways that we would want others to act toward us.

Adhering to the Golden Rule whenever possible can have a positive effect on the world around you because kindness begets kindness. In doing so, you generate a flow of positive energy that enfolds everyone you encounter in peace, goodwill, and harmony.

And what could be better than that!

From DailyOM

STEREOTYPING: Why we stereotype and how we can stop

The simple explanation of the errors in our brains' way of seeing the world that led to the creation of stereotypes and prejudices, how we can stop making those errors and, ultimately, stop stereotypes and prejudice.

It begins with a step-by-step guide to how our brains trick us into creating stereotypes and how those lead to prejudices and discrimination, explains why we do these things without realizing it, and concludes with helpful advice on how to avoid the trap.

Avoiding stereotypes involves a conscious effort to see people as individuals rather than as representatives of a group. Here are some effective strategies:

By actively practicing these steps, you can help reduce the impact of stereotypes in your interactions and contribute to a more inclusive society.

See also

Don’t Judge People by the Worst of Their Gender, Race, or Religion

By JONATHAN MORRIS SCHWARTZ
People love to claim they don’t judge others by their gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation, but they do.

Why ‘Us vs. Them’ Mentality Persists in a World That Should Know Better

And how we can find a way to move past it
By KATIE JGLN

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

"What attitudes and actions toward race and ethnicity might we adopt today if we had the best interests of our youngest generation in mind?"

This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic. Once a week, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question.

CHECK IT OUT

Ted Yudelson

"Judge actions,
not stereotypes.
Judge character,
not colour"

Wes Angelozzi

“Go and love someone
exactly as they are.
And then watch how quickly they transform into the greatest, truest version of themselves. When one feels seen and appreciated in their own essence, one is instantly empowered.”

Gad Saad

“Judge me on the merits and flaws of the totality of my personhood.”

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

“What is the best response to
anti-Semitism in America?”

Identity politics is the poison at the well of democracy. For the sake of expediency and the shallow thinking of the moment, we place individuals into groups so that we need only address ideas and stereotypes rather than people. We dehumanize by this intellectual sleight of hand.

Leave it to each of us individually to separate ourselves into our own unique identities and proclivities, but let us respectfully treat one another exactly as if we were the same. No more, no less.

CHECK IT OUT

Rule #1:
Don't ask others to educate you.

I'm Tired of Talking About Race

Educator, writer, and strategic communication professional Jasmine Roberts speaks about the emotional fatigue experienced by people of color when discussing race with their white counterparts, coupled with solutions to this growing concern.

Stephen R. Covey

"Strength lies in differences, not in similarities."

Joseph Fort Newton

American Baptist minister

“Men build too many walls and not enough bridges.”

Unknown

“Be aware of your own privilege, power and bias.”

A title goes here. Click to edit and add your own.

Ingrid Rice - iricecartoonist on Instagram

Unknown

"Your beliefs don't make you
a better person.
Your behaviour does."

Kofi Annan
A Ghanaian diplomat who served ash secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006

“Ignorance and prejudice are the handmaidens of propaganda. Our mission, therefore, is to confront ignorance with knowledge, bigotry with tolerance, and isolation with the outstretched hand of generosity. Racism can, will, and must be defeated.”

Angela Glover Blackwell

American attorney, civil rights advocate, and author.

"Our future collectively is dependent on all of us being able to reach our full potential."

Be an anti-racist.

LIFE KIT

'Not Racist' Is Not Enough: Putting In The Work To Be Anti-Racist

LEARN MORE

See

10 Keys to Everyday Anti-Racism
By KIRSTEN IVEY-COLSON and LYNN TURNER

The founders of a new organization, the AntiRacist Table, suggest tools you can use to work against prejudice and inequality.

See also

Various NPR reports on anti-racism
"What is an Anti-Racist?"
This two-minute video touches on some of the actions and behaviours that we can practice as individuals to be Anti-Racist.
Being Antiracist
By SHARON HURLEY HALL
It's Time For White People to Have Tough Conversations With Their White Friends and Relatives
By SAVALA NOLAN
How to not raise a racist white kid
By JENNIFER HARVEY
Anti-racism 101: Own Your Racism
By REBECCA BERRY
The difference between being "not racist" and antiracist
With IBRAM X. KENDI
In this vital conversation, Kendi defines the transformative concept of antiracism to help us more clearly recognize, take responsibility for and reject prejudices in our public policies, workplaces and personal beliefs. Learn how you can actively use this awareness to uproot injustice and inequality in the world - and replace it with love.
A Better Anti-Racism?
By COLEMAN HUGHES
When Should You Talk to Your Children About Racism?
By NIA NORRIS
‘Saying we want to stop racism is all well and good, but what are we going to do about it?’
By PÁDRAIG HOARE
Teaching While White
Where Whiteness Intersects with Antiracist Teaching & Learning
Teaching While White seeks to move the conversation forward on how to be consciously, intentionally, anti-racist in the classroom.

Suggest your favourite quote

?

Coleman Hughes

American writer and commentator

"We must insist that what we have in common is more important than what divides us. Our ability to remedy racial injustice depends on it."

Suggest your favourite quote

?

Be an anti-racist ally.

ally

a person who supports a community with which they do not personally identify.

I understand that I will never understand, but I stand with you

SELF-HELP

Anti-Racist Ally

An Introduction to Activism and Action

As the tragic murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement has demonstrated, not being racist is not enough. To ensure that all people are equal, you must be actively anti-racist.

In this essential guide, Sophie Williams, goes beyond her popular Instagram @officialmillennialblack, providing sharp, simple, and insightful steps anyone can take to be a better ally in the fight against racism. While the book’s focus is on race, it also touches on sexism, classism, ableism, oppression, and white supremacy.

Written in her iconic Instagram style, this punchy pocket-sized guide is a crucial starting point for every anti-racist ally, covering complex topics at the heart of anti-racist principles. Whether you are just finding your voice, have made a start but aren’t sure what to do next, or want a fresh viewpoint, Anti-Racist Ally introduces and explains the language of change and shows you how to challenge the system, beginning with yourself.

See also

Guide to Allyship

An open source starter guide to help you become a less performative and more effective ally.

Allyship

A look at what it is, what it isn't and the roles and responsibilities of an effective ally.

What is Allyship? Your Questions Answered
A Leading Effectively article by the Center for Creative Leadership

Redefining Ally
A powerful talk by equality advocate ASH BECKHAM
An Anti-Racism Conversation for All of Us

Dr. Jennifer Harvey speaks about raising active and able allies.

The White Ally Toolkit Workbook:
Using active listening, empathy, and personal storytelling to promote racial equity

By DAVID W. CAMPT

Rice Allyship Movement’s Racial Allyship Toolkit:
Guidelines to Teaching an Effective Workshop

By J. HUANG, S. TSEGGAY & C. CONSIDINE
This document provides a comprehensive overview of racial allyship through worksheets including a list of key terms, notable people/ organizations, and allyship-focused lesson plans.

7 Ways to Practice Active Allyship

By POORNIMA LUTHRA

How to be an effective ally to Indigenous communities Guidelines for Allyship

By MARIE-ÈVE CARON

How to raise an ally: Kids need to learn about racism and what they can do to fight it

By AMY BELL

What I Look For in an 'Ally'
Allyship means different things to different people…and you’re about to get a glimpse into what it means to me!

By ANTHONY EICHBERGER

Why I No Longer Call Myself An Ally

By STEPHANIE HUCKEL
Why I Don’t Consider Myself an ‘Ally’

Since everyone seems to have their own definition of what makes someone an “ally,” I won’t attempt to label myself as such

By ANTHONY EICHBERGER

The Uncomfortable Truth About White Allyship

Who’s talking and who’s listening?

By KERELA TAYLOR

Some allyship notions to consider

allyship

an active, consistent, and arduous practice of unlearning and re-evaluating, in which a person in a position of privilege and power seeks to operate in solidarity with a marginalized group

tone policing

NOUN

the action or practice of criticizing the angry or emotional manner in which a person has expressed a point of view, rather than addressing the substance of the point itself:

"tone policing is the ultimate derailing tactic"
the act of someone (usually a privileged person) in a conversation or situation about oppression shifting the focus of the conversation from the oppression being discussed to the way it is being discussed.
Tone policing prioritizes the comfort of the privileged person over the oppression of the disadvantaged person.

NOTE: We often see people who claim to be allies, but who are actually tone policing.

You could also check out this short video on tone-policing:

https://youtu.be/p8K2NawB4Nk

If you are a white person concerned with fighting racial oppression, and want to stay focused on being a true ally in the battle against racism (and avoid tone policing behavior), here are some things to remember:

Be aware of the limits of your empathy.
Your privilege will keep you from fully understanding the pain caused to people of color by systemic racism, but just because you cannot understand it, that does not make it any less real.
Don't distract or deflect.
The core issue in discussions of racism and systemic oppression will always be racism and systemic oppression.
Remember your goal.
Your main goal, if you consider yourself an ally, should always be to end systemic racism.
Drop the prerequisites.
The goal should not have any preconditions on it. You are fighting systemic racism because it is your moral obligation, and that obligation is yours as long as systemic racism exists, pure and simple.
Walk away if you must, but don't give up.
If you simply cannot abide by an oppressed person or group's language or methods, step aside and find where you can help elsewhere.
Build a tolerance for discomfort.
You must get used to being uncomfortable and get used to this not being about your feelings if you plan to help and not hinder people of color in their efforts for racial justice.
You are not doing any favors, you are doing what is right.
If you are white, remember that White Supremacy is a system you benefit from and that your privilege has helped to uphold. Your efforts to dismantle White Supremacy are expected of decent people who believe in justice. You are not owed gratitude or friendship from people of color for your efforts. We are not thanked for cleaning our own homes.

Excerpt from
So you want to talk about race
By IJEOMA OLUO

How Can White People Better Support Their Black Colleagues?

Here are three ways Black people say their white co-workers and managers can be an antidote to systemic racism:

Reciprocal relationships
Don't avoid uncomfortable conversations
Connect outside work

See also
Why Most White Parents Refuse to Talk to Their Children About Race
And how their apprehension impacts Black people
By ALLISON WILTZ

Deconstructing Performative Allyship and Moving Towards Co-Conspiratorship

By TAI SALIH E-RYT

Empower people to be a force for good.

There are many who are good at this
(Check out the RESOURCES section).
One I stumbled upon is called GOOD worldwide, whose mission is to empower people and organizations to be a force for good, together.

One of their initiatives is UPWORTHY, an editorial and social media brand that strives to share the best of humanity with the world.

Eight Ways to Stand Up to Hate

Hate crimes and hateful language are on the rise. What are you going to do about it?

By ELIZABETH SVOBODA

The Seven Sacred Teachings* that will go a long way to making for a better world.

These Indigenous teachings - or values - are so important, I have included them twice. While each has its own intrinsic and unique value, these teachings are not complete without one another, and must be used simultaneously in order to achieve balance and harmony in our life.

An excerpt from the short film
Friendly Manitoba
from BU CARES Research and Film Project on Anti-racism: “REAL CHANGE”

* Also known as
The Seven Grandfathers Teachings

For more information, see also:
https://empoweringthespirit.ca/cultures-of-belonging/seven-grandfathers-teachings/

https://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/blog/archive/the-seven-sacred-teachings.html

If we learn to live by these teachings, we can lead
the way to a better way of life and a better world:

The Buffalo teaches us the law of

Respect

Respect is to remember everything on Mother Earth is connected and important.

The Eagle teaches us the law of

Love

You must show love to all things on earth.
True unconditional love is expressed by showing kindness. Be kind to all things.

The Bear teaches us the law of

Courage
Having courage is to do the right thing even if it’s not the easy thing.

The Raven teaches us the law of

Honesty
Be someone who is trustworthy. Be genuine.
You must always say what you mean and mean what you say.

The Beaver teaches us the law of

Wisdom
Wisdom is understanding yourself and understanding the gifts that you share.
Everything on Mother Earth has purpose and has gifts and wisdom. Use it.

The Wolf teaches us the law of

Humility
The wolf says that having humility is knowing that everyone and everything on Mother Earth is created equally.

The Turtle teaches us about

Truth

Living with truth is to live with all of these teachings. Carry them in your heart and think of them at all times. They will guide you down the right path to being your true self.

Kindness is not the solution to racism

But it can help.

Growing up white, I learned one solution for fighting injustice: if I just treated people well, I could cause a ripple effect of kindness that would spread across the world. That’s how I used to picture solving all the world’s problems; start with smiling at one person and watch how that action spread, all the way to City Council, Congress, the United Nations, and beyond. Self-interest conquered; corruption eradicated; racism uprooted; goodness wins the day.

I believe in the power of kindness. I believe how we treat people matters. But I no longer think that kindness will end oppression.

It’s Going To Take More Than Empathy To Eradicate Racism

By JANICE GASSAM ASARE

The War for Kindness

By JAMIL ZAKI

I just got called racist. What do I do now?

If you are white in a white supremacist society, you may be considered a racist by default.

"You are racist because you were born and bred in a racist, white supremacist society. White Supremacy is insidious by design. The racism required to uphold White Supremacy is woven into every area of our lives. There is no way you can inherit white privilege from birth, learn racist white supremacist history in schools, consume racist and white supremacist movies and films, work in a racist and white supremacist workforce, and vote for racist and white supremacist governments and not be racist."

- Ijeoma Oluo

In other words, context matters and it can impact us unknowingly. Just be open to that possibility.

If you've been confronted with the possibility of your own racism, and you want to do the work, here are some tips:

Listen.
First and foremost, if someone is telling you something abot yourself and your actions and you feel your hackles raising, take that as a sign that you need to stop and listen. If you blood pressure rose too quickly to really hear what was being said, take a few deep breaths, ask the person to repeat themselves if necessary, and listen again. Don't add to what the person is saying, don't jump to conclusions, don't immediately think "Oh you think I'm a monster now," just try to actually hear what they are trying to communicate to you.
Set your intentions aside.
Your intentions have little to no impact on the way in which your actions may have harmed others. Do not try to absolve yourself of responsibility with your good intentions.
Try to hear the impact of what you have done.
Don't just hear the action: "You consistently speak over me in work meetings and you do not do that to white people in our meetings." That is easy to brush off as, "I just don't agree with you," or "I didn't mean to, I was just excited about a point I was trying to make. Don't make a big deal out of nothing."
Try to also hear the impact: "Your bias is invalidating my professional expertise and making me feel singled out and unappreciated in a way which compounds all of the many ways I'm made to feel this way as a woman of color in the workplace."
Remember that you do not have all the pieces.
You are not living as a person of color. You will never fully understand the impact that sustained, systemic racism has on people of color. You will never be able to fully empathize with the pain your actions may have caused. Nothing will get you there. Do not discount someone's complaint because their emotions seem foreign to you. You may think that someone is making a mountain out of a molehill, but when it comes to race, actual mountains are indeed made of countless molehills stacked on top of each other. Each one adds to the enormity of the problem of racism.
Nobody owes you a debate.
It is very hard on people of color to call out racism. Sometimes, that is the most they can do. And while you may really want to get it all sorted out right then and there, understand that when you ask to "talk it out" you are asking for more emotional labor from somebody who is already hurt. It is nice if you get it, and you should be grateful, but it is not owed to you. You can still give this serious thought. You can still look deep inside yourself, you can still Google for more insight, even if the person who brought this to your attention does not want to engage further.
Nobody owes you a relationship.
Even if you've recognized where you've been racist, worked to make amends, and learned from your mistakes, the person that you harmed does not owe you a relationship of any kind. In a hostile world, people of color have the right to cut off contact with people who have harmed them. They do not have to stick around to see all the progress you've made.
Remember that you are not the only one hurt.
Yes, it hurts to know that somebody thinks you are being racist. But you were not the first one hurt here - it is the deep hurt of racism that forced this person to confront you. Do not make this about your pain at being called out.
If you can see where you have been racist, or if you can see where your actions have caused harm, apologize and mean it.
Think about how you can make amends if possible, and how you can avoid those same harmful actions in the future. If you cannot see here you have been racist, take some more time to seriously consider the issue some more before declaring your actions "not racist." There have been conversations I've had about race with white people that ended in absolute denials, only to have that white person come back to me months later to say that they finally realized that their actions WERE racist and that were sorry for the harm they had caused, not only by their actions, but by their vigorous denial of my experiences.
If, after a lot of careful thought, you still do not see your actions as racist and feel strongly that this is simply a misunderstanding, do not then validate that person's hurt.
A true misunderstanding isn't so just because your intentions were not racist. A true misunderstanding is when your actions do not actually have a racist impact even though somebody thinks they might. If I hit you but do not intend to hit you, that is not a misunderstanding about whether or not I hit you. The situation you are in may be a misunderstanding - it does happen, even if it happens less often than you think. But even if it is, the pain of the person confronting you is real. Do not deny that. Do not call it silly. Explain your viewpoint if you feel it's necessary, and hope that explanation sheds light that helps that person see the situation the same way you do, but don't deny someone's lived experience. Your goal is to find out if you are being racist, not to prove that you aren't, and to resolve a painful situation if possible.

This is not an easy process, and it is not at all fun.

Excerpt from
So you want to talk about race
By IJEOMA OLUO

Anti-racism accountability

A Practical Guide

Most people doing anti-racism work lack meaningful accountability systems, which limits their effectiveness and can even cause unintended harm. This guide helps you build relationships that will strengthen your advocacy through honest feedback and mutual growth.

The Core Question:

Who in your life will lovingly tell you when you're getting anti-racism work wrong?

You need someone who cares about your growth, is committed to racial justice, and will offer honest feedback when needed.

Why This Matters

The privilege paradox: The more privilege you have, the harder it is to see your own blind spots because privilege shields you from experiencing the full impact of racist systems.

What Healthy Accountability Looks Like

Build these four types of connections that can offer different perspectives and honest feedback:

Mutual learning relationships with people from different backgrounds who can offer perspectives you might miss
Structured feedback opportunities in your workplace or community where you can ask specific questions about your impact
Trusted friends or colleagues who will point out when you're centering your own comfort instead of focusing on justice
Professional or community mentors who have been doing this work longer and can help you navigate complex situations

Essential Principles

The key is making these relationships mutual and meaningful - create partnerships that benefit everyone involved, not one-sided arrangements:

Don't ask people to fix you or manage your emotions
Focus on mutual growth and learning
Avoid extractive relationships where others do all the emotional labour

Your Action Steps

Start with honest self-reflection about your current approach:

What recent feedback have you received about your anti-racism work?
What patterns do you notice in how you handle racial justice issues?
Where do you see room for improvement?

Next: Identify one person who could offer caring, honest feedback about your advocacy and approach them about building a growth-focused relationship.

Why This Framework Works

This approach addresses racism more effectively by preventing common problems:

Breaks isolation that leads to ineffective advocacy
Addresses blind spots created by privilege
Prevents harm from well-intentioned but misguided efforts
Builds trust with affected communities through genuine accountability
Creates lasting change through sustained, relationship-based work

Who Benefits Most

This framework is especially valuable for people with racial privilege, workplace leaders, educators, and anyone new to anti-racism work who wants to avoid common pitfalls and develop more effective practices.

Based on
The question that changes everything: Who helps you grow?
By SHARON HURLEY HALL, Sharon's Anti-Racism Newsletter, Aug 31 2025

Some anti-racism initiatives

There are a myriad of such initiatives world-wide.
Here are just a few from my small corner of the world.

South Asian Canadian Legacy Project

2020 - 2022

SACLP

The South Asian Canadian Legacy Project (SACLP) - through the University of the Fraser Valley’s South Asian Studies Institute - aims to raise awareness and knowledge of the valuable contributions of South Asian Canadians to British Columbia’s diverse cultures, history, heritage, economy and society.

The SACLP will create access to new educational materials, digital collections, exhibits and online resources showcasing the historical role of the South Asian Canadians in British Columbia.

The project was financially backed by a grant from the province, part of the government’s response to community consultations on racism and hate conducted in 2019.

The South Asian Canadian Legacy Project empowers British Columbians to discover, learn, research, and share the rich and robust histories of South Asian Canadians who helped build the province.

Abbotsford and Mission organizations get grants for anti-racism projects

April 2022

“Over the past two years, we’ve seen a staggering increase in racism and hate incidents in B.C.,” said “These grants are one of many steps in our fight against racism, helping organizations on the ground address systemic racism.”

- Rachna Singh,
Parliamentary Secretary for
Anti-Racism Initiatives.

Grants to help tackle discrimination and racism were awarded to:

The Reach Gallery Museum,
Abbotsford, BC
For a project called Anti-Black Racism, Mental Health and the Fraser Valley, which comprises three events supporting the mental health of the growing Black community in Abbotsford and across the Fraser Valley.
The Kara-Kata Afrobeat Society of Canada, Mission, BC
For conducting an African-Canadian Community Needs Assessment in which they will gather African community members from around the Lower Mainland (in person) and around Canada (virtually) to assess the top needs and desires of the community to create economic opportunity, empowerment and camaraderie.

Panel discussion

FVRD Adopts Anti-Racial Discrimination and Anti-Racism Policy

April 2022

The Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) Board adopted an Anti-Racial Discrimination and Anti-Racism Policy at the April 28, 2022 Board meeting. The policy shows the FVRD’s commitment to conducting day-to-day business operations and governance in an anti-discriminatory and anti-racist manner and environment.

“Our board welcomes this policy which will strengthen our commitment to creating a welcoming and safe environment for all our staff, elected officials, volunteers, and contractors.”

- Jason Lum, FVRD Chair

The Policy

POLICY PRINCIPLES:

The Fraser Valley Regional District:

acknowledges and recognizes the existence in our community of racism in all its forms;
is committed to breaking down barriers, deconstructing biases and fostering and promoting an inclusive, respectful, and welcoming environment for all, one that is free from racial discrimination and racism; and,
acknowledges its role and responsibility in protecting every person's right to be free from racial discrimination and racism.

NOTE: The Fraser Valley Regional District is a local government that delivers over 100 separate services to over 280,000 residents in the beautiful Fraser Valley.

Be careful with your words
Part 1

The Real Power Behind Every Word We Speak and Hear

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”

Wishful thinking, my friends!
That catchy little phrase our parents told us to use to ensure unkind words would just “bounce” off of us, RARELY, if ever, worked. Words have tremendous power over us from a very young age until we graduate to heaven! And words often are at the root of our insecurities.

One doesn’t realize the impact and implications that can come from the power of our words. Do we understand the implications of those words spoken? Are they words that edify and build up or words that are disparaging and tear down? Are we choosing to receive words that hinder our self esteem or are we rejecting those words?

The words we use can have tremendous impact.

Let's be careful out there.

LEARN MORE

A lesson in cultural sensitivity

Be careful with your words
Part 2

Understanding When Your Words Perpetuate Oppression Without You Knowing It

True allyship begins not with defending our intentions, but with honouring the impact of our words and actions on others.

From Gaslighting to Grace:
Transforming Harmful Communication

When someone raises concerns about discrimination or bias, our response can either validate their experience or cause additional harm. Here's how to move from gaslighting phrases to respectful dialogue:

MINIMIZING AND DISMISSING

❌ Gaslighting: "You're being too sensitive" / "You're overreacting"
✅ Respectful: "I can see this is important to you.
Help me understand your perspective."

❌ Gaslighting: "That's not a big deal" /
"You're making a mountain out of a molehill"
✅ Respectful: "This clearly matters to you. Can you tell me more about why?"

DENYING REALITY

❌ Gaslighting: "That never happened" / "You're imagining things"
✅ Respectful: "I remember things differently.
Can we talk through what each of us experienced?"

❌ Gaslighting: "I don't see color" / "I treat everyone the same"
✅ Respectful: "I want to understand how my actions affected you,
regardless of my intentions."

SHIFTING BLAME

❌ Gaslighting: "You're playing the race card" / "You're making this about race"
✅ Respectful: "I'm sorry my words had that impact. What can I do differently?"

❌ Gaslighting: "If you just acted differently, this wouldn't happen"
✅ Respectful: "I need to examine my own behavior and assumptions here."

QUESTIONING COMPETENCE

❌ Gaslighting: "Are you sure you understood correctly?" / "Maybe you misheard"
✅ Respectful: "Let me make sure I'm communicating clearly.
What did you hear me say?"

FALSE EQUIVALENCIES

❌ Gaslighting: "But I have [minority] friends" /
"Everyone experiences discrimination"
✅ Respectful: "I want to focus on understanding your specific experience
right now."

INTENT VS. IMPACT

❌ Gaslighting: "That's not what I meant" (conversation ender)
✅ Respectful: "That wasn't my intention, but I understand it had a harmful
impact. I'm sorry and want to learn from this."

The Difference: Respectful responses center the affected person's experience, take accountability, and invite continued dialogue rather than shutting it down.

Why This Matters: Gaslighting phrases perpetuate systemic inequalities by silencing voices that speak up about prejudice, creating hostile environments for marginalized groups and preventing meaningful progress on discrimination issues.

Be careful with your words
Part 3

The Conversational Alley-Oop: Setting Others Up to Shine While Breaking Down Barriers

Here are a few examples of conversational alley-oops that can address marginalized themes:

Age/Ageism
Instead of: Assuming older workers are behind the times, Alley-oop: "You've seen so many changes in this industry - what's the most brilliant adaptation you've made over the years?"
Disability
Instead of: Focusing on limitations, Alley-oop:
"I noticed you've developed some really creative problem-solving approaches - how did you figure out that system?"
Gender in Male-Dominated Fields
Instead of: Questioning women's presence in STEM/leadership, Alley-oop: "Breaking into this field must have taken incredible determination - what was the moment you knew you'd made it?"
Immigration/Cultural Background
Instead of: "Where are you really from?" assumptions, Alley-oop: "You're fluent in multiple languages - how did you master that skill? That must open so many doors."
Economic Background
Instead of: Assumptions about "pulling yourself up by bootstraps," Alley-oop: "You've built something amazing from the ground up - what was your smartest early decision?"
LGBTQ+ Identity
Instead of: Invasive personal questions, Alley-oop: "You seem so confident in who you are - what advice would you give to someone still finding their authentic self?"

What makes this particularly powerful when engaging with marginalized individuals is how it flips the typical dynamic. Rather than putting people in defensive positions where they must counter negative assumptions, these questions place them center stage as the experts of their own remarkable journeys.

What if the most powerful tool for combating discrimination wasn't a lecture or argument, but simply knowing how to ask the right question at the right moment?

I recently discovered the "conversational alley-oop" - a deceptively simple technique that transforms how we connect with others, especially those who face discrimination, a technique where you ask questions that allow others to share their victories and achievements, making them feel valued and accomplished. Like a basketball alley-oop pass that sets up a teammate for an easy dunk, these questions position people to tell stories that highlight their strengths and successes, creating positive feelings and stronger connections.

Countering Racist and Discriminatory Tropes

This technique can powerfully counter racist and discriminatory narratives by:

Humanizing individuals beyond stereotypes:
When you ask someone from a marginalized group about their achievements - "How did you build your business?" or "What inspired you to become a doctor?" - you're inviting them to share their full humanity rather than being reduced to harmful generalizations.
Highlighting competence and success:
Discriminatory tropes often portray certain groups as less capable or accomplished. The conversational alley-oop does the opposite - it actively seeks out and celebrates people's victories, directly contradicting deficit-based stereotypes.
Creating empathy through storytelling:
When people share their struggle-to-success stories, listeners naturally develop empathy and respect. It's harder to maintain prejudiced views about someone whose journey and achievements you've genuinely engaged with.
Shifting power dynamics:
Instead of putting marginalized individuals in defensive positions where they must counter negative assumptions, this technique places them in positions of strength where they can showcase their accomplishments and wisdom.

The key is approaching these conversations with genuine curiosity and respect, allowing people to define themselves through their triumphs rather than society's limiting narratives about their identity groups.

FEDERAL

Canada's Anti-Racist Strategy

Racism divides communities, breeds fear and fuels animosity. Addressing racism and discrimination is a longstanding commitment of Canadians who see our country's diversity as a source of strength. Canada is strong, not in spite of our differences, but because of them. Unfortunately, Canada is not immune to racism and discrimination — challenges remain when it comes to fully embracing diversity, openness and cooperation.

Vision

The Government of Canada’s vision seeks to foster and promote an inclusive society where everyone is able to fully participate in the economic, cultural, social and political spheres.

Context

Achieving this vision is not just a way to build a better country, but also a means of addressing the human cost of racism and discrimination. As the Prime Minister noted on March 21, 2017 on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,

“racism devalues individuals, divides communities, and breeds fear and animosity throughout society.”

Over the years, the Government of Canada has put in place a number of laws, policies and programs that focus on overcoming racism and discrimination, including:

For more information on Canada's Anti-Racist Strategy,
please see:
BUILDING A FOUNDATION FOR CHANGE

Canada's Anti-Racism Strategy 2019-2022

At https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/anti-racism-engagement/anti-racism-strategy.html

PROVINCIAL

Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network

The Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network is a multi-faceted, province-wide approach for challenging racism. The program connects communities with information, support and training they need to respond to, and prevent future incidents of, racism and hate.

Overview

The Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network delivers coordinated services through a “Hub and Spoke” model. This model has a centralized “hub” that anchors the program and provides oversight; the “spokes” are community-based branches that help see through service delivery.

The Resilience BC Hub:
- Connects communities
- Increases capacity to share information and resources
- Coordinates training and anti-racism initiatives
The Spokes:
- Represent communities and work with local members
- Identify local priorities and move projects forward

We see a future free from racism and hate. The Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network is bringing communities together to do the hard work and make this vision a reality.

End Racism and Hate:
Your Right. Your Responsibility.

For more information on the Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network and for anti-racism tools and resources,
please see:

https://www.resiliencebc.ca/

Some Government
Anti-racism Initiatives

Your child just came out of the closet

Now what?

What can apples teach us about racism?

FIND OUT

When your child comes out, it’s essential to respond with love, understanding, and support.
Here are some steps you can take:

Listen Actively: Focus on what they have to say. Be open and encourage an ongoing dialogue. Remember, coming out is an expression of trust.
Express Gratitude: Thank them for sharing their feelings with you. Acknowledge the courage it takes to come out.
Avoid Personal Worries: Put aside your own concerns for now. This moment is about them, not you.
Be Honest: If you don’t fully understand yet, admit it. It’s okay to learn together.
Affirm Your Love: Reassure them of your love and support.

“Now what?”

By MIKE ROSEBUSH, PhD

My Child Just "Came Out“ - Now What?

By CHAD W. THOMPSON

What to Do (and Not Do) When Your Child Comes Out to You

From FAMILY EQUALITY

When Your Child Opens the Closet Door

7 ways to deal your feelings and show your love

By KATHY McCOY, PhD

What to Do if Your Child Comes Out as Trans or Nonbinary

These tips for parents of gender nonconforming kids go to 11.

By DANA DUBOIS

A Starter Guide for Parents of a Queer Child from an Adult Queerdo

By AND ALSO…

My Child Came Out As Genderfluid 3 Years Ago — 10 Things I Wish I Knew Then

10 things every parent should do when their child comes out.

By DANA DUBOIS

I’m Not Proud of My Child for Coming Out

Gender is only the beginning of all that they are…

By DANA DUBOIS

The Curb-Cut Effect

Everyone benefits in a society experiencing the Curb-Cut Effect.

First documented as the response to the advocacy of people in wheelchairs, these sidewalk indentations turned out to benefit many: those pulling suitcases on wheels, pushing babies and young children in strollers, bikers, workers with large racks making deliveries, and many others. The Curb-Cut Effect is a vibrant illustration of how laws and programs designed to benefit vulnerable groups, such as the disabled or people of color, often end up benefiting all. That creation underscores a foundational belief: we are one nation, we rise or fall together.

Without equity, there can be neither progress nor prosperity. Despite years of politicians insisting otherwise, the laws of economic gravity have always run in reverse. Opportunity doesn’t trickle down; it cascades out and up.

The Curb-Cut Effect, in its essence, asserts that an investment in one group can cascade out and up and be a substantial investment in the broader well-being of a nation -- one whose policies and practices create an equitable economy, a healthy community of opportunity, and just society.

From "Equity: Not a Zero-Sum Game", by Angela Glover Blackwell, author of "Curb-Cut Effect", published in Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2017.

Excerpt from

PolicyLink, Lifting up what works

The Curb-Cut Effect

Curb cut effect:

where accommodations and improvements made for a minority end up benefiting a much larger population in expected and unexpected ways.

"When we solve problems of the most vulnerable with nuance and specificity, the benefits cascade up and out."

- Angela Glover Blackwell

From Angela Glover Blackwell interview:
Equity is not a zero sum game

The Hard Truth: Information alone won't save us

Check Your Premise! It may be misguided.

Some suggestions for how we can do better.

IDEAS FOR IMPROVEMENT

Where to start: A Framework for Action

The Path Forward: Collective Responsibility

TOGETHER, WE CAN BUILD SOMETHING BETTER.

Empathy and Understanding: The key to unravelling racism

The Bottom Line

Our commitment to challenging discrimination and promoting equity is essential for creating a more just and compassionate world.

What if, instead of hating other's beliefs, we learned more about where they come from?

Changing someone's mind is possible, but it's not easy and it's not frequent.

Helping toxic people relinquish their destructive beliefs

Building bridges instead of walls

The Heart Behind the Wall:

The Heart Model: Our Human Journey

A title goes here. Click to edit and add your own.

How can we encourage more people to celebrate and appreciate diversity? Ten helpful suggestions.

"What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness." - George Saunders

CIVILITY: The importance of working for the common good

COMPASSION: Let's revive the Golden Rule

What Do I Owe You? First, to do you no harm

Extended Compassion for Racial Healing Moving Beyond Tolerance: Racial healing/equity through Extended Compassionate Education

We have the solution.

STEREOTYPING: Why we stereotype and how we can stop

By JONATHAN MORRIS SCHWARTZ People love to claim they don’t judge others by their gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation, but they do.

​

And how we can find a way to move past it By KATIE JGLN

"What attitudes and actions toward race and ethnicity might we adopt today if we had the best interests of our youngest generation in mind?"

“What is the best response to anti-Semitism in America?”

Rule #1: Don't ask others to educate you.

"Strength lies in differences, not in similarities."

A title goes here. Click to edit and add your own.

Be an anti-racist.

'Not Racist' Is Not Enough: Putting In The Work To Be Anti-Racist

10 Keys to Everyday Anti-Racism By KIRSTEN IVEY-COLSON and LYNN TURNER

How to not raise a racist white kid By JENNIFER HARVEY

Anti-racism 101: Own Your Racism By REBECCA BERRY

A Better Anti-Racism? By COLEMAN HUGHES

When Should You Talk to Your Children About Racism? By NIA NORRIS

?

Be an anti-racist ally.

ally

a person who supports a community with which they do not personally identify.

SELF-HELP

An Introduction to Activism and Action

Dr. Jennifer Harvey speaks about raising active and able allies.

What I Look For in an 'Ally' Allyship means different things to different people…and you’re about to get a glimpse into what it means to me!

By ANTHONY EICHBERGER

Since everyone seems to have their own definition of what makes someone an “ally,” I won’t attempt to label myself as such

By ANTHONY EICHBERGER

Who’s talking and who’s listening?

By KERELA TAYLOR

Some allyship notions to consider

How Can White People Better Support Their Black Colleagues?

Here are three ways Black people say their white co-workers and managers can be an antidote to systemic racism:

Reciprocal relationships

Don't avoid uncomfortable conversations

Connect outside work

​

By TAI SALIH E-RYT

Empower people to be a force for good.

The Seven Sacred Teachings* that will go a long way to making for a better world.

Kindness is not the solution to racism

I just got called racist. What do I do now?

Anti-racism accountability

Some anti-racism initiatives

FVRD Adopts Anti-Racial Discrimination and Anti-Racism Policy

Be careful with your words Part 1

Be careful with your words Part 2

Be careful with your words Part 3

Vision

Context

Overview

Some Government Anti-racism Initiatives

Your child just came out of the closet

Now what?

By AND ALSO…

10 things every parent should do when their child comes out.

By DANA DUBOIS

The Hard Truth:
Information alone won't save us

Check Your Premise!
It may be misguided.

Some suggestions for
how we can do better.

Where to start:
A Framework for Action

The Path Forward:
Collective Responsibility

Empathy and Understanding:
The key to unravelling racism

The Heart Model:
Our Human Journey

How can we encourage more people to celebrate and appreciate diversity?
Ten helpful suggestions.

"What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness."
- George Saunders

What Do I Owe You?
First, to do you no harm

Extended Compassion for Racial Healing
Moving Beyond Tolerance: Racial healing/equity through Extended Compassionate Education

By JONATHAN MORRIS SCHWARTZ
People love to claim they don’t judge others by their gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation, but they do.

And how we can find a way to move past it
By KATIE JGLN

“What is the best response to
anti-Semitism in America?”

Rule #1:
Don't ask others to educate you.

10 Keys to Everyday Anti-Racism
By KIRSTEN IVEY-COLSON and LYNN TURNER

How to not raise a racist white kid
By JENNIFER HARVEY

Anti-racism 101: Own Your Racism
By REBECCA BERRY

A Better Anti-Racism?
By COLEMAN HUGHES

When Should You Talk to Your Children About Racism?
By NIA NORRIS

What I Look For in an 'Ally'
Allyship means different things to different people…and you’re about to get a glimpse into what it means to me!

Be careful with your words
Part 1

Be careful with your words
Part 2

Be careful with your words
Part 3

Some Government
Anti-racism Initiatives