White People, Your Complicity is Enabling Racism in Nonprofits
This essay was originally published as part of the Richmond Racial Equity Essays, the full collection can be found at www.richmondracialequityessays.com.
In my role as a change management and strategic planning consultant, I get access to lots of drama – a client even quipped the other day – "You must know all the secrets." I also have the joy of walking alongside people through big decisions and complicated moments and being mired in, oftentimes, painful moments. Our equity consulting framework predates the Racial Reckoning sparked by the murder of George Floyd. We have worked with non-profits throughout the Mid-Atlantic region since our founding in 2013 and maintained a client base throughout the state, including Charlottesville which experienced a violent uprising in August of 2017. This has given me a structural view of racism across the Commonwealth as it plays out in organizations and boardrooms. The racism I see in non-profit boards is pervasive, and it needs to be called out and stopped if we are going to make real strides to advance racial equity.
“White reader, I would like to address you. It’s past time to call you out for white complicity in the backward momentum seen throughout nonprofits in the Richmond region. ”
My vantage point, as a white woman accompanying non-profits on their organizational development journeys, has allowed me to see the backroom power structures and racism on display in our nonprofit governance structures, funding decisions, and secret conversations of the city. White reader, I would like to address you. It's past time to call you out for white complicity in the backward momentum seen throughout nonprofits in the Richmond region. Our denial of our status as the former capital of the confederacy, mixed with our southern pride, mixed with our performative attitude as a progressive medium-sized city is jarring. I've lived here my entire adult life, and it is regularly painful to encounter a handful of folks continuously making decisions for everyone.
Spotting Racism in Nonprofits
“More often than ever in my 15 years as a consultant, I find myself wrestling with pushback on issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). We all know that the pushback itself isn’t new, but the forthright out-loud requests/suggestions/demands are new.”
More often than ever in my 15 years as a consultant, I find myself wrestling with pushback on issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). We all know that the pushback itself isn’t new, but the forthright out-loud requests/suggestions/demands are new. On the ground, this looks like organizations replacing the word "equity" with "opportunity" in their documents. This looks like organizations not counting, reviewing, or addressing the retention rates of BIPOC board members and staff. This looks like lawsuits and requests to get back to "our core business." This looks like one-day training and a check-the-box attitude towards DEIB initiatives. This looks like a staff strategizing all day on how to work around their board's inaction and the failure of nonprofits whose origin story is based on white saviorism to acknowledge their start as a flawed concept. Around all of these tables are well-meaning white folks sad at the state of affairs, but not speaking up.
My well-meaning white folks in the room – I need you to step up in white spaces and do better. The common suggestions of reading, listening, learning, getting training, and sitting in discomfort aren't new and are your first steps – but you will notice they are all introverted activities. These are all completely necessary, but what we need is more speaking up around tables where power is being wielded. Nonprofit boards are spaces of immense power in our city. Decisions impacting folks with the greatest needs and largest barriers to health and well-being are being made every day and most often by white folks with a lack of connection to those they want to be "helping."
Before you tell me that you need to study the issue, know that ordering a study of a sector is a white solution and a political solution to problems exercised often in organizations. Nonprofit boards get stuck in a cycle without an action plan. They say they care about equity but have no actionable plans to do anything about it. They use the cover of fiscal sustainability, outcomes, and the need to study an issue to bring progress to a standstill.
Moving Forward
It is often easy to spot these moments of injustice in boardrooms, but it is harder to figure out how to move forward. That movement forward requires white people in non-profits, particularly those in positions of power and influence, to begin doing one or more of the actions outlined below on an ongoing basis:
Find other well-meaning white folks and talk about it. Do not burden your friends and coworkers of color by asking them how to fix things. Strategize over lunches, revisit past interactions that made you feel unease where you couldn't figure out how to address it, craft strategies for transformations around board tables, practice how to speak up and develop your own toolkit to confront racism – the overt kind and more importantly the quiet racist behaviors of leaning on imagery of white success measures and white expectations.
Just listen more. Listen to the words and wisdom and silences of people of color. Once you concentrate on listening, identify places where your power could have been used to destabilize white-centered thinking.
Sit in discomfort more often. Two of the most uncomfortable things I revisit often are Tema Okun and the late Kenneth Jones’ work on a White Supremacist Culture from 1999 and revisited in 2021 and Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi. If you are like me, our formative K-12 education and beyond skipped or repositioned a lot of history.
Confront the facts – the all/mostly white board and the all/mostly white staff focused on Black communities. If you find your board hyper-focused on outcomes but disconnected from systemic racism that impacts your work – go beyond noticing these things and be vocal and name these things.
Push your board to enact a Code of Conduct that is co-developed by staff and clients/participants and use it as an accountability tool for poor behavior and flawed strategies.
Lessons from the Field
The key difference between boards that are stuck and boards that are on a journey lies in intention and planning. Statement or bold pronouncements without any accompanying plans are not effective. DIEB plans that have metrics, benchmarks, and internal deadlines are examples of boards where movement is happening. Below are some resources and examples of organizations making progress:
Organizations that are clear on their values, their impact on DEI, and who make value-based decisions are on the leading edge of good progress. Our team at The Spark Mill recently provided some tools to begin interrogating and then activating your values.
Adopting a DEIB plan that details growth areas and has been collectively assembled by staff, board, and stakeholders is necessary. Board Source has some beginning resources in your journey towards racial equity.
Sometimes you need to say goodbye. Good practices of organizations involve board self-evaluations and occasionally parting ways with board members who do not share your organizational values. We have begun to notice boards using the Code of Conduct to let go of problematic board members in keeping with bylaws.
The Journey Continues…
As a white woman raised in a rural area, I accept my lifelong journey toward anti-racism. I regularly use the wrong words, fail to consider my white privilege or hold onto flawed belief systems. I am a work in progress and strive to do better all of my tomorrows. For the long-term health and well-being of our city and the people who live here, I need the well-meaning white folks to get louder around white tables of nonprofit power.