Facebook Publication Date: 9/1/2020 21:09

We will also have this conversation, in a somewhat truncated form on my personal page but, for now, let me say that even though there is much with which I agree in the article below, what is missing is, as is often the case, an interrogation of the internal.

I am going to momentarily set to the side the deep reservations I have with concentrating efforts for equity to the corporate environment.

Those who know my positions well know that I have what I feel are very valid concerns about choosing to play the corporate game and hope to change it ‘from the inside’, rather than deeply critiquing the institution itself, which often means there will be no insider status for the person doing the critiquing.

Rather though, I do want to focus on what the article does not seem to address, which, in its absence, reinforces the myth of white buy-in.

The pull of that myth is strong. White people, and marginalized people as well, deeply want to believe that it is not a lack of will that makes for entrenched disparities, but that it is (best case) a lack of knowledge or (worst case) a lack of curiosity.

The third possibility, that white people do not at all *want* to do the work of racial justice well and durably and reliably is shot down and dismissed out of hand.

It should not be. The enduring nature of white supremacy, even when we ‘only’ start the clock 65 years ago has remained stubbornly extant, even with knowledge, even with policies and laws.

But we know that policies and mission statements and laws are only as good, and as enforceable as the people crafting and implementing them.

There is a strong disincentive to craft good laws and policies and guidelines, and a similarly strong lack of well to put in place metrics and measurements that give an accurate snapshot, and that also allow to drill deeper.

Absent the internal, absent getting into the heads of decision makers, and, crucially, decision makers *getting into their own heads* will there be a true push for competence in this issue.

Competence breeds effectiveness.

And how many white people truly want an effective racial justice blueprint?
Better to be ‘competent-adjacent’; finding words and deploying programs that *almost* hit the mark, but that lack the crucial leavening to make the cake actually rise–whether the missing ingredient is time, culture, resource allocation, or real consequences for individuals and organizations that fail, time and again, to miss the mark.

Fully 65 years later, this is no longer a question of knowledge or authentic applied competence. If it is being either crafted or implemented badly, the only reason for it must be that the lack of proficiency and efficacy is baked in.

So, queries.

What *would* a truly comprehensive and competent push actually look like?
Can the current organizational structure actually truly support what needs to happen in workplaces to make for real and durable change?

What is the role of culture?

And if, as I feel, one truly cannot get fully there from here, what needs to be reimagined or dismantled?

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2020/06/three-degrees-racism-america/613333/

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