Why Now?
Photo by Mercedes Mehling on Unsplash.
The urgency for a clear position on anti-racism and being an anti-racist organization feels different right now. In fact, it’s felt different since the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. Not many will disagree with this sentiment. That said, it’s actually been urgent — life-and-death urgent — for many Black and Indigenous People for a long time. It’s taken a dramatic shift in the public’s engagement in anti-racism for this urgency to catch up with corporations, workplaces, and even places where you’d expect it already be urgent, such as credit unions. I am often asked to reflect on the sense of urgency that organizations are feeling around their EDI efforts and especially anti-racism: why now?
Here are a couple things to consider:
1. We’re about to make public our stance on anti-racism: Great! It probably took a while to get here. You’ve likely been doing the inner work. However, let’s be real, if your organization is appearing to just be starting your anti-racism journey today, you’ve essentially missed the boat. Of course, it’s still not too late to get caught up, but the damage to your reputation is already done. Your market and workforce is seeing is that it took you almost a year to come out with a position. That silence is no longer seen as neutral. That silence was your position.
George Floyd was killed May 25, 2020. If you miss the anniversary, you have absolutely missed the boat. And catching up will take a speedboat in the form of a really bold, overt and resourced effort — to show the inner work you’ve done, and back it up with substantial structural change. Let’s face it, whether your team has told you or not, you’re in damage control.
2. What if we’re still not done our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy? That’s a good point. It would probably be optimal to align your anti-racism work with your EDI work. In fact, if you could combine them, now you have J-EDI. The “J” is for justice. But here’s why that doesn’t matter:
Historically, EDI strategies were not inherently anti-racist. They’ve been focused on representation (diversity), and the experiences of employees (inclusion) which supported efforts around diversity (recruitment and retention). Only more advanced strategies, or organizations that are further on the journey, focus on the systemic barriers that BIPOC people might face.
An anti-racism commitment actually propels EDI efforts. Knowing that addressing systemic change generally happens later in an EDI effort, having an anti-racism commitment in advance of a thoroughly co-created EDI strategy (the preferred approach) actually primes the workforce and senior leadership for a more robust EDI strategy. It’s like pre-heating the oven for the perfect pizza. The commitment around anti-racism gets the oven hotter, and it gets us moving faster.
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Strike while the iron is hot. There is no try, only do. It doesn’t matter what mantra around urgency you use, they’re all applicable in this situation. Wait any longer and the reputational damage only gets worse, which will make your EDI strategy feel even less genuine. If there’s anything that boards know well, it’s risk. Weight the risk of remaining silent, and you’ll see the time to act is now.
If you’re still not convinced, that’s OK. Just don’t be seen as being in the way. Otherwise, you are metaphorically the crosswind that is knowingly or unknowingly slowing the speedboat down. What organizations need right now is to know that their leadership, and especially their board, is the tailwind behind them — pushing them to get caught up.