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Dismantling Racism Resource Book

The All White Club

All White Clubs are non-profits that, without trying, find themselves with an all white
organization.

These are not groups that have intentionally excluded people of color. In fact, many times they
have developed recruitment plans to get more people of color involved in their group. However,
when people of color join the group, they are essentially asked to fit into the existing culture.
Many leave after a frustrating period of trying to be heard. After years of trying, the Club
cannot figure out why they do not have more people of color in their group; they begin to blame

people of color for not being interested in the group’s important issue or work, or they just give
up. They do not understand that without analyzing and changing the organizational culture,
norms, and power relations, they will always be an all white club. While they are good people,
they have no analysis of racism or of power relations and no accountability to people or
communities of color.

The Affirmative Action or ‘Token’ Organization

The Affirmative Action or ‘Token’ Organization is committed to eliminating discrimination in
hiring and promotion.

The Affirmative Action or ‘Token’ Organization sets clear affirmative action goals, clear and
unambiguous job qualifications and criteria, a percentage of people of color who need to be in a
candidate pool for a new job, and a bias-reduced interview process. Staff and board are
encouraged to reduce and/or eliminate their prejudice and the organization may conduct

prejudice reduction workshops toward this end. There may be one or two people of color in
leadership positions. For people of color, coming into the organization feels like little more than
tokenism.
The Affirmative Action of ‘Token’ Organization is still basically a white club except it now

includes structural and legal means to bring people of color in.

The Multi-Cultural Organization

The Multi-Cultural Organization reflects the contributions and interests of diverse cultural and
social groups in its mission, operations, and products or services.

Dismantling Racism Project 58 Western States Center