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Dismantling Racism Resource Book

While white staff may develop a greater appreciation for people of color through diversity
training, it can avoid these questions and leave the dominant organizational culture intact. Multi-
cultural awareness often assumes a level playing field - despite real power imbalances between
white people and people of color.

Who’s Got the Power?
In contrast, the racial justice approach of Western States' Dismantling Racism (DR) Project
analyzes race in an institutional and cultural context, not as a problem to be solved by individual
enlightenment. It develops an understanding of power, who has it, and how it gets used. As
practiced with progressive groups around the region, the goal of the DR Project is to build a
shared analysis of how racism is perpetuated by organizational structures, processes, norms and
expectations (in addition to individual behavior and attitudes).

Jean Hardisty, in Mobilizing Resentment, calls for programs like the DR Project to “move white
people beyond tolerance and inclusion, to envision actual power-sharing and learning to take
leadership from people of color. . . . “

The DR Project assumes that white people and people of color have different work to do. White
people need to understand how their privilege operates, how they perpetuate racism, and how
they can become allies to people of color. For people of color, the process of empowerment
involves struggling with the impact of internalized racist oppression. The Project attempts to
develop models that value and build leadership in people of color while holding white people
accountable for their racism. Diversity training can ask white people to change their
consciousness while leaving their dominance intact; a racial justice approach requires an
organizational transformation of power relations.

Who’s at the Table?

The organizational change sought through diversity training assumes that appreciating and
increasing human variety is important and necessary. The end goal is peaceful integration of
people of color, rather than a strong shared analysis of racism and anti-oppression practices. This
approach often leads to tokenization. People of color are like the raisins in my oatmeal; it just
takes a few to make the dish more rich.

The diversity model's focus on who is sitting around the table can unreasonably assume
individuals are speaking “for their people.” Paul Kivel, in Uprooting Racism, warns of the
dangers of tokenization: “We don’t want to become complacent and believe that we understand
the need of a community through hearing from a few ‘representatives.’”

A racial justice analysis does not ask individuals to speak for the interests of an entire
constituency. Furthermore, it underscores the importance of paying as much attention to who is
not in the room as who is. In working with predominantly white organizations, the DR Project
helps them struggle with how to address the interests of those not directly included.

Dismantling Racism Project 7 Western States Center