Racial Equity Learning Resources

Adapted from LA County Department of Arts and Culture

Statement: brief explanation of why the organization is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and access, and the alignment of that commitment to the overall mission of the organization.

Policy: outlines the organization’s broad vision for and commitment to diversity, equity inclusion and access, and the alignment of that commitment to the overall mission of the organization as defined in their statement, and further details what the organization does to realize that statement.

Plan: outlines how the organization will work (now and in the future) toward complying fully with policy and evaluating progress on an annual basis.

NOTE: These three elements build on each other! Statements, policies, and plans should reflect organizational thinking about board, management, staff, volunteer, and artist composition, as well as programming and audiences/participants.

Diversity: The demographic mix of a specific collection of people, taking into account elements of human difference, but focusing particularly on race and ethnicity, lesbian, gay, bi, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) populations, people with disabilities, and women.

Equity: The promotion of justice, impartiality and fairness within the procedures, processes, and distribution of resources by institutions or systems. Tackling equity issues requires an understanding of the underlying or root causes of outcome disparities within our society.

Inclusion: The degree to which diverse individuals are able to participate fully in the decision-making processes within an organization or group

• Diversity ≠ equity (demographic variety is a means of advancing equity, not an end in itself)
• Diversity ≠ inclusion (presence does not ensure voice in decision-making processes)
• Equality ≠ equity (ideals of “sameness” differ from those of “fairness;” they fail to acknowledge structural imbalances and leave historically disadvantaged groups at the margins) Source: Philanthropy New York

Self-Determination: The Self-Determination theory of cultural equity calls for full participation in and expression of cultural life for communities of color through models that are organic to those communities, and that look beyond established nonprofit arts funding and advocacy tactics.

At its zenith, Self-Determination seeks nothing less than wholesale societal and cultural transformation. With Self-Determination, ownership of cultural decisions is located within the community: it’s the community members themselves who get to shape cultural life. Advocates of Self-Determination view the current nonprofit and funding system in the United States with heavy skepticism. To them, its legacy of racism and class hegemony is still very much alive today, and will remain so as long as it continues to be largely controlled by the same wealthy, white elite class that founded it. Source: Making sense of Cultural Equity: When visions of a better future diverge, how do we choose a path forward? | Clara Inés Schuhmacher, Katie Ingersoll, Fari Nzinga, and Ian David Moss

Privilege is unearned (conscious or unconscious) access and power based on systemic bias. White privilege refers to the unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits and choices bestowed on people solely because they are white. Generally, white people who experience such privilege do so without being conscious of it. Source: Peggy McIntosh, Racial Equity Tools 

Racial bias is a harmful aversion to, stereotyping of, or discrimination against a race. Implicit bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. These biases, which encompass both favorable and unfavorable assessments, are activated involuntarily and without an individual’s awareness or intentional control. Source: Cheryl Staats, Kirwan Institute, The Ohio State University

Racial equity is the condition that would be achieved if one’s racial identity no longer predicted, in a statistical sense, how one fares. When we use the term, we are thinking about racial equity as one part of racial justice, and thus we also include work to address root causes of inequities, not just their manifestation. This includes elimination of policies, practices, attitudes and cultural messages that reinforce differential outcomes by race or fail to eliminate them. Source: Center for Assessment and Policy Development. 

• Racial equity results when you cannot predict advantage or disadvantage by race. But the route to achieving equity will not be accomplished through treating everyone equally. It will be achieved by treating everyone equitably, or justly according to their circumstances. Source: Race Matters Institute
• Strategies that advance equity require an analysis of the historical and, in many cases persistent (systemic) factors that create unequal conditions and thus unequal opportunity for certain groups of people. The pursuit of equity recognizes and accounts for the complex interaction between the dynamics of identity, socio-economic forces, and policy and practice that operate in the environments and contexts in which philanthropic investments occur. Source: D5 Coalition

Racism is a complex system of beliefs and behaviors, grounded in a presumed superiority of the white race. These beliefs and behaviors are conscious and unconscious; personal and institutional; and result in the oppression of people of color and benefit the dominant group, whites. A simpler definition is racial prejudice + power = racism. Source: People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond