Amidst heightened public consciousness of systemic and institutionalized racism, many members of our community are seeking ways to learn, listen, and act. In response to this opportunity for learning and sustained awareness, the Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee (DISC) and the Caring Communities (CC) have partnered to suggest weekly Action Steps for Anti-Racism that will be shared with the department weekly. Each week, we challenge our faculty, staff, and trainees to engage with a reading, podcast, or documentary, or take an action or set of actions that is recommended by our team. Individuals can follow Action Steps on their own or within an accountability group of colleagues and peers. Additionally, we encourage teams or services within the department to select one or more activities each month to complete and discuss at a monthly meeting.
Week 1: Action - Vote
This week, we will engage in ACTION.
Week 2: Read and Reflect
This week, we will engage in READING & REFLECTION.
Week 3: Join with Other Academics and Form Accountability Groups
This week, we will engage in JOINING WITH OTHER ACADEMICS & FORMING ACCOUNTABILITY GROUPS.
Week 4: Read and Reflect on Biases in Academic Medicine
and Academic Psychology
As mental health professionals, it is important for us to recognize that racial inequalities have played a large role in the history of our professions. This week, we encourage you to read and reflect on the history of how inequalities have shaped medicine and psychology, specifically in academic settings, and how as academics we can take important strides forward in eliminating widespread racism. Three readings are posted below. We encourage you to read, reflect, and think of ways these biases still shape our educational processes and the care we provide and consider how we this awareness can empower us to take action.
Week 5: - Learn - Read and Reflect on the Concept of Implicit Bias and Microaggression
Understanding the concept of implicit bias is central in addressing the racism pervasive in our society. This week, we invite you to read and reflect on the meaning of implicit bias and how it manifests, e.g., in the form of microaggressions, on various levels from the personal to the structural. Please access the following resource, which comprises part of a comprehensive training on equity and access for diverse youth funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences in partnership with several universities: https://ready.web.unc.edu/section-1-foundations/module-4-implicit-bias-microaggressions/
Feel free to share or discuss this resource with friends, family, and colleagues, particularly those who may not be as familiar with the concepts. Understanding them is a crucial starting point for beginning to effect substantive positive change in the realm of racial justice and equity.
Understanding the concept of implicit bias is central in addressing the racism pervasive in our society. Last week, we invited you to read about implicit biases and ways in which it may manifest. This week, we ask you to identify your own implicit biases. We all have implicit biases whether or not we are aware of them. The first step in working to undo these biases is to learn which ones we have, and work to consciously recognize them.
Before you get started, it may be helpful to recall what you learned last week about implicit biases. Feel free to revisit the webpage: https://ready.web.unc.edu/section-1-foundations/module-4-implicit-bias-microaggressions/
Week 6 - Learn to Recognize Your Own Implicit Bias
Then, take Harvard’s implicit association test to identify your own biases:
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
Once you have identified your own implicit biases on the test, work to recognize and challenge these in your day-to-day routine. We will discuss more ways to identify and act on these in part 3 next week.
Feel free to share or discuss this resource with friends, family, and colleagues, particularly those who may not be as familiar with the concepts. Understanding them is a crucial starting point for beginning to effect substantive positive change in the realm of racial justice and equity.
Week 7: Identify and Act
Understanding the concept of implicit bias is central in addressing the racism pervasive in our society. Over the last 2 weeks, we invited you to read about implicit biases and take the implicit association test to learn about your own biases. You may review these materials below.
If you’d like to read more about implicit biases, feel free to revisit the webpage: https://ready.web.unc.edu/section-1-foundations/module-4-implicit-bias-microaggressions/
If you’d like to revisit the Harvard implicit biases test, you can do so here https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
The next step is to identify moments when these biases are present in our day to day lives, and work to ensure that they do not harm others. This step is the hardest to implement, but also the most important in making concrete changes.
Feel free to share or discuss this resource with friends, family, and colleagues, particularly those who may not be as familiar with the concepts. Understanding them is a crucial starting point for beginning to effect substantive positive change in the realm of racial justice and equity.
Week 8: Learn - Facts About Racism in the Legal System
In order to contextualize the anger and frustration that has been expressed in wake of the most recent unjust killings of Black men and women, we need a broader understanding of institutionalized racism in the US. For the next few weeks, we will learn about the racist systems that result in mass incarceration of Black individuals, and how this has impacted racial disparities on a societal scale.
This week, we’ll start by reviewing the facts about racial disparities that exist within the legal system. For a 5 minute read, check out some preliminary statistics at this link: https://www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice-facts/
Then, if you have 90 minutes, you can get an entire history of racism and mass incarceration by watching the critically acclaimed documentary 13th, which is available for free on YouTube.
Trailer (3 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6IXQbXPO3I
Full length film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8
“CRIMINAL JUSTICE, EMPHASIS ON THE JUSTICE”
Last week we were introduced to the racial disparities that exist in our prisons and, if you were able to watch the documentary 13th, the history of racist policing in the US. This week, we’ll start to consider how these anti-Black practices can start in childhood and unjustly influence the trajectory of Black individuals’ lives.
When you have 15 minutes, we encourage you to watch the following TED Talk that illustrates the ways in which the criminal “justice” system sets Black children up for failure:
After viewing the talk, consider reflecting on the following points:
DISMANLTING RACISM IN THE LEGAL SYSTEM
Last week we learned about the school-to-prison pipeline and how systems that begin in childhood can unjustly influence the trajectory of Black individuals’ lives. This week, we will identify ways to get involved in addressing these injustices moving forward.
The easiest way to address these racial injustices is by learning about and contributing to preexisting programs that:
- In Atlanta/Georgia: Cool Girls
- Nationally: Black Girls Code
- In Atlanta/Georgia: Close the Jail ATL—Communities Over Cages
- Nationally: Movement for Black Lives—Defund the Police
- In Atlanta/Georgia: Southern Center for Human Rights
- Nationally: Equal Justice Initiative
- In Atlanta/Georgia: Gwinnett StoPP
- Nationally: Fair Fight
These are only a few examples but a great place to get started. For more programs, check out: http://psychiatry.emory.edu/faculty/diversity.and.inclusion.subcommittee/racial.justice.resources.html
WEEK 11: Reflect on the Book
“Everyday UBUNTU: Living better together, the African Way”
Mungi Ngomane
(Human rights activist and granddaughter of Peace Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu)
“Ubuntu” is a South African word that does not have a translation in English. It is a philosophy of life, a way to express that each person is inextricably connected with the humanity of others. It encapsulates the believe in a universal human bond. The literal translation means: “I am only because you are. We are one”.
As we reflect on the past weeks of activism to take steps towards change in our department, the health systems and programs within which we are embedded, the larger university community, the Atlanta community, and our country, we selected this book because it reminds us that we are in this together and we support each other. Therein lies our strength to change the world.
The quotes in this book summarize the principles we have been sharing for the past few weeks:
“Ubuntu teaches us …that absolutely everyone on this earth is of equal value because our humanity is what matters the most,” and that “Everyone deserves to be treated with humanity.”
“Ubuntu encourages us to drop our judgements and embrace compassion and understanding.”
And it shows the path to achieve change:
“If you want to go quickly, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together” (African proverb)
“Strength lies in Unity.”
We recommend you pick up this book – which seems to be written for these times and is full of ancestral wisdom and hope in the humanity in each of us – as we all connect to our responsibility towards our communities. By embracing the “Ubuntu” philosophy we hope to overcome division and become “stronger together in a world where we build bridges to connect.”
If you only have 5 minutes, we recommend you read the written Q&A interview with the author, Mungi Mgomane, and additional African proverbs and quotes, such as “If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you haven’t spent the night with a mosquito.”
We leave you with this final quote:
“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears” - Nelson Mandela