SYSTEMS OF OPPRESSION
To effectively dismantle oppression and create new systems and ways of being, we must change the way we relate to ourselves and each other within our personal/professional relationships and within our institutions (our media, our governments, our schools, our healthcare systems, our businesses, movements and organizations).
- Andrea Ranaej
Reforming Your Office
In order to understand why it’s necessary for organizations to reform and build inclusion within their company, it’s important for individuals to understand the long history of racially distributed resources and ideologies that shape the view of ourselves and others around us. To name specific institutions that are affected by these inequity are employment, housing, education, healthcare, government and other sectors. Spaces that are invested in white folks are the environments where the leadership that exists have the ability to enforce and perpetuate this narrative (individuals in power that are investing in the least marginalized groups of people). In order to understand how to service Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), you must invest in effectively serving people of color and individuals from different cultures.
An amazing example of “sharing the power” to reform systems of oppression, an organization call Solid Ground wrote their Agency’s Responsibilities:
- Do not create barriers to the full participation of people of color in our services and activities.
- Allow for the inclusion of the opinions and ideas of people of color in our decision-making processes at all levels of the organization.
- Support the hiring, retention and professional growth of people of color in the organization.
- Prioritize staff training to ensure that they understand the impacts of institutional racism and that we deliver services in a culturally competent manner.
As part of this process, management and supervisory staff must ensure that employees have a clear understanding of how racism manifests itself in our organization and the broader community, and how it impacts the services we provide and the people who receive our services.
Undoing hopes to bring anti-racism in the form of professionally dismantling oppression culture by creating expectations for managers and their employees.
In order for your leadership to help dismantle oppressive culture in your workplace, it’s necessary for the employer to hold each employee and leader to an anti-racist standard in all that they do. Examples of how leadership can hold the company accountable:
Learn about white privilege and how racial superiority plays a role in leadership
Educate employees about how racism manifests in the workplace
Be respectful and listen/support leaders of color in empowering those around them
Ensure the ways in which leaders manage does not create unnecessary boundaries for anyone at the company
Resources
https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/institutionalracism.pdf