Stories from the Field
The following are stories from Portland Means Progress businesses and local racial equity practitioners. We thank them for their contributions! Stories are a great way to make the work come to life and relate to the challenges and successes of this work
As a small business owner, I was not aware of all the changes that would be necessary to create an inclusive, equitable and diverse work environment. I did not know it would lead to a significant overhaul of my staff, many challenges and ongoing monetary expenses, time and deeply challenging conversations.
As a white woman grappling to understand how I support a white supremacy system, I realized I had to make changes to my business as well. However, I did not prepare my staff for this journey nor was I fully prepared. It was a rough start. My business was predominantly white with one new staff member of color. White dominant culture was manifesting itself and this left the only staff member of color marginalized and kept on the outside. It was obvious that we were moving in a direction of change. Some staff members chose to leave and some were asked to.
What I realized is that our line of business was predominantly white and female. On our equity journey, we learned that for us to effect change and make access for women of color to enter this field, I have to make room at my business. I need to hire young women of color and train them, participate in high school job shadow programs, provide access for girls of color to get a sense of what it’s like to be in this field. We support organizations led by BIPOC and donate to causes whose mission is to advance equity.
We now work as a team, with each team member getting what they need to thrive. We have a morning meeting where we hear from each staff member about how they are doing and what they might need that day to succeed. We decide as a team about extended holidays to renew ourselves and time for self-care. I pay everyone more than $15 an hour, and we are moving toward a real living wage. Our staff now consists of three People of Color and three white staff members including myself.
This work is not easy and often painful; however, if we are to create access and equity within our organizations we have to be willing to do self-reflective work, give access to folks who are usually left out and make challenging calls to make way for a truly equitable and diverse workforce where everyone is thriving.
I was working with an organization that reached out to me because they had received a grant to do equity work. I put together a plan and submitted it and we were good to go. This executive director was a cis-gendered, hetero, white male. He led the charge in a way that I did not expect. He really set the table for me. He pushed hard for board members to show up to meetings. He supported staff on the journey. In our one-on-one sessions, we discussed his identity and the challenges of his fragility, and we were able to work through those things. I gave him homework, and he ate it up; I gave him books, and he devoured them. We identified how racism showed up in policies and procedures, and we created a simple inclusive strategic plan and got to work. Staff were so excited to have a shared language, inclusive culture, and power to participate directly in change through collective actions.
As we went further and further in our equity journey, he realized that there was a place where he could go to do more work for the community. He decided to step down from the organization and join the legislature to make more of an impact for people of color. We have become friends and he is encouraging me to continue building coalition with him. He was willing and ready to give up his seat as he had set a fertile ground and stability for the organization and understood where his role as an Equity Champion would make the most impact. I appreciate him for that.
I was on an advisory council for an organization and applied to serve as a member on the committee for a longer-term commitment. I went to a meeting where an internal committee would be voting on membership.
Of the 30 people in the room at the committee meeting, three were people of color, and I was the only person of African descent. I introduced myself, stating that my role was to support the organization to identify where racism shows up and to dismantle it. We were meeting to discuss DEI measurements that were tied into the organization’s funding.
The committee chair said that racism is dead and there is no racism in the organization. We went back and forth. A white committee member told the chair that racism was alive and well and that the organization needed to be inclusive. The committee chair made another comment that was hurtful, and I left the room. I felt dehumanized.
The Executive Director walked me out and apologized for the chair’s behavior. I decided to go back into the meeting and create an opportunity for learning. The chair and I reengaged, but this time I shifted the conversation to be one of connection. We were able to agree that we were both passionate, fierce, on the same team and probably were more similar than different. He voted me through onto the permanent committee.
A few days later, the chair offered to apologize via email, and I asked that he take part in a restorative justice responsibility process. He never apologized to me, but the board did.
At our next committee meeting, we learned that this person would be stepping down as chair at the end of the year, creating an opportunity for the board to create community norms that involved the use of the restorative responsibility process. I felt saddened that the chair decided to step down rather than take responsibility, but I was excited that this encounter opened up a seat for someone who is aligned with the company’s values.
This would not have happened if the organization was not committed to their equity journey and because of it, they will prevent future harms and make way for new ideas and innovation. They just completed their first two sessions of training, and it has been truly transformative thus far. Staff were excited, engaged and looking forward to the next training. I am so grateful for their kindness, willingness to have tough conversations and I am excited to continue working with them.
Hospitals, clinics, and healthcare providers hold power in our health care system. It is not cheap or easy to reduce health disparities. The culture of the health care industry needs to shift drastically. Health care staff needs to take implicit bias and anti-racism training, and have those messages continually reinforced through words and actions of leadership.
Women of color are mistreated at childbirth, and hospital staff blame moms when things go wrong, or when the newborn becomes sick. Hospitals risk financial losses when babies of color are born because of higher costs in treating complicated pregnancies, injury and death lawsuits, and higher staff turnover.
I was hired as an equity practitioner for a hospital to address the challenges and support them in moving from colorblindness to equity.
Approach:
AWARENESS
Meet with the leadership team to learn, understand and find the actions, behaviors, and problems at the hospital’s birth center.DEVELOPMENT OF TRAINING
First step: Included a presentation of a panel of the other side of the story, where several POC shared their own “hospital stories.”
Second step: A series of two training sessions in a retreat facility was implemented, using facilitated conversation, music, theater, and “values” activities with the birth center staff. Racism vocabulary was recognized. Closing with a powerful story.
Third step: Training agreements with specific actions and benchmarks were established. Cultural change: both personal and community.ACTIONS
Integrated changes to the hospital’s strategic plan. Equity policies in the birth center were added to the staff training processes. Employees received monthly cultural responsive awareness training and health promoters were hired to listen to mothers and learn how the hospital staff treated them. This report was revised monthly. The trainings were offered twice a year for a period of three years.
Internal hiring and employee policies needed to be re-written with an equity lens, increasing diversity and cultural responsiveness, and the policies that affected patients required an even more critical eye. The hospital needed to become an outspoken advocate for social, economic, and racial justice, helping shift the public narrative. They needed to make changes to clinical protocols, modifications and a considerable reallocation of resources, among other things.
An equity group was formed at the hospital with a specific set of objectives and goals.
A diversity, equity, and inclusion director position was opened and filled. A nutritionist class with ethnic food recipes was offered to moms and the hospital partnered with CBO and health promoters to identified pregnant women and start offering preventative care services. Messages and communications were translated into several languages. The hospital became a partner with many of the POC celebrations and started partnering in a more culturally responsive way to deliver and treat POC patients.
Results
The hospital minimized its losses. They received zero lawsuits at the birth center. Higher staff retention was achieved and the hospital became one of the best options for moms of color to deliver their babies.
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