Infrastructure for Interventions in an Anti-Racist Project

dr. prabhdeep kehal, a postdoctoral fellow with HEAL, reflects on lessons from our work.

What types of experiences do we want occurring at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels when we are implementing an anti-racist change project?

Changing processes, policies, and practices through a multi-level framework means implementation has to be addressed at the:

• Macro level: university, city, state, municipality, professional industry norms;
• Meso level: individual organizations (on/off campus), professional industry associations, & groups or networks that bring people, resources, and ideas together (formal/informal); and
• Micro level: individual people and interpersonal interactions.

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The focus for many project planners and implementers is typically on whether or not the end goal will be reached, and not always on how people may experience the project implementation. From lessons learned while implementing the HEAL project, project planners and implementers should focus on how the implementation process can change people's actual work lives. Using a multi-level framework, project planners and implementers can identify how they want people to experience institutions and organizations, and how they want institutions and organizations to treat people.

Macro interventions

How do you want organizations and individuals to experience institutions?

We want organizations and individuals to experience institutions as reliable and trustworthy places of support that operate in good faith at all levels. 

The following are recommendations for actions towards these goals.

• Cultivate reliability and trust in order to provide support in your environment
  • Create a resource map of the area in which anti-racism is being implemented and be well-informed about how collaborations can and will shift power dynamics that exist outside the university in order to consider the role of substantive community work in anti-racism work.
  • Have greater channels of communication and collaboration with Indigenous members and participants on- and off-campus to ensure that they are regular stakeholders for anti-racism and anti-colonial work.
  • Engage in grounded education to gain an historicized, material (not only theoretical) understanding of the university and how its operations contribute to racism, colonialism, and cisheterosexism.
  • Identify the different scales, restrictions, and unique contexts in which change and transformation are desired, and then be intentional about how the team seeks to produce change and transformation 1) at those levels of scale and 2) by attending to restrictions and unique contexts.
    • Establish a clear orientation of what the anti-racist project will not be doing, along with an outlet for revisiting these decisions.
    • Establish a clear orientation of what the anti-racist project will be doing, along with an outlet for revisiting these decisions.
• Operate in good faith
  • Create a formalized way for anti-racist project members and participants to seek repair or facilitation over harm that may occur and/or did occur.
  • Identify consistent, reliable methods for formally and informally rewarding and recognizing different forms of relational work as it manifests across the board and in specific positions/roles within a team, and particularly in the ways that women of color and people from non-dominant backgrounds may experience anti-racist relational work.
  • Create an established position or channel that informs any decision making that will affect different audiences, such as undergraduates, at the very least, to understand how proposed interventions may be received amidst implementation (also consider implications towards community partners, graduate student workers, and staff).
  • Provide an on-campus developmental process that brings people together to pragmatically brainstorm collaborative projects before calls for proposals by funding agencies are released.

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Meso interventions

How do you want individuals and institutions to experience organizations?

We want individuals and institutions to experience organizations as places that empower people and institutions to function and build meaningful relationships. 

The following are recommendations for actions towards these goals.

• Empower functionality for people and institutions
  • Develop an established, transparent, consistent onboarding process across the anti-racist project that allows for customization based on the specific project to which the worker is being hired or affiliated.
  • Have a clear statement on what partnerships mean in the form of a formalized definition shared across the project or an explicit statement of agreement that lays out both responsibilities and shared definitions (e.g., memorandum of understanding).
  • Formalize communication channels practiced with norms of mutuality and reciprocity.
  • Create a formalized way for project members and participants to seek repair or facilitation over harm that may occur and/or did occur.
  • Create a channel, point of contact, or a figure that focuses explicitly on the developmental needs of undergraduate and graduate student workers, both as researchers and as people.
  • Have greater channels of communication and collaboration with Indigenous members and participants on- and off-campus to ensure that they are regularly engaged for anti-racism and anti-colonial work.
  • Establish a clear orientation of what the anti-racist project will not be doing, along with an outlet for revisiting these decisions.
  • Establish a clear orientation of what the anti-racist project will be doing, along with an outlet for revisiting these decisions.
• Empower meaningful relationship-building for people and institutions
  • Ensure that the mechanism for meeting developmental needs is connected to the mechanism that enables more regular check-ins around the idea of generosity (or other values/orientations) showing up in people's anti-racism work.
  • Create an established position or channel that informs any decision making that will affect undergraduates, at the very least, to understand how proposed interventions may be received amidst implementation (also consider implications towards community partners, graduate student workers, and staff).
  • Engage in grounded education to gain an historicized, material (not only theoretical) understanding of the university and how its operations contribute to racism, colonialism, and cisheterosexism.
  • Identify the different scales, restrictions, and unique contexts in which change and transformation are desired, and then be intentional about how the team seeks to produce change and transformation 1) at those levels of scale and 2) by attending to restrictions and unique contexts.

Micro interventions 

How do you want institutions and organizations to treat individuals?

We want institutions and organizations to treat individuals as humans worthy of respect regardless of their usefulness. 

The following are recommendations for actions towards these goals.

• Respect human worth in communication
  • Formalize communication channels practiced with norms of mutuality and reciprocity. 
  • Create a mechanism that enables a more regular check-in process around the idea of generosity (or other values or orientations) showing up in people's anti-racism work, and specifically whether and how it is being used. 
  • Create a process of course development that is iterated during the time that students are involved in order to engage them: creating content, being participants in the classes, giving feedback on the classes, and/or helping to iterate the next course version.
• Respect human worth in limitations
  • Establish a clear orientation of what the anti-racist project will not be doing, along with an outlet for revisiting these decisions.
  • Establish a clear orientation of what the anti-racist project will be doing, along with an outlet for revisiting these decisions.

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