Join the Charlotte Country Day School faculty for a 21-Day Equity Challenge

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“Have you ever made a successful change in your life? Perhaps you wanted to exercise more, eat less, or change jobs? Think about the time and attention you dedicated to the process. A lot, right? Change is hard. Creating effective social justice habits, particularly those dealing with issues of power, privilege and leadership is like any lifestyle change.

“Setting our intentions and adjusting what we spend our time doing is essential. It’s all about building new habits. Sometimes the hardest part it just getting started. The good news is, there’s an abundance of resources just waiting to empower you to be a more effective player in the quest for justice and to build your ‘justice muscle.’

“It’s simple: For 21 days, you do an action to further your connection to power, privilege and leadership.”

–Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr. and Debby Irving

Let’s get started!  Who’s in?

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For 21 days (from January 17-Feb 17), you will choose ONE thing to do to further your knowledge of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice work.  Below you will find prompts and reflections, as well as a list of resources.  Each day, simply choose ONE article, comic, video, chapter from a book, movie, song, etc. to experience and then take a few minutes to reflect on that experience in your journal.

If you want a more scaffolded approach, use the prompts/reflections below to guide you through some of the days.  For a less scaffolded approach, choose any of the following resources to experience or dig up some of your own.  As with all work, you will get out of this what you put in.

So, set your intentions to yourself clearly each day, embrace discomfort and enjoy learning and growing.

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PROMPTS AND REFLECTIONS (for a more scaffolded approach).  

Many of these resources/questions have been compiled from Food Solutions New England’s work and the work of Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr. and Debby Irving. 

1. Reflect on why you signed up for the 21 Day Equity Challenge. What are you hoping to get out of this experience?  How do you hope this work will change the way you view your work and this world?
2. Read “The Problem with that Equity/Equality Graphic” and look at the various visuals under comics/visuals in the resource section. As you think about addressing “isms” in your practice, are you thinking more in terms of equality (everyone getting the same) or equity (everyone getting what they need to succeed).  How might a shift towards equity make a difference in your practice?
3. Relook at the visuals of equity and equality. Now- have fun!  Design your own 🙂
4. Listen to Jay Smooth’s “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Discussing Race.” How comfortable are you talking about race and racism with family and friends?
   How comfortable are you talking about race with those with whom you work?  What is the impact of this?  How might you you become more comfortable with this work and lean into the discomfort?
5. Spend some time observing social interactions today– in your personal life, in a class or in your workplace. Whose voices tend to be the loudest?  Whose voices tend to be ignored?  Who seems to have the most power/clout to shape agendas?  What are the patterns you noted?  What does this make you think?
6. Spend some time observing the physical space in your workplace, your child’s classroom or a public space. Who is obviously represented and welcome in the space?  Who is left out?
7. Watch Jay Smooth talk about 4 Levels of Racism. How does looking at “isms” as a system problem versus just a personal moral failing change the way you view the work?  What systems need examining in our community?  What are some things we should be looking at?
8. Watch the “gorilla selective attention” video. The clips show that we tend to see only what we expect to see.  Stereotypes operate in a similarly blinding way in forming implicit biases, and  can keep us from accurately perceiving situations and people.  What does it mean that our brains have “mindbugs” like this?  What are some times in our own life where these implicit biases have led you astray?
9. First, make sure you’ve read up on Implicit Bias. Then, challenge yourself to take one of the Implicit Association Tests from Harvard.  What did you learn about yourself?  How do your biases sometimes show up in your work?  How does knowing these things about yourself impact your practice?
10. Read this short article on ways to overcome implicit bias. What might you try in your own life?
11. Read the article on Microinclusions. What are 5 intentional practices you can do THIS week to make someone feel more included and known in our community.  Write down what you do.
12. Choose a few songs off the social justice playlist to listen to. How did they move you? How did they inspire you?  How might you use music or art to inspire social change?
13. Look at the Wealth Inequality Infographics. What surprised you about the infographics?  What challenged you?  Charlotte was recently named one of the worst cities for social mobility in the nation.  What does this mean for our school?  Our work?
14. Read Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntyre. Take a few minutes to self assess your own life.  How has your own race benefitted you or not?  How might this play out for in your personal life?  Professional life?
15. Watch A Trip to the Grocery Store. What are the roles of allies in our justice/equity work?  What groups can you be an ally for (think about race, gender, religion, sexuality)?  What are some concrete things you can do within our own community to be an ally to underrepresented groups?
16. Take a look at the “I Too Am Harvard Tumblr” page and do some quick readings about microaggressions. Then, take the next week or so to listen carefully to conversations in your workplace and/or conversations in your outside-of-work life.  Collect examples of microaggressions that you hear.
17. Watch the Racism is Real short video. What surprised you?  How does your own race (or that of a close family member) play out in your daily life?
18. In spite of greater tolerance/acceptance and knowledge about human sexuality, LBGTQ children are still known to suffer from much higher rates of bullying, depression, anxiety and suicide. Check out these LBGTQ Bullying Statistics.   How do we make our community a safe place for everyone?  What shifts/changes should we consider?
19. Watch The Doll Test. From an early age, children associate “dark skin” with “bad” and “light skin” with “good.”  Where might these cultural messages be coming from?  Take time this week to listen to media/news, etc. with this critical lens.  How are whites portrayed?  People of color?
20. One of the groups facing the most overt discrimination in the US currently are Muslim Americans.  Watch Meet A Muslim.  How much do you know about the Muslim population in the US?  How much do you know about Islam?  How might you expand your knowledge base and understanding?
21. Reflect on this experience. What are your biggest take aways for you? What has moved you?  How have you changed as a result of this work?

LOOK

• Equity/Equality Visuals: “Climb the Tree” metaphor; Picking the Fruit; The Baseball Game
• All Houses Matter “All Lives Matter” Visual
• I Too Am Harvard Tumblr
• 21 Racial Microaggressions You Hear on a Daily Basis
• Looting or Finding Media Bias Image
• The Genderbread Person: Sexuality and Gender as Continuum
• The Iceberg Identity Visual
• Wealth Inequality Infographics
• Youth and Sexuality Infographics
• Incarceration Infographics
• Map of 73 Years of Lynchings

WATCH: VIDEOS and MOVIES

• Hidden Motives, Unbugging Our Brains, PBS
• Racism is Real
• A Poem for My White Friends
• Silent Beats
• Mass Incarceration Visualized
• How to Overcome Our Biases: Walk Boldly Toward Them, Verna Myers
• Color Blind or Color Brave, Melody Hobson
• The Danger of a Single Story, Chimamanda Adiche
• Changing Education Paradigms, Sir Ken Robinson
• Teaching with the World Peace Game, John Hunter
• Implicit Association Test, Mahzarin Banaji
• How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love DIscussing Race, Jay Smooth
• We Need to Talk about an Injustice, Bryan Stevenson
• The Doll Test
• Racism: What it Will Take To End It, Cynthia Silva Parker
• Racial Justice: Moving Beneath the Surface, Cynthia Silva Parker
• How to Tell Someone They Sound Racist, Jay Smooth
• Moving the Race Conversation Forward, Jay Smooth
• How Microaggressions are like Mosquito Bites
• Microaggressions: Comments that Sting, NY Times
• A Trip to the Grocery Store, Joy DeGruy
• Meet A Muslim
• Surprising Racist History of the Word Caucasian
• What Would You Do: The Bike Thief
• The Teacher Behind America’s 1st LGBT Program: Fearless
• Five-Minute Film Festival: Race

Humor (warning: these may be offensive to some and they do contain adult language):

• Louis CK- I Like Being White
• Louis CK- The Meaning of Being White
• Dave Chappelle: Hanging out with White Friend, Chip
• How to Tell Black People Apart
• What Kind of Asian Are You
• Key and Peele- SUbstitute Teacher
• Key and Peele: Codeswitching
• Chris Rock: Academy Awards Monologue
• I Got 99 Problems and Palsy is Just 1, Maysoon Zayid

MOVIES or SERIES

• Colorblind: Talking about Race
• Race, The Power of an Illusion Episode 1, PBS
  Episode 2
  Episode 3
• 13th, Netflix
• Never Perfect
• Unequal Opportunity Race: A Short
• I am NOT White; You are Not Black

READ: ARTICLES and BOOKS

• Overcoming Implicit Bias and Racial Anxiety, Psychology Today
• Combatting Anti-Muslim Bias
• Climbing the White Escalator
• Science of Us: Black Boys Viewed as Older than White Peers
• Good Morning Boys and Girls: Using Gender Words in the Classroom
• Wealth Inequality in Charlotte
• Debunking Misconceptions about Muslims and Islam, Teaching Tolerance
• Read Aloud as an Anti Bigotry Tool
• Got Bias? Strategies for Overcoming
• Why Do We teach Girls That It’s Cute To be Scared?
• Poor White Kids Less Likely to be Incarcerated than Black Kids
• What White Children Need to Know About Race
• Racism Against Native Americans Needs to be Addressed
• Lynchings More Common in the South Than Thought, Washington Post
• Talking About Class (From Shady Hill School)
• 18 Things White People Should Know/Do Before Discussing Racism
• Diversity as Academic Excellence
• Frequently Asked Questions About Sexuality
• Kids Health: When Kids Know About their Sexuality
• Dear White America, George Yancy
• A Letter to My Son, Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Justice Still Denied on Race, Observer
• Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntyre
• Micro Inclusions
• Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person, Huffington Post
• The Question of Class
• Rethinking Poverty and Casual Conversations
• Extreme Prejudice: Islamophobia in the US
• Transgender Children and Youth: Understanding the Basics
• Gender and Sexuality Explained Using Continuums
• LBGTQ Bullying Statistics
• People with a History: An Online Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans* History.

BOOKS

• Waking Up White, Debby Irving
• Blind Spot, Mahzarin Banaji
• Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race, by Beverly Daniel Tatum
• Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Birth of a White Nation, by Jacqueline Battalora
• A Different Mirror, by Ronald Takaki
• Everyday White People Confront Racial and Social Injustice: 15 Stories, edited by Eddie Moore, Marguerite W. Penick-Parks, and Ali Michael
• Speak Up!, by Sub/Urban Justice (collection of student voices)
• What if I Say the Wrong Thing?: 25 Habits for Culturally Effective People, by Vernā Myers

LISTEN PODCAST/AUDIO and MUSIC

• What Does Modern Prejudice Look Like, Mahzarin Banaji
• Be Careful What You Say. Microaggressions
• Carlos Doesn’t Remember, The Talent Lost in Education due to Poverty, Revisionist History
• Generous Orthodoxy, Creating Change from Within, Revisionist History
• What Makes You Laugh Might Reveal Your Biases: NPR
• NPR: Code Switch Podcasts
• Yusor Abu-Salha–one of the victims of the February 10, 2015 shooting in Chapel Hill, North Carolina–recorded a StoryCorps interview with Mussarut Jabeen.
• How the Systemic Segregation of Schools is Maintained by Individual Choices, NPR
• Arab American Voices: Dearborn, MI (StoryCorps)

MUSIC

• White Privilege, Macklemore
• Keep Your Head Up, Tupac
• Try, Colbie Caillat
• Living for the City, Stevie Wonder
• Give Your Hands to Struggle, Sweet Honey and the Rock
• Where is the Love, Black Eyes Peas
• Get Up, Stand Up, Bob Marley
• Same Love, Macklemore
• American Skin, Bruce Springsteen
• Public Enemy: Fight the Power
• Strange Fruit, Billie Holiday
• A Change Is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke
• Imagine, John Lennon
• Redemption, Bob Marley
• Man in the Mirror, Michael Jackson
• One, U2
• We Shall Overcome, Joan Baez
• Changes, Tupac
• Glory– John Legend and Common
• We Shall Overcome
• Lift Every Voice and Sing, Ray Charles
• Pride in the Name of Love, U2
• I Believe, Blessed Union of Souls
• Black or White, Michael Jackson
• Brave, Sarah Bareilles
• Beautiful, Christina Aguilera
• True Colors, Cyndi Lauper
• Born This Way, Lady Gaga
• American Skin, Bruce Springsteen
• What it Means, Drive by Truckers

ACT:

• How to Intervene if You Witness Harassment
• Talking about Race and Racism with Young People
• Stretching the Inclusive Boundary: Classroom Practices, Rosetta Lee
• Stages of Racial Development, Rosetta Lee
• How to Respond to Microaggressions, Rosetta Lee
• Unconscious Bias in the Press
• Teaching Tolerance Anti Bias Framework