Ep 60: You Can’t Hire Your Way to Racial Justice

In this week’s episode, April and Tracie discuss the dangers of making that “diversity hire” when the organization hasn’t done the necessary work of deconstructing dynamics of oppression, so that “diversity hire” needs to endure unhealthy and unsustainable microaggressions and worse. They discuss strategies for how to avoid this and set up new colleagues for success.  

Check out our discussion/reflection questions for this episode:  https://joyousjustice.com/blog/jews-talk-racial-justice-ep-60

Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.com

Learn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director, and Tracie is a senior partner.: https://joyousjustice.com/

Read more of Tracie's thoughts at her blog, bmoreincremental.com

Learn more about the concept of Tokenism here: https://www.racialequitytools.org/glossary

Learn more about Racial Justice Launchpad here:  https://joyousjustice.com/racial-justice-launch-pad

Learn more about Barbara Love here: https://www.barbarajlove.com/about-us

Transcript

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- [Tracie] After the murder of George Floyd, a lot of white Jewish communal professionals rushed to hire or recruit. That isn't always the right first choice.- [April] This is Jews Talk Racial Justice with April and Tracie.- [Tracie] A weekly show hosted by April Baskin and Tracie Guy-Decker.- [April] In a complex world, change takes courage.- [Tracie] Wholehearted relationships can keep us accountable.- Hi, Tracie.- Hey, how's it going, April?(April sighs)- I am excited for us to do this episode. We've done a lot of spiritual, deep conversations, had some great personal conversations recently. And I'm excited for us to step a little more officially back into using our insight and knowledge to share some solid thought leadership about different organizational dynamics, and one in particular for this episode.- I wanna tell a story, a brief one, which I have a feeling will resonate with a lot of our listeners. Which is that, after the summer of 2020, after George Floyd was murdered, several of the Jewish organizations with which I am affiliated, whether I was working there or worship there or volunteer there, had the awakening that the whole country did. And immediately were like, we need more black people on our board, or we need more-- No.- ... black Jews in our employ. We need... There was suddenly this urgency to recruit people of color, Jews of color. And it felt very, very urgent to the people in these organizations. And I have a feeling that this is going to resonate.- It felt urgent to us too.(April laughs) As someone who is a jew of color.(April laughs)- Right. And I think we wanna talk about why that urgent recruitment, when it is the sum total of your diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy is bound to backfire.- And not even sum total, it might not even be the sum total, maybe one part of a broader strategy still. Yeah, so my, at least coming into our conversation, title for this episode is you can't hire your way to racial justice within an organization. Subtext, within an organization. This is tokenism. So I want us to unpack this, and I think this is another accordion topic where I think there's a lot to unpack here. But I think we can just stick with some of the high notes and some of the key points here, since I think, for some, this may be agitational, hopefully in a good way. Because we're not only going to say what is not so helpful, but also share what is helpful, and what can move organizations and communities sustainably, joyously, comfortably, steadily toward greater racial equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice. So disclaimer here, I'm not trying to burst anyone's bubble here. We are also not trying to cause any panic attacks. If you've recently hired someone, don't worry. I'm not saying that this is a negative sentence around, or that the fate of your organization's short-term racial justice work is sealed. That is not at all the case. But when unexamined and done in the absence of key insights, knowledge, and information, hiring one person to lead the charge around advancing racial justice, typically within organizations, who have done very, very little around this subject, is a recipe for failure, and difficulty and hurt for a number of people involved. And potentially a dramatic internal or external PR, HR mess. I also want to name from the outset and say disclaimer two, that for a number of Jews of color who might be listening in, on the surface, this seems exciting. And I want to be clear here that Tracie and I are not opposed to increasing diversity within our organizations, within our Jewish organizations. It's just that we want it to be done well and sustainably. And right now that isn't often the case. And so we want to give some pointers, we want to explain why that isn't the case, and share a model or two with you around what it looks like to do this work well using a different subject matter that organizations need to advance within their organizations, and what that looks like. I think it's a good metaphor. And then also, speak about if you've already hired a solo person or a solo person is largely leading this work. What are some strategies that you can engage in that will help you on that front? That being said, hopefully, I think Tracie and I are going to deliver a lot of very helpful information and pointers here. And if you want to learn more, registration is opening soon for our very exciting new course called Racial Justice Launch Pad. And this is one of the subjects we cover in great depth. If go to joyousjustice.com/learn, you can click a link to learn more about this program.- I want to, if I may, share an experience of mine that helped me to sort of see why the hire itself is not enough. And that's an experience that I had where when I was in grad school, I was doing a graduate degree in religious studies in Jewish history, and I needed a job. And I got a job at the American Theological Library Association, which does, they do great work. Basically, they index all of the periodical literature in religious studies. So it was basically a data entry job for which I needed a master's degree in religious studies.(Tracie chuckles) I was the diversity hire.(Tracie chuckles) I was the Jewish hire, right? So I came with a little bit of Hebrew and Jewish knowledge. They didn't have anyone on staff who could do that. They even gave me a hiring bonus because they needed this expertise in order to index that tranche of literature. So I came on, I joined this team where it was like a, I don't know, a staff of maybe 30, something like that. And it was me and the IT guy, who was Muslim, and then everyone else was Christian. And different flavors of Christian, but they were all Christian. And the CFO was an Indian man from the sub-continent of India. And he was an evangelical born-again. And I was like his personal curiosity, I don't know, go-to machine, but it was in these micro-aggressive ways, you know? I was experimenting with kashrut at the time, and so I was choosing to not mix meat and dairy. I was choosing not to eat pork or shellfish. And we would go out and he'd be eating bacon, he'd be like, "Why don't you eat this? Jesus says it's okay. Jesus says everything is clean now."(Tracie chuckles)(April groans) And so I was forced to then defend kashrut to this coworker who was in fact above me on the org chart because he was the CFO. And they had a holiday party every year, which they were very clear was a "holiday party", I'm putting air quotes around that, and not a Christmas party. But they served ham-- A bunny ear.- They served ham and had a Christmas tree(Tracie chuckles) and did secret Santa. And when I was like,"Y'all, just call it a Christmas party. I'll come to a Christmas party. But you're pretending that it's not, that it's also-- Inclusive.- ... mine."- Right.- And it isn't because you're serving ham. And when I suggested that maybe they wouldn't... Like if... It was a potluck, so I said like,"Maybe if somebody brings ham,(April laughs) but maybe the organization shouldn't buy ham for the holiday party." You would have thought that I said(April gasps) people should kill their firstborn.(Tracie laughs)- Tracie, how dare you?(Tracie laughs)(April chuckles softly)- Anyway-- The nerve.- ... I bring this up because that experience as a diversity hire in this culture that had done zero work to examine the role of Christian privilege, I found myself constantly the object of either really kind of unpleasant curiosity or outright microaggressions and judgment around my religious choices. And so that experience of mine has really helped me to see all the additional work that needs to be done in order to make someone who's hired to help bring us toward diversity and equity successful, and truly included and belong. I was in that role about 18 months, maybe two years. It wasn't very long. It wasn't very long. It was...- And somehow I knew that was likely going to be the case.- I think that for our colleagues in Jewish communal spaces, a lot of us, that was the first thought when we really started to realize just how white our organizations are. We were like, well, let's hire, or let's recruit for the board, or whatever it was. But we weren't thinking about what happened once that person actually joined the team. How the structures and the culture that we have in place would be able to welcome them truly the way that I was not truly welcome.(Tracie chuckles) I mean, which is not to say that my coworkers weren't nice to me. They were lovely. In fact, I have some people that I'm still friends with who I met at that job, and that was close to 20 years ago.- Right.- So it's not about individuals being nice, right? I think that's another thing I wanna really, really stress here. This is not about-- Clarify.- ... whether or not you are nice to your hire. It really is about the structures and the culture to make sure that that person-- Or "nice".- Right. Right, right. That's true. Because the CFO who asked me why I wasn't eating pork, I'm sure in his mind he was being very nice to me.- Right, but that's not nice behavior. Right. But good intentions. Right. I think that most folks have good intentions.- Yeah, I think they do.- So here's some things that I want to say is I've seen over the years people have had questions, and I feel like it's an ongoing amorphous subject for different folks around... I think a number of professionals in our community have a sense that they want to avoid tokenism, but they're not exactly sure what it is. As certain organizations move forward, I think people kind of informally decide that I don't think we're doing this, or if we are, I think we're moving in the right direction. So I think it's okay. And in general, tokenism, for the most part, we really wanna try to avoid it or substantially mitigate it, and it's not actually okay. And here's some of the attributes, a few of the attributes of tokenism. To me, if you're hiring someone, particularly who has a specific identity, and they are the only one or one of the only ones or one of the only ones in a more senior or executive role, that likely is tokenism just on its face. And then more specifically, if in general, you are expecting that person to carry responsibility and the onus for stewarding the advancement of that issue that's tied to their identity. And there isn't substantial investment, whether it's time, resources, effort, throughout the organization. If you bring on a person, but you haven't changed the context, and you are expecting that person to single-handedly change that context, that is absolutely a very unhealthy, unsustainable, and even harmful form of tokenism. And it really needs to stop. And I'm someone who really believes spiritually and practically in emphasizing solutions. So I wanna very quickly start to have us pivot in the direction of what we do want, and what I do want to see. And examples of what I think is, what are some phenomenal examples of this work. And I want to start with a more neutral, more readily accessible example that many nonprofit organizational leaders can understand and appreciate. So again, in Racial Justice Launch Pad, we get in a lot more depth than this, and go through different diagrams and things. But I think you can still get the point here. And I want to make this as clear as possible for all our listeners. So if you're just getting started in some ways, when I work with various organizations who are a little late, or they perceive that they might be a little late to this work, when you start the work, you start the work, and it's great, and we move forward from that point, first of all. So let me clarify that. But if you're feeling that way, I often like to say, actually, I'm glad when organizations come to me and they haven't done much yet because that also means hopefully they haven't made too many mistakes yet(April chuckles) that we need to do damage control for, or potentially retract to prevent future harm or challenges down the road for them, and different people with whom they are working or attempting to work in partner. Okay. So here's what we do want to see is an organization going through the four levels, now actually five. So fun update. One of my beloved teachers,(April chuckles) Professor Emerita Barbara Love. Barbara J. Love has recently added a new component to her Liberatory Consciousness model.- Cool.- It's vision. Yeah. And so, in general, here's what we wanna see within an organization is that the organization has done some work and learning as a team or with key leadership and various staff to come together. Ideally being guided by the leadership, the liberatory leadership of various leaders of color. If your organization is Jewish, which most of the organization leaders who are listening to this, they are, ideally Jewish leaders of color. Side note, I notice at times, it's not... I am definitely not opposed, and I have amazing partnerships with some awesome black DEI professionals and POC, people of color professionals who are not Jewish who do work in our community. Thank God for them. And I want to flag that it's not very good to avoid working with Jews of color. And at times, I notice some avoidance patterns within some of our organizations around opting to work with someone outside of the community when they could be working with someone who knows our material. Which means it might be some tougher work, but that's actually the work that needs to get done. And here's like a banner message(April chuckles) that I wanna insert, you can't cut corners with this work. You can do it, but it will come back to bite you in the tush later. There's not corner cutting with this work. What there is and can be with this work is developing in partnership with qualified leaders of color who have done extensive work around diversity, equity and inclusion. And also ideally organizing with people of color, and have a track record around potent leadership. And there are a number of people who have this. In partnership with one of these phenomenal leaders that you develop a realistic timeline, and find that this work is still rigorous and demanding, but it's actually doable. If you understand that doing this institutional change work is like doing other institutional change work. To kind of transition into the example I like to share with this work that I've been working on and thinking about in the last year or so, is I liken doing good, sustainable, long-term racial justice organizational change work and advocacy is similar to some best practices and principles around development with an organization. If an organization-- You mean philanthropy development?- Yes. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. With philanthropic financial fundraising development work. Right? Most organizations know that they can't go from having an annual budget of 100,000 to having a $40 million budget or a $5 million budget the following year if they hire one professional fundraiser on their team. Most teams know, depending upon the size and scale of their work, that it requires a whole team of people to do this work, and that they can start with one, but then they need to build. And now this has been a learning curve for organizations, but I think a number of these best practices are relatively well-known among a number of nonprofits. So hopefully, maybe I'm just sharing tips that are good for you to know, and a number of you hopefully can use this as a reference and compare this to the work of racial justice, right? It's... Please, Tracie.- I think it's really, really helpful for those of you listening in the organizational sphere. I mean, how many times have you talked about the need and the desire to create a culture of philanthropy among your constituents, right? Like with the donor center-- Yep. And your staff. And the whole staff.- And your staff. Right. And the donor centered work that you do that's building relationships, not just transactions. I mean, it's such a great parallel that is, I think really understandable. And also you understand, those of you listening, how hard it is, right? You don't just say, we're gonna develop a cultural philanthropy, and then the next day you have one, right?- You got cash.(both chuckles)- That's not... We know that this is-- You got the grants coming in. Money, money, money.- Right. We know that this is work that is ongoing that every member of the team... I mean, I can't tell you how many development directors have said to me, depending on where I was like,"You all are in development".(Tracie chuckles) Right? I mean, that is like-- Yeah, right?- ... the mantra of the team member who's in charge of development, and it translates directly. This is not a thing that one person can carry.- No.- Nor should they.- Right. And so I wanna add to this, right? And so to be more explicit to what Tracie has articulated, it's typically understood, particularly for development directors or more senior level development folks, that they often have a direct through line to the executive director. And that a key part of the executive director's job is not to have the role, is not to do explicitly the role of a development director. But it is to be a development staff member in the ways that they need to, to show up in places where they need to show up. To lend their voice. To review things. To ensure the quality. To be present. To have meetings, not all the time, but pretty consistently.- And to model that culture.- Exactly. Right, but so they have a close relationship with the director of development, and also model what it looks like to embody a culture of philanthropy throughout an organization. And this isn't something that's all-consuming for an organization. Business as usual is still happening, but there's a different lens that's brought over business as usual. In finance, people need to account for finances differently, and the money's coming in and out. There needs to be some additional layers of accountability and tracking to account for these things. Program staff who are not development directors at all need to, as they're thinking about their program, as they're having their programs, record things in a particular way, track different metrics to ensure that they can work in meaningful partnership with the development staff or director, so that that person is set up for success. And obviously, it's the job of that person to own and really set a course and direction for where they are headed. But no development director, most likely for the most part, is going to be successful if they don't have all of these things that Tracie and I just named, right? In order for a development director to thrive and lead powerfully, they need to be in a collaborative informed ecosystem that has commitment and interest in working with them. And it's not that it's perfect from the outset, but that it's something that people are willing to learn and evolve and work together over time and support each other in this work. And this is very similar in many different ways to racial justice, right? Where you can have the most brilliant person come into your organization, but if your organization has done no substantial work to surface what people's thoughts are, what their commitments are, to name that this is something that is important for everyone to do. And this new DEI, or whatever the specific title at your organization is, director, is not the only person who's going to be tracking this. The executive director is going to be helping to steward this, and working closely with this person, right? And that there are different structural cultural shifts that happen that convey consistently. And again, the momentum doesn't have to be full speed at the beginning, but the groundwork is there, and the infrastructure is there for saying, this person is not an island. This is something we are taking on as an organization, and this is something that's new for us, and very few people in our organization have awareness around this. And we know it is not a reasonable expectation, particularly around an adaptive challenge where most people have gone through a process of deep misinformation and inaccurate learning. I.e. elements of racism and bias rampant in our society, and specifically in our schooling and upbringing. So this isn't even like development where pretty much everyone may not be informed about development, but they're all on a similar page about us needing to raise money. For most organizations, there's a broad range of where people are, what they understand, what they know. There's different patterns around entitlement and people sincerely not trying to be rude or mean, but think that they know well when often they might be quite misinformed about the information. And it can not be on one person to do all of this work. This is an institutional change process that requires commitment from a broader team. And I think the biggest variable that already was included in some of Tracie's earlier remarks I think a couple times. The biggest factor that I think contributes to some of these challenges is the urgency organizations bring to this work, right? Because as I say this, I think people, some folks might have a hard time reconciling what Tracie and I are saying with the timeline they expect this work to happen-- Right.- ... on, right? And part of what I'm saying is, you need to elongate that timeline, not indefinitely, but to set this up and to set this work up over time and say, this is actually going to require... If we look at Barbara Love's model of getting clear on a vision and a pathway forward, and hopefully, your organization may have that before you hire this person, right? But if you don't, it's not too late. This person can help work with you around this, but you need to be really clear on a shared vision of where all of you are going in terms of your racial justice and equity work. And there might not be collective buy-in initially yet because honestly, a lot of people have a lot of learning, and more specifically, unlearning to do in order to properly understand the subject and to be able to sincerely and effectively engage in this work in ways that are inclusive and respectful of everyone involved. And then the four phases, the core four phases after that, which Tracie and I have presented in different programs we did as well as moving toward racial justice. So if you want to learn more about this, if you go to our website and sign up for our email list, and also I think on some different tabs, you can select on some pages to just sign up for that specific program. You can get access to that free program where we go over this in more depth. But the five phases of the Liberatory Consciousness model are vision, awareness, analysis, accountability, and action. In that order. So the vision is where are we headed from the outset? To have a sense of that. And that's also the ultimate goal where we are heading. And then each organization needs to just start building a fundamental awareness of the subject, which a lot of organizations don't. And that's a broad sweeping effort to do education. I think during Freedom Summer last year, a lot of different organizations took on some of this work. I suspect that a number of organizations did some initial work, and/or conflated some of the awareness building with also establishing analysis, accountability, and action. Those are actually different steps, right? And then I think as this work moves forward in smaller and smaller groups, I've created a pyramid to depict this process. Then you need a smaller group who sort of essentially... Within an organization around development, a number of folks, everyone needs to understand there are certain ways we manage optics, the way we manage the quality of our work. Different things that help us keep this organization afloat and raise the money we need in order to operate. Then there's a smaller subset of people who are mostly, they still have their specific roles that they have. But they've had some meetings and deeper learning with development professionals, both on their team as well as experts that the development directors or staff may have brought in to help teach them some of the greater specifics around why this really matters, and how it plays out in their work so that they internalize it more deeply and begin to take ownership of their part of the work. That's what happens at the level of analysis is getting deeper knowledge and more specific knowledge, and each person really starting to own it, and make it personal so that if you asked different members of the team, they might say slightly different, but aligned messages that speak to the internalization that they have of these concepts and values. And then the final two. And that, just those two phases alone is a huge body of work to get organizations to do, and can take a few years to really do that work well. And obviously, a number of these different levels could be happening simultaneously. But in order for the work to be sustainable, it's sort of like a tree or like a pyramid, you have to have a broad base of these first two things to support effective accountability. If people aren't informed on your team or understand these things, they're not going to be able to hold themselves or others accountable. And accountability is critical for long-term sustainability, so that when people experience the kind of thing that Tracie experienced at one of her first jobs out of grad school, hypothetically, ideally if the organization had done their work, this wouldn't have happened in the first place. And when these things arise, not if, but when they arise because we as a country, as societies, as organizations, as individuals, this is a huge body of work we're taking on, and it takes a lot of time. We can both make tremendous progress, and there are going to be mistakes along the way. I see this show up around my own spiritual journey. I've been learning a number of things for years, and it's still taking months and years more for me to really fully let some of these lessons fully absorb and percolate through all of my living and all of my thinking, right? And so that's accountability. And then from there, once you are accountable, once you have the deeper analysis, once you have collective awareness among your broader community, then your organization is positioned to do powerful, effective, accountable action, internal to your organization, and also out in the world, right? And so these are all things that don't need to take forever, don't need to take 40 years, but can take a number of years to really do this work well. And what I will say to sort of wrap up for the moment and then pass it back to you, Tracie, is I really think that organizations have two choices. They can cut corners and pay the price later, and often need to circle back or stumble or not get very far. Or you can take anywhere from a few extra months to a year or two to really do some of these foundational pieces well. What I find is very interesting, I find some organizations have a deep, deep culture of urgency. And so what I'm saying feels like a threat and gets ignored and to their detriment because they continue to struggle with these issues. Or refreshingly, various organizations are actually quite relieved.(April laughs) They can just exhale and say, oh, thank goodness. I really wasn't sure how this was all going to get done. And I was like, right, well, it will all get done, but over five years and not one. You can't build awareness, develop analysis, develop real accountability, bring on people, all that work can't happen all at once. It's like the growth of a tree. You gotta go through the different phases. You gotta establish roots and start to build a trunk. And over time it builds, and it becomes this huge mighty oak in time, but it takes time. And when this is done well... This is the last piece I'll say about it, and then I'll pass it back to you, Tracie. To me, and I find there's very little gray in between, when it's done well, not perfectly, but when people really take the time to take these steps, they establish amazing relationships across lines of racial difference. And internally intraracial because people have the time to learn and ask their questions and express their fears and get things clarified and have it done well. Those are organizations where people of color come in, and they might be a token, but the organization is accounted for, and there's a number of people to help and support them. And they have an amazing experience and they feel a profound sense of loyalty and commitment. And they're able to do powerful, amazing work together. And the alternative is that the person in that position, especially if they're a person of color, but even if they're not, really struggle in different ways. They often don't last longer than a few years. I have much respect for other leaders as well as myself at times when we stay in positions in some dynamics like this for four or five years. It's kind of like the equivalent of 12 years(April chuckles) in other traditional roles because not only do we have to deal with all of these dynamics, but normally we're also launching a department for the first time.- Right.- The role hasn't even existed before. So not only do we have an immense body of work, but we're also tasked with doing this. And it's added pressure because it sets up an ends up accidentally repeating racist histories and patterns in this country of severely under resourcing people of color, and/or people leading racial justice work. But particularly leaders of color. And not setting them up for long-term success, and not supporting them when the going gets tough.- I think that's what I wanna kind of come back to. So for the folks who are listening who are freaking out because they hired someone after Freedom Summer.- Or in the last few weeks or months.- Or whenever, yeah.- Yeah.(April chuckles)- And are thinking like, well, I didn't do that work. I just come back to my analogy from when I was the sole Jewish indexer at this Theological Library Association. When the CFO had that microaggression about the fact that I was keeping kosher, I didn't tell anyone because there was no one to tell, right? There was literally no recourse for me. I just had to take it. And so if you are a leader in an organization that has made a hire that is a diversity hire, who can that person talk to? Because these things are happening. When the microaggressions happen because they are, they will, where do they go with that? Who's gonna help them hold it, help them process it, not gaslight them about it?(Tracie chuckles) Those are the... So I just want to say like-- Who are they going to go to, and then I would add... Sorry, really quick. And how are you resourcing that person as soon as possible to be equipped to effectively support that person? Because most likely they will need it.- So here's a place where actually urgency is appropriate,(Tracie chuckles) often urgency isn't. But if the hire has already been made, I wanna say there is reason for urgency to make sure that that person has the support that they need to do, not just to do the job that they-- To course correct as an organization and your interactions with this person and help set them up for success, which it's not a sentence if you haven't done this work yet. There's actions you can take as an organization.- Right, exactly.- Sorry. Please continue, Tracie.- Right. No, exactly. That's exactly what I wanna say. Even if this person wasn't hired to lead the diversity work, that wasn't my job when I was at the... It wasn't about Jewish diversity, I was hired to index Jewish texts. But my being there changed the shape. And so I just want to say, whether you hired a person of color to lead your diversity work, or just, they just happen to be a hire, have some urgency, I'm talking to my white colleagues, around making sure that those people have the support that they need to be successful.- And if you want to learn even more about this, please visit joyousjustice.com/learn, and check out Racial Justice Launch Pad because we take Jewish leaders and professionals through a six-month journey around comprehensively developing your leadership liberatory analysis. And support you in developing customized plans to address these different pitfalls, to be proactive, to balance different priorities, to sequence the work for your organization, and to get you set up on a sustainable, and even at times enjoyable flight path for the long-term for your organization. So I'm excited to see some of you there. Thanks for tuning in. Our show's theme music was composed by Elliott Hammer. You can find this track and other beats on Instagram at Elliott Hammer. If this episode resonated with you, please share it and subscribe. To join the conversation, visit jewstalkracialjustice.com, where you can send us a question or suggestion, access our show notes, and learn more about our team. Take care until next time, and stay humble and keep going.