[Applause]
climate change and racism have a lot in
common
most notably what people do not believe
about them people do not believe that
they’re real problems they don’t believe
that humans created them and it’s not
just the way things are people don’t
believe that it impacts all of us and
not just some of us and people do not
believe that all of us perpetuate them
it’s interesting because climate change
and racism are also very interconnected
the reality is that although climate
change will impact all of us make no
mistakes about it people of color and
other marginalized groups will
disproportionately bear the effects of
climate change and we’re already seeing
that now what we’ve learned from
disasters is that we can pretty much
predict the outcomes if we understand
what the infrastructure what the
environmental social and economic
challenges are that are tearing out our
communities right now every day and have
been on the other side of that though is
that when we look at the opportunities
to address issues of climate change and
to prepare ourselves for what that means
we also see the way that people of color
are left out of those opportunities when
we think about what happens with the
environmental justice movement
what’s happening with the climate
justice movements that they’re very
segregated racially and therefore lose
the power of what it means when we can
come together to work on these issues
the other way that climate change and
racism are interconnected and
opportunity is when we think about the
economic opportunities of the green
economy people of color being left out
of those opportunities as well so we
recognize that racism is a real thing
and we recognize how it’s impacting all
of us but what is racism what is it
many of us have seen what’s happening in
our public discourse right now when you
turn on a TV that we have these
oversimplified conversations that pit
the racist against the non racist people
of color against white people we created
we’ve created this understanding of it
that has divided us in a way where we’re
missing the point
which is an intended consequence of
racism that we missed the point of how
we’re connected to each other so how
does it start
when was that moment where we learned
all of the ideas of who people are and
how they’re supposed to be many of us
have heard the definition prejudice plus
power right it’s a little more
sophisticated than the common discourse
we’re seeing on TV right now but it
still is lacking in some context that
helps us understand what racism is how
it works and how it impacts all of us
that context is we’re all humans and
we’re flawed congratulations welcome to
the human family the other part of that
though is we all prejudge people it is
the way we are
wired it is the way we are designed from
the moment we were born we’ve been
conditioned to believe certain things
about who people of color are how
they’re supposed to be what
opportunities they should have access to
or not whose humanity gets respected or
not and so if we think about what that
means for us personally who we are and
how we’re contributing that means our
understanding of racism is about us as
part of a system then the pre on the
prejudging people side we also don’t get
the full understanding of the fact that
those ideas about who people are in how
they aren’t just harmful and hurtful to
our psychology and to our emotions but
we walk through the doors of
institutions with these thoughts and
we’re setting up policies programs we’re
deciding who gets hired or not hired so
when we’re in institutions and we think
about institutional racism it’s not just
a building when we think about the
system of racism it’s not just some
thing that’s hiding behind a curtain
pulling on strings
there’s no Oz back there it’s us all of
us that are part of that system that are
walking through doors of institutions
perpetuating these issues and so if we
understand that part that all of us are
part of that system then what do we do
about it what are we supposed to do
about it
well the other half of that definition I
mentioned earlier was plus power which
we never talked about and there’s
multiple types of power that are
interrelated interconnected to one
another
so first there’s decision-making power
who’s at the table making decisions
about all of these different aspects of
our lives and who’s not at the table
there’s resources so those people at the
table making decisions also determine
who gets access to which resources and
then we also have who gets to determine
what reality is the framing of reality
both today and how we think about what’s
happening in our society who is at the
root of the problems that we’ve
identified who’s not who’s who are the
saviors it also reflects our history and
who gets the frame the reality of our
history in our understanding of history
because we’re not learning it in school
and if we’re not seeking it out then
we’re disconnected from it and we don’t
understand how we got to the inequities
that we see today and not just racism
all of them the other form of power
that’s relevant to this discussion is
this whole piece around who gets to set
up the norms and standards of what’s
acceptable in terms of behavior
appearance who has a monopoly on success
then there’s also this whole idea that
we’ve probably never talked about which
is time the power of time you see
wouldn’t you are a person of color at
the intersection of poverty and being
working poor you have less time than
everybody else because you’re spending
your time trying to make that extra
money you’re spending your time on
longer bus and train rides because
you’re living in communities that are
isolated from the rest of everybody else
it takes longer for you to go grocery
shopping because it’s you have a higher
likelihood of living in a food desert
is a form of power because that means
you can’t participate in the same ways
in the traditional forms of climate just
in a climate justice and environmental
justice movements we like to set up
these meetings and that’s where we
expect everyone to show up to work
together on these issues but the reality
is some of us don’t have the privilege
to do that because time is a form of
power and privilege and last but
certainly not least is the power of
relationships because it’s the
relationships that help us navigate the
dysfunction of the system
you see institutions in a way they’re
run and the systems that we keep talking
about they’re the things that are broken
not the people it’s up some of us have
relationships that allow us to navigate
the dysfunction to get what we need from
that system some of us have
relationships that allow us to navigate
institutions to get that job get that
opportunity that will get you the
promotion so what do we do about all of
this this prejudice plus power this
racism I propose that we hum date and
diet our way through it hang in there
with me first we have to hum we have to
hold a mirror up to ourselves and see
ourselves as actors in the system see
ourselves as being able to grow and
learn and expand in ways that the world
tells us that we’re not supposed to be
able to old dogs can learn new tricks it
happens all the time
the other reason holding up a mirror to
ourselves is so important it’s not just
who we are individually in terms of who
we are how we are why we are but it’s
also organizations
all the institutions also have to hold
the mirror up to themselves so that we
can be more aware of the bias within us
if we do not manage our bias it will
manage us so we’ve hummed to ourselves
we have some consciousness now but it’s
not enough see what usually happens as
we need then to take a date
take a developmental approach to
everything because let me tell you once
you start humming to yourself it gets
uncomfortable when we see what’s in the
mirror sometimes and we have to give
ourselves the space to be okay with the
fact that we’re gonna trip up we’re
gonna mess up we have to be patient with
ourselves and respect our own humanity
as we do that but also and respect other
people’s humanity who are also
struggling with these issues and trying
to make their way through what it means
to confront and address issues of racism
and advance racial equity consciously
deciding to close those gaps that we’ve
seen and now that we’ve hum to ourselves
we’re taking a developmental approach to
everything so we took that date and now
we’re going to go on a diet we’re going
to go on a diversity inclusion and
equity transformation starting with
expanding our personal and professional
networks white networks and when I say
networks I mean social networks I mean
the real people in our lives that we
have over for dinner folks we coordinate
playdates with those real people in our
lives that for white networks they are
over 90 percent exclusively white
for african-american networks it’s over
80% exclusively african-american and for
Hispanic or Latin X communities it’s
over 60% so we have work to do we have
to take a lot of extra steps in order to
make those connections because the
reality of our world is so segregated
then we have to take all that we’ve
experienced through humming to ourselves
and taking a developmental approach to
everything going on that date and learn
and grow with the people in our worlds
in our spheres of influence because now
we have a little bit more language we
can engage other people that’s how we
spread the wealth we also have to look
at all of our institutions and
organizations have to look at the
policies the practices and the culture
we cannot be afraid to look at data or
information by race but not just that we
also have to be able to look at the
levels of an institution or an
organization to understand where do we
see the distribution of different races
because even in the most diverse
organizations we see that people of
color on the lower levels of those
organizations right we also have to look
at the policies and the culture how do
we set up processes that make sure that
we’re checking and managing our bias
within institutions how do we make sure
that we are managing our bias in terms
of how we show what the culture
of our organizations our what do people
feel when they walk through the doors of
our institutions and last but certainly
not least we have to remain committed
and vigilant
every time we forget the progress that
we’ve made we start to celebrate the
success of the past and we move on and
we end up harming ourselves because we
have forgotten how much extra effort it
takes to keep this work going in as soon
as we stop paying attention we start
sliding backwards and we’ve seen it over
and over again generation after
generation in this country most people
do not recognize opportunity because it
comes disguised as hard work we cannot
allow our racial and ethnic group
identities to prevent us from
recognizing and respecting our common
humanity our common struggles and our
common hopes if we do not take care of
each other and the planet we will all be
equally extinct thank you
you
climate change and racism have a lot in
common
most notably what people do not believe
about them people do not believe that
they’re real problems they don’t believe
that humans created them and it’s not
just the way things are people don’t
believe that it impacts all of us and
not just some of us and people do not
believe that all of us perpetuate them
it’s interesting because climate change
and racism are also very interconnected
the reality is that although climate
change will impact all of us make no
mistakes about it people of color and
other marginalized groups will
disproportionately bear the effects of
climate change and we’re already seeing
that now what we’ve learned from
disasters is that we can pretty much
predict the outcomes if we understand
what the infrastructure what the
environmental social and economic
challenges are that are tearing out our
communities right now every day and have
been on the other side of that though is
that when we look at the opportunities
to address issues of climate change and
to prepare ourselves for what that means
we also see the way that people of color
are left out of those opportunities when
we think about what happens with the
environmental justice movement
what’s happening with the climate
justice movements that they’re very
segregated racially and therefore lose
the power of what it means when we can
come together to work on these issues
the other way that climate change and
racism are interconnected and
opportunity is when we think about the
economic opportunities of the green
economy people of color being left out
of those opportunities as well so we
recognize that racism is a real thing
and we recognize how it’s impacting all
of us but what is racism what is it
many of us have seen what’s happening in
our public discourse right now when you
turn on a TV that we have these
oversimplified conversations that pit
the racist against the non racist people
of color against white people we created
we’ve created this understanding of it
that has divided us in a way where we’re
missing the point
which is an intended consequence of
racism that we missed the point of how
we’re connected to each other so how
does it start
when was that moment where we learned
all of the ideas of who people are and
how they’re supposed to be many of us
have heard the definition prejudice plus
power right it’s a little more
sophisticated than the common discourse
we’re seeing on TV right now but it
still is lacking in some context that
helps us understand what racism is how
it works and how it impacts all of us
that context is we’re all humans and
we’re flawed congratulations welcome to
the human family the other part of that
though is we all prejudge people it is
the way we are
wired it is the way we are designed from
the moment we were born we’ve been
conditioned to believe certain things
about who people of color are how
they’re supposed to be what
opportunities they should have access to
or not whose humanity gets respected or
not and so if we think about what that
means for us personally who we are and
how we’re contributing that means our
understanding of racism is about us as
part of a system then the pre on the
prejudging people side we also don’t get
the full understanding of the fact that
those ideas about who people are in how
they aren’t just harmful and hurtful to
our psychology and to our emotions but
we walk through the doors of
institutions with these thoughts and
we’re setting up policies programs we’re
deciding who gets hired or not hired so
when we’re in institutions and we think
about institutional racism it’s not just
a building when we think about the
system of racism it’s not just some
thing that’s hiding behind a curtain
pulling on strings
there’s no Oz back there it’s us all of
us that are part of that system that are
walking through doors of institutions
perpetuating these issues and so if we
understand that part that all of us are
part of that system then what do we do
about it what are we supposed to do
about it
well the other half of that definition I
mentioned earlier was plus power which
we never talked about and there’s
multiple types of power that are
interrelated interconnected to one
another
so first there’s decision-making power
who’s at the table making decisions
about all of these different aspects of
our lives and who’s not at the table
there’s resources so those people at the
table making decisions also determine
who gets access to which resources and
then we also have who gets to determine
what reality is the framing of reality
both today and how we think about what’s
happening in our society who is at the
root of the problems that we’ve
identified who’s not who’s who are the
saviors it also reflects our history and
who gets the frame the reality of our
history in our understanding of history
because we’re not learning it in school
and if we’re not seeking it out then
we’re disconnected from it and we don’t
understand how we got to the inequities
that we see today and not just racism
all of them the other form of power
that’s relevant to this discussion is
this whole piece around who gets to set
up the norms and standards of what’s
acceptable in terms of behavior
appearance who has a monopoly on success
then there’s also this whole idea that
we’ve probably never talked about which
is time the power of time you see
wouldn’t you are a person of color at
the intersection of poverty and being
working poor you have less time than
everybody else because you’re spending
your time trying to make that extra
money you’re spending your time on
longer bus and train rides because
you’re living in communities that are
isolated from the rest of everybody else
it takes longer for you to go grocery
shopping because it’s you have a higher
likelihood of living in a food desert
is a form of power because that means
you can’t participate in the same ways
in the traditional forms of climate just
in a climate justice and environmental
justice movements we like to set up
these meetings and that’s where we
expect everyone to show up to work
together on these issues but the reality
is some of us don’t have the privilege
to do that because time is a form of
power and privilege and last but
certainly not least is the power of
relationships because it’s the
relationships that help us navigate the
dysfunction of the system
you see institutions in a way they’re
run and the systems that we keep talking
about they’re the things that are broken
not the people it’s up some of us have
relationships that allow us to navigate
the dysfunction to get what we need from
that system some of us have
relationships that allow us to navigate
institutions to get that job get that
opportunity that will get you the
promotion so what do we do about all of
this this prejudice plus power this
racism I propose that we hum date and
diet our way through it hang in there
with me first we have to hum we have to
hold a mirror up to ourselves and see
ourselves as actors in the system see
ourselves as being able to grow and
learn and expand in ways that the world
tells us that we’re not supposed to be
able to old dogs can learn new tricks it
happens all the time
the other reason holding up a mirror to
ourselves is so important it’s not just
who we are individually in terms of who
we are how we are why we are but it’s
also organizations
all the institutions also have to hold
the mirror up to themselves so that we
can be more aware of the bias within us
if we do not manage our bias it will
manage us so we’ve hummed to ourselves
we have some consciousness now but it’s
not enough see what usually happens as
we need then to take a date
take a developmental approach to
everything because let me tell you once
you start humming to yourself it gets
uncomfortable when we see what’s in the
mirror sometimes and we have to give
ourselves the space to be okay with the
fact that we’re gonna trip up we’re
gonna mess up we have to be patient with
ourselves and respect our own humanity
as we do that but also and respect other
people’s humanity who are also
struggling with these issues and trying
to make their way through what it means
to confront and address issues of racism
and advance racial equity consciously
deciding to close those gaps that we’ve
seen and now that we’ve hum to ourselves
we’re taking a developmental approach to
everything so we took that date and now
we’re going to go on a diet we’re going
to go on a diversity inclusion and
equity transformation starting with
expanding our personal and professional
networks white networks and when I say
networks I mean social networks I mean
the real people in our lives that we
have over for dinner folks we coordinate
playdates with those real people in our
lives that for white networks they are
over 90 percent exclusively white
for african-american networks it’s over
80% exclusively african-american and for
Hispanic or Latin X communities it’s
over 60% so we have work to do we have
to take a lot of extra steps in order to
make those connections because the
reality of our world is so segregated
then we have to take all that we’ve
experienced through humming to ourselves
and taking a developmental approach to
everything going on that date and learn
and grow with the people in our worlds
in our spheres of influence because now
we have a little bit more language we
can engage other people that’s how we
spread the wealth we also have to look
at all of our institutions and
organizations have to look at the
policies the practices and the culture
we cannot be afraid to look at data or
information by race but not just that we
also have to be able to look at the
levels of an institution or an
organization to understand where do we
see the distribution of different races
because even in the most diverse
organizations we see that people of
color on the lower levels of those
organizations right we also have to look
at the policies and the culture how do
we set up processes that make sure that
we’re checking and managing our bias
within institutions how do we make sure
that we are managing our bias in terms
of how we show what the culture
of our organizations our what do people
feel when they walk through the doors of
our institutions and last but certainly
not least we have to remain committed
and vigilant
every time we forget the progress that
we’ve made we start to celebrate the
success of the past and we move on and
we end up harming ourselves because we
have forgotten how much extra effort it
takes to keep this work going in as soon
as we stop paying attention we start
sliding backwards and we’ve seen it over
and over again generation after
generation in this country most people
do not recognize opportunity because it
comes disguised as hard work we cannot
allow our racial and ethnic group
identities to prevent us from
recognizing and respecting our common
humanity our common struggles and our
common hopes if we do not take care of
each other and the planet we will all be
equally extinct thank you
you
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