Abstract
Since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, talk of racial justice and efforts to achieve it have intensified. Similarly, the denial of racial oppression and efforts to thwart racial justice work are equally intense. In the face of ardent resistance to racial justice, organizations that advocate for it trained their staff, developed and issued racial equity statements, hired DEI officers, and even developed racial equity plans. While all these things can be of value to an organization’s strategic direction as it relates to their racial justice (equity) work, they can often be a mishmash of performative activities leaving its staff or members powerless to make sustainable change. During its racial equity journey, the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC) learned this lesson and has since made the investment to ensure its racial equity work is built upon a foundation that gives it purpose and direction, and viable opportunities for culture change. A significant return on that investment is DEC’s Racial Equity Point of View (RE POV).
The RE POV is an internal document that describes DEC’s commitment to racial equity, its strategies for operationalizing racial equity, its partners in the work, and how and to whom the organization is accountable. The RE POV is not a panacea that holds the solutions to all DEC’s challenges with inequity. Rather it is a tool that serves as a loadstone to help DEC live fully into its racial equity values. The RE POV is used to aid decision making, create products, guide advocacy efforts, shape communication strategies, and more. Its utility is based on equity-centered principles that are applicable to any organization that is committed to being equity forward and anti-racist. Therefore, the RE POV is of practical use to all people and parts of DEC. It is a document that is particular to the DEC context and is expected to evolve when its context changes.
Over the first 13 months of our partnership, CounterPart Consulting worked with DEC Executive Leadership and Leaders from the DEC community to build racial equity. In addition to increased skill and will, this work resulted in the development of a Racial Equity Assessment. At the time, the assessment outlined the ways in which power (race) was operating to create and perpetuate racialized inequities across the DEC system. It showed how White dominant default culture undergirded policies, practices, and ways of being at DEC that systematically and negatively affect Black, Indigenous and People Of Color (BIPOC) and their communities.
The assessment’s threshold finding was:
While actively committed to integrating racial equity theory and practice into its culture and work, DEC is currently a system that replicates, upholds and maintains traditional white dominant culture. The culture overwhelmingly serves the interests of white scholars in academia, and white children with disabilities and their families. It limits what research and products are produced by DEC and by whom, and the rigor of the same, as they are largely silent on race and power.
More specifically, the assessment cites a number of patterns that show how structural racism is playing out at DEC. These patterns are seen in (a) the narrow configuration of networks as resources for connecting and belonging to DEC serve the interests of White academics and practitioners. (b) The rules that shape DEC’s work such that the experience and needs of White constituencies are privileged, while those of BIPOC constituencies are marginalized. (c) The tension within the story of what is causing racialized disparities among children with disabilities, and questions as to whether its systemic, is a barrier to work that should be focused upon BIPOC children. This would lead to the benefit of all children. (d) The power and influence in the DEC community is concentrated within a relatively small group of White academics and practitioners in the field. This cuts short the possibility of new research and ideas, and new ways to address racial disparities so that BIPOC interests are centered rather than systematically marginalized.
Upon these findings, CounterPart’s and the DEC Leaders’ initial inclination was to do deep work on the Recommended Practices, given their profound importance and influence across the sector. However, after consultation with a small, representative group of DEC Leaders who had been involved in the work with us, we pivoted and began the work on DEC’s system-wide RE POV. It is important to note that it was leaders of color within the group who primarily raised the efficacy of pivoting in this way, informed by their experiences and insights in the field overall and as members and leaders within DEC. This is exactly how centering the wisdom of those made most marginalized results in stronger, more effective processes and strategies that lead to deeper, more meaningful, and system-wide changes. And, how these structural solutions truly do benefit all.
CounterPart worked with 24 DEC leaders to develop DEC’s RE POV over an 8-month period. The leaders were assigned to five work groups in the areas of Conference/Events, Publications/Products, Organizational Structure/Leadership, Community Engagement, and Research/Data/Evidence. Throughout the process, the leaders continued to work on deepening their shared understanding of racial equity and analysis of structural racism, skill and will for doing racial equity work, and their relationships of mutual support and accountability. The time these leaders invested and the rigor of their work resulted in the RE POV that CounterPart delivered to the DEC community at its 2023 Annual Gathering in Minneapolis.
The RE POV is not an attempt to undo the good work that has been done over many decades. It is to take a different look and discover the work yet to be done. It is not an attempt to leave anyone behind, but rather to see children, families, and systems whole so that DEC can make its best attempt to leave no one out. It is not about mission drift, but realizing DEC is a system within a system and part of a larger ecosystem of organizations, with people who affect the lives of children and families. The RE POV provides DEC with a tool to aid its approach to addressing the many protracted issues of inequity that it and its members confront daily. Furthermore, it is a mechanism to call the DEC community to account for being able to say with integrity that it is working to serve all children with disabilities and their families.
DEC is beginning to operationalize the RE POV, specifically engaging the Recommended Practices Committee beginning in February 2024 to help its members bring a racial equity lens to their continued work of revising the practices. The goal is to apply the RE POV to all committee-level work. While this work is happening, we invite the entire DEC community to study the RE POV and note where it affirms equity practices you are currently doing in the context of your work with DEC. Also, note what it is calling you to examine and change to center equity, disrupt how structural racism and ableism are operating, and build practices that are equity forward. Use the RE POV as a tool to audit yourselves and make commitments to where you want to grow in your equity capacity, imagine what you need to facilitate that growth, and seek out opportunities to grow together with your DEC colleagues.
The work with DEC continues to live into the aspirations that are outlined in the DEC RE POV. We invite all who are working toward the important work of ensuring that all children and families have what they need and that the systems with which they interact every day are equitable and just and held accountable to meet those needs, to join in the movement for change and progress. You can access a full copy of the RE POV at https://www.dec-sped.org/single-post/dec-announces-racial-equity-point-of-view.