Talking Safely and Listening Productively About Justice and Equity

• The Challenge
• Promising Practices
• Benchmarks

Create opportunities for dialog, reflective conversation, healing, and reconciliation. 

• Support conversations that bridge divides . The Jessie Ball duPont Fund supports dialogues to promote understanding across racial lines. At the Foundation for the Mid South, a group of African American and White leadership traveled to South Africa, Brazil and Chicago, and throughout their own region, to create awareness of poverty and racism. Participants developed an extraordinary compassion for what they saw and bonded among themselves, setting the stage for further developments.
  
  
• Wrestle with language. Asking the board of Community Foundations of Canada what they meant by “social justice” generated this remarkable list: “helping others, leveling the playing field, dealing with dis-advantagement, giving a hand up-rather than a hand-out, system change, root causes, and dealing with the causes of poverty.” Some organizations find it easier not to talk about race, and instead to talk about “all people.” Others find talking about race necessary to achieve a level of trust that attracts partners and support. When meetings convened by Jacksonville Community Council, Inc. focused on “race relations,” finger-pointing and acrimonious discussion was the result. But by focusing on “institutional practices that create gaps,” the conversation turned to a productive search for solutions.
  
  
• Promote healing and reconciliation. The Beloved Community Center i n Greensboro, N.C. sponsored a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the wake of 15-year-old atrocities in the city. The Commission conducted many sessions of public testimony and compiled a report. The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro amplified the Commission’s impact by sponsoring a series of community discussions. T he William J. Clinton Foundation has a focus on, among other things, “racial, ethnic and religious reconciliation” that acknowledges “as we grow more interdependent, we are compelled to expand the definition of who is ‘us’ and shrink the definition of who is ‘them.’” At the South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations , organizers understand that their region’s history both supports progress and scares people away. This is a powerful dynamic that can become a useful tool for community development. The goals of the Facing Race/We're All in This Together of the Saint Paul Foundation initiative fall into two categories – addressing racism at the individual level and addressing racism at the institutional level. The initiative is organized into phases because it will take time to address the deep-rooted problem of racism. In the first phase, the emphasis will be on individual action and change. Over time, the initiative will expand to include organizations and institutions – the second phase of the initiative. During the third phase, we will reassess community attitudes and experiences about racism.
  
  
• Build on existing social capital. In conjunction with neighborhood-based organizations, three North Carolina community foundations, Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro , The Winston-Salem Foundation and Foundation for the Carolinas , created local civic engagement projects. The resulting discussions on justice and equity cultivated the civic soil.

• Build bridges at levels that matter.As one board member of the Black Belt Community Foundation , a start-up foundation based in Selma (Alabama), said, “We chose the right White people and the right Black people. Being able to talk about race issues is paramount… We have had the right White people at the right time. They understand that this foundation will not accept past structural inequities. They will be powerful ambassadors for the foundation.” From these conversations comes a foundation of trust. From trust come opportunities for partnership and leadership. From partnership and leadership come strategies for closing key equity gaps. 

Raise the profile of social justice and racial equity work.

• Promote solutions through local media. ERASE Racism , an independent organization spun off from the Long Island Community Foundation, studies opportunities for reducing inequities in fair housing practices and public education on Long Island. By cultivating relations with local news media, ERASE Racism is able to educate the public and be seen as an able ally.
  
  
• Name social justice and racial equity as organizational priorities. The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, two prominent regional family foundations in North Carolina, and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation in Arkansas explicitly name a concern for equity and justice as funding priorities. These issues gain legitimacy for all to see and become a priority for the foundation’s use of grantmaking funds.