On June 26, the PR Council hosted a session called “Groundwater: An Intro to Racial Equity,” led by Monica Walker and Stephanie Baker from The Racial Equity Institute. As members of the PR Council, we had the privilege of participating in this eye-opening session. The current attention to racial inequities and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement has led many of us to take a hard look at our lives, industries and institutions, to better understand the depth of systemic racism and the varying challenges it creates for Black individuals and people of color.
The presentation provided an in-depth look at racial inequities across five systems including, education, healthcare, child welfare, juvenile justice and economic development. Monica and Stephanie used extensive data and strong metaphors to articulate the extent of racial inequalities across these systems. This session was incredibly helpful, educational and insightful.
Below I’ve outlined a handful of key points and takeaways from the session, but before diving into these, I want to emphasize this is a small overview of the information shared in this session. I highly recommend visiting Racial Equity Institute’s website and looking into the sessions the organization offers.
Change the Narrative
When the session started, participants were asked to keep an open mind because the information we were going to learn was likely going to challenge our existing narrative. As a PR professional this resonated with me. We are often crafting and telling stories on behalf of our clients, but in this case, it was critical to step back and reevaluate stories that we may have been hearing and subconsciously practicing since our childhood.
To emphasize this point, the leaders proposed an impactful metaphor about a fish and a lake. When someone passes by a fish washed up on the shoreline, they may wonder if the fish was sick or swallowed plastic. However, if you pass a shoreline filled with thousands of fish, you’ll likely ask a different question: What is wrong with the water?
This metaphor calls attention to the fact that we need to reconsider the narrative as we investigate inequality and systemic problems. It’s important we reframe questions and ask new questions that challenge the narrative we already know.
Discrimination Starts with a Name
Another example of an existing narrative discussed in the presentation is that education is the way out of hardship or that education levels the playing field in the professional world. However, there are countless examples across multiple systems demonstrating this is not the case.
As a part of an experiment, fake resumes were submitted to job openings. The experiment leaders used a “white sounding” name for a male and female resume and created the exact same resumes with a “Black sounding” name for a male and female. The applicants with “white sounding” names were 1.5X more likely to get a call back than the applicants with “Black sounding” names, despite the resumes being exactly the same.
As said in the presentation, “You can’t solve a problem from a distance.” This data, while surprising and disappointing, is critical in addressing inequality and discrimination across our industry. Instead of assuming individuals aren’t qualified or don’t have the right education, we should be conscious of how preexisting biases may be leading to the challenges and discrimination Black individuals are facing. In order to begin addressing the problem, we need to be aware of it and understand it.
Be Aware of Assumptions
Monica shared a personal anecdote with us, noting that she has a grandson that often leaves the lights on throughout the house. When she finds lights on, she almost always assumes he’s left them on. When she approaches him about it and it turns out it wasn’t him who left the lights on, he reminds Monica how unfair it is that she automatically assumes it was him.
This is a simple, everyday example, but a strong reminder that no one wants to face assumptions about who they are, what they are (or are not) capable of, or what they may or may not do. The presenters shared a variety of sources and studies that illustrate how preexisting assumptions about Black individuals impact their lives across a number of environments including healthcare, law enforcement, professional environments and more. These assumptions and discrimination lead to more deaths from preventable health conditions, increasing economic divide and higher incarceration rates.
As we all work to drive change and call for action in addressing systemic racism and racial inequality, it’s critical we have an understanding of its roots and how it is impacting the lives of Black individuals and people of color across all major systems.
Again, I highly recommend visiting The Racial Equity Institute’s website for resources. Additionally, the PR Council has shared information about how to improve Black representation in PR agencies and across the industry and one of our colleagues recently shared his findings on how leaders can combat systemic racism within companies.