Stand Against Racism Challenge
YWCA Southwestern Illinois is excited to announce the launch of the Stand Against Racism Challenge on April 4, 2022.
What is the Stand Against Racism Challenge?
The SAR Challenge was created to help people better understand how racial inequity and social injustice impacts our community. The challenge is designed to provide participants daily tasks via email that include activities such as reading an article, listening to a podcast, and reflecting on personal experiences. By addressing issues of race, power, privilege, and leadership we can connect with others to identify ways to dismantle racism and other forms of discrimination.
What is Racial Equity?
It is both an outcome and a process. As a process, we apply racial equity to policies, systems, structures, and institutions by analyzing data so we can identify, uncover, and remove barriers that produce disparate (unfavorable) outcomes based on race. As an outcome, racial equity is the condition that would be achieved if one’s racial identity no longer predicted, in a statistical sense, how one fares in society.
Why the Challenge?
It is said that it takes 21 days to form a habit. By taking small actions and participating in a conversation about racism and social justice, we can create momentum and unity in order to build new and positive habits to change our communities and ourselves. YWCA Southwestern Illinois will be launching the second annual Challenge on April 4th, 2022.
Why Should I Engage My Company or Organization?
The 21-Day Challenge provides a framework for meaningful action through daily emails allowing leadership to offer employees the power and platform to take action for racial justice. The psychological impact of public events regarding racial violence and racist threats carries over into the workplace. How organizations respond can either help employees feel psychologically safe or contribute to feelings of isolation, fear, and sadness. Leaders seeking to create an inclusive environment for employees can help to address these topics by being a part of the challenge.
Who Created the Challenge?
The 21-Day Equity Challenge was created by Dr. Eddie Moore Jr. (#BlackMind) and co-developed with Debby Irving, and Dr. Marguerite Penick (#DiverseSolutions). The plan has been adopted by Organizations, Associations, and Corporations all over the nation/world. Dr. Eddie Moore Jr. is the Director of the Privilege Institute in Green Bay, WI. Dr. Moore created the Challenge to not only help people better understand issues surrounding equity, inclusion, privilege, leadership, and supremacy, but also to do so in a way that would build a habit of learning by stretching it over 21 days. We are excited to be offering you this 21- Day Challenge in partnership with Dr. Moore. The Stand Against Racism is now an official program of YWCA USA.
2022 Challenge Topics
The Stand Against Racism Challenge runs for 21 days. New content will be published daily (except for weekends) for the duration of the challenge. Each week we cover a different topic relating to equity and social justice. Below are the four topics we plan on covering this year.
Registration for the challenge is open now on https://standagainstracism.org/.
Directions to Sign Up for the Challenge
Participants should sign up under the “Select A Region” field and clicking the Midwest option. Under the Midwest option, participants should click the Southwestern Illinois choice.
Participants will also be able to Take the Stand Against Racism Pledge and sign a petition.