Reflections on Becoming an Antiracist Organization

The GRTL Ensemble Series 

For the past two months, our team at Global Round Table Leadership has been on a journey to become an anti-racist organization, beginning with reading How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. 

His work really resonates with me. Kendi writes, 

“That’s the problem with being ‘not racist.’ It is a claim that signifies neutrality: ‘I am not a racist, but neither am I aggressively against racism.’ But there is no neutrality in the racism struggle. The opposite of ‘racist’ isn’t ‘not racist.’ It is ‘anti-racist.’  

He goes on to say, “There is no in-between safe space of ‘not racist.’ The claim of ‘not racist’ neutrality is a mask for racism.” He uses the analogy that striving to be an anti-racist is like fighting addiction. It “requires persistent self-awareness, constant self-criticism, and regular self-examination.” As someone who has proudly worn the mantle of “not a racist,” I am learning that from my place of privilege, I have dabbled in being part of the solution when it suits me, when I have the time or when events are in the limelight—and then I go back to my life. But it isn’t enough to be a dabbler or a passive participant. 

I appreciate that Kendi’s frame invites me into a real lifelong journey to make choices, reflect, and adjust moment by moment and day by day. Just five chapters into the book, I feel a shift in my relationship to systems and institutions. I have a keener eye to color-blindness versus anti-racist policies, where privilege perpetuates through inaction, and where I benefit while others do not.

Kendi affirms my belief that shared leadership and shared power are essential. It’s also grown my appreciation for our Four Pillars of Inclusion here at Global Roundtable Leadership: humanity, equality, wholeness, and collective wisdom. 

HUMANITY

We recognize each other and meet as equals in the best of our humanity—what exists at the core of us—before relating through roles, status, and expertise.

EQUALITY

We relate as equal learning partners in full acknowledgement of what we can contribute and learn from each other. 

WHOLENESS

We are fully ourselves, wherever we are. We are also conscious of the concentric relationship and impact of self to group, group to goal/mission, mission to the world, and the world to all of life.

COLLECTIVE WISDOM

We know more together than any of us does on our own. We cultivate the collective wisdom of the group by honoring the natural gifts and talents of each and every person.

We emphasize these practices because practicing together is how we learn to embody our values. We believe—and have seen firsthand—how the practice of Shared Leadership brings out the greatest capacity in everyone by empowering each of us to be responsible for and engaged in the vibrancy and function of the whole. Unlike current hierarchical structures of authority, this is a fundamental shift in how we understand and apply power and leadership. 

I’m eager for our GRTL team to take forward a continued commitment to learning, sharing our learnings, and holding each other accountable into becoming actively engaged anti-racists.

Learn more about our commitment to Black lives and becoming an anti-racist organization. Read the anti-racist statement from Anthea Kelsick, Co-CEO of the B Corp movement.

Photo: Kate McGowan