Our Roadmap for Being an Anti-Racist Organization
The racial justice movement carried a realization for us, as it did for so many, that we have been complicit in a country whose systems put whites in a place of privilege and advantage while hindering the human potential of BIPOC communities. We thought the issue of race was far more binary than it actually is. We thought, “we’re good, conscientious people, striving to always be aware of our prejudice and bias” and therefore were doing our part.
This moment has showed us that’s not nearly enough. Once you’ve had the realization that you are benefitting from systems and institutions that unfairly benefit white people, once it finally pushes itself to the surface it cannot be un-had. Bishop Tutu’s quote, delivered in his one-of-a-kind, joyous tone rings out in our ears, “if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
There now exists a nagging awareness in our hearts and minds that we as individuals and as a country have failed to live up to our promise as a country, but more importantly as human beings.
When this all started to unfold, one of our first thoughts (as a business and as individuals) was “we need to respond! We need to say or do something!” And, while that is most certainly true, we also realized that action and response was the opposite of listening and reflecting. We realized that we were unprepared to respond in a meaningful and effective way, in a way that did more than provide temporary lip service to this reality.
So, we decided to stop talking for a while…
We, like many of you, have been carving out time for education on the issue of racism and social inequality in our country, and how we can serve as embodiments of anti-racism in our communities. But, educating ourselves is only part of the solution, right? When and how does real action come in to play? The more we thought about it, the more curious we became about what effective, balanced action consisted of…
What does it look like to be a conscious and CONSISTENTLY anti-racist business?
We are at the very early stages of this journey, but we have created an initial roadmap based on something called the Four Quadrant Model, developed by Ken Wilbur. It is a structure for the four dimensions of reality (more on that in a second) that helps to answer the question of “what are the right actions?” and “how do we ensure we’re approaching this issue from all sides?”
This post will not dive deeply into the details of the Four Quadrants Model. If you’re interested in knowing more about this, Integral Life and any of the dozens of books and lectures from Ken Wilbur can help you go much deeper.
The model recognizes that any occurrence (in this case racial inequality) possesses an inside and an outside (or internal and external) dimension and an individual and a collective dimension (I/Me and We/Us). When these are mapped as two axes, you get four quadrants. Sounds heady, but stay with us. The map will make it more tangible.
How we see the social justice movement and our business’ role in it.
Like most, we do not see police brutality as the only issue here. The issue with police just happens to be the most blatant and egregious example at the moment. But, racism exists in every institution and structure in American culture — financial, medical, educational, etc. It is more pervasive than we’ve been willing to imagine.
Wildish is in the business of creating entirely plant-based, maternal health products that support women in fertility, pregnancy and postpartum.
Sadly, these are also areas in which BIPOC is marginalized, as black women are 3–4x more likely to die from complications in labor than white women. Given that we are in the business of using plant-based medicine to support women during all stages pre- and post-natal, our actions will focus on social inequality as it pertains to maternal health as well as environmental degradation.
When we seek to explore racism as individuals (versus business owners) we will be looking at it more broadly, however the actions of our business will naturally focus on addressing inequality in the healthcare and environmental spaces.
The Four Quadrants
Think of each quadrant as an independent tower that grows as we and our business develops. Ideally, all towers are growing in unison, but we will naturally gravitate towards different areas based on the circumstances and opportunities that exist in our lives and our business.
Here’s our completed map. Let’s look at each quadrant individually…
Upper Left Quadrant / “I”
This is the internal individual quadrant, “I”. It is the starting point for any growth effort. It is about cultivating an awareness of our thoughts and emotions as they arise. Feelings of shame, defensiveness and guilt are all things that prevent us from seeing other points of view or from empathizing with other groups. It is necessary that we regulate our thoughts and emotions in order move through them in a productive way.
White fragility refers to when white people are so unaccustomed to thinking and talking about race issues that they’re easily thrown into a state of defensiveness when the topic arises. This is indicative of internal work that needs to take place, so that we can begin to engage with the issues in a productive way.
For us, the techniques center around meditation practice. Loving-Kindness meditation is a great approach as it is scientifically proven to activate empathy and emotional processing in the brain in addition to a number of other benefits. Journaling is another important action to help process and work through our emotions as well as what we’re learning along the way. Me and My White Supremacy by Layla Saad is an excellent book that takes readers on a 28-day journey introducing them to topics pertaining to racism with reflective journaling prompts for each topic. We highly recommend it.
Upper Right Quadrant / “It”
This is the external individual, “It”. It consists of educating ourselves — developing the knowledge and skills necessary to hold informed conversations and engage in the right actions. For us, this is choosing media — books, podcasts, and articles that deepen our understanding of racism and anti-racism work on the general level, but also in areas specific to our business — in this case maternal healthcare and environmentalism, areas with deep racial disparities.
Curious about how racial inequality, maternal health and environmental degradation all overlap? A newly published study of 32 million U.S. births showed that women exposed to higher temperatures or air pollution are more likely to give birth to children who are premature, underweight or stillborn, and African-American mothers and their babies are affected at a much higher rate than the larger population, because minority groups are more affected by pollution and climate change.
Inequities in maternal health is a topic we’re well-informed on, but we have the opportunity to go a step further towards action. That’s where the lower quadrants come in…
Lower Left Quadrant / “We”
This is the internal collective, “We”. This asks, can we communicate effectively and create shared understanding? It is the beginning of when knowledge becomes service to the problem through action.
For us this is holding productive, loving conversations with family, friends and professional circles. This is producing informative content for our business’ social media channels. It is connecting with and supporting organizations that are directly engaged in maternal health and environmental issues.
This is where things get real. When you put down the book and go out in to the real world and do something. It requires us to be uncomfortable. It requires us to remain patient and loving with individuals who may not share our views.
These bottom two quadrants are of great importance as they take all the individual work we’ve been doing and bring it to life through action. With the Lower Left Quadrant we form rich new relationships through connection and communication. It helps to ensure we’re not just reading and educating ourselves, but engaging with the external world, especially those outside of our homogeneous bubbles.
Lower Right Quadrant / “Its”
This is the act of utilizing the systems and technologies within our society to drive large-scale change. This is making phone calls, protesting, letter writing, signing and circulating petitions. This is supporting the groups that have effective plans to create change in any way that we can.
Or as President Obama put it in his final speech in office, “if you’re tired of your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures and run for office yourself.” That speech (watch the highlights, he hits on every quadrant) was in many ways a plea to the America people to participate in their democracy. Voting is the bare minimum. It alone will not solve a 400-year old problem that has infected every institution in our country.
A great example of this in our space is a petition that has been started in New York state to require hospitals to publish data on pregnancy outcomes.
Earlier we mentioned how Black women are 3–4x more likely to die from pregnancy-related outcomes. In New York state that number is 12x.
“…we insist this law [ New York State Law § 2803-J Information for Maternity Patients] be expanded to include reporting on maternal deaths, before, during and up to six weeks after childbirth; third trimester fetal losses and stillbirths; hemorrhage; and injuries related to childbirth including damage to tissue and organs during Cesarean birth, third and fourth degree tearing; with a racial break down on all data points”
What gets measured, gets managed, and transparency in racial disparities of pregnancy and birth outcomes is the first step towards ensuring better outcomes for all pregnant New Yorkers.
The Lower Right Quadrant is wielding the power of the systems, tools and technologies at our disposal to drive change. This is Jedi level.
Closing
We are at the early stages of our journey to becoming an anti-racist business, a title that will never be permanent for anyone or anything. It is a temporary reflection of our most recent intentions and actions.
We hope this framework proves to be useful. Whether you’re looking to grow as an individual or working for an organization that’s seeking to change, we hope others will explore the exercise of completing this map.
We’re committed to revisiting this to see how we’re doing and bringing our community along with us. Thank you deeply for taking the time to read it, and please let us know if you have any thoughts or feedback as that dialogue (Lower Left Quadrant) is critical to our own growth.