“The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious, one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.”
-James Baldwin
The Equity Reset Learning Model
This curriculum is designed to be accessible and valuable to anyone, including those who are new to conversations about race and inequity, as well as those who are more practiced and personally knowledgeable about these topics.
Please find an entry point that feels most authentic to where you are on your anti-racism journey.
Despite our different entry points, we all have things to learn.
HOW TO USE THIS CURRICULUM
Begin with “Reflection” Step 1A.
As a user of this Equity Reset curriculum, you will engage in a cycle of learning that shifts from Reflection (i.e., Step 1A —> 1B) to Action (i.e., Step 2A —> 2B), back to Reflection. When do we stop the cycle? Only when we have dismantled racist, discriminatory, and exclusionary behaviors, norms, practices, & policies within ourselves, our communities, and our spheres of influence.
Our strong recommendation: Dedicate 2 months, with at least 2 hours of self-guided study per month, to Reflection before shifting attention to Action for 1 month; we expect each cycle from Reflection to Action to take about 3 months.
Practice On Your Own & In Community.
You will work through the self-guided Equity Reset curriculum solo or in the company of a self-organized peer learning circle.
Concurrently, on the First Friday of every month, you are invited to join a structured, facilitated Equity Reset community forum hosted by the IDEA Office and HR’s Learning & Organizational Development (L&OD) Office, designed for motivated employees to share learnings & to workshop their anti-racism commitments.
IMPORTANT
Being antiracist is different for white people than it is for people of color. For white people, being antiracist evolves with their racial identity development. They must acknowledge and understand their privilege, work to change their internalized racism, and interrupt racism when they see it. For people of color, it means recognizing how race and racism have been internalized, and whether it has been applied to other people of color*.
Being antiracist is different for white people than it is for people of color. For white people, being antiracist evolves with their racial identity development. They must acknowledge and understand their privilege, work to change their internalized racism, and interrupt racism when they see it. For people of color, it means recognizing how race and racism have been internalized, and whether it has been applied to other people of color*.
*Adapted from National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC)
STEP 1. Reflection
Anti-racist ACTIONS must be informed by ongoing REFLECTION points for self-directed education on the history of racism and our personal complicity within racist systems.
1A. Self-Directed Education
The following resources have been curated for self-education purposes. Each resource centers on the racial history of the United States and the experiences of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). Trigger warnings are listed next to relevant resources.
1B. Active Self-Inquiry
The following resources have been curated to provide people with opportunities to engage in self-inquiry and more deeply understand their own racialized identities. Nearly all reflection exercises listed below can be completed within 15-20 minutes of journaling time.
BEGIN WITH:
BEGIN WITH:
🎥🎥🎧 This is a 65-minute conversation between Isabel Wilkerson, author of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, and Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI).
📘 Based on Stanford professor Shirzad Chamine’s extensive research on positive intelligence, this free self-assessment gives you insight into your internal “Saboteurs,” the voices and automated patterns of thought that arise when you feel challenged. This is a great tool to build your self-awareness muscles.
🎧 This 2019 podcast “This Land,” described as ‘intro course to Native American law and policy,’ taps Indigenous legal experts to showcase how a 1999 murder case sparked a 2020 Supreme Court ruling on tribal sovereignty. There are 10 episodes, each ranging from 20-30 minutes. WARNING: A few episodes detail graphic violence.
📘 This “Self Reflection Tool”, developed by the 2020 UC-Coro Northern Cohort, outlines 10 anti racist work practices that you as a supervisor can use to assess your actions in contributing to an anti-racist organization.
🎥 🎧 This 39-minute talk, titled “Who is Unfit?: Centering Race and Disability in Histories of Eugenics,” from Dr. Natalie Lira is part of a two-day symposium at the NIH National Human Genome Research Institute in December 2021. WARNING: This presentation cites examples of sexual violence.
📘 This “Demystifying Internalized Oppression” Reflection Guide, developed by the Winters Group, outlines 7 in-depth exercises to deepen self-reflection and critical thinking about identity.
🎥 🎧 This is a 2019 lecture (49 minutes) delivered by historian and housing policy expert Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, at Brown University's Center for the Study of Race & Ethnicity in America. See this related 2023 conversation between Richard and Leah Rothstein, facilitated by Reverend William H. Lamar IV, about their follow-up book Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Law.
🎧 This 2022 conversation (50 minutes) from the “On Being” podcast between guest Trabian Shorters and host Krista Tippett explores the radical concept of “Asset Framing,” a cognitive skill and perspective-taking method
🎥 This PBS documentary titled ‘Asian Americans’ has 5 episodes (approx. 54 minutes each), each documenting a chapter of Asian American history. The website also features many small excerpts (3-4 minutes each). Available for free until June 2021. WARNING: A few episodes detail scenes of graphic violence.
📘 These reflection questions enables you to explore race and ethnicity, and facets of your identity overall, on your own or in conversation with others. You can use these prompts to begin to craft and author your own racial autobiography.
🎧 “1619” is a NYTimes podcast hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones. There are 7 episodes, lasting approx. 30-40 minutes each. WARNING: Many episodes detail scenes of graphic violence.
📘This educational tool, the Implicit Association Test, developed by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald at Harvard University, can help you better understand and reflect on the ways in which unconscious biases impact your day-to-day actions & behaviors.
🎧This 62-minute podcast episode of Backstory, titled ‘The Melting Pot,’ explores the question: what 19th-century notions of who could become American shaped the ways in which different groups were expected to change? This podcast features historians Joanne Freeman, Nathan Connolly, Ed Ayers, and Brian Balogh.
📘This is a Book Club Toolkit and Discussion Guide designed to be used with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s How To Be An Anti-Racist. Order a copy of the book and utilize this to deepen your understanding.
🎧 This is a 41-minute conversation between Kimberlé Crenshaw, legal scholar who coined the term “intersectionality,” and a panel of historians and storytellers to examine the narratives that factored into the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
🎥 This 55-minute conversation between The Atlantic’s Jemele Hill and Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of How To Be An Anti-Racist, was recorded during the 2019 Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado.
📘This quick introduction to The Science of Race, a companion to the Nature article titled “Racism in science: the taint that lingers,” contains 4 key reflection/discussion questions about the embedded history of racism in science.
🎧 This 40-minute episode of the Who Belongs? podcast from UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute hosts a panel of faculty (Catherine Ceniza Choy; Ian Haney López; Osagie K. Obasogie) who provide perspectives and historical context on forms of racism in the U.S. at the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
📘 This 10-minute article, titled 5 Questions: Alice Popejoy on race, ethnicity and ancestry in science,” provides 5 questions that you can use to explore and reflect on the relationship between science and race. The answers provided are from Alice Popejoy, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford Medicine who studies biomedical data sciences.
🎥 This 6-minute TED-Ed video clip from Dr. Stefan C. Dombrowski traces the “dark history” of IQ tests.
📘 This self-reflection framework can be used to prepare for having and/or facilitating conversations about race or racism. Use these questions to list your vulnerabilities, strengths, and specific needs that, if met, would improve your ability to facilitate race-related conversations.
🎧This 35-minute podcast episode of Science Vs. by science journalist Wendy Zuckerman explores the question, “Race: Can We See It In Our DNA?” She speaks with sociologist Dr. Dorothy Roberts, evolutionary biologist Dr. Joseph L. Graves Jr. and psychological methodologist Dr. Jelte Wicherts. WARNING: Contains explicit language.
📘Use this ‘Identity Wheel Self-Reflection’ from Northwestern University as a framework to explore your social and personal identities, and to use to inspire discussions with peers.
📘This 8-minute article, titled “Racism in science: the taint that lingers,” is a review of science journalist Angela Saini’s 2019 book titled Superior: The Return of Race Science. Pair this reading with this 22-minute audio interview [listen here] with Saini.
🎧 This 60-minute audio conversation between therapist & trauma specialist Resmaa Menakem and host Krista Tippett delves into body mindfulness and practices around reflections on race.
🎥 This 9-minute interview between The Daily Show host Trevor Noah and Dr. Eddie S. Glaube, Jr., author of Begin Again. Pair this video with this article containing excerpts from this book.
🎧 This 32-minute audio conversation between author Cathy Park Hong and NPR correspondent Sam Sanders explores her book Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning and her reflections on the model minority myth.
🎥 This 9-minute mini-documentary, “Return to Indian Island,” shares the story of how the town of Eureka, CA voted in December 2018 to return stolen ancestral land to the Wiyot people.
🎧 This 26-minute audio conversation between author Tommy Orange and The New Yorker’s fiction editor explores the experiences of urban Native writers and questions of authenticity.
🎥 🎧 This conversation (70 minutes) between comedian W. Kamau Bell and author and activist Kate Schatz, and facilitated by author and podcaster Carvell Wallace at the Commonwealth Club of California, explores the goals behind their book Do the Work! An Antiracist Activity Book.
🎧 In this 80-minute podcast episode, Dr. Brené Brown speaks with Dr. Yaba Blay about her new book, One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race. Transcript is available here.
🎧 “Seeing White” is a 14-part documentary series exploring the history and concept of whiteness in America. Episodes range from 14-40 minutes long. WARNING: Some episodes detail scenes of graphic violence.
📘To accompany the “Seeing White” podcast under Self-Directed Education (to the left), here is a Study Guide to generate reflection and discussion about key themes surfaced in each episode. Use these questions as personal writing prompts or discussion topics with peers.
FOLLOW UP WITH:
FOLLOW UP WITH:
Over the course of 51 short episodes, you’re going to learn about Black American History. Clint Smith will teach you about the experience of Black people in America, from the arrival of the first enslaved Black people who arrived at Jamestown all the way to the Black Lives Matter movement.
🎥 📘 This free e-course, titled the Cultural Somatics Racialized Trauma Course, take less than 2 hours to complete and takes a deeper dive into concepts and ideas introduced in the On Being episode listed above.
🎥 Cracking the Codes (1.5 hours) is a film & discussion by Shakti Butler that explores the causes & consequences of systemic inequity, featuring stories from twenty-four racial justice leaders including Amer Ahmed, Michael Benitez, Barbie-Danielle DeCarlo, Joy DeGruy, Harley Eagle, Ericka Huggins, Yuko Kodama, Peggy McIntosh, Rinku Sen, Tillman Smith and Tim Wise.
📘This Q&A interview titled “White Anti-Racism: Living the Legacy” with a diverse group of activists from Teaching Tolerance includes 4 thought-provoking discussion questions at the bottom of the page.
🎥 📘 This free University of Illinois course titled “Race & Cultural Diversity in American Life & History,” taught by Dr. James D. Anderson, explores the historical and social relationships among European Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, Latino/as, and Asian/Pacific Americans. There are 4 sessions, 2-3 hours of study each.
🎧 📘 This book by author Layla F. Saad, and its associated workbook, is available as an audiobook (5 hours, 19 minutes) and downloadable companion pdf.
🎥 📘 This free Yale University course titled “African American History,” taught by Dr. Jonathan Holloway, examines the African American experience in the United States from 1863 to the present. There are 25 lectures, each 35-50 minutes. WARNING: Some of the lectures in this course contain graphic content and/or adult language that some users may find disturbing.
📘This Book Club Guide, designed to accompany the book “Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces” by Karen Catlin, contains 12 thought-provoking questions for individual reflection and/or group discussion.
“When you move too fast and you’re moving with these still unexamined unconscious racist thoughts & beliefs, you’re actually going to do more harm because you don’t yet know what you don’t know.”
— Layla F. Saad
STEP 2. Action
Anti-racist REFLECTION must be directed towards ongoing ACTIONS that dismantle racist structures & practices and institute new, anti-racist ones.
2A. Commitments
Before you craft your commitments, read this 6-page handout from Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism, and Engage in Collective Healing by Anneliese A. Singh, PhD, LPC. It is a primer for what to consider as a BIPOC or non-BIPOC person when taking anti-racist action.
2B. Accountability
Accountability requires new imagination from us—it requires creativity and co-creation and experimentation. If we (as individuals, institutions, and a society) already had implemented constructive, successful accountability mechanisms for anti-racist behavior and action, we wouldn’t need an Equity Reset. Try small and large ways of holding yourself accountable, and share your lessons with others.
The following list has been specifically curated to provide ideas and recommendations for how to convert learnings generated from Step 1 into antiracist action and commitments. As you reflect on which commitments are within your professional sphere(s) of influence, consider committing to 2-3 of the recommendations below.
The following are concrete ways to hold yourself accountable to your commitments and your ongoing work & development as an anti-racist leader at Berkeley Lab. Be sure to leverage the Equity Reset First Friday community, as well as other allyship events, to find accountability & support partners and iterate on your actions using peer feedback.
FOR SCIENTISTS & RESEARCHERS:
BUILD AN ANTI-RACIST RESEARCH LAB
CULTIVATE ALLYSHIP THROUGH EVENTS & COURSES:
PRIORITIZE ON ACTION-ORIENTED APPROACHES
[reference: Nature article about how UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry implemented inclusive and anti-racist practices that led to no difference in submission rates between racial and gender groups]
⬥Clearly define and systematically apply advancement processes and procedures
⬥Ensure that career development and progression, particularly early career, is overseen by multiple managers/leaders/faculty to mitigate bias
⬥Create and disseminate explicit written guidelines about what it takes to advance from one position to another, and the different versions of development (e.g., lateral, hierarchical, skills-based growth) available to employees in your division or team.
[reference: in-review PLOS Computational Biology paper by authors V. Bala Chaudhary and Asmeret Asefaw Berhe]
⬥Lead informed discussions about anti-racism in your lab regularly
⬥ Count & reward anti-racism and IDEA leadership as equal & valuable to other projects in performance evaluations; formally consider & elevate team/lab cultural contributions as scientific work
⬥Explicitly address team dynamics that reinforce racism and white dominance in your lab and field safety guidelines; leverage resources and partners for support if you feel ill-equipped
⬥Publish papers and write grants with BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) colleagues
⬥Evaluate your personal and your lab’s mentoring practices; reference Nature article above for mentoring program best-practices
⬥Give formal authority & create public/academic platforms that showcase voices & work of BIPOC scientists in your field
⬥Support BIPOC in their efforts to organize for change within science and the workplace; provide them with sponsors, resources, and avenues to drive these changes within the workplace
⬥Intentionally recruit BIPOC students and staff
⬥Adopt a dynamic research agenda
⬥Advocate for racially diverse leadership in the many scientific networks & institutions of which you are a member
⬥Hold those with formal authority in your networks accountable for demonstrating, promoting, investing in, and elevating behaviors, projects, & policies that promote equity
⬥Join and/or attend Berkeley Lab Employee Resource Group (ERG) events as an ally to groups whose experiences you have less exposure to. Listen to and learn from existing members about how best to serve as an effective ally.
⬥Take Hollaback! Bystander Intervention Training (free!)- click the button below to register for classes specifically geared towards intervening in cases of xenophobic or anti-Asian harassment. The Hollaback! homepage lists a broader set of free bystander trainings. There are many dates available for the coming months.
RECOMMENDED PRACTICE-ORIENTED COURSES (SELF-PACED)
⬥Introduction to EquityXDesign by Equity Meets Design (free!)
In this self-paced course, you will learn some key equity design principles and practice with case studies and crash courses. This is an introductory course to orient you to foundational principles of being an “equity designer” in your day-to-day work.
⬥From Self to Systems Training Course featuring DEI practitioners Lily Zheng, Jennifer Brown, Edgar Villanueva, and Tiffany Jana ($297)
This three-part self-paced course and custom workbook builds on Equity Reset exploration by focusing on how to enact systemic change by breaking it into three dimensions: the individual, interpersonal relationships and communities, and organizational dynamics and institutions.
⬥Getting to Solutions by Equity Meets Design ($425)
In this self-paced course, you will learn a method of rapid prototyping that prioritizes equity as a foundational principle of design.
FOR PEOPLE MANAGERS: BUILD A CULTURE OF ANTI-RACISM & SPONSORSHIP
ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS:
OF YOURSELF & OTHERS
⬥Sign up for the 5 Ally Actions (Better Allies) newsletter HERE & commit to daily practice of at least 1 action listed
⬥Signal how important ongoing learning mechanisms and forums such as Equity Reset are by encouraging direct reports to make time to study, experiment, and develop the skills required to sustain a diverse, inclusive, equitable work culture
⬥ Count & reward anti-racism and IDEA leadership as equal and valuable to other projects in performance evaluations
⬥ Conduct “audit” of your team’s projects, products, and processes to identify those that support equity and access for historically marginalized populations; identify projects or products that need to be adjusted to support antiracism, and those that need to be abandoned because they are based in racist assumptions or beliefs
⬥ Generate commitments using the following questions:
When you have conversations & provide feedback to your colleagues (e.g., direct reports, peers, managers), how aware are you of the power dynamics at play, not only based on hierarchy or role within our organization, but also based on identity (visible & not visible), background, experience? How do you contribute to naming and increasing mindfulness around these dynamics explicitly in these interactions? What tools, resources, guidance do you need to be able to name these dynamics in your interactions? What small steps will you take to (further) build this capacity within yourself?
How involved are you in the hiring process for your team or at the Lab? Is your involvement formal or informal? How do you contribute to efforts to mitigate bias in hiring decisions? What do you notice? In what ways could you deepen your ability (e.g., create additional structure and transparency to the process, name biased feedback in discussions, etc.) to mitigate bias in hiring decisions?
Ask yourself the following question:
How will I hold myself accountable as I work to realize my 2-3 commitments & actions in my professional & personal lives?
Ask others (close friends, colleagues, team members, etc.) the following questions:
How can I create mechanisms at work and in my life so that others hold me accountable to these 2-3 commitments?
What resources do you know of that can help me meet my commitments?
How can you help hold me accountable to these commitments? What support can you give me?
Specifically for white-identifying people: How can I create mechanisms at work and life so that others hold me accountable to these commitments WHILE ALSO NOT PUTTING the burden on people of color?
FOR ALL: EXPAND NETWORKS & PRACTICE UPSTANDER BEHAVIORS
GATHER FEEDBACK & SHARE PROGRESS:
LEVERAGE YOUR COMMUNITY
⬥Sign up for the 5 Ally Actions (Better Allies) newsletter HERE & commit to daily practice of at least 1 action listed
⬥Interrupt racist behavior or microaggressions (see: common examples here) by using the following responses, provided by the National Museum of African American History & Culture and activist Sinead Bovell:
Seek clarity:
Tell me more about_______.
Could you clarify what you mean by that?
Offer an alternative perspective:
Have you ever considered_______?
Is the person’s race relevant to this story?
Speak your truth:
I don’t see it the way you do. I see it as_______.
That doesn’t sound very funny to me. It sounds racist.
I didn’t want to single you out before, but that comment made me uncomfortable. Here’s why.
Find common ground:
We don’t agree on_______ but we can agree on_______.
Give yourself the time and space you need:
Could we revisit the conversation about_______ tomorrow?
Set boundaries:
Please do not say_______ again to me or around me.
⬥Practice speaking up when confronted with everyday bigotry using this Teaching Tolerance Guide, particularly the “WHAT CAN I DO IN THE WORKPLACE?” section (see: p.37)
⬥Learn the anatomy of an apology (see below; learn more by listening to Dr. Harriet Lerner on Dr. Brene Brown’s “I’m Sorry: How to Apologize & Why It Matters” two-part episode here) and practice it with your colleagues:
⬥Share your commitments within your team, division, & area, and designate accountability partners to track your commitments
⬥Attend Equity Reset First Friday Community Forums to workshop your commitments & share learnings and progress
⬥Increase your tolerance and ability to accept feedback graciously about your attempts at anti-racism:
Ask for feedback often. Practice actively.
Notice how you instinctually react to feedback (defensiveness, body tension, impulse to protect your character, guilt & tears, etc.) and identify how you’d like to react instead.
Try utilizing the following responses when receiving feedback:
Thanks for correcting me, I didn’t realize that before.
I hadn’t though of it like that, I understand now.
I was wrong about that, and I’ve changed my mind.
I should do more research before I argue this point.