21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge

The Palm Beach County Bar Association is proud to announce our participation in the “21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge” along with the American Bar Association’s Labor & Employment Section and other Fellow Bar Associations across the nation.

The 21-Day Challenge was conceived several years ago by diversity expert Eddie Moore, Jr. to advance deeper understandings of the intersections of race, power, privilege, supremacy and oppression.

Our Bar will begin the 21-Day Challenge on Monday, June 22, 2020. The goal of the Challenge is to assist each of us to become more aware, compassionate, constructive, engaged people in the quest for racial equity. It transcends our roles as lawyers. It is, of course, completely voluntary to do, and participation in the Challenge shall not be construed as agreement with every word of every assignment nor a commitment by any person to a particular professional position or strategy. Further, participants are free to opt out of participating along the way. There is no grade at the end of the Challenge.

The Challenge invites participants to complete a syllabus of 21 short assignments (typically taking 15-30 minutes), over 21 consecutive days, that include readings, videos or podcasts. It has been intentionally crafted to focus on the Black American experience. The assignments seek to expose participants to perspectives on elements of Black history, identity and culture, and to the Black community’s experience of racism in America. Even this focus on Black Americans cannot possibly highlight all of the diversity of experiences and opinions within the Black community itself, much less substitute for learnings about any other community of color. This syllabus is but an introduction to what we hope will be a rewarding journey that extends far beyond the limits of this project.

The Challenge Starts June 22, 2020

CURRICULUM

Day 5

Megan Ming Francis, Let’s get to the root of racial injustice, TEDTalks (March 21, 2016),
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aCn72iXO9s

Day 6

Project Implicit, Implicit Association Test (IAT), https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
(This exercise requires navigating the sign up for the tests, which includes answering a series of questions for the researchers, but it is recommended that everyone do at least these tests: Race, Skin Tone, and Weapons-Race. Also, everyone is encouraged to add these tests if you are able: Asian American, Native American, and Arab-Muslim.)

Day 7

How microaggressions are like mosquito bites, Same Difference (Oct. 5, 2016), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDd3bzA7450

Heben Nigatu, 21 Racial Microaggressions You Hear On A Daily Basis: A photographer at Fordham asked her peers to write down the microaggressions they’ve encountered. Here is what they had to say, BuzzFeed (Dec. 9, 2013),
https://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/racial-microagressions-you-hear-on-a-daily-basis

Essence Grant, 27 Workplace Microaggressions That’ll Make You Ask “How’d They Even Get Hired?” In conclusion, adults can be wildly dumb, BuzzFeed (Oct. 8, 2017), https://www.buzzfeed.com/essencegant/workplace-microaggression-horror-stories

Ali Vingiano, 63 Black Harvard Students Share Their Experiences In A Powerful Photo Project, BuzzFeed (March 3, 2014),
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alisonvingiano/21-black-harvard-students-share-their-experiences-through-a

Day 8

James McWilliams, Bryan Stevenson On What Well-Meaning White People Need To Know About Race: An interview with Harvard University-trained public defense lawyer Bryan Stevenson on racial trauma, segregation, and listening to marginalized voices, Pacific Standard (updated Feb 18, 2019), https://psmag.com/magazine/bryan-stevenson-ps-interview

Day 9

Media Portrayals and Black Male Outcomes, The Opportunity Agenda, https://www.opportunityagenda.org/explore/resources-publications/media-representations-impact-black-men/media-portrayals

Day 10

Cheryl I. Harris, Whiteness As Property, Harvard Law Review, Vol. 106 No. 8 (June 1993), https://sph.umd.edu/sites/default/files/files/Harris_Whiteness%20as%20Property_106HarvLRev-1.pdf

Day 11

Scott Winship, Richard V. Reeves, and Katherine Guyot, The Inheritance of Black Poverty: It’s All About the Men, Brookings (March 22, 2018),
https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-inheritance-of-black-poverty-its-all-about-the-men/

Karma Allen, More than 50% of homeless families are black, government report finds, ABCNews (Jan. 22, 2020),
https://abcnews.go.com/US/50-homeless-families-black-government-report-finds/story?id=68433643

Day 12

Hannah Giorgis, Black Art is dangerous because it marries the personal and the political, The Guardian (Feb. 22, 2015)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/22/black-art-dangerous-personal-political

Reggie Ugwu, Lena Waitheʼs Art of Protest: The “Queen & Slim” writer on mixing art and politics, the key to collaboration and those infamous comments about Will Smith and Denzel Washington, The New York Times (Dec. 2, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/movies/lena-waithe-queen-and-slim.html

Bryan Stevenson, “We can’t recover from this history until we deal with it.” legacy of slavery and the vision for creating the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and The Legacy Museum, Harvard Law School YouTube (Jan 30, 2019), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRJX5jvORzQ

Day 13

Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls Childhood, YouTube (June 27, 2017), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKzEF22fK24

Adrienne Green, How Black Girls Aren’t Presumed to Be Innocent: A new study finds that adults view them as less child-like and less in need of protection than their white peers, The Atlantic (June 29, 2017) https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/black-girls-innocence-georgetown/532050/

Day 14

Perspectives in Poetry:

Richard Wright, Between the World and Me: https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/between-the-world-and-me/
(author bio: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/richard-wright)

Langston Hughes, Harlem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46548/harlem
(author bio: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/langston-hughes)

June Jordan, Poem for Ms. Fannie Lou Hamer:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48763/1977-poem-for-mrs-fannie-lou-hamer
(author bio: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/june-jordan)

Audre Lorde, Who Said it Was Simple: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42587/who-said-it-was-simple
(author bio: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/audre-lorde)

Claudia Rankine – “You are in the dark, in the car . . .” – https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/56848/citizen-you-are-in-the-dark-in-the-car
(author bio: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/claudia-rankine)

Alice Walker, The World Rising: https://alicewalkersgarden.com/2015/09/the-world-rising-2015-by-alice-walker/
(author bio: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/alice-walker)

Perspectives on Change:

The Beatles – Revolution #1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGLGzRXY5Bw) v. Nina Simone – Revolutions 1 and 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2_NVX-T8iM) & Mississippi Goddam (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghhaREDM3X8)

Day 15

Peggy McIntosh, Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of White Privilege,
https://nationalseedproject.org/Key-SEED-Texts/white-privilege-unpacking-the-invisible-knapsack

Day 16

George Johnson, White gay privilege exists all year, but it is particularly hurtful during Pride, NBC News (June 30, 2019), https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/white-gay-privilege-exists-all-year-it-particularly-hurtful-during-ncna1024961

Laverne Cox Talks about Intersectionality at Harvard (Video clips) (March 11, 2014):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY3F1pIxHMA

D-L Stewart, Black Trans Lives Matter (TEDxTalks) (April 22, 2019):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs67v5klQI4

Day 17

N. K. Jemisin, How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? The Toxins of Speculative Fiction, and the Antidote that is Janelle Monae, Blog (Sept. 30, 2013) http://nkjemisin.com/2013/09/how-long-til-black-future-month/ (music videos optional)

Day 18

Sam Dylan Finch, 9 Phrases Allies Can Say When Called Out Instead of Getting Defensive, Everyday Feminism (May 29, 2017), https://everydayfeminism.com/2017/05/allies-say-this-instead-defensive/ (Short read and video)

Day 19

Jolie A. Doggett,4 Questions About Hair that Black Girls Are Tired of Answering, HuffPost (Feb. 14, 2020), https://www.huffpost.com/entry/black-hair-annoying-questions_l_5c5b3d71e4b08710475a3daf

Jessica Moulite, Exclusive: Rep. Ayanna Pressley Reveals Beautiful Bald Head and Discusses Alopecia for the First Time, The Root (Jan. 16, 2020), https://theglowup.theroot.com/exclusive-rep-ayanna-pressley-reveals-beautiful-bald-1841039847

Hair Love, Oscar®-Winning Short Film (Full), Sony Pictures Animation, YouTube (Dec. 5, 2019), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNw8V_Fkw28&feature=youtu.be

Day 20

National Conference for Community and Justice, Colorism (History, Facts, and Videos), https://www.nccj.org/colorism-0

Natasha S. Alford, Why Some Black Puerto Ricans Choose ‘White’ on the Census: The island has a long history of encouraging residents to identify as white, but there are growing efforts to raise awareness about racism, The New York Times (Feb. 9, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/09/us/puerto-rico-census-black-race.html

Day 21

Karyn Lacy, How to Convince a White Realtor You’re Middle Class, New York Times (Jan. 21, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/21/opinion/black-discrimination-study.html

Who is “Karen” and Why Does She Keep Calling the Police on Black Men?, On the Media (Podcast) (May 29, 2020),
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/who-karen-and-why-does-she-keep-calling-police-black-men-on-the-media?fbclid=IwAR2TkeMeXL0kLv1ilZutGFZpd3AQByLFgkPIFc2p2LYS7ha9_ygbn3F2U9c

Extra Resources

“The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture today launched Talking About Race, a new online portal designed to help individuals, families, and communities talk about racism, racial identity and the way these forces shape every aspect of society, from the economy and politics to the broader American culture.”
https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race

Robin DiAngelo, Ph.D, Critical Racial and Social Justice Education: List of Resources, https://robindiangelo.com/resources/

Verna Myers, How to Overcome Our Biases? Walk Boldly Toward Them, TED Talk (video) (Dec. 15, 2014), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYyvbgINZkQ

John Biewen, Seeing White (14-part series podcast, 2017), https://www.sceneonradio.org/seeing-white/

Janice Gassam, Your Unconscious Bias Trainings Keep Failing Because You’re Not Addressing Systemic Bias (Forbes, Dec. 29, 2019),
https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2020/12/29/your-unconscious-bias-trainings-keep-failing-because-youre-not-addressing-systemic-bias/#4b51df181e9d

Michael Harriott, How to Be a Better White Person in 2020, The Root (Jan 9, 2020),
https://www.theroot.com/how-to-be-a-better-white-person-in-2020-1840868641?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=_facebook&fbclid=IwAR12F3wQnflAPPY8VKCT5tr6Fa60nT7VT2OT4CKDoWzudGdJSuOkfldpaTU

PALM BEACH COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION

Where Your Membership Counts

21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge