NEWLY FORMED COLLECTIVE SEEKS TO CREATE REAL CHANGE

Collaborative was convened in the wake of the death of George Floyd as a way to help organizations make real change with a goal of establishing racial equity, diversity and inclusion. Photo courtesy of Tiffanie Beatty
Collaborative was convened in the wake of the death of George Floyd as a way to help organizations make real change with a goal of establishing racial equity, diversity and inclusion. Photo courtesy of Tiffanie Beatty

Newly formed collective seeks to create real change

BY TIA CAROL JONES

After the death of George Floyd, a group of individuals and organizations committed to reimagining a more equitable Chicago, formed a group to look at more tangible ways to achieve racial equity.

They came up with a citywide collective called Just Action Racial Equity Collaborative. The coalition believes in order for organizations and leaders to pursue racial equity, three important steps must be taken: establish systems of accountability, shift power to historically marginalized groups and acknowledge their personal and organization’s history.

Roberto Requejo, program director of Elevated Chicago, said 2020 has been a very heavy year for Chicago, especially as it relates to Black people in Chicago. He said in the summer with racial unrest, the pandemic, climate change, unemployment along with an economic collapse that was negatively impacting communities of color, he got together with people who do work in racial equity to figure out what could be done to go beyond a public statement.

“Really, what people want to see—and especially Black people, want to see in Chicago, is change and action,” he said. Requejo added one of the things Elevated Chicago had been talking about was the idea of making statements and making plans, but not following through and not being held accountable to communities of color.

“We thought it was a great opportunity to look together at the crisis we are all in and reach out to folks who really care about making real change, organize ourselves and not only point out to some folks in Chicago, [that] statements without follow through and without accountability, are really not helpful,” he said.

Additionally, Requejo said the effort would offer a space to share ideas as well as offer tools and ways for people who want to make changes in organizations, but who need help.

Requejo said real change looks like setting goals and accomplishing them. One way, is for corporations and civic organizations to set up goals for diversity, equity and inclusion, make them public and transparent, track them every quarter and analyze how effective they have been.

Requejo said the reason why it is easy for organizations to make statements about equity, inclusion and diversity—but the action step is missing— is because the issue of race has been avoided in the city.

“It’s inertia, too, because we’ve been living in a city which from the very beginning, has been built on the exploitation of communities of color, starting with the expelling and extraction of resources for Native Americans who live here, to today’s exploitation of Black and brown communities,” he said.

Requejo said it is not easy work and it takes a level of courage. It has to include conversations with communities these organizations may have negatively impacted in the past, systemically or structurally.

Tiffanie Beatty is the program director of National Public Housing Museum and senior fellow for narrative design at Chicago United for Equity (CUE), an organization founded to address racial equity. CUE is one of convening organizations for Just Action. Beatty said there was an opportunity to align practices with the values at CUE, along with other organizations.

“We really are building a new system through a collaborative model of ways for folks to connect across sectors and build something that looks nothing like anything that we’ve ever seen,” Beatty said. “It is a radical imagination to try to imagine a new kind of system and policies and practices that align with our values.”

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