LOCAL COMPANY WANTS TO CHANGE NARRATIVE IN CONVERSATIONS ABOUT RACE
Xavier Ramey, founder and CEO of Justice Informed, wants to see the social impact industry grow and see more commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion from corporations, foundations and non-profit organizations. PHOTO PROVIDED BY JUSTICE INFORMED
BY TIA CAROL JONES
in the City of Chicago. The goal of Justice Informed is to infuse
their global perspective into the companies and organizations
they work with. The work the company does catalyzes strategies
for social impact for different organizations. Those strategies
are informed by certain narratives, what people believe or
what they don’t believe.
For instance, in conversations around safety and security
and civic organizations, if they believe the narrative around
Blackness is one of criminality, that creates a strategy around
policing. But, if they believe the narrative is around disinvestment,
the strategy shifts toward ensuring there are adequate and
equitable resources in Black and Brown communities.
“We deal a lot around language, as it relates to narratives
and shifting narratives, because we believe many of the strategies
for social impact we’re dealing with today, whether that be
in corporate around their diversity, equity and inclusion-based
programs and hiring, or philanthropic and the ways they look at
grant making in communities or color … it starts with a shift in
narratives,” Ramey said.
Ramey participates in public and keynote speeches and
panel discussions because he is trying to infuse something
different in the conversation around best practices for social
impact. It is his hope that corporations and philanthropic organizations
bring in Justice Informed to help them change the way
they do their work.
Ramey serves as the chief advisor for several Chief
Diversity Officers, from small startups to Fortune 500 companies.
For the smaller companies Justice Informed works with,
those conversations are centered around growth, with a focus
on pay equity, inclusion, as well as creating a culture of being
welcoming and providing a sense of belonging. For non-profits,
those conversations focus on community building with other
nonprofits and bringing them together to create policy that can
be used to bring resources to the communities they serve. With
foundations, the work is around the ways they use their money
to ensure inclusion and antiracism are included into their award
structure.
While Ramey was at the University of Chicago, he was
doing work around social justice. He felt like he wanted to do
direct work and “get into the fray.”
“I wanted to make strategies that I actually felt matched the
urgency of need for our people, rather than the fear of people
who are afraid to talk about things like racism. They’re afraid to
say white supremacy, they’re afraid to talk about queer identity.
They don’t know much about disability justice. I wanted to do
something more urgent and get into the fight myself,” Ramey
said.
When Ramey first started Justice Informed, people told
him he couldn’t build a company around social change, but he
had already been doing the work and there were people saying
they wanted to work with him and his company. His first clients
were nonprofit organizations, then he expanded to work with
organizations and corporations.
In 2020, when George Floyd was murdered, a lot changed
for Justice Informed. There was a greater need for their services.
In a month, there was an 800% increase in call for their
services, specifically around diversity, equity and inclusion.
Not all those organizations went forward with Justice Informed,
because they couldn’t answer questions around diversity, equity
and inclusion, nor did they have staff people assigned to that
work to start with. Two years later, the demand for justice work
has died down tremendously and it has been put on the back
burner again.
“A lot commitments were made, statements were made, a
lot of it has not panned out the way folks said that it would. The
companies have invested by hiring one chief diversity officer, or
one inclusion lead, but they are not giving them teams,” Ramey
said. “What we need right now are people who are socially
informed, who understand the basics of business practices –
business operations, budgeting, financials -- but also, people
management and practices and policies for human resources.”
For more information about Justice Informed, visit www.
justiceinformed.com.
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