***This piece is part of our content presented at Inclusive City 2020. On Oct. 28, 2020, from the stage of the Madam Walker Legacy Center, we revealed plans to dismantle systemic racism in Central Indiana at Inclusive City 2020. Learn more about that event here.***
from Brian Payne, president and CEO of CICF and president of The Indianapolis Foundation, and Tamara Winfrey-Harris, vice president of community leadership & effective philanthropy
CICF is committed to doing the necessary work to change systems. By engaging with many, many partners across the region in the effort to dismantle systemic racism and promote opportunity, equity and inclusion in every aspect of our community. Many of you watching at home or your office will be a part of this work and we thank you for your commitment and collaboration.
And, we know many of you are asking, “what can I do?” “How can I engage?” We’re attacking this issue from both the top-down and the bottom-up. We’re excited to announce today the creation of an anti-racist movement that everyone can join and commit to making real and meaningful change within yourself, where you live, where you work, where you worship and across our community.
We’re calling it “The Movement of 10,000”. We will be establishing an online platform, building out and sponsoring a robust and dynamic series of resources and learning opportunities, and recruiting a minimum of 10,000 people to commit to a life-long racial equity learning journey and then to a life’s practice of committing acts of equity on daily basis. The online platform will be membership-based, secure, provide connections to others for learning together, a way to record your learning journey from the books you’ve read to the trainings you’ve attended, and so much more.
And, the resources and learning opportunities will provide a comprehensive curriculum of sorts with in-depth workshops and learning opportunities like truth and reconciliation programming, implicit bias trainings, and a transformational two-day workshop presented by Child Advocates called “Interrupting Racism for Children”—formerly named ‘Undoing Racism’—which has been foundational for CICF’s commitment to racial equity—as every staff member and nearly all of our board members have gone through it. There will be book clubs, podcast listening and discussion groups, documentary and movie screenings, speaker series with national and local racial equity leaders, and much, much more.
The Movement of 10,000 is designed primarily for White allies and co-conspirators. The fact is that communities of color are very well aware of the role of systemic racism in our communities. It is White people who have the catching up to do. However, any and all are welcome to be part of this movement. The platform will launch next year, and everyone registered for today’s Inclusive City event will be the first to be notified and invited to join.
This is a grassroots movement with two goals:
- to commit to a learning journey
- and then to make living an anti-racist life and doing acts of equity a life’s practice. Just like a yoga practice, a wellness practice, a meditation practice. We all need to commit to a life’s practice of racial equity action every single day.
Do the math – this is what it will take –10,000 people committing two acts of equity every week for 50 weeks in a year. That will be 1 million acts of equity that occur every single year in our community. THAT is game-changing. So, watch for the hashtag #AMillionActsofEquity as we build this movement. We believe this is the scale that we need and what it will take to dismantle 400 years of systemic racism in our country.
We have to unlearn so much of what we’ve learned. We have to revisit and be truthful about our history. We have to grow personally and change organizationally. And, we have to commit to new ways of doing things and to new relationships with each other in order to address and improve the inequities in our world. We look forward to you all joining us next year for the launch of the Movement of 10,000 and count on your support. THANK YOU!
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