Working Towards an Anti-Racist Workplace: Resource List

As the founder of a business named Your Happy Workplace, my work with clients is based on creating more joyful workplaces.

I also know that no workplace can experience joy without safety. To create safe workplaces we must be actively examining ourselves, our organizations, and acknowledge systemic racism and the ways in which it impacts our workplaces.

It is my belief that you cannot talk about building and maintaining healthy work cultures without talking about systemic racism and white supremacy.

This list is meant to be a resource for white business leaders who want to start or expand on the process of creating a work environment that is more equitable and better reflects the values of their organization, but aren’t sure where to begin. Doing anti-racist work is not contingent upon having Black people or people of color on your team. If there are no Black, indigenous, or other people of color in your workplace, now is the time to start asking why and doing something to change it.

I am committed to doing my own personal learning and unlearning, and as a white woman who is continuing her lifelong anti-racism journey, I am in NO WAY an expert. I know I won’t always do things right and am ready for feedback and continued education.

Like building and sustaining healthy work cultures, this work is part of an ongoing process that will never be finished.

My Commitments:

If you are looking for specific examples of how to get started, here’s a short list of what I have changed within my business:

  • Continue to have difficult conversations about racial issues, how they affect our workplaces, and how we can do things differently as leaders

  • Rework my contract to include my commitment to social equity & belonging and guidelines for client work

  • Rethinking future marketing and messaging

  • Hiring a diverse group of vendors for my business

  • Making it clear on my website where I stand (CLICK HERE to read my current ethics page)

originally posted- 7/2020; updated- 12/29/2022

RESOURCE LIST:

There are SO MANY amazing resources out there and this is not a comprehensive list. If you are an equity/belonging expert or have experience with other resources that you feel should be included, please let me know. How to begin if you haven’t already? Pick one or two things from this list and start there. Then, START. (This list will be periodically updated.)

READ:

  • Book: The Anti-Racist Business Book: An Equity Centered Approach to Work, Wealth, and Leadership by Trudi Lebrón: https://bit.ly/3LikkaC

  • Article: 5 Ways to Support Black Employees During Tragedy by Dr. Janice Gassam Asare: https://bit.ly/2QMvkqd

  • Article: 10 Ways to Promote Racial Justice in the Workplace by Dana Brownlee for Forbes: CLICK HERE

LISTEN:

WATCH:

  • Race & The Workplace: What employers and employees need to know Work It Daily’s show with guest Stacey Lewis https://youtu.be/eFyah5RLH70

  • Hacking HR: From Awareness to Reconciliation, panel discussions about racism in the workplace

Panel 1: https://youtu.be/I4nXKKHFTWU

Panel 2: https://youtu.be/c-ZvcXgB_v8

LEARN:

  • Whiteness at Work: Led by Desiree Adaway, Whiteness at Work provides anti-racist education for individuals and organizations: https://adawaygroup.com/rework/

  • LinkedIn Learning with Dana Brownlee: Dana Brownlee is a corporate trainer, keynote speaker, author, and president of Professionalism Matters, Inc. She has some quick and impactful classes on LinkedIn that are perfect for the entire team. https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/dana-brownlee

HIRE:

  • Dr. Janice Gassam Asare: Forbes contributor, Author, and Educational Consultant who helps companies become more anti-racist. https://www.drjanicegassam.com/

  • Dr. Samantha Rae, DSRD Consulting: Dr. Sam is a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion strategist with 11+ years of professional and educational experience in various industries. As a Black woman from the Caribbean with intersecting identities, she has first-hand experience adapting to different environments. https://www.dsrdconsulting.com/

  • Tammy Triolo, PCQ Consulting: Tammy is a People Op's Person, Culture and DEI expert, and knows cultures work better when built on community as apposed to individualism. She is an excellent presenter and change-maker. https://pcqconsulting.com/

  • Black Speakers Collection: If you are not following Madison Butler (aka the Blue Haired Unicorn) on social media, you should. When you are looking for speakers for your corporate events and organizational summits, check out The Black Speakers Collection, founded by Madison and her partner, Reese Byrne. You can search among thousands of Black speakers on topics ranging from branding and crypto to startup funding and venture capital. https://blackspeakerscollection.pory.app/

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Helping small businesses to build and develop workplaces where everyone feels seen, heard, and valuable is part of my mission and vision for Your Happy Workplace. If we all worked in a place like that, think of how our world would feel and be different.

INDIVIDUAL RESOURCES:

I think that doing individual work along-side exploring the inner workings of your organization is crucial to being effective. There are tons of amazing lists citing resources for doing individual work, so I won’t duplicate those here.

With that said, here are a few things that have been the most impactful for me so far:

WATCH: 13th, Netflix documentary: everything they did not teach us about the history of Black people in the US and how systemic racism was built & continues on in America: https://www.netflix.com/title/80091741

WATCH: Deconstructing Karen with Regina Jackson and Saira Rao: “In this provocative documentary, white women experience radical honesty about racism, their daily role in upholding it, their conditioning to ignore it and the essential part they can play in tearing down the systems that are killing black and brown people every single day.” https://www.deconstructingkaren.com/

READ: Heal Your Way Forward, The Co-conspirator’s Guide to an Antiracist Future by Myisha T Hill: “Heal Your Way Forward is a seminal work in antiracism, guiding white and white-identifying folks to utilize activism for intergenerational healing.” https://checkyourprivilege.co/heal-your-way-forward/

READ: The White Ally Toolkit by Dr. David Campt: This workbook presents an extensive sequenced curriculum geared towards white people that want to have impactful conversations about race with those in their circle of influence: https://bit.ly/3wutKub

LISTEN: Scene on Radio: S2E2- How Race Was Made For much of human history, people viewed themselves as members of tribes or nations but had no notion of “race.” Today, science deems race biologically meaningless. Who invented race as we know it, and why? https://www.sceneonradio.org/episode-32-how-race-was-made-seeing-white-part-2/

DONATE: The Loveland Fund founded by Rachel Cargle: The Loveland Foundation was established in 2018 to bring opportunity and healing to communities of color through therapy, especially to Black women and girls: https://thelovelandfoundation.org/about/

ACTION: GET INVOLVED locally in a way that is meaningful for you. This could be supporting a candidate that values social and racial justice, attending school board meetings, finding out what the budget of your city’s police department looks like, supporting Black owned businesses in your community, and/or even running for office.

Wendy Conrad