Hello CSWAC Supporter,
Thank you for continuing with us. This is Part 2 of a 10-part weekly series outlining CSWAC’s approach to addressing the racial structure of the nation.
WEEK 2
How Do We Build a Multiracial Center?
To get to the how, let’s start with the why. Creating multiracial communities is both our plan and our goal. It’s a plan to reduce the focus on whiteness and challenge the dominance of white-centered culture which currently shapes our national experience. Multiracial and white-centered cultures are opposites—strengthening one weakens the other. To reduce white supremacist control, we must grow and support multiracial communities.
As a goal, a multiracial center imagines a country where fairness and justice thrive across racial divides. In this vision, access to power and resources isn’t based on race. We have a choice: focus on a white-centered nation or a multiracial-centered one.
So how do we build multiracial community? We are in the early stages of this process. In the coming year we will work on the following concerns:
Survey the work already being done.
Where is multiracial community being built, by whom, and how? Where has it existed in the past? What were the outcomes? There is no central source of information on this. No recognized field of study, no university departments or programs, no journals, no guidebooks or popular media. We’re starting from nothing, it seems, but at CSWAC we’ve started.
Develop a communications network among proponents.
Are there other proponents of building multiracial community? Our research tells us, yes. But they are scattered among various fields of study and practice. The work is localized, taking place in silos. We need to identify who is doing the work and develop a communications infrastructure and ecosystem of proponents.
Cultivate ownership.
We are not idle bystanders in this process. We are fully vested within it. The dynamics of racial identity sometimes leaves those who would build multiracial community feeling disconnected from monoracial structures, or worse, in conflict. How do we resolve this?
Reflect on practice.
There are many approaches to building multiracial community. In this early stage we need to find what works well and what does not. As we move ahead in our practice, we need to learn about the work of others and reflect on how that informs our own practice.
Develop a shared analysis.
CSWAC comes out of an anti-racist framework. Our experience tells us this is necessary but not sufficient. We need to address conditions that bear specifically on building multiracial community. This includes recognizing opportunities and challenges and understanding how they operate.
We have much to do. The good news is… we don’t need anyone’s permission to do it. A word of caution: Building multiracial community is very much a marginalized enterprise.
Charley Flint . . . . . . Jeff Hitchcock
Next Tuesday: Root Causes and Crying Babies