Race, Identity, and Inclusion

Catalog description

This course brings together a wide range of thinking and scholarship to encourage learning about what race is, why it matters, race and racism in organizations and how to build racial equity and justice at work. While recognizing the importance of intersectionality and other markers of difference such as gender identity, class and LGBTQ status, the course focuses on race for two reasons: 1) it is generally the most charged dimension of diversity in the United States, the most difficult to discuss and, therefore, the topic we most often avoid, and 2) it can have the greatest impact on life chances and opportunities: race is often the best predictor of income, wealth, education, health, employment and other important measures of well-being. Because the impact of race is highly contextual, we will focus on the United States. The course will begin by digging into understandings of race and racism. We’ll then think about our own racial identity and discuss how to talk about race. While organizations will be a theme from the beginning, in the second part we will focus more intensively on how to create anti-racist organizations. The class will introduce a variety of possible interventions, starting with the legal landscape (Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action) and then moving to IDBEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Belonging, Equity and Access) initiatives and anti-racism efforts, exploring the individual, cultural and structural levels. We will also hear from guest speakers who are engaging in this work.