The Quiet Revolution
This week, we launched the Quiet Revolution - a collective of five organisations who have committed to experimenting, taking thoughtful risks, and trying more imaginative approaches to anti-racism. They're going to notice what keeps racism in place, test different ways of interrupting it, and learn honestly from what happens.
But meaningful change isn't for everyone. Working on anti-racism can be hard and tiring.
So, for organisations keen to appear extremely busy while keeping racism exactly where it is, we have also produced a handy alternative: 20 Counter-Revolutionary Acts.
These include:
Rename racism. Call it inclusion, belonging, civility, respect, or compassion – anything but racism.
Celebrate diversity instead.
Get pulled into whataboutery.
Reduce racism to a single incident.
Focus on intentions.
Ignore patterns.
Hope time will fix it.
Wait for perfect evidence.
Keep asking for more evidence of harm.
Undertake another audit.
Devise a new strategy – especially if the last one hasn’t been evaluated.
Create plenty of activity.
Train everyone once.
Treat anti-racism as an event.
Delegate it to the people already experiencing racism.
Mistake representation for justice.
Confuse harmony with justice.
Believe disagreement means failure.
Retreat at the first sign of turbulence.
Do what everyone else is doing... After all, everyone else is getting exactly the same results.
The Quiet Revolution begins from a different place: paying attention to what feels normal, resisting the rush to easy solutions, staying curious when things become uncomfortable, and making small interruptions that might begin to change the system.
More soon from the five organisations brave enough to experiment with us.
Download our 'Guide for Organisations That Want to Look Busy While Changing Very Little' (it also contains five rules if you're feeling a little... revolutionary).
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