Day 14: Call to Action
DAY 14 Of YWCA Spokane’s 14-Day Racial Equity & Social Justice Challenge
Thank you for completing our 14-Day Challenge!
DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8 | DAY 9 | DAY 10 | DAY 11 | DAY 12 | DAY 13 | DAY 14
DAY 14: Call To Action
You’ve made it to the end of the 14 Day Challenge! Thank you for spending time and energy learning, listening, and being willing to hear new perspectives! Everyone will probably leave this challenge feeling something different – energized, angry, drained, sad, or more curious about the experiences of others.
You might be feeling powerless. I am only one person – how can I do anything that really makes a difference? Nothing could be further from the truth. You might actually be the only person who can make a difference in your sphere of influence, especially in today’s environment, where public trust in institutions like the media and government is historically low.
Maybe you are in a position of power in a company, place of worship, or community organization, and you can use that platform to start speaking out. Maybe you’re not, and that’s okay. That doesn’t mean people won’t listen to you. You might be the only person who your family and friends will listen to if you start a conversation about race.
If you’d like to take action, you don’t have to do it alone.
Here are a few resources to help you get started.
- Disrupt racism. Have a conversation. People are much more likely to listen to someone they have a relationship with. DoSomething.org provides clear guides to help you have anti-racist conversations with friends and family.
- Change how you consume media. Do a media audit of what you read, listen to and watch. Are you getting your news from only one source? Do you listen to any podcasts hosted by people of color, or read news sites from a perspective other than your own? Purposely add in a few different sources. Here are some ideas.
- Read different history books. A few examples: A People’s History of the United States, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People, An African American and Latinx History of the United States. Check out this Black History Month library – consider using it all year.
- Donate to organizations involved in racial justice work locally and nationally. To support YWCA Spokane’s racial and social justice work, donate here.
- Talk with your kids about racism. Here are some resources for kids and adults to read, listen to, and watch. Watch this TED Talk about ending silence around race with children.
- Consider getting involved in local advocacy. You can create change in a more impactful way than you might think, just by attending meetings of your City Council, a school board, a neighborhood council, or writing/calling a local legislator.
- Continue to seek out information and different perspectives. Here are some additional videos from Race Forward you can watch and share.
- Explore YWCA’s Racial Justice Training Manual along with other advocacy resources available through YWCA Spokane.
- Share this challenge. Challenge your co-workers, friends, and family to go through the challenge with you as a group.
Share Your Feedback
Please consider taking a moment to share with us feedback about your experience while navigating this 14-Day Equity Challenge. Did you find it valuable? Do you think we should do it again in the future? Are there specific topics you would like us to address? We welcome any insights you would like to share with us. Thank you!
Support OUR Racial & Social Justice Work
YWCA Spokane’s Racial and Social Justice Committee is so grateful to be able to bring you this equity challenge. At YWCA Spokane, we are committed to a world of equity and human decency. We commit ourselves to the work of racial equity and social justice. We will continue to do the work until injustice is rooted out, until institutions are transformed, until the world sees women, girls, and people of color the way we do: Equal. Powerful. Unstoppable.
DID YOU KNOW? Only about 9% of grant-making from foundations goes into communities of color. Make a gift to YWCA today and support our mission to eliminate racism, empower women, and promote peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.
YWCA and Racial Justice
YWCA agencies across the country are commitment to racial justice and civil rights. Collectively, we are committed to ensuring that everyone is afforded equal protection under the law, and our intersectional mission to eliminate racism and empower women demands that we show up to advocate against the oppression that many groups and individuals endure, including through recognizing the interconnected experiences of discrimination and disadvantage that women face from their overlapping identities.
Too often, stereotypes, biases, and racial power dynamics are embedded in our laws and public policies. They are also reflected in the use of racial profiling, heightened surveillance tactics, targeted enforcement strategies, and other practices that increase policing of certain racial and ethnic communities (but not others) that lead to criminalization and often the death of people of color.
Learn More About YWCA USA’s Leadership With Racial Equity & Social Justice
- Learn about YWCA USA racial justice and civil rights policy priorities.
- Take a stand for racial justice and civil rights.
- Take advocacy action.
- Stand Against Racism.
- Fight racial profiling in your community with the Racial Profiling Community Watch Checklist.
- Oppose racial profiling in education with the Racial Profiling Education System Checklist.
- Download these resources to learn more:
YWCA USA Blog Posts
- Unhooded and Exposed: What COVID-19 Reveals about Racism in America
- Simply Hiring People of Color Is Not a Racial Equity Strategy
- The Time Is Now To Talk About White Privilege
- Showing Up for Black Women
- All Black Lives Matter
- Policy solutions for increasing women of color in leadership
Organize Your Butterflies Podcast
Launched in July 2019, YWCA USA’s Organize Your Butterflies podcast discusses the ways women are working to organize, strategize, and mobilize around issues like equal pay, domestic violence, entrepreneurship, and more.
- Stand Against Racism: Exhibiting History and Curating the Future with Dr. Ariana Curtis
- Stand Against Racism: Building a Compassionate World with Michelle Kim
- Honoring the Importance of Racial Equity Education This Black History Month
- A Conversation About Racial Justice Training
- Hearing Fear, Not Acting On It: Discussing Conversations About Racism
Share each challenge online with #YWCAEquityChallenge
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By: Rachel Dannen
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