The Challenge Starts June 23, 2020

Take the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge

The Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association invites our members and anyone in the general public to join us on a 21-day quest to explore and deepen our awareness and engagement in issues of racial equity (with full credit to the Bar Association of San Francisco, upon whose work we have built in issuing the CMBA’s challenge).

To accept the challenge, simply commit to the reading/viewing option(s) listed each day in the following curriculum, consisting of articles, podcasts, or videos aimed at deepening our understanding of inequity issues, from microaggressions to systemic racism. When you accept the challenge between now and July 31, 2020, we invite you to share your commitment with co-workers, friends and family as a way to encourage others to follow your lead.  

Action stems from understanding; it is our belief that anti-racism education will lead to anti-racism efforts. To our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) members, we acknowledge that your lived experience has already familiarized you with the information here, and hope you will continue to lead and share resources and feedback that will shape this discussion for years to come.

The syllabus, curated by the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Leaders Circle and supplemented by the CMBA, focuses on the experiences of Black Americans and serves as an introduction to further exploration. The syllabus and the challenge have since been shared widely across the legal community nationwide.

We are excited to join you on this journey: we hope it will spark conversations, insights, and new questions, as we continue our work, as individuals and your local Bar, towards anti-racism, fairness, and equity.

At the conclusion of the challenge, we will ask you to take this pledge:

• To continue good faith efforts in understanding the perspectives of those different than ourselves;
• For those of us in positions of privilege: To commit to seeking further anti-racism resources, understanding it is our responsibility to educate ourselves, and not that of BIPOC friends, families, and community leaders to undertake our education unless they so choose;
• To uplift and signal-boost the voices of those experiencing racism, following their leadership as experts;
• To commit to further understanding the role systemic racism plays in our lives, our communities, and the legal profession; and
• To commit to long-term anti-racism efforts in the ways that best suit our abilities and resources.

Extra Resources

• Talking About Race - The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture today launched Talking About Race, a new online portal designed to help individuals, families, and communities talk about racism, racial identity and the way these forces shape every aspect of society, from the economy and politics to the broader American culture.

• Critical Racial and Social Justice Education: List of Resources, Robin DiAngelo, Ph.D.
• How to Overcome Our Biases? Walk Boldly Toward Them, Verna Myers, TED Talk (Dec. 15, 2014)
• Seeing White, John Biewen (14-part series podcast, 2017)
• Your Unconscious Bias Trainings Keep Failing Because You’re Not Addressing Systemic Bias, Janice Gassam, Forbes (Dec. 29, 2019)
• How to Be a Better White Person in 2020, Michael Harriott, The Root (Jan 9, 2020)
• The Anti-Racist Starter Pack: 40 TV Series, Documentaries, Movies, TED Talks, and Books to Add to Your List, Brea Baker