United Way of Wisconsin Logo
Welcome to week 2 of the Equity Challenge! Today, we continue our focus on developing a shared understanding of equity language and concepts.

If you are just joining the challenge, please be sure to visit our website to review our week 1 topic: diversity, equity and inclusion. We encourage you to download the 21 Week Equity Challenge tracking tool. If you’re taking the challenge as part of a group, download a free discussion guide to help facilitate conversations.
Week 2: Race, Racial Identity & Intersectionality
  • What is race to you? How do the definitions and explanations presented here reinforce your understanding? How do they challenge your understanding?
  • How does your racial identity impact you on a day-to-day basis? How has race showed up in your personal or professional life? What other aspects of your identity or cultural background impact you?
  • Did you learn something new or surprising? Were there views that differed from your own experience?
  • What emotions come up for you while working through this week’s material? What experiences do you think shape this reaction?
  • Are there ideas or recommendations in any of today’s resources that help you better understand your own equity journey? What information do you need to understand the issue more thoroughly?
21 Week Equity Challenge Logo
This week’s challenge explores concepts related to identity. The definitions we offer here provide some social and historical context. They will help frame how we explore and understand race and identity throughout the Challenge (source):

Race: A socially constructed way of grouping people based on skin color and other apparent physical differences, which has no genetic or scientific basis. The ideology of race has become embedded in our identities, institutions, and culture and is used as a basis for discrimination and domination.

Ethnicity: Identifies groups that share a common identity-based ancestry, language, or culture. It is often based on religion, beliefs, customs, memories of migration or colonization, and current shared experiences.
 
Intersectionality: An analysis of the connections between systems of oppression (e.g., racism and classism, racism and sexism) and how individuals experience those intersecting or compounding systems of oppression or privilege.
 
Racial identity refers to the complex way individuals think of themselves related to racial group membership (source). Racial identity can be both externally imposed (“how others perceive me”) and internally constructed (“how do I identify myself?”).
 
To further your own understanding and explore these concepts, we’ve provided a list of resources that discuss the topics. Some offer alternative definitions, as well as individual experiences and professional views on race, ethnicity, racial identity and intersectionality
WEEK 2 CHALLENGE
Engage with the questions above and do one or more of the following:
READ
This article explores the definition of race and ethnicity, offering historical context and present-day realities of related to the concepts.

Ali Haigh, President and CEO of United Way of Racine County shares her journey to becoming comfortable with conversations about race – and why it is so important for individuals and communities to participate in this conversation.
WATCH
(Tip: if you’re running short on time, you can watch at a 1.5x playback speed on YouTube by clicking “settings” on the video.)
In this short Ted Talk, college senior Abigail Van Hook reflect on a study abroad trip to Ghana, sharing her personal exploration and changing understanding of racial identity.
 
A Conversation on Race (videos range from 5-7 minutes)*
Videos from this series depict experiences surrounding race for people of diverse backgrounds. These videos share a variety of perspectives surrounding racial identities. Here are a few:
 
 
Note: you can find the full series on the New York Times website, but a subscription may be required to access the individual videos and associated article.

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
LISTEN
Listen to United Way of Dane County Community Impact Health Director Gabe Doyle on an episode of Black Oxygen, a Wisconsin-based podcast intended to lift Black voices. This episode discusses vicarious trauma, family, what it means to have a sense of belonging as a bi-racial Black man when you have two white parents, and the systemic changes that are needed for Black people to thrive throughout Wisconsin.
 
Note: you can also find this episode in your favorite podcast app. Just search “Gabe Doyle, Black Oxygen”
Learn more about the 21 Week Equity Challenge, review the weekly questions and resources, and sign-up to receive weekly emails throughout the Challenge by visiting www.unitedwaywi.org/equity

Do you have resources or reflections to share? Let us know at [email protected]
UNITED WAY OF WISCONSIN | www.unitedwaywi.org