Over the past year, many organizations were forced to address their role in perpetuating systemic racism following increased anti-Black violence, police brutality, and White Supremacist actions across the United States. Among the responses, organizations often expressed empathy and solidarity with marginalized communities; and in some cases even committed funding to internally increase “racial equity.” Letters of support were widely observed across corporate organizations like Nike to community-organizing-based groups such as Black Youth Project 100.
As a longtime employee in higher education organizations who has worked actively to address institutional racism and white supremacy, I found myself asking several questions:
· Why were large corporate companies speaking out against racism and White supremacy for the first time?
· What impact does this have upon solving the actualized systemic issues within their own organization?
· How are internal and external processes and resources being directed to align with an organization’s commitment to racial equity?
While I certainly don’t want to keep anyone or any organization from joining the effort for racial justice and dismantling white supremacy (we need all the co-conspirators we can get), I am skeptical about their intentions—is this commitment a true recognition of their complicity and responsibility? Or was this a risk management strategy following the destruction of storefronts during protests after the murder of George Floyd?
Nancy Leong’s definition of “racial capitalism” explains the use of racial identity rhetoric to advance the economic goals of an organization. Racial capitalism in a show-and-tell strategy wherein advancing true anti-racist efforts or fostering systemic change. Among these examples include, increasing % of employee representation from historically marginalized backgrounds without changing the institutional culture, avenues of employee support, and wages for these communities.
Below is a project inspired by the “emotional labor invoice” art project. This project addresses the contradictions of current college and university responses to address “racial equity.” One invoice is presented to display unequal labor, pay, and recognition of current BIPOC employee labor in response to DEI concerns at the institution. An additional invoice from an external consulting firm exposes the outsourcing of financial resources and expertise to people outside of the organization. This project highlights how the rise of consulting firms has become a profitable market under racial capitalism and the erasure of employees in their own labor organizing for systemic change and racial justice.
Current BIPOC Employee Invoice
Consulting Firm Invoice
