—Resources
Anti-racism is an active process of identifying and eliminating racism in institutional policies, deep-rooted systems, and habitual attitudes. Deconstructing how multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage intersect and compound themselves through these lenses allows us to truly challenge the ways in which we are complicit. Progress is a process. Challenging inequities can be uncomfortable and overwhelming. This page is designed to help you nurture an anti-racism practice that examines our role within global systems. Use the resources below to begin your process to unlearning and learning. I will be adding additional resources along the way. If you have any resources you think I should check out or share on this page, please do reach out!
additional resources: Art of Citizenry Podcast + press page
Why Language is Important When Navigating Inequity
/Article on Just Fashion by Manpreet Kalra/
When addressing social issues globally, it is important to step back and be thoughtful around the responsibility we hold as change makers. We need to recognize we are each navigating this world through the lens of our unique advantages and disadvantages. This influences how we interact with one another and how organizations continue to perpetuate stereotypical narratives that do more harm than good.
Tackling Heropreneurship
/Stanford Social Innovation Review/
Why we need to move from “the social entrepreneur” to social impact. To really change a system, I believe people need a more holistic set of skills, including systems thinking, an understanding of collaboration tools to further collective impact, and lateral leadership skills such as the ability to lead without power and to galvanize movement toward a common goal across a diverse and disjointed solutions ecosystem.
Exploring Cultural Humility
/Cultural Humility Through Storytelling, Poetry + Dance/
Cultural Humility is a process of communal reflection to analyze the root causes of suffering and create a broader, more inclusive view of the world. Originally developed by Drs. Melanie Tervalon + Jann Murray-Garcia (1998) to address health disparities + institutional inequities in medicine, Cultural Humility is now used in public health, social work, education, and non-profit management. It is a daily practice for people who deal with hierarchical relationships, changing organizational policy and building relationships based on trust.
The Danger of the Single Story
/TED Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie/
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.
Consent in Storytelling
/Fashion Revolution USA featuring Manpreet Kalra + Joy McBrien of Fair Anita/
Join Manpreet Kalra, educator, social impact advisor + podcaster on the decolonization of storytelling, power of language, and how the stories we tell often reinforce the single narrative. She is joined by Joy McBrien from Fair Anita as they explore what it means to craft an ethical narrative, practicing informed consent in storytelling, and looking at the power dynamics that often shape the stories themselves.
Deconstructing the Green Revolution
/Instagram Live with Fair World Project/
The Green Revolution isn’t a relic of the past. Instead, we see its impacts around the globe from the protests lead by farmers and farmworkers in India to struggles against GMO seeds and pesticides in communities from Mexico to Zimbabwe. This Earth Day, join Manpreet Kalra and Anna Canning of Fair World Project for a conversation deconstructing the origins and impact of the Green Revolution. Together, they peel back the layers of complexity feeding into the narrative of industrial agriculture — lifting up the real community-led solutions that are already feeding the world.
Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World
/Book by Anu Taranath/
Beyond Guilt Trips helps us to unpack our Western baggage, so that we are better able to understand our uncomfortable feelings about who we are, where we come from, and how much we have. Through engaging personal travel stories and thought-provoking questions about the ethics and politics of our travel, Beyond Guilt Trips shows readers ways to grapple with their discomfort and navigate differences through accountability and connection.
Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen
/Book by Jose Antonio Vargas/
This book--at its core--is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about lying and being forced to lie to get by; about passing as an American and as a contributing citizen; about families, keeping them together, and having to make new ones when you can't. This book is about constantly hiding from the government and, in the process, hiding from ourselves. This book is about what it means to not have a home.
The Subtle Linguistics of Polite White Supremacy
/Article by Yawo Brown/
In detail, Polite White Supremacy relies on three key components to ensure its success: comfort, control, and confidentiality. Whites who participate in #PWS desire to be comfortable in all settings while maintaining some influential level of control over all situations without acknowledging this power. Omitting acknowledgment of white privilege gives off the psychological effect that whites have somehow worked harder than non-whites and blacks must be lazy since statistically blacks are suffering a great deal in America. They pretended this was all natural.
Ethical Style Journal
/Print Magazine + Online Journal/
In 2016, ESJ started as a digital fashion magazine with the goal of making it easy to understand and support ethical and sustainable fashion brands. Today, we are a print magazine and digital platform exploring fashion with a mindful perspective. We’re expanding the conversation surrounding ethics and sustainability in fashion: connecting you to the stories that matter, the people behind the brands, and inviting you to help us shape a fashion industry that is as much about awareness, accountability, and action as it is about style.
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race
/Book by Reni Eddo-Lodge/
Examining everything from eradicated black history to the political purpose of white dominance, from whitewashed feminism to the inextricable link between class and race, Eddo-Lodge offers a timely and essential new framework for how to see, acknowledge, and counter racism. Including a new afterword by the author, this is a searing, illuminating, absolutely necessary exploration of what it is to be a person of color in Britain today, and an essential handbook for anyone looking to understand how structural racism works.
Code Switch
/NPR Podcast/
Dedicated to exploring the overlapping themes of race, ethnicity, culture, and how they play out in our communities.
Talking about race can lead to some uncomfortable conversations. And not talking about race can lead to some uncomfortable outcomes, to say the least. We're here to have those messy, uncomfortable, essential conversations with the nuance and depth they deserve.
Mobilizing for an Anti-Racist Economy
/Webinar Hosted by Fair Trade Chicago, NYC Fair Trade Coalition, Fair Trade LA/
Let's be honest-racism and white fragility do exist within the fair trade movement. In order to be authentic agents of change, we must address these issues within our work and within ourselves. Join us as we take a hard look at the fair trade movement, and honestly assess our strengths and weaknesses. By working collectively, fair trade advocates can better align our impact with our intentions and help the fair trade movement evolve.
[Video] Watch Presentations | [Podcast] Listen to Extended Version w/ Q&A
The Trick with Storytelling
/Podcast by the World Fair Trade Organization/
Storytelling is all the buzz and telling the story of artisans is key. So how should we approach this? What are the tricks and traps to watch out for? In this episode, I had to honor to be interviewed by Erinch Sahan, the Chief Executive of the World Fair Trade Organization on how brands can tell more inclusive narratives to convey the impact of their work.
It’s Time to Expand the Conversation About Consent
/By Joy McBrien of Fair Anita/
While consent generally means “to voluntarily agree” and is used in fields like law and medicine, culturally, we’ve pushed the idea of “consent” into this narrow definition of when it’s relevant: only in the bedroom. But, just as in healthy sexual relationships, consent is a practice we should be using in many aspects of our lives. It’s time we expand the conversation around consent, and start to normalize the process of asking for and receiving consent.
Are you Greenwashing?
How to convey the complexities of your production process authentically.
Question: How do you navigate storytelling for eco-friendly brands, making sure you are not greenwashing? Often times eco-friendly brands showcase how they produce their products by hand. Which can mean showcasing people, sometimes even children, working and spinning yarn, working with silk, and huge boiling pots. How do you approach your brand story ethically with these complexities in mind?
Answer: Sustainable impact is about being fair to the planet and its people. It can be challenging to navigate your story when what sounds good from a marketing/branding perspective fails to acknowledge the realities of your manufacturing process. Just because something is handmade doesn’t mean it is “eco-friendly,” just like that doesn’t necessarily mean the product is “ethical.” The best way to approach this challenge is by not pushing a single narrative, fostering transparency, and staying away from promoting either extreme of the brand narrative.
At the end of the day, being sustainable, ethical, fair trade, etc. is not just about what sounds good, but about your mission and values. It is about making thoughtful decisions. It is also a process. Brands don’t become perfect overnight, so continue working toward addressing the challenges your business faces as your business grows and matures.
Instagram Lives to Tune Into
+ Navigating Supply Chain Transparency Part 1 + Part 2
+ The Global Vaccine Apartheid
+ Power, Activism + Sexual Violence
+ Fair Trade, Anti-Trafficking + Far-Right Christianity
+ Nationalism, Patriotism + Systemic Oppression
+ Exploring Intersectional Privilege During “Thanksgiving” as POC
+ Guilt Trips and the Savior Complex // Exploring Voluntourism
+ Addressing Colonial Power Dynamics in Social Impact
+ Cultural Appropriation or Appropriation? // South Asian Edition
hear from me—
be the first to know about upcoming events and read my unfiltered reflections on ways we can continue to challenge how we approach change