Racial Justice

STAND AGAINST RACISM CHALLENGE LAUNCHED APRIL 4, 2022

We are very excited to announce the national launch of the Stand Against Racism Challenge: A Virtual Community of Growth. Previously known as the 21-Day Racial Equity and Social Justice Challenge, this is the same program developed by YWCA Greater Cleveland with all new content and challenge material for 2022. 

The Stand Against Racism Challenge is a virtual learning tool designed to create dedicated time and space to build more effective social justice habits, particularly those dealing with issues of race, power, privilege, and leadership. Participants will be presented with 21 days of impactful challenges such as reading an article, listening to a podcast, reflecting on personal experience, and more in the Stand Against Racism app or website. Participation in an activity like this helps us to discover how racial injustice and social injustice impact our community, to connect with one another, and to identify ways to dismantle racism and other forms of discrimination.

The 2022 Stand Against Racism Challenge launched Monday, April 4th, and continues through May 2nd. Registration is still open!

SIGN UP HERE

View Our 2021 Challenge Champions

Join the Racial Justice Facebook Group

HONORING THE WORK

YWCA of Northwest Ohio wants to thank and acknowledge Dr. Eddie Moore Jr., Debby Irving, and Dr. Marguerite Penick for their leadership in the field of racial equity as exhibited in their 21 Day Racial Equity and Habit Building Challenge and the movement they helped to initiate. YWCA’s content is independently designed, written, and curated by YWCA Greater Cleveland staff as part of racial equity and social justice programs offered to the community.

The YWCA of Northwest Ohio and Healthy Lucas County partner to present a series of Lunch & Learns focusing on health equity and disparities.

View previous Lunch & Learn recordings below:

Community Book Discussions

Combining no-holds-barred social critique, humorous personal anecdotes, and analysis of the latest interdisciplinary scholarship on systemic racism, sociologist Crystal M. Fleming provides a fresh, accessible, and irreverent take on everything that’s wrong with our “national conversation about race.

Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed’s On Juneteenth provides a historian’s view of the country’s long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have endured in the century since, from Reconstruction through Jim Crow and beyond. All too aware of the stories of cowboys, ranchers, and oilmen that have long dominated the lore of the Lone Star State, Gordon-Reed?herself a Texas native and the descendant of enslaved people brought to Texas as early as the 1820s?forges a new and profoundly truthful narrative of her home state, with implications for us all.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSIONS

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah Jones is a book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation’s founding and construction—and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life.

In this rousing and deeply empathetic book, Ibram X. Kendi, one of the world’s most influential scholars of racism, shows that neutrality is not an option: until we become part of the solution, we can only be part of the problem.

The story begins in 1619—a year before the Mayflower—when the White Lion disgorges “some 20-and-odd Negroes” onto the shores of Virginia, inaugurating the African presence in what would become the United States. It takes us to the present when African Americans continue a journey defined by inhuman oppression, visionary struggles, stunning achievements, and millions of ordinary lives passing through extraordinary history.

One of today’s most insightful and

influential thinkers offer a powerful exploration of inequality and the lesson that generations of Americans have failed to learn: Racism has a cost for everyone—not just for people of color.

A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed is beautifully written and illustrates how some of our country’s most essential stories are hidden in plain view.

A must-read, 26 artists and scholars, who are immigrants or have ties to multiple countries, reflect on race, ethnicity, nationality, belonging, and the legacy of colonization mostly in the context of a post-2016 America consumed by tensions over immigration and the question of which bodies are welcome.

The strength of this collection is in its diversity—of ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality, privilege, experience, and writing style. A gift for anyone who understands or wants to learn about the breadth of experience among immigrants to the U.S.

Dialogue to Change is a community enrichment program that seeks to create communal programming that efficiently advocates, while simultaneously championing and supporting Whole-Community empowerment and change. Dialogue to Change employs “face to face” facilitated conversation between members of two or more social identity groups, in an effort to positively inform, and wholeheartedly impact all groups about amicable cultural etiquette. With a focus on racial communicative etiquette, Dialogue groups give the participants the safety and freedom to discuss race, cultural differences and shed light on their own implicit biases.

Future sessions are forthcoming. Please click here to complete the interest form.

Please support The YWCA of Northwest Ohio Racial Justice Department While You Shop!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

T

Stand Against Racism, our annual campaign which builds community among those who work for racial justice, raises awareness about racism, and encourages community members to take action for change.

The 2021 Stand Against Racism Conference was held virtually on April 22nd and 23rd.  

See the highlights below:

Day 1 of the 2021 Stand Against Racism Conference featured Dr. Barbara Love, Dr. Michael Waters and Yulise Waters, Esq. Click Here to watch.

Day 2 of the 2021 Stand Against Racism Conference featured panelists Judge Denise Cubbon, Crystal Ward, Celeste Smith, Dr. Treva Jeffries, Dr. Marvin Whitfield and Robin Reese. Thank you panelists!

Dr. Elhai also presented at Day 2 of the 2021 Stand Against Racism Conference, featured here with our CEO, Lisa McDuffie!

Watch the 2020 Stand Against Racism Conference – Day One
Watch the 2020 Stand Against Racism Conference – Day Two

Extensive information on mental health and substance use resources for people of color. Their mission is equal access to life-saving resources. They have guides for black, Latinx, Asian, and Native people. Click here for more information.

____________________________________________________________

Watch Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98W85DFeBV8

Sponsored By Male Behavioral Health

The film was available July 16-19. If you would still like to view bias, it is available
through Hoopla with your Toledo Lucas County Public Library card or on Amazon Prime.

bias: Film Overview

bias is a film that challenges us to confront our hidden biases and understand what we risk when we follow our gut. Through exposing her own biases, award-winning documentary filmmaker Robin Hauser highlights the nature of implicit bias and the grip it holds on our social and professional lives.

Watch the bias Trailer

Racist policies, regulations, and laws have created inequitable communities disproportionately burdened by injury, disease, and premature death. Racism is a risk factor for toxic stress, a root cause of some of the most harmful, persistent, and expensive health challenges for our nation. Toledo/Lucas County is not immune.

We are proud to join with our sister YWCAs to participate in #YWCAHillDay. Our collective efforts can root out injustice, transform institutions, and create a world that sees women, girls, and people of color the way we see them: Equal. Powerful. Unstoppable. Join us in calling on our Membersof Congress to declare that racism is a public health crisis: bit.ly/3wJtPcQ #UntilJusticeJustIs #YWCAHillDay #RacismIsAPublicHealthCrisis

Virtual YWCA at The Capitol, June 17, 2021

Delegates from the Ohio YWCAs met virtually with staff from the offices of Representatie Marcy Kaptur, Senator Rob Portman, and Senator Sherrod Brown to urge them to cosponsor the Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2021 (S. 162/H.R. 666) and declare racism a public health crisis.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day when the last of the enslaved African Americans in Texas learned that they were finally free – two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth, also thought of as the African American Independence Day or Freedom Day, is a celebration of the official end of slavery. This day has long been observed by African American communities through celebrations, parades, festivals, and annual pilgrimages back to Texas.

While the YWCA of Northwest Ohio already recognized Juneteenth as an agency holiday observed this year on Friday, June 17th – granting staff the day off for reflection and education, on June 17, 2021 the Government declared Juneteenth as a National Holiday. This is a major accomplishment after years of advocacy from several organizers and legislators to recognize Juneteenth’s significance.

Juneteenth holds significance in many other ways, especially this year when our country has seen nationwide incidences of brutal police violence, public acts of racism, voter disenfranchisement, and laws against teaching about the true history of racism. “Juneteenth represents how freedom and justice in the US has always been delayed for Black people.” We can never eliminate racism if we don’t acknowledge our country’s history and how it affects the present and future of Black People. 

On this Juneteenth we celebrate freedom and African Americans’ achievements, culture, and history. We also take this opportunity to reflect on the significant work that still needs to be done to eliminate racism, achieve equity for Black people, and to ensure liberty and justice for all.

Learn more about Juneteenth:

“Juneteenth: A Celebration of Resilience” | National Museum of African American History & Culture

“Juneteenth is a reminder That Freedom Wasn’t Just Handed Over” | Brianna Holt, New York Times Opinion

YWCA supports measures at the national, state, and local levels to advance and ensure human rights for women and girls around the world. YWCA NWO supports the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a comprehensive, international agreement on eliminating discrimination against women in every sphere – economic, political, and social.