Fighting Racism In A Local County’s Democratic Party
Union Leader, Educator, Activist & CDR Contributor Greg Burrill Introduces A New Model: The Racial Inclusivity Work Group (RIWG)
Ed. Note: Greg Burrill is trying something new. He is accepting co-chair role for a racial equity workgroup subcommittee (he helped found) within a major US county’s political party hierarchy with dual purposes of healing old racial rifts, and educating a vibrant grassroots assembly about how racist they may still be — even if they neither believe, nor wish, they were.
It’s a fresh and friendly approach (but with teeth), one we think should be considered for modeling across the country as an alternative to more combative, acrimonious methods. Both approaches can be effective, both are viable, but only one way is a path that brings together a more truly unified community of influential politicos who really understand, have been educated about, the ugliness of racism territory. RIWG also helps membership become more self-aware of biased messaging, communication impact, micro-aggression, how to continue stepping out of the encultured and groomed racism morass.
We believe Greg’s model deserves sendup for national, international attention, as template for other counties, and all their political parties.
The group now known as the Multnomah County Democrats (MultDems) Racial Inclusivity Work Group (RIWG) began with a meeting in 2017 attended by seven Democratic Party activists. Multnomah County Democrats (known more commonly as MultDems) is the official county seat of the Democratic Party in Multnomah County, holds the City of Portland, Oregon, and is home of the largest county party in the state. We started RIWG, in part, to heal a rift that began with the election of a Black woman to be MultDems’ Chair nearly a decade ago. When she was forced to resign, many of the party’s African-Americans left in protest. Although the memory of that event a decade ago has faded, many BIPoC folx have noticed that institutional racism is still alive and well — even in the People’s Republic of Portland.
Part of the problem stems from the fact that when most white people think of racism, they think of transactional racism; actively discriminating against someone because of their race or ethnicity. In reality, most of the daily racism BIPoC folx face comes from people who have no idea how their words, behaviors and ideas land in the ears of their friends, colleagues, and coworkers. The largest outpouring of protest against anti-Black racism of the 21st Century — the response to the killing of George Floyd — resulted in fewer than 40% of White Americans seeking to learn about the problem. Here is how I might teach Lesson One on Institutional Racism:
If you need to hire someone for an important project, you might prefer to hire someone you already know and trust; that’s a perfectly natural desire. If, however, because of the racist housing policies that have denied BIPoC folx the chance to attend the same schools and live in the same neighborhoods as white folks, that natural desire is an expression — and a continuation — of institutional racism.
The Racial Inclusivity Work Group has already made great strides in overcoming the effects of institutional racism. We created a Racial Equity Lens, so that committees as well as study and education groups could ask themselves a series of questions to highlight instances of institutional racism in their charters, bylaws, and standing rules. For example, because being Chair of our County Party is a full-time volunteer job, it is only open to those with enough privilege to perform a full-time job without pay. (The same problem exists with the Oregon State Legislature, as evidenced by several members who decided not to seek re-election because of the low pay.)
One of the most visible effects of RIWG’s efforts is on the last two MultDems’ Platform documents; both the Article on Historical and Ongoing Anti-Blackness (Article IV) and on Tribal Sovereignty (Article II) were written and advanced by RIWG members. RIWG is also responsible for convincing MultDems leadership of the need for equity training — and have been providing it for several years.
Now that the COVID-19 Pandemic seems to be fading, it’s time for our organization to regain the momentum we had at the beginning of 2020. Our vision is to assemble a group of two to three dozen folx — ±75% BIPoC, to create a safe space where members of various Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian people from around the world can heal our trauma and bring more people into the fight for American democracy — we were a lot closer to those numbers two years ago than we are now.
If you live in the Portland area, please feel free to apply to join RIWG, and if you already have an organization like RIWG — or you’d like to start one, please contact us at racialinclusivity@gmail.com.
