Frequently Asked Questions
We answered your most burning questions about the Won’t Take SHIFT Anymore campaign
What exactly happened to warrant words such as “violence” and “trauma”?
When we talk about trauma, we mean the result of an experience that involves an amount of stress that exceeds an individual’s ability to cope with and integrate the emotions associated with the distressing event(s). Honestly, “what exactly happened” is difficult to explain unless you have first-hand experience with and can understand the toll racial trauma inflicts on brown and Black bodies in this country. There isn’t just one cause, or even as little as ten incidents, we can point to that begin to describe our full experience at ELP and SHIFT. It was an entire week of little to big incidents and interactions, layered on top of a lifetime of micro and macro-aggressions people of color face on a daily basis. If you are running a program that is marketed as inclusive to folks from marginalized communities, the simple truth is you are responsible for ensuring those participants will not be traumatized by that program. Christian Beckwith and the facilitators of the Emerging Leaders Program were not equipped to create or hold such a space, and in fact they actively contributed to its toxic and hostile environment.
No, nobody was physically harmed in a direct way, yet I would not argue that our definition of violence is purely “non-physical.” The reality is, our negative experiences at SHIFT resulted in severe emotional distress for several participants. That is trauma and violence our bodies physically experienced and continue to experience to this day.
Why a social media campaign? Why not try to sort things out privately?
We did not come to the decision of calling for Christian’s resignation, then creating a social media campaign, immediately nor lightly. Co-organizer Sarah Shimazaki attempts to explain why in this post.
In our eyes, the Board of Directors should have at least done the following: put Christian on a leave of absence once they received our letters, engaged with us in a collective process of recommendations, investigated our claims with an outside party and/or hired a mediator to attempt conflict resolution.
In the absence of any sort of continued dialogue or relationship with the Board, we felt voiceless and powerless. We began to feel that if SHIFT wasn’t going to publicly acknowledge their mistakes, then we’d have to go public about our experiences and stories for the sake of our community. Our community had to know what we experienced so they could make an informed decision on whether or not they too should get involved with SHIFT and apply to ELP.
We chose a social media campaign, specifically an Instagram campaign, for one simple reason — our community is on Instagram. When we say “our community,” we mean the Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), and LGBTQIA+ folks who are actively fighting for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the outdoor industry. Instagram provides a space for us to speak out, to tell our stories in our own voices, to harness the power that has traditionally been afforded to members of dominant identity groups who write “history”. These histories and stories relegate us to the margins, while Instagram and the opportunities it provides us to narrate our own experiences restores our voices and our rightful power.
Why are we “attacking” someone with good intentions? What does this mean for other organizations on a DEI journey if the takeaway here is “one strike and you’re out”?
The SHIFT Board of Directors continues to prioritize Christian’s “learning journey” at the expense of the safety and wellbeing of people of color. We believe a huge part of any learning journey is knowing when it’s time to take a step back. Despite his intentions, Christian caused real harm to not just our ELP cohort, but previous cohorts as well. We believe intent does not erase impact.
In a recent Jackson Hole News & Guide article, Christian says “there’s not a lot of road maps [to DEI work]. I don’t have the lived experience of these folks.” This statement is both inaccurate (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work has been around for decades) and overlooks the unpaid and detailed feedback people of color have offered ELP year after year.
Our campaign is not about canceling all white folks who are on a DEI journey. It’s about holding a white man accountable for doing the work he claims to be committed to, and for the harm he’s continued to cause people of color, year after year.
The SHIFT Board of Directors has hired Dr. Morgan Green to coordinate ELP this year — isn’t that a step in the right direction?
Over the last year and a half or so, the ELP Director position has been held by three people, including a woman of color. All three of these individuals quit because of difficult working relationships with Christian. As long as the ELP Director still reports and answers to Christian, we aren’t comfortable, nor are we confident that this step is enough to address the issues we had with the program.
I don’t agree with your divisive tactics of “canceling” others. Can’t we go about this in a respectful way?
Again, we feel our campaign is not about canceling anybody — it’s about accountability for someone who has caused harm, year after year. Demanding accountability, even publicly, is not inherently disrespectful nor divisive. While we recognize that activists and leaders utilize multiple strategies and tactics depending on the movement, we also feel it is vital to ally with and center the voices of the most impacted. Seventeen people, the majority of whom are womxn of color and queer, trans people of color, strongly believe a leadership change at SHIFT is what is needed to ensure future generations of Emerging Leaders do not endure the harm we experienced. Redirecting the conversation to question our methods and tone as opposed to the validity of our message diminishes the lived experience of these seventeen individuals.
SHIFT is a conservation program- what responsibility do they have to DEI efforts?
SHIFT and ELP are self-proclaimed programs which “explore(s) issues at the intersection of outdoor recreation, conservation, public health and cultural relevance”. What this means is that conservation is only a single part of their larger mission. Any organization leading an effort to explore the intersections of race/class/gender/body size or ability and how this affects outdoor access and conservation has the responsibility of centering the voices of those most marginalized in the outdoor industry. Their responsibility also lies in providing a safe space for these individuals during discussions which include having the skills to address micro and macro aggressions as they occur. Year after year, SHIFT/ELP has done a poor job in protecting their participants and Christian Beckwith has been actively complicit in perpetuating micro and macro aggressions towards participants. It is clear that he is ill-equipped to responsibly manage the programs as they are so described. Additionally, any organization in the outdoor industry that is NOT addressing these intersections and the larger effects they have on access, conservation and individual experiences is actively excluding the voices of these marginalized groups.
