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Pathways of Race Relations and Racial Justice Work

Race relations and racial justice organizations tend to use different approaches to achieve their goals. The approaches can be grouped under three very broad pathways described below When implemented collectively in a high-quality manner, each of these paths can contribute to addressing structural racism in a community change process.

1. Racial and Ethnic Competency and Development - Working with individuals and institutions to build their competencies around the concepts of race and ethnic differences (including knowledge and awareness), and in some cases, developing skills to address power dynamics, racism, internalized white supremacy, and internalized racism.
2. Race Relations and Reconciliation - Working to build relationships across racial and ethnic groups to work effectively on community issues and build collective action against racism.
3. Racial Justice and Equity - Working to achieve social justice goals, particularly those that involve racial/ethnic equity, through changing laws and institutional policies and practices.

   [FN: Potapchuk, Gulati-Partee, and Wright, Building Capacity and Cultivating Interdependence among Race Relations and Racial Equity Organizations, 2008, unpublished document.]