How B Lab Plans to Become an Anti-Racist Organization
By Ellonda L. Green, B Lab’s Director of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
As an organization, we stand against anti-Black racism and all forms of oppression including transphobia, classism, sexism, and xenophobia. We commit to a focused and sustained action to dismantle racist systems, policies, practices, and ideologies within ourselves and our networks. As we continue to learn about injustice, we embrace radical reorientation of our consciousness and will listen to the voices of Black, Brown, Indigenous and marginalized peoples to catalyze equitable outcomes for all.
In June, as B Lab’s Director of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, I submitted a proposal for B Lab to take a stance as an anti-racist organization. Last quarter, B Lab U.S. & Canada announced its plans to take staff members on a journey to become educated in anti-racism. But racism is not just a “United States or Canadian problem.” It is useful to see a variety of other examples of how race has been constructed among other countries and governance models, as well as understand U.S. history in the context of these broader trends. Anti-racism work encompasses work streams within different countries where B Lab operates, but our unified anti-racist approach will encompass the pillars of justice that hold true at a global, systemic level.
B Lab has always been a proponent of change — that change has been directed toward capitalism. Capitalism and racism can be seen as “conjoined twins,” and that “… the origins of racism cannot be separated from the origins of capitalism … the life of capitalism cannot be separated from the life of racism” (Kendi, 2019). No longer can B Lab act as a bystander in the dismantling of racism — silence in the wake of racial injustices is seen as violence against BIPOC community members. Complacent is not how B Lab should be showing up as a leader.
Our movement calls for boldness and inclusivity with the purpose of a betterment for all, and it’s imperative that we continue to seek ways to “practice what we preach” at B Lab.
Being a leader is hard, goals are a moving target; it’s never going to be “good enough” and we have to do the work. We have to train for the marathon if we want to build the stamina to sustain the trauma of the race. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it. But we aren’t everybody, and the world expects more — it deserves more. We must model Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) commitments for the entire B Corp community. We take that job very seriously.
There is an existing intersection between racism, white supremacy culture, and capitalism as we know it. Injustice does not recognize city, state or country borders. Systems of oppression exist around the globe and have existed as such for hundreds of years. Anti-Black violence and police brutality, disproportionate effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and racism are prevalent from Africa to Asia to the United Kingdom. Colorism, xenophobia and intolerance are problems prevalent in all societies. Benefits that are structured to advantage majority groups at the expense of others are rooted in white supremacy, and create power inequalities, unequal access to opportunities, and differing policy outcomes by race and other demographics.
There is a misconception that racism is solely about race, when technically it is prejudice or discrimination directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is minoritized. And “ethnic” represents the act of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition. Racism is about culture.
“Anti-racism is an active and conscious effort to work against multidimensional aspects of racism,” says Robert J. Patterson, professor of African American Studies at Georgetown University. We are all affected: Racism against Black people isn’t perpetuated among white people alone, and Black Americans are not the only racial group to suffer from racism. That is to say, racism and anti-racism exist in multitudes. But it was white European colonialists who were at the helm of slavery 400 years ago, laying the foundation for today’s structural racism that everyone — yes, you too — is born into.
New research from the University of Nottingham reveals that even today, in almost half of the world’s countries, there is no criminal law penalizing any aspects of slavery. In 94 countries, you cannot be prosecuted and punished in a criminal court for enslaving another human being (Schwarz & Allain, 2020). Forced labour is a global problem, affecting almost all countries of the world. According to the Workers’ Alliance against Forced Labour and Tracking, in Sub-Saharan Africa at least 660,000 persons are in forced labour, from traditional forms to modern slavery. In 2018, the Global Slavery Index reported that Africa recorded the highest rate of modern-day enslavement in the world. More than a million Uighurs and others belonging to Muslim minority groups are being detained in prison-like internment camps in China’s Xinjiang region, as recorded in an article by the Council on Foreign Relations. The genocide of Indigenous women is still occurring in Canada.
Racism and oppression are not hard to see, if you choose to look.
We all have an opportunity to gain insight from both inspiring and devastating events in history around the world, as well as to apply new understanding to our own life experiences. At B Lab, we will actively and publicly do the work to educate internal leaders and staff on anti-racist rhetoric, theories and behaviors, to dismantle the aspects of racism embedded in our systems and policies, to de-center whiteness and Americanization in our work and analysis, and center justice in our goals, outcomes and standards.
How B Lab Plans to Become an Anti-Racist Organization
B Lab is trying to strike the balance between understanding that we need to do more and trying to find the right speed at which to go. How fast should radical change happen? We recognize this thin line, and although we are unsure whether each step we take will result in trial or triumph, we forge ahead in our JEDI journey anyway, primed and ready to enter our anti-racism phase as accountable business leaders and stand against injustice and oppression.
Therefore, B Lab’s internal JEDI approach is multipronged to create far-reaching impact across the organization and our network and set all B Lab teams up for greater success in the future. Simply put, we will “get our house in order” by taking the following actions:
Standards
- This summer, begin working with B Lab’s internal JEDI team, B Corp Provoc, Global Partners, and the B Corp minoritized communities, to complete a JEDI review of the B Impact Assessment to determine what aspects of our Standards need to be revised, removed or added, and subsequently doing so.
Board
- In Q4, begin working with equity-focused Board consultants to create an equity-focused Board expansion process.
- In September 2020, begin a JEDI-focused Board cohort learning intensive.
- Create active JEDI learning modules at quarterly Board meetings.
B Lab Staff and Leadership
- Lead the organization’s staff through curated trainings, which focus on Global cultural competency, white supremacy and anti-racism. Focusing on Executive Leadership and B Lab’s People & Operations Team, but giving access to these resources to Board members and Global Partners.
- Partner with B Lab’s People & Culture Team to adjoin JEDI accountabilities to our manager and staff review processes.
- Work with global consultants who specialize in anti-racism systems change and partner with B Lab’s People & Culture Team to critically review our organization’s policies and practices for JEDI and anti-racism considerations.
- Create a Global Advisory Group with Global Partners to create regular touchpoints for information exchange, regular JEDI updates, and educational opportunities within and across our Global network.
Will we get this all done? That’s the goal! Will we get it all right? Probably not. But we are committed to doing our due diligence as a learning organization to build upon our foundations of knowledge to live into our entrepreneurial beliefs and develop strategies that benefit everyone inclusively and equitably.
To learn more about the earlier stages of B Lab’s JEDI journey and get started on your own, we encourage you to visit the following articles:
- 5 Things We Learned by Focusing on Our Internal Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
- To Make Your Organization More Inclusive, Start With Data
- Personal Experience Inspires EDI Leadership and Goals for B Lab
- How Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) and Love Can Build an Honest, People-Centered Economy
For more on B Lab’s anti-racism plan, see a longer version of this article.
B The Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
A Commitment to Justice and Anti-Racism was originally published in B The Change on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
