Dr. Katrina Spigner

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Inclusion:
The Critical Dance of Racial Equity
Dr. Katrina Spigner (Dr. K)

2. What Is Racial Equity?
“Racial equity is about applying justice and a little bit of
common sense to a system that’s been out of
balance. When a system is out of balance, people of color
feel the impacts most acutely, but, to be clear, an
imbalanced system makes all of us pay.”
~ CSI President Glenn Harris
Center for Social Inclusion

3. Racial Equity
❖ An Outcome – When race is not the determining factor
of everyone having what they need to thrive
❖ A Process – When those most impacted by structural
racial inequity are meaningfully included and in the
creation and implementation of the institutional policies
that impact their lives
A Center for Social Inclusion

4. When We Achieve Racial Equity:
❖ People, including people of color, are owners, planners,
and decision-makers in the systems that govern their
lives.
❖ We acknowledge and account for past and current
inequities, and provide all people, particularly those
most impacted by racial inequities, the infrastructure
needed to thrive.
❖ Everyone benefits from a more just, equitable system.
Center for Social Inclusion

5. How Do We Begin?
“Diversity is being invited to the party…Inclusion is being
asked to dance.”
~Diversity Advocate, Verna Myers

6. Inclusion…
: an act of taking in as part of a whole
: the state of being taken in as part of a whole

7. Let’s Consider
• ster·e·o·type
• ˈsterēəˌtīp/
• noun
• plural noun: stereotypes
• 1. a widely held but fixed and oversimplified
image or idea of a particular type of person or
thing.

8. Let’s Consider
Microaggressions are the everyday verbal,
nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs,
or insults, whether intentional or
unintentional, which communicate hostile,
derogatory, or negative messages to target
persons based solely upon their marginalized
group membership.

9. Let’s Consider…
Micro-inequity is a theory that refers to
hypothesized ways in which individuals are
either singled out, overlooked, ignored, or
otherwise discounted based on an
unchangeable characteristic such as race or
gender.

10. Theory of Change
Courage
Openness
Reflection
Empathy

11. It Begins With Our Stories…

12. While one can dumb down his lyrics, what one cannot do without
being found out is hide his historical baggage, his sense of self. His
walk…I come with all the baggage of Somalia-of my grandfather’s
poetry, of pounding rhythms, of the war, of being an immigrant, of
being an artist, of needing to explain a few things, even in the
friendliest of melodies, something in my voice stirs up a well of
history…
~ K’naan

14. Becoming allies means helping each other heal. It can be hard to
expose yourself and your wounds to a stranger who could be an
ally or an enemy. But if you and I were to do good alliance work
together, be good allies to each other, I would have to expose
my wounds to you and you would have to expose your wounds
to me and then we could start from a place of openness.
~Gloria E. Anzaldua

15. Why Our Stories Matter…
1. Stories provide a lens and mindset from which we see
others
2. Stories offer language that provides a framework for
common understanding
3. Stories extend beyond ourselves to make deeper
connections
4. Stories are our invitation to dance

16. The Dance…

17. Core Components of the Dance…
 Trust
 Respect
 Commitment

18. Identifying A Partner?
One of the greatest aspects of partner dancing, is that every
dance requires an invitation.
~Arthur Murray Dance Studios

19. May I Have This Dance?

20. When It’s Time to Dance…
 Find an open space
 Listen for the beat
 Don’t be afraid to move
 Dance at your own pace

21. We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we
dance for madness, we dance for fears, we
dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are
the dancers, we create the dreams.
~ Albert Einstein

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