21-Day Equity Challenge

What to Expect

Getting Started

Welcome to the 21-Day Equity Challenge! Thank you for making the time to learn, reflect, and participate in this Challenge to develop a deeper understanding of how inequity affects our lives and our community.

Why An Equity Challenge?

This challenge is an opportunity to increase our understanding and education around equity. The Challenge highlights race equity, but also addresses a wide range of social inequities and the intersectionality of varying systems of oppression or privilege. The Challenge will provide demonstrated tools and resources to learn and take action to support a more equitable community. When change starts within enough of us, together, we can make progress toward becoming an equitable community, thriving, and united community.

What To Expect

Over the next 21 days, you will receive materials to help you explore, build a stronger awareness of current systems, and be offered opportunities to take action. Each day you will receive an email that includes some background information and one to three “challenge” options, such as reading an article, watching a video, or listening to a podcast. Most Challenge options list an approximate amount of time needed. You can consume all of the content at once or go through it in segments. You should set aside at lease 15-20 minutes for each day of the Challenge to review as much of the content as you’d like and to reflect on what you may have learned. The Challenge is free to participate and open to anyone.

There are many ways to embrace and interact with the challenge, including:

• LEARN – Read, watch, or listen to the content that is on each day.
• REFLECT – Think about the questions that are offered for self-reflection.
• CONNECT – Talk with y our colleagues, family, and friends about what you are experiencing.
• TAKE ACTION – Join the many events and opportunities to contribute to equity and justice in our community.
• SHARE – Share the WNY 21-Day Equity Challenge and invite others to participate in it.

We recognize information shared during the Challenge may be emotional and intellectually challenging to engage with, especially for people who have experienced racism and oppression. We understand and encourage you to take a break from the Challenge, whenever you may need and return when you are ready.

Challenge Pre-survey:

We would appreciate your input so we can build a 21-Day Equity Challenge experience that is supportive and beneficial for the entire community. We ask that you take two to three minutes to complete a brief survey before beginning the challenge. Your answers will remain anonymous and confidential.

Shared Language

Welcome to Day 1 of the Western New York 21-Day Equity Challenge! Together, thousands of local people are working to develop a deeper understanding of race, equity, and our collective role in improving our community. Before you get started, if you haven’t done so already, please fill out this pre-challenge survey to help ensure this experience is supportive and beneficial for the entire community.

To help set the stage, we are going to focus on shared language used throughout the Challenge. Shared Language is a mutual understanding of key concepts and terms, laying the groundwork for more productive conversations. Some of the concepts and terms you will see throughout the Challenge include:

• Equity – The intentional inclusion of everyone in society. Equity is achieved when systemic, institutional, and historic barriers based on race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and other characteristics and protected classes are dismantled and no longer predict socioeconomic, education, and health outcomes of people.
• Diversity – Each individual is unique, and groups of individuals reflect multiple dimensions of difference, including, but not limited to, race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability.
• Inclusion – Authentically bringing traditionally excluded individuals and/or groups into decision/policy making, processes, and activities in a way that shares power.
• Equality – Generally refers to equal opportunity and the same (equal) levels of support for all segments of society. Equity goes a step further and refers to intentionally offering varying levels of support depending upon the need to achieve greater fairness of outcomes.
• Intersectionality: An analysis of the connections between two or more systems of oppression (e.g., racism and classism, racism and sexism) and how individuals experience those overlapping or compounding systems of oppression or privilege.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Read “What’s the difference between equity and equality?” (3 minutes)
2. Share the WNY 21-Day Equity Challenge sign up with three people in your community!

Understanding Diversity

Understanding diversity is to understand every person is unique. While it is easy to define people by visible differences, diversity also includes the unseen differences. The diversity iceberg shows visible diversity traits above the water line and invisible traits below it. Some examples of invisible diversity traits include sexual orientation, education, and parental status. 

Today’s Challenge:

1. Watch “The Diversity Iceberg | Diversity and Inclusion Training” (4 minutes)
2. Read “Beyond the training: How to host meaningful DE&I conversations at your company” (6 minutes)

Exploring Bias

Bias is showing prejudice in favor of, or against a person or group of people, usually in a way considered to be unfair, whether conscious or unconscious. Often the biases that we hold, even those that are unconscious, may cause us to act in ways that are offensive and discriminatory to others.

Bias, especially unconscious bias, cannot be eliminated entirely from society or the workplace, however we can become skilled at recognizing, minimizing and overcoming bias. When we know more about ourselves, we can be more aware of others and open to their experiences. Learning about our own implicit biases–the positive and negative attitudes, stereotypes, and feelings we have about people and groups that are different from ourselves–is an important part of this Challenge. Often the biases that we hold may cause us to act in ways that are offensive and discriminatory to others. Exploring our own implicit bias is key to moving toward equity.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Watch “We All Have Bias” with john a. powell. (1 minute)
2. Read “Race and Racial Identity Are Social Constructs” by Angela Onwuachi-Willig. (3 minutes)
3. Take some of the Project Implicit Bias Tests from Harvard University.

The Meaning of Privilege

Privilege is unearned access to social power based on membership in a dominant social group. There are many types of privilege that different groups have in the US and most people can identify at least one privilege that they hold. The idea of privilege can be divisive, but at the core, it means a built-in advantage, immunity, or benefit that a person or group enjoys beyond what others have access to or experience. Having privilege can give you advantages in life, but having privilege is not a guarantee of success.

We commonly hear about privilege because of race or gender, but privilege also exists for different groups based on religion, sexuality, ability, class, education level. Some examples of privilege include: white privilege, socio-economic privilege, Christian privilege, gender privilege, and heterosexual-cis-gendered privilege.

As you move through your work and the community, think of which areas are you privileged and when you are not experiencing privileges? How does your power and privilege (or lack thereof) shape your perception of yourself? How do power and privileges shape the way other people see you?

Today’s Challenge:

1. Watch “Students Learn A Powerful Lesson About Privilege.” (2 minutes)
2. Watch “Privilege is power. How you can use it to do some good!” (5 minutes)
3. Listen to this Stateside episode with Eddie Moore, Jr., executive director of The Privilege Institute, about how the White Privilege Conference in Grand Rapids created a space for people to have “tough conversations. (8 minutes)

Microaggressions

Microaggressions are brief and commonplace verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights toward a specific group or individual. Microaggressions are typically directed toward someone based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or socio-economic status. 

Mircoaggressions can lead people feeling excluded and unsafe within their environment. Some examples include comments such as, “you don’t speak like a Black person,” “where are you really from,” and “how can you afford that.” Even mistaking a colleague for someone with a seemingly shared identity becomes a microaggression if it happens on a regular basis.

Reducing microaggressions is key to ensuring everyone feels welcome and has access to equal opportunities. Microaggressions are born out of biases and as we mentioned earlier in the Challenge, becoming aware of those biases is key to making sure we don’t act in ways that are offensive and discriminatory to others.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Read “Can you afford this?” 4 kinds of microaggressions that sink the joy of travel for Black people.” (4 minutes)
2. Listen to “Microaggressions are a big deal: How to talk them out and when to walk away” (21 minutes)

Psychological Safety

Psychological Safety is critical when it comes to the equity journey. It must be established in order to create an inclusive environment that leads to greater collaboration. According to Dr. Timothy R. Clark, psychological safety means you feel safe interacting with others without the fear of being embarrassed or punished in some way. Think of how it would feel to not have your new idea valued because of the color of your skin, or your gender, or a physical disability.

More often than not, underrepresented populations tend to have the least psychological safety. Particularly in the workplace, giving everyone the chance to speak up, share ideas and learn leads to people bringing their full authentic selves to work and ultimately increased productivity.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Watch  “What is Psychological Safety | Intro to The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety.” (3 minutes) 
2. Read “8 Ways You Can Practice Self-Care In The Face Of Daily Racism.” (4 minutes)
3. Read “Encouraging Diverse Perspectives Starts With Psychological Safety.” (5 minutes)

Segregation in WNY

When you hear the word segregation, what do you think of? Many of us think back to the Civil Rights Movement. Yet, segregation continues to be a problem today. According to a report developed by Partnership for the Public Good, “The [Buffalo metro area] itself is ranked sixth most segregated in the nation on the white-black index, and twenty-first most segregated on the white-Hispanic index. White people are overrepresented in the suburbs, while people of color are overrepresented within the city of Buffalo.”

One of the major factors leading to the May 14, 2022 racist mass shooting at Tops Markets on Buffalo’s East Side was segregation. The December 2022 Buffalo Blizzard also highlighted the racial disparity between resources allocated to predominantly Black and White neighborhoods.

Present-day racism was built on a long history of racially distributed resources and ideas that shape our view of ourselves and others. It is a hierarchical system that comes with a broad range of policies and institutions that keep it in place. Policies shaped by institutional racism that enforce segregation include redlining, predatory lending, the exclusion of black veterans from the G.I. bill, and the forced segregation of neighborhoods by the Federal Housing Authority.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Watch “Henry Louis Taylor Jr: How to Plan for Segregation.” (3 minutes)
2. Listen to “Not a thing of the past: How a history of racial residential segregation in Buffalo led to the Tops shooting.” (6 minutes)
3. Visit the Equal Justice Initiative’s Segregation in America microsite.

Food Equity

Food equity is ensuring that all people have access to grow and consume nutritious and affordable food. In WNY and beyond, the lack of food equity continues to be a challenge. There is also a gap in the lack of food equity between people of color and white Americans.

In Buffalo’s East Side, the mass shooting at Tops Markets, and subsequent closing of the grocery store for two months highlighted the lack of fresh food options available in a zip code that is 77% Black. Hunger also impacts suburban and rural communities, with rural communities particularly susceptible to food inequity due to reduced public transportation, child care and job opportunities.

Access to grocery stores, food pantries, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is critical to ensuring people have access to food, regardless of race, or location.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Read “Food equity in Buffalo, NY: Collective action before, during, and after crises.” (6 minutes)
2. Read “Food apartheid: the root of the problem with America’s groceries.” (17 minutes)

Housing

In Western New York, and in many parts of our country, there is extreme housing segregation that is a direct result of a practice called redlining, a form of lending discrimination that has disproportionately affected Black, Latinx, and other people of color for hundreds of years.

Beginning in the 1930s, this nationwide practice allowed banks to deny mortgage and loan applications, and prevented people from buying homes based on race or which community they lived in. To assess the risk of borrowers, entire neighborhoods were graded on property condition and ethnic composition. Neighborhoods that were deemed “lowest risk” were outlined in green ink while the “highest risk” were outlined in red ink, or “redlined”. These areas were unfairly excluded from receiving federally-back home loans.

Despite anti-discrimination rulings such as the Fair Housing Act of 1968, housing segregation is still prevalent throughout the country. In February 2021 the New York State Department of Financial Services released a report on redlining in the Buffalo metropolitan area. According to the report, Buffalo remains one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States decades after the practice of redlining and other forms of housing discrimination were banned by law.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Watch “What is Redlining?” (2 minutes) 
2. Read “A ‘Forgotten History’ Of How The U.S. Government Segregated America.” (7 minutes)
3. See how your own neighborhood has been affected by redlining by checking out The Mapping Inequality website.

Mass Incarceration

What if you found out that more Black people are in prison, jail, on probation, or on parole today than were enslaved in 1850?

Or if you found out that from 1980 to 2017, the number of women in jails and prisons in the U.S. grew 750%, with over 225,000 women being incarcerated today.

Did you know that children under the age of 14 can be prosecuted as adults and sentenced to life in prison?

These facts and more, from the Equal Justice Initiative, outline the reality that slavery has evolved in incarceration. Consider that Black people make up 50% of the U.S prison population but only 12% of the country’s population. Mass incarceration is not only a racial issue either as people who are poor or living in financial hardship often do not have access to adequate legal representation, leading to wrongful convictions, increased sentences and 25% of the entire world’s prison population.

True equity means we must address the fact that as Bryan Stevenson remarks: “We have a system of justice that treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent.”

Today’s Challenge:

1. Watch “Slavery to Mass Incarceration.” (6 minutes)
2. Read The Sentencing Project’s Mass Incarceration Trends report. (15 minutes)
3. Sign up for the Equal Justice Initiative’s “A History of Racial Injustice” emails.

Action. Access: ALICE.

The next five days of the Challenge will focus on some of the work United Way is doing to advance equity. That starts with individuals and families that face a cycle of hardship every day.

In Erie County, 40% of residents are one emergency away from having to make an impossible choice such as buying food or paying rent. A portion of that population is known as ALICE or Asset Limited, Income Constrained & Employed. ALICE families are working, but are still struggling to meet basic expenses like food, housing, childcare and transportation. However, because ALICE families earn above the Federal Poverty Level, their needs are often invisible. United Way takes actions to increase access for the 40% of our community living below the ALICE threshold, in financial hardship.

There are also certain types of households that are more likely to be living below the ALICE Survival Threshold than others. In Erie County 62% of Hispanic households and 60% of Black households are ALICE. 70% of single female headed households with children are ALICE. The disparity we see in the rate of ALICE households is important to understand, because we also see these same disparities play out across other measures of well-being – maternal mortality, childhood obesity, reading and math proficiency, and more.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Read “Meet the typical ALICE: Americans struggling to afford basic necessities but making too much to get help.” (5 minutes)
2. Reach out to UWBEC to learn about participating in the ALICE Experience.

Healthy Births

Inequities begin before birth and continue throughout the lifespan, putting children at a disadvantage to meet their full potential. Breaking a cycle of hardship – and inequity – starts at the beginning – making sure that babies have a healthy start and are equally prepared to grow, thrive, be healthy and give back to their community. 

America is the most dangerous wealthy country in the world to give birth. This is, in part, due to the dramatic racial disparities in maternal and infant mortality. In New York State, children born to Black or Native mothers experience pregnancy-related deaths at ratios four to five times that of their non-Hispanic white peers. Pregnant women who do not have their basic needs met or are undereducated on available resources face considerable barriers to accessing prenatal care.

One way to combat disparities in maternal health is access to doula care. Access to a doula reduces the impact of bias in health care for pregnant people and improves health outcomes including higher breastfeeding initiation rates, fewer low-birth weight/premature babies, and lower rates of cesarean births.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Watch “Why are black mothers and infants far more likely to die in U.S. from pregnancy-related causes?” (10 minutes)
2. Listen to “Public Health in the Field: What is the Black Maternal Health Crisis and How Can It Be Solved?” (20 minutes)

Thrive By Five

It is important to build equitable and sustainable early systems of care and empower families and caregivers so that children are flourishing by learning, growing and meeting their individual potential by age five. Those who face the challenges of poverty, racism, discrimination, and inequitable access to resources, find themselves “behind the starting line” compared to their peers who do not face these issues.

Children “thrive by five,” by having equal access to quality outcomes. This means addressing issues such as childcare, where there is a lack of available slots in licenced or registered childcare programs in Erie County. We also need to ensure parents of all backgrounds are represented in child development and family support programs. In order to ensure children meet their potential, we also must address workforce development challenges. We must ensure that there are enough teachers, administrators, childcare providers – and also train and pay them adequately – so that they can then in turn be better prepared to meet the needs of underserved and underestimated children.

By working collaboratively, we can reduce the inequities and barriers in early learning and ensure our children are set up for success.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Read “Family Child Care in Crisis: Providers Discuss What Comes after Pandemic Funding Ends.” (5 minutes)
2. Watch “How every child can thrive by five.” (8 minutes)
3. Read “6 Myths About Educational Inequity.” (8 minutes)

College and Career Readiness

Did you know that graduating high school can prolong your life? On average those who graduate high school are healthier and have a longer life expectancy than those who did not graduate. In fact, high school graduation rates are a great indicator of the health and wellness of a community.

What if we also told you that according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, students who are not proficient in reading by the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school than proficient readers? A disproportionate number of low-income, Black, and/or Latino children are included in this group. That is why it’s important to develop practices that overcome disparities and increase the college and career readiness for all young people. When schools have the resources and skills needed to meet the needs of all children, more young adults graduate high school prepared to attend a two or four year college, or trade school. 

Readiness for college or career is not only reliant on academic achievement, but also social-emotional and mental health. A holistic approach to education and health is the best way to ensure students graduate on time and are set up for future success.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Read “How to Bring Equity and Inclusion to the Classroom.” (4 minutes)
2. Watch “How America’s Public Schools Keep Kids in Poverty.” (13 minutes)

Creating Assets, Savings and Hope (C.A.S.H)

Removing barriers to economic mobility helps families keep more of what they earn, strengthens our workforce and builds generational wealth. That’s what creating Assets, Savings and Hope is all about. 

In Erie County, 16.8% of families have zero net worth, meaning they have no wealth or their debt is greater than their assets. The proportion of families of color who have zero net worth is significantly higher than the average (31.8%). Contributing to the wealth gap are factors like income inequality, earnings gaps, homeownership rates, retirement savings, student loan debt, and inequitable asset building opportunities. This inequity in financial resources exists in our community, creating an economic barrier that can last for generations.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Explore the Urban Institute’s Nine Charts about Wealth Inequality in America. (10 minutes)
2. Watch “Explained | Racial Wealth Gap.” (17 minutes)
3. Watch UWBEC’s video about our Work/Life Solutions program. (8 minutes)

Immigrants & Refugees

We shared the definition of intersectionality on the first day of the Challenge. Over the final few days of the Challenge we are going to explore systemic inequities that specific groups face in our community based on various identities. As we move through the rest of the Challenge it is important to remember that many of the systems of oppression, or privilege, certain individuals or groups of people face are compounded with the oppressions and privileges of multiple groups they may identify with.

What if you had to leave behind your home and family to live somewhere you’ve never been, and be forced to learn a new language and a new culture? Can you imagine having one hour to pack, choosing items from your home to embark on what may become a long, arduous journey? What would you leave behind? Many immigrants and refugees face realities similar to this.

Immigrants: people who come to a country to take up permanent residence, and refugees: people who are forced to leave their country due persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion play in important role in the development of our community, yet face inequities and discrimination in their new homes.

Buffalo is home to over 73,000 immigrant residents, who have $1.5 billion in spending power. Immigrants fill labor shortages in high-tech and manual labor fields and start new businesses which creates job opportunities for immigrants and natural-born citizens alike. Immigrants and refugees also bring culture to our cities, making Western New York a more diverse and lively place. Refugee and immigrant owned businesses are popping up all around the Buffalo-Niagara region, sharing their cultural goods and their delicious cuisines with our community. Despite all of the good they bring, many of our immigrant and refugee neighbors experience backlash stemming from the misconceptions, racial discrimination, and language access barriers, all of which are detrimental to their quality of life and safety. We must not only understand the realities our immigrant and refugee neighbors face, but we also must welcome and respect our new neighbors.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Read “Refugees raise voices to push for racial justice.” (7 minutes)
2. Watch “The Hidden Life of Being an Immigrant.” (15 minutes)
3. Check out New York Immigration Coalition’s Community Toolkit.

Equity and the LGBTQIA+ Community

LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual; the “+” stands for all other identities not encompassed in the acronym) people have been fighting for equity for decades. The Stonewall Riots started the modern LGBTQIA+ movement. Since then the LGBTQIA+ community has been at the forefront of many challenges to inequality, and in 2022 saw the Respect for Marriage Act signed into law which protects the validity of same-sex and interracial civil marriages in the United States.

LGBTQIA+ people however still experience widespread discrimination, often manifesting itself as getting passed over for promotions, being bullied in schools, or being refused healthcare.

Equity is ensuring that all people, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientations feel safe, and receive the same rights as others in our community.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Watch “Why Respecting Pronouns Is So Important.” (3 minutes)
2. Read “Schools Struggle to Support LGBTQ Students.” ( 5 minutes)
3. Take this LGBT Anti-Discrimination Quiz to test your knowledge about LGBTQIA+ anti-discrimination laws.

Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity is the concept that there are differences in the way people’s brains work. You’ve probably heard that no two people are the same and that applies very much to our brains – every individual has a unique brain and there is no “correct way” for the brain to work. Just as we should embrace people regardless of their ethnicity or gender, equality means embracing everyone regardless of the way they perceive and respond to the world.

Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), learning disorders and other conditions represented within the neurodivergent population are also oftentimes invisible disabilities that are not immediately obvious to others. Creating an environment where neurodiverse individuals are not excluded and feel safe can help our community as a whole thrive.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Check out “Understanding The Spectrum – A Comic Strip Explanation.” (3 minutes)
2. Watch “Neurodiversity in the Workplace.” (5 minutes)
3. Read “Gender Differences in Autism.” (8 minutes)

Being an Ally

An ally is a person or organization that cooperates with or helps another in a particular activity. In today’s society, the term has taken on a more urgent and active meaning, however it is often misunderstood or misused to imply good intentions, often without action or with action for unproductive reasons. For this reason, ally or allyship can be triggering terms for those who experience racism, oppression, and discrimination on a regular basis. Informed action is important for those who strive to be genuine allies with marginalized people and communities.

True allyship is using our privilege and influence to help achieve equity. Allyship is also a continuous process and it is something we must commit to on a day-to-day basis. Being an ally can be uncomfortable, but if we all work towards becoming effective allies, we will be better positioned to support the needs of people who are underserved and underestimated.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Watch “5 Tips For Being An Ally.” (3 minutes)
2. What is “Retroactive Allyship Theater, and are you guilty of it?”
3. Read Amélie Lamont’s “Guide to Allyship.” (7 minutes)

Equity and Burnout Tools

Throughout the challenge we’ve learned about shared language and understanding key terms, inequities present in Western New York, advancing equity starting from birth through adulthood and the intersectionality of systems oppression. Learning is the first step but we are all responsible for taking action and addressing systems of inequity. There are many tools available to not only challenge inequities, but also ensure we don’t burn ourselves out in the demanding space of diversity, equity and inclusion. 

As an individual, think about conversations you might have with neighbors or family members. Using asset-framing, focusing on positive narratives to change unconscious associations ingrained in our society, can go a long way in getting others to shed unfair assumptions they may have about other groups of people. Within your organization, self-assessment, consistent DEI training, racial healing circles are a handful of ways to raise awareness and gain buy-in for a more equitable culture. And of course creating space and practicing self-care will make sure that you and others around you don’t burn out when progress seems slow.

Today’s Challenge:

1. Watch “3 Tips to Facilitate Conversations about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” (8 minutes)
2. Read “Diversity Fatigue: Addressing Burnout in DEI Efforts.” (8 minutes)
3. Check out Clark College’s Equitable Decision-Making Tool.

Take Action in WNY

Congratulations on completing the 21-Day Equity Challenge! We are incredibly thankful to have you join us on this journey as we move forward in learning and reflecting on topics of equity. It is said that it takes 21 days to form a habit. We know these conversations and the feelings they evoke are not always easy, but making space for brave and vulnerable dialogue is one of many steps we can take toward achieving equity in Western New York and across the world. We challenge each of you to share a reflection on your experience with a family member, friend, or co-worker to continue the momentum from this challenge.

Today’s Challenge:

• Write down a goal you have moving forward to help in dismantling racism and inequity. Research shows that when you write down your goals, you are more likely to commit to them and achieve them. (5 minutes)

Challenge Post-survey

We would appreciate your input so we can learn about your experience with the WNY 21 Day Racial Equity Challenge. We ask that you take two to three minutes to complete a brief survey. Your answers will remain anonymous and confidential.