Centering Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion
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These resources have been taken out from behind the member paywall to make them free and accessible for all. The current crisis is taking a distressing financial toll on cultural organizations, and AAM is no different. In these challenging times, we ask that if you can, consider supporting our advocacy work and making extensive COVID-19 resources freely available for our field, by making a donation or becoming a member of AAM. Thank you for your much-needed support.
Updated 11/12/2020
All too often in times of crisis and uncertainty, diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion are deprioritized as individuals and institutions make sense of their new realities. But it is only more imperative, in these difficult times when immense inequities that exist within global society and institutions are made visible, to center equity and inclusion in decision-making and actions. These times require collective action to center, protect, and lift up the voices of the most vulnerable, which mandates making decisions firmly grounded in equitable principles, taking bold stances, and creating opportunities to do individual and collective work differently than before.
The Alliance’s COVID-19 Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion Resource List provides information that will support individuals, teams, and institutions in centering diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion while they work to understand and respond to the moment at hand, as well as navigate whatever challenges the future may hold. We hope this list will support the field in building awareness and capacity while driving action towards equity and inclusion.
Resources
- Covid-19 Response Strategy Equity Audit by Beloved Community – In this moment of crisis and uncertainty, it is now more essential than ever to center equity in our plans and decision-making. Here are guiding questions and thoughts you should use to audit your crisis response plans/strategies before implementing them.
- Coronavirus: Wisdom from a Social Justice Lens – Learn fundamental principles that center the wisdom and life experiences of people who live with chronic illness.
- It’s Different This Time: Handling Nonprofit Staff Cuts Under COVID-19 – This article discusses the practical considerations in making staff cuts.
- Inclusive Digital Interactives – the Smithsonian along with the Institute for Human Centered Design, and MuseWeb provide this useful guide on developing digital interactives that are inclusive of all abilities.
Promoting social justice
- The Alliance blog shares:
- Arts Administrators of Color has Arts Leaders of Color Emergency Fund with lots of useful information and resources.
- The Association for State and Local History (AASLH) has been conducting various webinars on COVID-19, including Empathetic Audience Engagement During a Crisis with Andrea Jones (Peak Experience Lab).
- BoardSource shares a blog post on how board can commit to equity during this time.
- The Design Studio for Social Intervention developed this downloadable PDF to provide information on Social Justice in a time of Social Distancing.
- Giving Tuesday offers advice on how to Embrace Social Distancing, but Fight Social Division.
- From the Healing Justice podcast, Coronavirus: Wisdom from a Social Justice Lens centers the wisdom and life experiences of people who live with chronic illnesses and disability.
- The International Coalition of Site of Conscience has developed a Public Square with various resources on managing COVID-19, including the Stronger Together: A COVID-19 Webinar Series, facilitated discussions on COVID-19.
- King County, Washington encourages all companies to have promote kindness with Anti-stigma Resources.
- Museum As Site For Social Action (MASSAction) asks How Are We Centering Equity in this Time? and Equitable Institutional Sustainability in Times of Crisis
- On Medium, Brevity & Wit, posted10 Ways Inclusive Leaders Can Mitigate Bias When Communicating About Coronavirus.
- National Museum of African American History & Culture shares Being Antiracist
- Peak Experience Lab has a useful blog post on conducting Empathetic Audience Engagement During The Apocalypse.
Disproportionate Impacts Of Systemic Racism in the Time Of COVID-19:
All of our communities face unbelievable challenges as we navigate COVID-19. We’ve all heard that the coronavirus does not discriminate, but due to pre-existing inequities embedded in the fabric of our nation’s systems, many communities, particularly communities of color, are faced with a myriad of different challenges. Understanding how systems affect different communities will help us determine the best and most equitable path forward. Below, find resources organized by community.
Indigenous Communities
- All Our (Socially Distanced) Relations, Matika Wilbur & Adrienne Keene, All My Relations (Podcast)
- Gary Davis in USA Today: US Government Must Honor Commitments to Native Americans, Aliyah Chavez, Indian Country Today
- Indian Country, where residents suffer disproportionately from disease, is bracing for coronavirus, Levi Rickert, Native News Online
- Covid-19 Cases Reach 813 On Navajo Nation; Death Toll Rises To 28, Andrea Landry, Canada’s National Observer
- American Indians And Alaska Natives Are Survivors And Will Get Past The Covid-19 Pandemic, Levi Rickert, Native News Online
- Message from an Indigenous mother to her three-year-old during COVID-19, Dana Hedgpeth, al et., The Washington Post
- Native People Would Never Sacrifice Their Elders for the Good of the Economy, Levi Rickert, Native News Online
- Mashpee Wampanoag face double crisis: COVID-19 and feds, Aliyah Chavez, Native News Online
Black Communities
- Black doctors face added burden in outbreak: Patient trust, Curtis Bunn, NBC News
- Bryan Stevenson on the Frustration Behind the George Floyd Protests, The New Yorker
- On Being Black, Southern And Rural In The Time Of COVID-19, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, Essence
- Black Communities Are on the ‘Frontline’ of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Here’s Why, Anne Branigin, The Root
- Early Data Shows African Americans Have Contracted and Died of Coronavirus at an Alarming Rate, Akilah Johnson and Talia Buford, ProPublica
- How Racial Health Disparities Will Play Out in the Pandemic, Julia Craven, Slate
- The Racial Time Bomb in the Covid-19 Crisis, Charles M. Blow, The New York Times
- It’s a racial justice issue’: Black Americans are dying in greater numbers from Covid-19, Kenya Evelyn, Guardian
- We Figured Out Why Coronavirus Is Killing Black People…As If You Didn’t Already Know the Answer, Michael Harriot, The Root
- Black Americans Face Alarming Rates of Coronavirus Infection in Some States, John Eligon, et al., The New York Times
- When the Country Sneezes, Black Women Catch the Flu. What Happens With COVID-19 in the United States?, Dorianne Mason, Rewire News
- Why Don’t We Know Who the Coronavirus Victims Are?, Ibram X. Kendi, The Atlantic
- 400 Years is Not A Trend: COVID-19 Exposes The Impact of Institutional Racism in America, The New Orleans Tribune
- Black Communities Need Support, Not a Coronavirus Police State, Robyn Maynard, Andrea J. Ritchie, Vice
- Why I don’t feel safe wearing a face mask, Aaron Thomas, Boston Globe
- What the Coronavirus Is Doing to Black People Ain’t a Conspiracy. It’s Just America, Damon Young, The Root
- Black Women Have Long Faced Racism In Healthcare. Covid-19 Is Only Amplifying It., Erin Clare Brown, The Appeal
- Stop Blaming Black People for Dying of the Coronavirus, Ibram X. Kendi, The Atlantic
- Structural Racism Is Exacerbating the Coronavirus Pandemic for Black People—Especially Black Women, Kendra Bozarth, Ms.
- Black health experts say surgeon general’s comments reflect lack of awareness of black community, Curtis Bunn, NBC News
- COVID-19: Black Folks Have Been Trying To Tell You That Data Is Political, Daniel E. Dawes, ESSENCE
- Coronavirus Pandemic and Black People: An Action Plan to Protect Our Community, Colorlines
- The Coronavirus Pandemic and the Racial Wealth Gap, Danyelle Soloman, Center for American Progress
Asian Communities
- As Coronavirus Spreads, So Does Anti-Chinese Racism, Sara Li, TeenVogue
- AND THEN THEY CAME AFTER MULAN, Angry Asian Man
- Coronavirus fears show how ‘model minority’ Asian Americans become the ‘yellow peril’, Matthew Lee, NBC News
- Confronting Anti-Asian Discrimination During the Coronavirus Crisis, Ed Park, The New Yorker
- Yellow Peril, Koreangry
- For Asian Americans, There Are Two Pandemics: COVID-19 And Daily Bigotry, Brittany Wong, HuffPost
- Western Washington not immune to racist attacks against Asian Americans as the threat of Coronavirus spreads, Patranya Bhoolsuwan, International Examiner
- The New Fear for Asian-Americans Going Out in Public, Chris Gayomali, GQ
- This Is What It’s Like To Be An Asian Woman In The Age Of The Coronavirus, Wendy Lu, HuffPost
- ‘I am not a virus.’ How this artist is illustrating coronavirus-fueled racism, Stephanie García, PBS News Hour
- Chinese Americans are Learning What It’s Like To Be Black During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Tony Lindsay, Medium
- The long history of US racism against Asian Americans, from ‘yellow peril’ to ‘model minority’ to the ‘Chinese virus’, Adrian De Leon, The Conversation
- The Slur I Never Expected to Hear in 2020, Cathy Park Hong, The New York Times Magazine
- Smashed windows and racist graffiti: Vandals target Asian Americans amid coronavirus, Sheng Peng, NBC News
- AAPIP Statement on COVID, Asian American/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy: Statement on COVID and reiterating the importance of condemning racism and xenophobia towards AAPI individuals and organizations.
- What’s spreading faster than coronavirus in the US? Racist assaults and ignorant attacks against Asians, Holly Yan, CNN
- Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance on COVID-19, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance on COVID-19: Protecting Asian American and Pacific Islander Working People – Website for emplopyers with COVID-19 resources, tools, and tips for supporting AAPI employees and communities.
- Coronavirus fears show how ‘model minority’ Asian Americans become the ‘yellow peril’, Matthew Lee, ThInk
- A message to and From AAPI Communities Plus Resources, A message to and From AAPI Communities Plus Resources: Community Care During COVID-19 – A listiscle of some actionable things individuals and organizations can do to support AAPI communities
- Coronavirus Cannot Become an Excuse to Label Groups of People ‘Invasive’, Immigration Impcat
- Column: ‘It’s just too much’: Asian Americans confront xenophobia, economic devastation and the coronavirus, Frank Shyong, LA Times
- A Townhall on Anti-Asian Racism: Race, Struggle and Solidarity in the Time of A Global Pandemic, Zoom Webinar
Latino/a/x Communities
- Unsung Heroes: Mexican Laborers Still Working Hard In The Fields, Providing Our Food, O. DELGADO, LatinLive
- U.S. Latinos among hardest hit by pay cuts, job losses due to coronavirus, Jens Manuel Krogstad et al., Pew Research Center
- Hit the hardest by coronavirus deaths, NY Latinos mourn loved ones, Nicole Acevedo, NBC News
- African Americans Hard Hit By COVID-19: Are Latinos Facing A Similar Fate?, James E. Garcia, Latino USA
- Saving Washington: The case for unemployment insurance for undocumented workers,
Karen Fierro Ruiz & Abigail Scholar, Crosscut - Chicago coronavirus outbreak infects dozens of migrant children in U.S. custody, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News
Racial Equity Community Solutions, Care, Healing
- How to Be Together Apart In the Time of Coronavirus, Priya Parker, The New York Times
- Self-Care Tips For Asian Americans Dealing With Racism Amid Coronavirus, Brittany Wong, HuffPost
- 10 Ways Inclusive Leaders Can Mitigate Bias When Communicating About Coronavirus, Minal Bopaiah and Sabine Marx, Medium
- This immigrant has uplifting tips on making quarantine work. He’s been living like this for a year, Esmy Jimenez, KUOW
- This Black Owned Toy Business Is Playing No Games During The Coronavirus Crisis, Shoppe Black
- Mutual Aid And Radical Care In The Time Of Increased Uncertainty, Reina Sultan, Wear Your Voice
- Preparing For Coronavirus Crisis: As Organizers, It’s Time To Do What We Do Best, Irene Rojas-Carroll, Bay Rising
- Decolonizing Community Care In Response To Covid-19, Jade Begay, NDN Collective
- Traditional Indigenous Kinship Practices at Home: Being Child-Centered During the Pandemic, INDIGENOUS MOTHERHOOD
- Boost your mood … on quarantine, Aliyah Chavez, Indian Country Today
- How a community kitchen and taxi company are working together to keep people fed during COVID-19<, Carmen Hom, International Examiner
- Why You Should Ignore All That Coronavirus-Inspired Productivity Pressure, Aisha S. Ahmad, The Chronicle of Higher Education
- Community Care: An Indigenous Response to Coronavirus, Jade Begay, YES!
- A Brief Guide to Making a Better Tomorrow, adrienne maree brown, Vice
- Mapping Our Social Change Roles in Times of Crisis, Deepa Iyer, Medium
- COVID-19: Using a Racial Justice Lens Now to Transform Our Future, Lori Villarosa, Nonprofit Quarterly
- Can Coronavirus Cure White Supremacy?, Michael Harriot, The Root
- Parenting During Coronavirus: Opportunities to Reconnect and Decolonize, Angela Aguilar, Yes!
- SheaMoisture Announces $1 Million Relief Fund For Business Owners Of Color Impacted By COVID-19, Janice Gassam, Forbes
- To get through a pandemic, remember the lessons learned by your ancestors, Colleen Echohawk, Puget Sound Business Journal
- Stop Talking About Inequality and Do Something About It, Jeremiah Bey Ellison, The New York Times