Money Left on the Table: Unpacking The Economic Argument for DiversityIn this special episode of Untying Knots, hosts Erica Licht and Nikhil Raghuveera share a discussion from the 2021 Truth and Transformation Conference, hosted by the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project on October 14-15th 2021. The conference brought together a range of scholars, organizers, students, and organizational leaders to address whether organizations have lived up to the statements, commitments, and promises they made to racial equity a year before.This panel, titled “Money Left on the Table,” addressed the economic argument for diversity and discussed two central questions: Does this argument even make sense? And why hasn't everyone already won? Key leaders from various organizational vantage points weighed in and provided insight on how they witness and address resistance to antiracist change.  Featuring experts:Jarik Conrad, Executive Director, Equity at WorkDana Peterson, Chief Economist, The Conference BoardLisa Cook, Professor of Economics, Michigan State UniversityMichael McAfee, President & CEO, PolicyLinkLevi Sumagaysay (Moderator), Reporter, MarketWatchYou can find Untying Knots episodes, including more discussions from the 2021 Truth and Transformation conference, wherever you get your podcasts, and, on the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project website: https://ash.harvard.edu/iaraNotes:Untying Knots, co-hosted by Nikhil Raghuveera and Erica Licht, explores how people and organizations are untying knots of systemic oppression and working towards a more equitable future. Each episode features special guests and a focus on thematic areas across society. This podcast is published by the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center in collaboration with the Atlantic Council GeoTech Center.Music:Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flowLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/About the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability ProjectThe Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project believes in working at the intersection of community, academia, and policy to address intellectual and practical questions as they relate to antiracism policy, practice, and institutional change. In order to create and sustain change, the goal of this project is to promote antiracism as a core value for organizations by critically evaluating structures and policies within institutions. The project aims to analytically examine the current field of antiracism with a lens on research and innovation, policy, dialogue, and community involvement.Our vision is to be a leader in institutional antiracism research, policy, and advocacy, and propose structural change in institutions and media centered on antiracism work in the public, private, non-profit sectors and digital space. This work will focus on researching existing organizations that conduct antiracism training and development while analyzing their effectiveness and promoting best practices in the field. Additionally, we will study the implementation of antiracism work among institutions that self-identify as antiracist and promote accountability structures in order for them to achieve their goals.About the Ash Center The Ash Center is a research center and think tank at Harvard Kennedy School focused on democracy, government innovation, and Asia public policy. AshCast, the Center's podcast series, is a collection of conversations, including events and Q&As with experts, from around the Center on pressing issues, forward-looking solutions, and more. Visit the Ash Center online, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. For updates on the latest research, events, and activities, please signup for our newsletter.

Untying Knots

Truth and Transformation Spotlight - Money Left on the Table: Unpacking the Economic Argument for Diversity

In this special episode of Untying Knots, hosts Erica Licht and Nikhil Raghuveera share a discussion from the 2021 Truth and Transformation Conference, hosted by the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project on October 14-15th 2021. The conference brought together a range of scholars, organizers, students, and organizational leaders to address whether organizations have lived up to the statements, commitments, and promises they made to racial equity a year before.Heather McGhee, author and former President of Demos, and Ibram X. Kendi, author, and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, kicked off the conference with a JFK Jr. Forum discussion co-hosted by Harvard’s Institute of Politics. Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, IARA’s Director, moderated the conversation which engaged the critical need for deep historical reckoning, the false zero-sum game that has developed on what is at stake in our communities, as well as the ways that racism as a system hurts all of us.You can find Untying Knots episodes, including more discussions from the 2021 Truth and Transformation conference, wherever you get your podcasts, and, on the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project website: https://ash.harvard.edu/iaraNotes:Untying Knots, co-hosted by Nikhil Raghuveera and Erica Licht, explores how people and organizations are untying knots of systemic oppression and working towards a more equitable future. Each episode features special guests and a focus on thematic areas across society. This podcast is published by the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center in collaboration with the Atlantic Council GeoTech Center.Music:Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flowLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/About the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability ProjectThe Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project believes in working at the intersection of community, academia, and policy to address intellectual and practical questions as they relate to antiracism policy, practice, and institutional change. In order to create and sustain change, the goal of this project is to promote antiracism as a core value for organizations by critically evaluating structures and policies within institutions. The project aims to analytically examine the current field of antiracism with a lens on research and innovation, policy, dialogue, and community involvement.Our vision is to be a leader in institutional antiracism research, policy, and advocacy, and propose structural change in institutions and media centered on antiracism work in the public, private, non-profit sectors and digital space. This work will focus on researching existing organizations that conduct antiracism training and development while analyzing their effectiveness and promoting best practices in the field. Additionally, we will study the implementation of antiracism work among institutions that self-identify as antiracist and promote accountability structures in order for them to achieve their goals.About the Ash Center The Ash Center is a research center and think tank at Harvard Kennedy School focused on democracy, government innovation, and Asia public policy. AshCast, the Center's podcast series, is a collection of conversations, including events and Q&As with experts, from around the Center on pressing issues, forward-looking solutions, and more. Visit the Ash Center online, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. For updates on the latest research, events, and activities, please signup for our newsletter.

Truth and Transformation Spotlight: Reckoning with the Past, Rebuilding the Future

Technology companies today serve as gatekeepers to everyday life, overseeing and influencing everything from communication to payments, in addition to access to information. This outsized role among some of the largest firms in the world, however, poses an exacerbated threat to Black, Indigenous, and people of color already harmed by inequitable systems. The current landscape of racial equity efforts in Silicon Valley also showcases the limitations for marginalized people to access power and lead decisions in tech innovation. Will emerging technology produce harmful surveillance and discrimination, or even reproduce digital forms of the same systemic oppression we’ve seen throughout history? Mutale Nkonde, Founder of AI For the People, speaks with us about her work to expose the realities of racism in artificial intelligence algorithms, as well as her vision to advance equitable change in the tech industry.Notes:Untying Knots, co-hosted by Nikhil Raghuveera and Erica Licht, explores how people and organizations are untying knots of systemic oppression and working towards a more equitable future. Each episode features special guests and a focus on thematic areas across society. This podcast is published by the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center in collaboration with the Atlantic Council GeoTech Center.Music:Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flowLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/About the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability ProjectThe Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project believes in working at the intersection of community, academia, and policy to address intellectual and practical questions as they relate to antiracism policy, practice, and institutional change. In order to create and sustain change, the goal of this project is to promote antiracism as a core value for organizations by critically evaluating structures and policies within institutions. The project aims to analytically examine the current field of antiracism with a lens on research and innovation, policy, dialogue, and community involvement.Our vision is to be a leader in institutional antiracism research, policy, and advocacy, and propose structural change in institutions and media centered on antiracism work in the public, private, non-profit sectors and digital space. This work will focus on researching existing organizations that conduct antiracism training and development while analyzing their effectiveness and promoting best practices in the field. Additionally, we will study the implementation of antiracism work among institutions that self-identify as antiracist and promote accountability structures in order for them to achieve their goals.About the Ash Center The Ash Center is a research center and think tank at Harvard Kennedy School focused on democracy, government innovation, and Asia public policy. AshCast, the Center's podcast series, is a collection of conversations, including events and Q&As with experts, from around the Center on pressing issues, forward-looking solutions, and more. Visit the Ash Center online, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. For updates on the latest research, events, and activities, please signup for our newsletter.

Untying Knots: Episode 4 - Uprooting Digital Oppression

In 2020, during the height of COVID-19, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe was at the US Supreme Court fighting not just to survive a pandemic, but to hold onto their tribal land rights. This case, in addition to the landmark ruling of Sharp v. Murphy in July 2020, emphasizes the ongoing fight of Tribal nations for claims to parts — not even all — of their original and granted land. Yet, US political oppression against Native people is baked into the foundations of the United States, including colonization and removal of Native people from their ancestral homes, to make way for white settlerism and slavery. Over the last four hundred years these processes of control, removal, theft, and broken treaties have extended in every direction from Mississippi to Washington.In this episode of Untying Knots, hosts Erica Licht (Senior Fellow at the IARA Project of Ash Center) and Nikhil Raghuveera (Nonresident Fellow at the Atlantic Council GeoTech Center) focus on Native land rights and sovereignty. Through interviews with key members of the Chickasaw Nation and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, we explore how two Tribes are fighting in the US legal system for their land and rightful recognition. Mari Halbutta and Talia Landry put into perspective recent litigation amidst a broader history of political oppression and violence. The cases reveal renewed attempts at erasure and termination of Native people, and in turn, unwavering Native organizing and resistance.Notes:Untying Knots, co-hosted by Nikhil Raghuveera and Erica Licht, explores how people and organizations are untying knots of systemic oppression and working towards a more equitable future. Each episode features special guests and a focus on thematic areas across society. This podcast is published by the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center in collaboration with the Atlantic Council GeoTech Center.Thanks to Mari Halbutta, Talia Landry, and Eric Henson.Learn More:Chickasaw Nation: https://chickasaw.net/Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe: https://mashpeewampanoagtribe-nsn.gov/Music:Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flowLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/She Gives Me by Moby courtesy of mobygratis.comAbout the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability ProjectThe Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project believes in working at the intersection of community, academia, and policy to address intellectual and practical questions as they relate to antiracism policy, practice, and institutional change. In order to create and sustain change, the goal of this project is to promote antiracism as a core value for organizations by critically evaluating structures and policies within institutions. The project aims to analytically examine the current field of antiracism with a lens on research and innovation, policy, dialogue, and community involvement.Our vision is to be a leader in institutional antiracism research, policy, and advocacy, and propose structural change in institutions and media centered on antiracism work in the public, private, non-profit sectors and digital space. This work will focus on researching existing organizations that conduct antiracism training and development while analyzing their effectiveness and promoting best practices in the field. Additionally, we will study the implementation of antiracism work among institutions that self-identify as antiracist and promote accountability structures in order for them to achieve their goals.About the Ash Center The Ash Center is a research center and think tank at Harvard Kennedy School focused on democracy, government innovation, and Asia public policy. AshCast, the Center's podcast series, is a collection of conversations, including events and Q&As with experts, from around the Center on pressing issues, forward-looking solutions, and more. Visit the Ash Center online, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. For updates on the latest research, events, and activities, please signup for our newsletter.

Untying Knots: Episode 3 - Native Land Rights and the Ongoing Fight for Justice

Following the end of the Civil War, Southern states immediately sought to limit the freedoms of Black Americans through laws known as black codes, and to prevent exercise of their right to vote through felon disenfranchisement laws, poll taxes, and literacy tests. These same racist institutional barriers still exist today—some in exact name—and also suppress Indigenous and other People of Color voters. Community organizers and policy experts are on the frontlines engaging and supporting voters, while challenging systemically racist voting practices to realize a more equitable democratic process.In this episode of Untying Knots, hosts Erica Licht (Senior Fellow at the IARA Project of Ash Center) and Nikhil Raghuveera (Fellow at the Atlantic Council GeoTech Center) take a closer look at the history of racism in US voting, as well as its specific iterations in the state of Georgia. Their conversations with key staff at the ACLU of Georgia and the New Georgia Project reveal how the two organizations are amplifying the voices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color voters, and striving to eliminate racist barriers in current and future elections.Notes:Untying Knots, co-hosted by Nikhil Raghuveera and Erica Licht, explores how people and organizations are untying knots of systemic oppression and working towards a more equitable future. Each episode features special guests and a focus on thematic areas across society. This podcast is published by the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center in collaboration with the Atlantic Council GeoTech Center. Thanks to Christopher Bruce, Nse Ufot, LaTosha Brown, Sanhitha Raghuveeera, and Dr. Megan Ming Francis.Learn More:ACLU of Georgia: https://www.acluga.org/New Georgia Project: https://newgeorgiaproject.org/Music:Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/About the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability ProjectThe Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project believes in working at the intersection of community, academia, and policy to address intellectual and practical questions as they relate to antiracism policy, practice, and institutional change. In order to create and sustain change, the goal of this project is to promote antiracism as a core value for organizations by critically evaluating structures and policies within institutions. The project aims to analytically examine the current field of antiracism with a lens on research and innovation, policy, dialogue, and community involvement.Our vision is to be a leader in institutional antiracism research, policy, and advocacy, and propose structural change in institutions and media centered on antiracism work in the public, private, non-profit sectors and digital space. This work will focus on researching existing organizations that conduct antiracism training and development while analyzing their effectiveness and promoting best practices in the field. Additionally, we will study the implementation of antiracism work among institutions that self-identify as antiracist and promote accountability structures in order for them to achieve their goals.About the Ash Center The Ash Center is a research center and think tank at Harvard Kennedy School focused on democracy, government innovation, and Asia public policy. AshCast, the Center's podcast series, is a collection of conversations, including events and Q&As with experts, from around the Center on pressing issues, forward-looking solutions, and more. Visit the Ash Center online, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. For updates on the latest research, events, and activities, please signup for our newsletter.

Untying Knots: Episode 2 - Voter Oppression and Suppression: A Living Case Study in Georgia

Hundreds of years of racist institutional policies have denied wealth to Black, Indigenous, and communities of color. In this current period of uprising, resistance, and crisis on racial injustice, organizational leaders are asking: what does it look like to make structural change for racial justice? Two organizations in Boston, the Haymarket People’s Fund and the Boston Ujima Project, provide a critical model for applying an anti-racist lens to operations, mission, ongoing learning, and accountability.In the first episode of Untying Knots, hosts Nikhil Raghuveera (Fellow at the Atlantic Council GeoTech Center) and Erica Licht of the IARA Project Team at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation take a closer look at the history of institutional racism in lending, and efforts locally to re-think radical redistribution of power and resources. Interviews with key staff at both organizations reveal how they translate their mission to anti-racist funding mechanisms. Haymarket’s story demonstrates a twenty-year organizational journey of working towards anti-racist change, and Ujima provides a model for equitable community lending.Notes:Untying Knots, co-hosted by Nikhil Raghuveera and Erica Licht, explores how people and organizations are untying knots of systemic oppression and working towards a more equitable future. Each episode features special guests and a focus on thematic areas across society. This podcast is published by the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center in collaboration with the Atlantic Council GeoTech Center. Thanks to Dr. Megan Ming Francis, Karla Nicholson, Lucas Turner- Owens, Carolyn Chou and Alex Papali.Learn More:Haymarket People’s Fund: https://www.haymarket.org/Boston Ujima Project: https://www.ujimaboston.com/People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond: https://www.pisab.org/Asian American Resource Workshop: https://www.aarw.org/Music:Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/About the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability ProjectThe Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project believes in working at the intersection of community, academia, and policy to address intellectual and practical questions as they relate to antiracism policy, practice, and institutional change. In order to create and sustain change, the goal of this project is to promote antiracism as a core value for organizations by critically evaluating structures and policies within institutions. The project aims to analytically examine the current field of antiracism with a lens on research and innovation, policy, dialogue, and community involvement.Our vision is to be a leader in institutional antiracism research, policy, and advocacy, and propose structural change in institutions and media centered on antiracism work in the public, private, non-profit sectors and digital space. This work will focus on researching existing organizations that conduct antiracism training and development while analyzing their effectiveness and promoting best practices in the field. Additionally, we will study the implementation of antiracism work among institutions that self-identify as antiracist and promote accountability structures in order for them to achieve their goals.About the Ash Center The Ash Center is a research center and think tank at Harvard Kennedy School focused on democracy, government innovation, and Asia public policy. AshCast, the Center's podcast series, is a collection of conversations, including events and Q&As with experts, from around the Center on pressing issues, forward-looking solutions, and more. Visit the Ash Center online, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. For updates on the latest research, events, and activities, please signup for our newsletter.

Untying Knots Podcast: Episode 1 - Transforming Wealth Inequity through Anti-Racist Funding

Following the 2019 Truth and Transformation conference, the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability (IARA) Project's Erica Licht sat down with core trainers Addys Castillo and Justin Freitas from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB) for a closer look at their work. The conversation includes an overview of their approach to antiracist change grounded in community organizing, as well as personal commitments to creating a shared analysis of structural and systemic racism in their communities.About IARAThe Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project, housed at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School, was formed in 2018 with the goal to use research and policy to promote antiracism as a core value and institutional norm.While diversity and inclusion work is an important step in this process, antiracism work encompasses demographic change at every level of the institution in conjunction with the adoption of antiracist institutional norms, values, and practices. For profound transformation of institutions, diversity and inclusion work is not sufficient when addressing structural processes that are rooted in traditions of racial exclusion and privilege and/or which discriminate based on group disparities.Implicit bias training, for example, helps uncover the problem of racial prejudice and racist stereotypes among individuals but it does not answer the question of how to change institutions whose policies and practices are based on racist ideas. Individual awareness of bias is one thing; institutional transformation based on that training is something else.About the Ash Center The Ash Center is a research center and think tank at Harvard Kennedy School focused on democracy, government innovation, and Asia public policy. AshCast, the Center's podcast series, is a collection of conversations, including events and Q&As with experts, from around the Center on pressing issues, forward-looking solutions, and more. Visit the Ash Center online, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. For updates on the latest research, events, and activities, please signup for our newsletter.

Truth and Transformation Spotlight: Justin Freitas and Addys Castillo from the People’s Institute

Untying Knots, co-hosted by Nikhil Raghuveera and Erica Licht, explores how people and organizations are untying knots of systemic oppression and working towards a more equitable future. Each episode features special guests and a focus on thematic areas across society. This podcast is published by the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center in collaboration with the Atlantic Council GeoTech Center.

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Untying Knots

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