02 Cultural Barriers to Transformation The desire to remove systemic barriers to racial equity and justice is much easier to name than to achieve. Organizational change of any kind meets resistance and when that change acknowledges patterns of inequality based on race, this phenomenon may be particularly acute. The process undertaken by the Racial Justice Task Force worked to unearth a set of cultural norms that act as a barrier to achieving a more holistic view of racial equity and justice that goes beyond representation. These characteristics are primarily unconscious and operate in ways that are hard to see if you are in the majority but which become very apparent if you are in a minoritized (Stuart, 2013) group. The following themes describing Bentley’s culture emerged from our conversations as a Task Force and as a community.
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You cannot change any society unless you take responsibility for it, unless you see yourself as belonging to it and responsible for changing it. Grace Lee Boggs Philosopher, Author and Activist
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