“Woke Washing” Won’t Save You

The Public Media industry, and much of corporate America, are figuring out their next moves to meet the cultural reckoning taking place in our country. More and more, words and phrases like decolonize, dismantle, white supremacy culture, microaggressions, and systemic/systematic oppression/racism are emphatically leaving the lips of white executives, the same terms that activists’ have coined and penned in playbooks after decades of doing the work to get us to today.

Meanwhile, Black, Indigenous, Latino, and BIPOC-identifying employees are cautiously optimistic and taking note of the hypocrisy taking place in their organizations. Requests for equitable pay and promotions made by employees of historically oppressed groups continue to get denied all while their organization’s communications team fine-tunes language on being an “anti-racist” organization. If your organization fits this description, you are “woke washing”, as described in this Harvard Business Review article. On the surface, to other white people, especially, it may appear you’re taking anti-racism efforts seriously. However, your Black, Indigenous, and Latino employees, members and audiences, will eventually see through these efforts, doing potentially more harm than good. 

To avoid this, here are the steps equity and inclusion practitioners Erin Dowell and Marlette Jackson recommend organizations take to avoid being labeled as “woke washed,” and make transformational long-lasting changes:

• Develop a Data-Driven Plan. Data is necessary for organizations to stay accountable to the goals they have developed, especially goals around diversity, equity, and inclusion. Organizations should work to develop a plan that takes this path:
  
  Transparency → Justification → Compliance → Enforcement
  
  The results should lead to two invaluable outcomes, “a data-driven progress report detailing its path toward social justice and a trust-driven employee culture of inclusion.”

• Leaders Must Buy-in. GMs and C-Suites have the power to enact organizational-wide changes and must be willing to look at every single aspect of operations and challenge policies and practices that hamper equity and inclusion. Do not wait until your next strategic planning cycle to start planning these changes; make them NOW.

• Employees Need to Be Empowered. We’ve all heard that phrase “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” To avoid this, employees need to be encouraged to dispute status-quo practices in a non-retaliatory environment. Develop a culture that promotes psychological safety for BIPOC employees and regularly addresses and emulates active allyship from white leaders and staff.
  

More guidance can be found in “Woke-Washing” Your Company Won’t Cut It. You can begin this transformation at your station or organization today by taking our pledge at Public Media For All.