Twenty-five years ago, great civil rights leaders formed EJS to combat a baseless false equivalency narrative that America is colorblind and post-racial, no longer dependent on equity policies to level the playing field for equality.
EJS countered the false narrative with social science establishing that explicit and implicit bias perpetuated white supremacy and institutional racism in every one of our sociopolitical and economic structures.
Indeed, the science demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that the American racial pathology that stratified opportunity and access was operating to regenerate segregationist outcomes. Black and indigenous people were at the bottom across social indicators facing the most adverse circumstances and outsized burdens while one particular demographic continued to have outsized benefits on the basis of in-group preferences.
Twenty-five years ago, and still today, it remains resoundingly clear that we need race and gender consciousness to level a playing field rutted and distorted by 200 years of genocide, labor and land extraction, 100 years of Jim Crow segregation and terror, and 50 years of post-civil rights apartheid expressed through the prison industrial complex, the war on drugs, deregulation and social safety net shrinking.
The only reasonable way to course-correct 400 years of negative anti-Black/brown racism is with a significant period of race consciousness and multiculturalism that mathematically and intellectually cannot equate to reverse discrimination.
That is why EJS champions and protects policies on the harm repair continuum from Diversity Equity and Inclusion to reparations, and centers Black women’s health and Black student equity in the struggle.
Yes, sadly, we are back again staring down strident opponents of progress and trying to assess the most viable path to a shifting finishing line that continues to distance itself from a few select runners. But we are steadfast in this struggle, and though the course is elusive the goal of equal opportunity is still attainable.
EJS was forged in the struggle and is prepared for this challenging moment. We have the tools, the infrastructure, the science, the clear-eyed vision, the allyship, and the momentum to continue to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice.
EJS – in the winning lane – will continue to advance evidence-based racial and social justice policy that levels the field and paves the way for equality and multicultural inclusive democracy.
All we need to deploy our proactive strategy and positive narrative is you. Your dollars will help us grow capacity to sustain the moment of positive, transformative change. In this time when so many things seem out of our hands, you still control your personal philanthropy and EJS would be humbled to be part of your giving. Stay the course with us so we as a beloved community will get there together.
Thank you so much for your support.
Lisa Holder
President
Equal Justice Society