Social Scientist Kurt Lewin said, "No research without action, and no action without research." Too much of the current DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) approach is insight-based instead of action-based. Even though institutional racism is identified as the root problem, the change effort is focused on looking inward for bias instead of taking action to eliminate institutional racism and other isms. A Lewinian approach, in contrast, is balanced. What people think is important, but no more important than what people do. If you bring people together to change things, this will change what people think! We don’t need therapy nearly as much as we need action based on dialogue! Instead of spending your energy soul-searching for evidence in your thoughts and behaviors that you have unconscious biases, this book helps put your energy into doing something practical about racism.
To get there, this book uses Lewin’s social science to build a framework for sorting through the many approaches to and positions held on race, racism, diversity, and related topics. While the framework is and must be applicable to any prejudice, systemic or individual, the bulk of this exploration is focused on racism, which to a large degree has become the primary social justice focus of our times. Painfully aware that conversations about race can easily deteriorate into polarization, the author lays a path toward finding common ground.