After the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Dr. Sarah A. Soule, the Morgridge Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), noticed that many Black faculty and staff members were being asked to write and teach about systemic racism and racial injustice.
Feeling as though they were carrying a “big lift,” she wanted to be part of the solution. To do so, Soule, alongside her two colleagues Dr. Maggie Neale and Hannah Yanow, created the Anti-Racism and Allyship Journey program.
Through readings, short videos, reflections and additional materials, the self-paced seven-day program is designed to discuss race, unconscious or implicit bias, anti-racism, intersectionality and allyship.
“We want to sort of fulfill our mission of putting content and good ideas out there in the world,” said Soule, who is also senior associate dean for academic affairs at GSB. “We were also really taken aback by how overwhelmed people felt. The cognitive load was so high with all of these amazing resources that people could engage with. But people did not know where to start, really.”
The materials are available to the public at no cost and take up to 45 minutes to complete. At the end of program, individuals are asked to create their own action plan to address systemic racism.
While the program can be completed individually, there are also options for someone to facilitate the conversation. The facilitators guide offers a list of questions per section and suggests the chosen leader set ground rules and an agenda for the meetings.
“What we hope people will do is decide that they want to go through this with their friends, family, work teams or some other group of individuals,” said Soule. “Maybe they could do one day a week where you would engage with the materials alone and then you have a meet up and discuss.”
