If you don’t have multiracial democracy, you don’t have democracy. How can we truly achieve antiracist change?
As institutions make commitments to racial equity, there’s a growing need for effective and implementable policies and practices. Research can play a crucial role in identifying field-tested solutions.
Practitioners in the field want to know: Which structures and strategies are proven to achieve more equitable outcomes for Black, Indigenous, and communities of color? And which are ineffective or even harmful? The IARA Project evaluates these efforts to move organizations from words to action to accountability.
What does this look like in practice?
IARA’s current work includes:
Video
Globally, reparations movements are gaining ground. These movements focus on a broad spectrum of ways to return resources, achieve economic security and close the racial wealth gap, including cash payments, repatriating cultural artifacts, land givebacks, health access, and philanthropic investments. What can we learn from these latest efforts in the US and elsewhere? Looking into the future how can we make reparations work?
Feature
Speaking in the JFK Jr. Forum, civil rights leader Maya Wiley underscored the entwined fate of democracy and racial justice
Q+A
Historical reckoning, truth-telling, and new traditions of memorialization acknowledging the legacy of slavery are all critical to moving towards restorative and reparative change says Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project Director Khalil Gibran Muhammad.
Policy Brief
Feature
Listening to and learning from people of color and Indigenous people is critical to tackling climate and racial injustice.
Video
The Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project and the Carr Center for Human Rights hosted a discussion with scholars studying processes and practices of global truth telling, repair, and justice from the fields of law, government, and political science.
Media Release
Q+A
LaChaun Banks, Ash Center Director for Equity and Inclusion, sat down with Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Ford Foundation Professor of History, Race, and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and Director of the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability (IARA) Project, housed at the Ash Center, to discuss leading organizations to antiracist change and accountability.
Video
Confronting racism directly and building a fully inclusive democracy are completely intertwined. Two authors with strong history in the democracy movement have recently written forcefully and personally on the subject. Heather McGhee served as President of Demos before writing the New York Times bestseller The Sum of Us, and Theodore Johnson, after serving twenty years in the military, is the Director of the Fellows Program at the Brennan Center for Justice and the author of the just-published When the Stars Begin to Fall. Harvard Law Professor Guy Uriel-Charles engaged with them on their experiences, their arguments, and how they see the way forward.
Video
This video starts off with the introduction to the 2021 Truth and Transformation Conference. Then, we go into the first panel, “Money Left on the Table: The Economic Argument for Diversity.’ Does the economic argument for diversity make sense? Why hasn’t everyone already won? This panel engaged key leaders watching organizations grappling with moving toward antiracism the question: what does resistance to change look like and what drives it, from an economic, psychological, and historical perspective?
This panel discussion, which starts at minute 24:00, features:
Learn more about the Truth and Transformation Conference and the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project online: https://ash.harvard.edu/iara
Video
This video starts with the second panel discussion from the 2021 Truth and Transformation conference, hosted by the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School. Then, at 59:27, starts the lunchtime musical performances by The Reminders and Brown Rice Family.
The panel discussion, titled, “Preserving Seats at the Table: White-Dominated Boards” features:
Learn more about the Truth and Transformation Conference and the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project online: https://ash.harvard.edu/iara
Video
This video starts with the final panel discussion from the 2021 Truth and Transformation conference, hosted by the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School. Then at 1:03:00, remarks from Boston Mayor Kim Janey begin and are followed by a closing discussion between IARA Senior Fellow Erica Licht and Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad at 1:15:50.
The panel discussion, titled, “Equity Takes Time, Commitment, & Disruption” featured:
Learn more about the Truth and Transformation Conference and the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project online: https://ash.harvard.edu/iara