Compassionate Antiracism:
A Guide For Your Workplace
A Theory of Enchantment Publication
A Theory of Enchantment Publication
After spending a year as a Bartley fellow at the Wall Street Journal, Chloé Valdary developed The Theory of Enchantment, an innovative framework for compassionate antiracism that combines social emotional learning (SEL), character development, and interpersonal growth as tools for leadership development in the boardroom and beyond.
Chloé has trained around the world, including in South Africa, The Netherlands, Germany, and Israel. Her clients have included high school and college students, government agencies, business teams, + many more.
She has also lectured in universities across America, including Harvard and Georgetown. Her work has been covered in Psychology Today Magazine and her writings have appeared in the New York Times and the Wall St Journal.
There has recently been an increase in calls from businesses around the world to develop antiracism programs for their staff. This is a good thing. However, there is a difference between programs that are compassionate and those that are cruel. Unfortunately, many existing antiracism approaches fit in the latter category. Here are three reasons why they're problematic.
This is because many antiracism programs emphasize racial differences, instead of giving diverse teams the resources to transcend them. As a result, staff members often feel unfairly singled out, ostracized, and humiliated.
Studies out of Harvard Business Review have demonstrated that methods such as the "implicit bias test" and unconscious bias testing -- which are part of many antiracism trainings -- have zero impact at best and actually reinforces our impulses to stereotype and pigeonhole each other, at worse.
Many existing antiracism programs use language that inadvertently reduces human beings to commodities whose racial identity confers status, esteem, and virtue. Notions of "whiteness" or "blackness," -- which are terms that have recently become en vogue -- are still part of a systemically racist structure that rewards human beings for racially essentializing their brothers and sisters.
For the first few weeks of training, our clients are immersed in a deep study of the human condition, the whole person (personal, familial, & cultural) and their own place in the world. This training creates the conditions for self-reflection and introspection, making it less likely that participants will caricature or stereotype others in the first place.
When learning about one's self and all that being human entails -- including vulnerability, mortality, imperfection, and so much more -- one is able to greet others with greater appreciation for their individual uniqueness and the collective humanity to which we all belong. This kind of sensibility organically inspires participants to create inclusive spaces and modes of being in the workplace.
After our training, our clients' relationship with the teachings of Dr. King
goes from passive appreciation to active participation in representing his values
and ideas in their personal lives and in the workplace.
