Race-Based Caucusing

HDC seeks to support member staff in dismantling individual, organizational, and sector-wide systemic racism. Through a combination of broad-based trainings and deeper, sustained engagement as a community, we aim to work collectively to address the racial disparities present in the affordable housing industry and beyond.

To dismantle individual, institutional, and cultural racism impacting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, we must build a shared understanding of how identity dynamics operate within specific contexts, including the Affordable Housing Sector, to overcome the barriers and oppression these dynamics create. Race-based caucusing provides a structured space in which participants can deepen this understanding and hold one another accountable to a shared vision of building an anti-racist society.

Race-based caucusing offers white people and People of Color separate spaces to meet in ways that foster vulnerable, authentic sharing without placing harm or undue burden on Communities of Color. During this time apart, white caucus members focus on understanding and disrupting internalized white supremacist cultural norms and examining the impacts of white privilege, with an emphasis on action, accountability, and behavioral change. Communities of Color caucuses offer space for members to support one another, promote healing from the impacts of living in a racist society, and address internalized racial inferiority.

HDC staff currently convenes a White Affinity Group monthly to support members to deepen self-awareness and understanding of how internalized white superiority shapes their leadership, and to build the skills and capacity needed to dismantle racial inequities within their organizations and the broader systems that perpetuate racism.

Building on this work, HDC has since launched Project Constellation, an endeavor designed to equip white caucus members with the resources and practice environment needed to facilitate race-based caucusing within their own spheres of influence.

For more information about Race-Based Caucusing: https://www.oaralliance.org/caucusing