A Board Member's Work in Dismantling Systemic Racism

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/bl.30168
• Author: Cindy Elsbernd
• Published date: 01 September 2020
• Date: 01 September 2020

4 BOARD LEADERSHIP

News

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A Board Member’s Work in

Dismantling Systemic Racism

by Cindy Elsbernd

Cindy Elsbernd is a governance and leadership coach for Emendable Consulting,

LLC. She served two 4-year terms on the Des Moines Public Schools Board of

Directors in Des Moines, Iowa, where she was a board ofcer for six of those eight

years. She is a member of the Council for Great City Schools’ “Team Rogue,” a

group of school board members and superintendents whose collective research

and experience resulted in the development of the Student Outcomes Focused

Governance© (SOFG) framework. She is a provisionally certied SOFG Coach

and a graduate of Govern for Impact’s Policy Governance© Prociency Program.

In this article, she discusses the examination of “white privilege” as the work

of boards—white board members in particular—in dismantling systems that

perpetuate oppression, suppression, and exclusion; and in developing policy

and procedure that create organizational climate and culture for unconditional

inclusion. She will be offering workshops for exploring white privilege later this fall

and may be reached at c.elsbernd@emendableconsulting.com.

A

few months have now passed

since we watched in horror as a

Minnesota man cried for his mother

and gasped his last three words, “I

can’t breathe” and America’s civil rights

movement stretched across oceans.

It’s further proof (as if we needed it)

that we still find ourselves unredressed

with the centuries-old issue of systemic

racism and its pervasiveness. Yet I find

seemingly little specific to board lead-

ership and organizational guidance in

addressing this: a culture we’ve created

and perpetuate through our own lead-

ership-absent acknowledgment.

Personal reflection has made me

aware of the harm I played a part in as

a school board member—not inten-

tionally, of course, but that’s the point.

It leaves me to wonder how it would

be if more of us—especially those of

us who are white—were willing to see

our place in its creation and perpetua-

tion. I wonder if we’ve become blinded

because our white norming, often

expressed implicitly, has gotten the

better of us. Or maybe we’re afraid of

what real change looks like for us. And

on my worst days, I wonder if we really

care if this is who we are.

So like many others, I set out to

be a white person who does better.

I delved into the lists of suggested

media, adding to the other reading I

was already catching up on during the

pandemic. Alexander,1 Kendi,2 McIn-

tosh,3 and others would join Carver

and Carver,4 Collins,5 Covey,6 Kegan

and Lehey,7 Zaffron and Logan,8 and

the Arbinger Institute,9 melding in my

brain until it didn’t take a far stretch

of the imagination to think concepts

typically presented for personal and

organizational growth and improve-

ment could be applied to the effort

of organizational leaders—boards in

particular—in dismantling the systemic

oppression upon which our structures

are built.

I’m compelled to proceed in good

faith that we—or at least enough of

—do care and that this is not who we

want to be. I as a white female leader

can say this is not who I want to be.

And here I am, nearly 50 years old, and

just coming in recent years to this real-

ization of the air I’ve been breathing

and how I’m complicit in taking it from

others. I can mourn (and have) the

decades of awareness and acknowl-

edgment lost and the cost to others,

but others cannot afford my continued

paralysis: That’s a selfishness I know

my privilege allows. Therefore, I am

committing to creating space for oth-

ers to join and take part in learning,

introspection, and self-examination to

recognize white privilege and begin

using that work to help create the

change needed to ensure systems

where equity can be realized. I’ll note

that though I believe this work to be

universally applicable, I envision that

were it to occur in school system gov-

ernance and leadership, we may see

the intent of Houston and Marshall in

Brown v Board of Education achieved

in full.

How Do We Get There?

First, it doesn’t have to be alone,

but I’ll offer an overview of what some

of the high-level mile markers might

look like.

Take your first step from wherever

it is you are standing: Each journey

is personal. I’m making no claims of

expertise in anything other than my

own, which is ongoing, and if I’m being

honest, every step isn’t forward. I even

wrestle now as I write and rewrite this

article wanting to get it “right” and

prove I’m that good person I like to

believe I am, but reminding myself I

need to strive to be what psychologist

Dolly Chugh calls “goodish”—acting

toward a higher standard requiring

growth rather than the often stifling

guidance of an inner assumption that

I’ve already arrived.10

In the spirit of growth, we start with

learning and unlearning to build our

own awareness, to acknowledge where

we fit, and then look for places to take

action for change in ourselves and the

institutions we lead and govern. With

that media mind-meld I mentioned

earlier, there’s a handful of my own

learnings and unlearnings that could

be helpful in providing various jump-

ing-off places.

Understand What Systemic

Racism Is

I realize that I’ve been long limited

by my own idea of what racism is,

believing that what I do as an individ-

ual in how I treat people is enough:

All is well in my world so long as I’m

emulating a healthy dose of “Iowa

nice.” It’s not. Systemic racism is a

centuries-old social construct fueled by

a human-born virus that is hungry not

only for power, but for power at the

expense—oppression—of others.