Building Anti-Racism in Animal Welfare

 

As we continue to work through the COVID-19 crisis, we are simultaneously facing the ongoing issue of systemic racism in America. This is not a new problem, but a problem brought to light by current worldwide protests and the demand for judicial change. We share the resources below to further the conversation in the animal welfare industry to help understand how racial inequality and economic divide impact society and the care of animals. We are dedicated to building anti-racism in animal welfare and our communities.

  • Harvard’s Implicit Bias Project: Project Implicit: Complete a self-test for implicit bias (15 min).  The IAT measures the strength of associations between concepts (e.g., black people, gay people) and evaluations (e.g., good, bad) or stereotypes (e.g., athletic, clumsy). The main idea is that making a response is easier when closely related items share the same response key.

Podcasts:

  • Brene Brown: https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-with-ibram-x-kendi-on-how-to-be-an-antiracist/. Brene Brown speaks with professor Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist and the Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. They discuss racial disparities, policy, and equality, but really focus on How to Be an Antiracist, which is a groundbreaking approach to understanding uprooting racism and inequality in society and individuals.
  • Animal welfare specific: Listen to the podcast with John Dunn and Marc Peralta: Leaning in and Listening – Diversity and Inclusion in Animal Welfare (1 hr, 19 min). Animal welfare and animal services lack diversity and inclusion, both in staffing and and in relationships to communities. There are millions of pet-loving people of color in the US; addressing systemic raciscm is crucial to ending the killing of animals in shelters and a moral imperative. This episode focuses on how to do better and be better moving forward in lifesaving work.

Other resources:

print
Print Friendly, PDF & Email