Introduction
In early 2020, the Amador Arts Council adopted a Racial Equity & Anti-Racism policy.
As the designated State-Local Partner to California’s state arts agency, the Amador Arts Council is committed to racial equity and anti-racism both internally through our work environment, and externally through our programming and services.
Amador Arts Council is committed to creating a universal sense of belonging. This pursuit benefits everyone by making space to critically explore, investigate, and interrogate systems of oppression – systems that undercut fairness across multiple demographics, conditions, and experiences. By prioritizing racial equity and anti-racism, everyone will benefit because racial injustice has no place in our mission to encourage, support, and promote ALL arts and cultures in Amador County. (Original Source: California Arts Council)
Why should an Arts Council be a leader in Anti-Racism & Racial Equity?
For centuries, low-income communities and communities of color have used arts and culture to navigate and survive systemic racism and oppression. Creative strategies are essential to retaining collective memory, promoting healing, and liberating the potential within all of us. (Source: PolicyLink)
Building an anti-racist culture requires intention and effort. This Amador Arts Council Statement on Racial Equity & Anti-Racism should inspire greater collaboration in policy making, strengthen public will and input, and develop policymaking that has a strong commitment to advancing equity. Led by our Statement on Racial Equity & Anti-Racism, we will fully integrate race equity and anti-racism into every aspect of our operations and programs and work toward the dismantling structural racism wherever we encounter it; improving the arts and cultural vibrance throughout Amador County.
DEFINITION: PEOPLE OF COLOR
A term used to refer to nonwhite people, used instead of “minority,” which implies inferiority and disenfranchisement. The term emphasizes common experiences of racial discrimination or racism. (Source: Colours of Resistance Archive)
Amador Arts Council Statement on Racial Equity & Anti-Racism*
Amador Arts Council is committed to racial equity & anti-racism. Amador Arts Council acknowledges long-term impacts of racism in our rural, 77.3% white community. Cultural biases and systemic racism impact people of color in Amador County every day, specifically Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC), including the local Miwok tribes. As a small county of 40,474 people, communities of color (22.7%) in Amador are underserved, rarely visible, frequently dismissed, and living with daily impacts of racism embedded in culture and systems. Amador Arts Council stands firmly in our commitment to address and correct issues of inequity and injustice through racially-equitable policies and practices. In our devotion to create a universal sense of belonging, we are a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace where all employees and volunteers feel valued and respected, whatever their gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education or disability. We are committed to nondiscriminatory and anti-racist approaches to provide equal opportunity for employment and advancement in all of our departments, programs, services, and worksites. We commit time and resources to expand diverse leadership within board, staff, committee, volunteer, and advisory bodies. We are committed to acknowledge and dismantle inequities within our policies, systems, programs, and services; continually updating and reporting progress. Policies, programs, and activities are administered to identify and stop racism and to halt adverse impacts on communities of color. To ensure that disbursements and decisions are just, equitable, anti-racist, and non-biased, we use the Decision Support Tool from California Arts Council. Diversity, inclusion, equity, and anti-racism are connected to our mission and critical to ensure the well-being of staff, volunteers, contractors, board members, and all people. We expect all employees, volunteers, contractors, and board members to embrace these principles and express them in all interactions and everyday practices as representatives of Amador Arts Council.
Special Thanks to local contributions from Dr. Betzaida Arroyo and Fiona Pulskamp.
http://cac.ca.gov/aboutus/racialequity.php
https://view.publitas.com/ca-arts-council/california-arts-council-strategic-framework/page/36-37
https://www.racialequityalliance.org
https://www.policylink.org/about-us
http://www.coloursofresistance.org
Decision Support Tool as provided by the California Arts Council Strategic Framework, https://view.publitas.com/ca-arts-council/california-arts-council-strategic-framework/page/42
*This statement was inspired by the statement as originally conceived by the California Arts Council’s Equity Committee. Some of the data supporting this statement can be found in documents such as Portrait of Promise: The California Statewide Plan to Promote Health and Mental Health Equity. A Report to the Legislature and the People of California by the Office of Health Equity. Sacramento, CA: California Department of Public Health, Office of Health Equity; August 2015.