Episode 67: Taking Action To Be Anti-Racist with Mary Waweru

Embracing Only

Episode Highlight: On this episode of the "Embracing Only" podcast, we delve into taking action to be anti-racist with Mary Waweru, an influential voice who educates professionals on anti-racism, DEI, inclusive communications, social impact, and colonialism. It is not enough to simply be not racist. You need to take action and commit to being anti-racist.

Mary is the CEO and founder of Crest Impact, where she guides organizations to build safe and inclusive cultures, practices, policies, and communications. She has facilitated diversity training workshops and designed and delivered anti-racism and DEI courses online, in-person, and internationally. Her anti-oppression journey started in her homeland of Kenya with gender equity work and the 2015 protests in Nairobi against gender and child-based violence.

Key Discussion Points:

03:48 Building Your Brand: Don’t let your brand be defined by the logo on your business card, rather let your brand be defined by your name so you can lean on it in times of transition.

09:15 Highlighting the Value of Racial Equity: If organizations don’t take anti-racism work seriously, it is going to affect the people within the organization, people externally, and people who want to partner with them.

13:37 Creating Safe Spaces for Conversation: Normalize hard conversations and allow people to be unsure and make mistakes.

18:21 Not Racist vs. Anti-Racist: How does being not racist benefit a society that has issues based on race? It doesn’t. There needs to be action, commitment, and learning.

28:00 Fighting Confirmation Bias: We need to believe how certain groups of people represent themselves rather than how colonialism represents them.

33:54 Learn to Say No: As an individual who does not belong to the global majority, you need to learn to say no when people are making too many accommodations for you.

In Summary: Mary Waweru challenges us to commit to one action today that will further our anti-racism journey. She urges people to adopt an I want to learn attitude and encourages leaders to understand that it is their responsibility to make sure that the people working in their organization are safe.

Resources from this episode:

Follow Mary on Linkedin or check out her website.

Mary has three anti-racism courses:

1. Introduction to Anti-Racism

2. Anti-Racism for Leaders and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advocates

3. Dismantling Neo-Colonialism in Anti-Oppression Work

Find them here.

Connect with your hosts:

Follow Archita on Linkedin or check out her website.

Follow Olivia on Linkedin or check out her website.

Follow Embracing Only on Linkedin, Instagram, and Facebook, or check out the website.

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Produced by Ideablossoms