Levi Strauss Evaluates it Project Change Anti-Racism Initiatives

The Levi Strauss Foundation decided to attack racism and its manifestations in the communities of Albuquerque, El Paso, Knoxville, and Vladosta, Georgia beginning in 1991 and embarked on Project Change.  (See CAHRO News, "Levi-Strauss: Social Justice for a Change",  April/May, 1997 for a description of Project Change and the Foundation's Social Justice Initiative.) The effort was evaluated by Susan Batten and Sally Leiderman for the Center for Assessment and Policy Development and reported in a publication entitled.

Lessons Learned.  

The report relates the difficulties of getting people to come together around the issue of racism and reach a consensus about what to do about it.  Project Change selected task force members who participated in a two-day retreat exploring prejudice reduction and unlearning racism.  The Project then conducted research to identify the impact of racism in the community, particularly as it related to education, housing, and commercial activity.  The expectation was that once the research was completed the task force members would design and implement a strategy to overcome the impact of racism in their community.

While Project Change's methodology made sense to Foundation staff, issues arose which challenged some of the assumptions of the plan.  These issues provide important lessons for anyone involved in human relations. 

• The assumption that a two-day activity designed to help people unlearn years of racism could serve as a team-building exercise and transform a diverse group of people into a cohesive body was overly optimistic.  The evaluation concludes that more time is needed to overcome differences, but the question could be asked as to whether there is any evidence that unlearning racism exercises succeed in making it possible for diverse people to work together harmoniously on issues related to race and ethnicity.
• Diverse people interpreted research results diversely despite participation in unlearning racism exercises.  People tend to view the world through the prism of their own attitudes and experience rather than through the objective lens of a research study.  This confirms the results of numerous polls on issues of race in America.  People's attitudes on race are largely based on their own racial background.
• Attempting to tackle institutional racism is a tough and risky endeavor that can result in loss of job or clients and  loss of credibility in the community.  Chances for succeeding in changing racist practices are increased when there is a critical mass of grass roots people who are demanding change and there is support from some key people within the government and corporate institutions. 

For further information contact Henry Ramos, National Manager for Project Change at (415) 501-7420.