equity voice

Our goal is to uplift the Equity Voice – the voice of the people who are too often left out, and who have limited access to opportunity; people of color are our primary focus. Recognizing that others are also systematically excluded from access to opportunity, we will expand our focus over time. Our goal is to achieve the real possibilities of democracy by making the Equity Voice heard.

We envision an organization with a nimble core staff supplemented by a cadre of ‘Equity Advocates’ supported by a stable of committed experts from a variety of professions. We will be the place everyone calls to get “the equity voice.” In reality, this is what happens all the time. There are a small number of people of color who are called upon by their white colleagues/collaborators to represent all the people who look like them. We are acknowledging this unfair reality and, at the same time, doing our part to change it.

We will assure that the equity voice is heard, and our staff team will be available to be hired by governments and businesses and other institutions who need to engage the public and assure people that all voices can and do participate.

At the same time, our staff and collaborators will be working to build the capacity of people who have been left out so that they can eventually get into positions of power and reshape our reality.

And, we will work with governments, businesses and other institutions to train their staff and transform their institutions so that they can and will hear the Equity Voice and be willing to change based on the input of the energized and confident voices of these emerging leaders.

We launched the idea for Equity Voice because of the urgency of the democratic process to be inclusive of people from under-represented, or marginalized communities.

We are activists for social and economic justice. In summary, we are:

Natalia Muñoz, multimedia journalist; founder Verdant Multicultural Media
Catherine Ratté, principal planner, Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
José Saavedra, education coordinator, Latino Education Institute
Kathy Wicks, project manager, Partners for a Healthier Community

In our region, Western Massachusetts, like in the rest of the United States, white people have disproportionate power, authority and access to opportunity. White people make most of the important decisions that affect everyone’s daily lives and this limited perspective and experience hurts everyone, even the people in control. People who have been marginalized have been systematically denied access to opportunities and positions of power. Yet, it is the people who are marginalized who can offer insights on how to achieve the potential of the American Experiment.

Generations of people are pushed out of democracy through powerfully discouraging hardships that are the result of institutional racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, ableism and other forms of oppression.

Among the results are school committees, select boards, city councils, boards of directors, and public school administrations where people of color are not at the table. The consequences of homogenous leadership proves, over and over again, that under-represented groups do not enjoy the benefits of equity or equality. Large swaths of communities are disillusioned with the political system, and these people do not vote or participate in any way in the life of their community beyond their own family and friends. They do not serve on boards or organize around issues to make their street, neighborhood or city better.

They are missing out on the promise of democracy, through no fault of their own, and we aim to address this injustice. Democracy falters without their participation.

Participation in democracy is a complex challenge often represented as an overly simplistic two-step process: 1) Register to vote and 2) Vote.

But in reality, sustained participation requires years of rebooting the public conversation to wash away the overwhelming discouragement, cynicism and heartbreak that teaches people from under-represented communities that their voices do not matter.