Over the last month, sparked by the murders of unarmed Black Americans and subsequent protests, the national conversation has turned to the country’s racist past and present.

For some this conversation includes reckoning with one’s self: Have I participated — actively or subconsciously — in a racist system that oppresses people of color? Am I racist?

Asking this question and facing the true gravity of America’s oppressive history can plunge people into overwhelming shame, psychologists tell Inverse. This is a stumbling block in fighting racism.

“If you are serious about anti-racism, and you are seeing that you want to be a part of the solution rather than the problem, realize that staying stuck in your shame and not doing your work to manage that, is making it about you,” cautions Dr. Kira Hudson Banks.

Read the full article, featuring additional insights from The Mouse and the Elephant co-founder Dr. Kira Hudson Banks, plus several of her fellow psychologists, at Inverse.

Photo: Spencer Platt for Inverse

The wave of uprisings across the nation have made it clear that police brutality disproportionately impacting Black Americans is out of hand. Many businesses have sought to distance themselves from such violence with statements and pledges.

But the same racialized violence that many are waking up to as unfair, unjust, and unacceptable, is happening within the walls of our businesses. The key difference between “police brutality” and “corporate brutality” is the means. The former is relatively, although not exclusively, more physical. The latter is more systemic and covert. But in either case the result is the same: People are injured, abused, damaged, and/or destroyed.

To adequately respond to the current uprisings, leaders must reckon with the Black experience inside their workplaces.

Read the full article from The Mouse and the Elephant co-founder Dr. Kira Hudson Banks, and her St. Louis University colleague Dr. Richard Harvey, at the Harvard Business Review.

To hear Dr. Banks and Dr. Harvey discuss the article, and explore additional topics they couldn’t fit into it, check out this episode of the Raising Equity podcast to listen to their conversation.

In the 5 years since the killing of Michael Brown Jr. by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson in August 2014, and the uprising that followed, St. Louis has seen renewed activism and a public dialogue about racial inequity.

The Academy for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Washington University in St. Louis wanted to know:

Five years after the uprising in Ferguson, what does it mean to be in St. Louis?

As writer, director, and co-producer for the In St. Louis project, The Mouse and the Elephant co-founder and principal Eric Ratinoff interviewed 20 St. Louisans about the energy, accountability and momentum catalyzed by the Ferguson uprising and the region’s response to it; the pain and the trauma the region is still processing and the significant work that remains to address it; and whether St. Louis can be a model of progress for the nation.

Presented through multi-faceted, multimedia storytelling that incorporates voices and perspectives from researchers and scholars, practitioners, activists, policymakers and elected officials, and local and national commentators on race and equity, In St. Louis: Five Years Later helped broaden public awareness of the systemic groundwork for racial equity that has been laid in the St. Louis region in the last 5 years, while providing perspective on what’s needed to better understand the path forward.

UPDATE: In May 2020, In St. Louis: Five Years Later was honored with a Silver Telly award in the Branded Content Campaign-Series: Non-scripted/Documentary category.

Nine years ago, Ta-Nehisi Coates did not support reparations.

Five years ago, after he had “read a lot, talked to a lot of people, and spent a lot of time in Chicago where the history, somehow, feels especially present,” his “thinking [had] evolved,” and he wrote “The Case for Reparations,” published in The Atlantic.

Nine days ago, Coates testified before the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties at hearings to consider H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act.

The hearings represented “the first time Congress has considered” the bill, first introduced in 1989 by Representative John Conyers, Jr., “that would create a commission to develop proposals to address the lingering effects of slavery and consider a ‘national apology’ for the harm it has caused.”

In a world where last week’s news can feel like ancient history, 2010 feels like several lifetimes ago.

But Coates’ appearance before Congress is a reminder that minds do change, and that the cultural conversation does shift. It often happens slowly, too slowly for those who feel the impact of injustice, but sometimes it happens more quickly than we thought possible. Today, “at least 11 Democratic presidential candidates … have embraced either the concept of reparations or the bill to study it.”

The conversation about reparations is far from resolved, and even H.R. 40, which only aims to study reparations, faces stiff political resistance. But the narrative is shifting, and minds are changing.

And that matters. Because the change in minds is the prerequisite for changes in policy and practice, which in most cases are the prerequisites for changes in climate and culture, which in most cases are the prerequisites for changes in outcomes.

Coates’ appearance before Congress should serve as a reminder to those of us working for more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces that change is possible, but not without persistence. Old narratives are stubborn things.

It should also serve as a reminder to those who hold power and enjoy privilege that your voice is needed in this work, too. Conyers planted the seed for this bill 30 years ago. The bill finally got a hearing because influential legislators, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, got on board.

The seeds of change are often planted by those impacted by injustice, who speak up and take action and advocate for themselves. But for those seeds to bear fruit, it often takes those with power and privilege to leverage their influence, and advocate for others.

Even the strongest, most persistent fighters need allies.

This post originally appeared in The Mouse and the Elephant Resource. Read the full email here, and subscribe to receive future emails with diversity, equity, and inclusion resources using the form on our home page.