For the last several years the national Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) Board has been looking at its own connection to racism, and how to be a truly anti-racist organization. After initial study and discussion, in November 2019, the MFSA Board approved contracting with Crossroads Antiracism Organizing and Training to do an anti-racism audit of the entire organization. Potential team members and board members were invited to attend a 2-day training in February 2020. A diverse team, of which I am a member, was created and has been meeting monthly with a Crossroads consultant, with other work sessions taking place between the monthly meetings.

The team first examined a matrix (a power analysis) that helped us assess racism’s power to oppress people of color, racism’s power “for” white people and white society, and racism’s power to socialize us all into racialized rules and roles and to misshape identity. We examined the ways we are all socially conditioned to maintain and perpetuate systemic racism and white supremacy as individuals within our institution, as an institution, and through our culture.

The second tool we used was a “Continuum on Becoming an Antiracist Multicultural Institution.” We invited the MFSA Program Council and individual chapters of MFSA to use this tool to provide further assessment about MFSA as an institution. This tool helped to identify the various ways in which white supremacy culture operates within MFSA by identifying and examining behaviors, structures, programs, and policies of MFSA. The tool asks users to place the institution on a continuum ranging from an exclusively segregated institution to a fully inclusive institution.

We also conducted interviews with people of color with whom MFSA has worked/is working, as well as historical interviews with people who have previously been involved in MFSA leadership. We have also examined our by-laws and other institutional documents.

The team is now in the process of pulling themes from the wealth of material that has been gathered and preparing a survey to go out to a wide range of people. We expect to be able to do data analysis of the survey results by the end of the summer.

The audit process has allowed us to dig deeply into who we are as an institution; identify ways in which we perceive ourselves to be doing justice work; and name the ways in which we harm others through the work we are doing. It is hard and painful work, and it has helped us to realize how important real relationships are as we try to work together with all people. Building relationships with others across a diverse spectrum will help us identify ways in which we can continue to dismantle racism within our organization and in the wider community. It will also help us to become more accountable to BIPOC communities.

The final step of the audit process will be to bring back to the Board a set of recommended actions for implementation.
One of the things we have learned through this entire process is that there are no quick fixes. The work we are doing will be ongoing for many years, and we believe that it will result in a stronger institution that values disrupting and changing systemic racism and removing white supremacy.

For more information about MFSA and to meet the members of the audit team, go to mfsaweb.org.