Race & Equity
In response to representational gaps we perceive among civic institutions and social change communities in Vancouver and beyond, hua foundation launched its flagship signature Race & Equity Project in fall 2018.
We believe race equity means:
- Acknowledging, accounting for, and removing past and current structural barriers for racialized people to create a more just, equitable society; and
- Empowering racialized people as owners, planners, and decision-makers in the systems and structures that govern their lives.
We stand in solidarity with people and communities impacted by racism, discrimination, and stigmatization, including and beyond our own ancestral communities across the East Asian diaspora. We acknowledge the disproportionate, historical, and lasting impacts of racism on Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities—including and beyond our own. Part of this work will consist of unpacking our own complicity with colonial power structures, addressing the lateral violence that exists across racialized communities, and being mindful of the space we take up.
This is a tremendously challenging time. It is also an important moment of learning, unlearning, and supporting each other while acknowledging the intersecting dynamics of power, privilege, and ability that permit and deny individuals and groups from engaging with racial equity issues and work as they are available right now.
Our Race & Equity Project initially consisted of a suite of public programming in the form of public events and smaller-scale workshops. In response to the social distancing measures and new lived realities necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are shifting the Race & Equity Project programming to reflect new realities and emerging community concerns.
The work of the Race & Equity Project aims to embody an accessible, inclusive reality that we are striving for in all our racial equity work.
As of summer 2020 as we shift our work in response to the events precipitated by the global pandemic, the Race & Equity Project will consist of the following core pieces of work:
- Connecting people with tools to take action at the individual, community, and structural level to meaningfully address racism, discrimination, and the colonial power structures that we are all part of.
- Sharing resources that empower people with tools and skills to process and respond to their own experiences of racism.
- Build a supportive community of practice consisting of local stakeholders and community organizations so that we can support each other, amplify each other’s work, and create productive networks of community support and connection.